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Sungkyunkwan, where we went today, was the royal university for outstanding students during Joseon Dynasty. Since Joseon was established based on confucianism, students were taught confucianism, founded by confucius. According to the basic teaching, they should start respect confucian scholars first. That’s why they built shrines too, not only studying place. This shrines are called Munmyo. In Munmyo, the memorial rites were held in spring and autumn every year. The reason why in spring and autumn is because confucius died in spring and borned in autumn. Actually, these rites were so important that the King himself came to serve the rites. Which means for students in Sungkyunkwan, they thought it is also important to respect sages as studying about Confucianism. There are Hamabi and Tangpyeongbi in front of the entrance. Hamabi means get of from whatever you are riding and be respectful . Tangpyeongbi was the monument inscribed about Tangpyeong policy. Joseon’s 21 King, Youngjo made this policy about choosing government officials. Since there were factions and they fought a lot, he decided to choose officials fairly. In the Sungkyunkwan there are two dormitories called Dongjae and Seojae. It actually is closer to the jail than the room. It is small and it doesn’t even have any boilers. In Dongjae, only the rich students can stay and in Seojae secondary class students stayed. In front of Dongjae, there are cafeteria Jinsasikdang. When they eat there meals, they could put their signature to get a point. If you put 1 in breakfast and 1 in dinner, you get a point. Aftre you get 300 points, you can apply the test for government officials. Next, there is a main lecture hall where students had lessons. It is Myeongryundang. The main hall in the centre was used for a space for lecture, studying, ane examinations. The side rooms were for faculty members. In front of Myeongryundang, there is 500 years old large gingko tree. In represents wisdom, and confucius teaching is disciples. The last thing that we saw was Daeseongjeon. In is a shrine whose role is to keep a spirit tablet of confucius. There is a spirit tablet for Confucius in the centre. In addition, there are disciples of Confucius and Confucianism scholars of Korea and China in Dongmu and Seomu, right and left side of Daeseongjeon. There’s 2 trees which has 3 branches and 5 branches. It means 3 confucian guides and 5 confucian relationships. Even today’s hot and humid weather was bothreing me, I think I could learn many interesting facts about Seongkyunkwan.
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