Jinjam Hyanggyo Confucian School

At the foot of a low hill in Gyochon-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, a state-run provincial school founded in 1405, under King Taejong of Joseon, has stood for more than 600 years. It keeps the classic layout of a hyanggyo, a Confucian school with the lecture hall in front and the shrine behind, and its gateway, Heunghangnu, with a pavilion built on top, is unusual. It is a quiet place to get a feel for the world of Joseon scholars without leaving the city.

A state school in the provinces

Hyanggyo were schools set up by the state to honour Confucius and other sages and to educate local people. Jinjam Hyanggyo was founded in 1405, the fifth year of King Taejong's reign, and has been rebuilt several times since. In the Joseon period it received land, servants and books from the state, and one teacher taught about 30 students. Its teaching role ended after the Gabo Reform of the 1890s; today it continues with spring and autumn rites and traditional education programmes.

Learning in front, worship behind

Jinjam Hyanggyo follows the jeonhak humyo plan: study spaces on the lower ground at the front, the shrine on higher ground at the back.

• Heunghangnu: the main gate, where the central bay of the outer three-door gateway is raised into a two-storey pavilion, a gate below and a pavilion above. This is not a common design. The present building dates from 1986.
• Myeongnyundang and the dormitories: the lecture hall faces two dormitories, Dongjae and Seojae, across the courtyard. Myeongnyundang was dismantled and restored in 1981.
• Daeseongjeon: the shrine hall stands highest, behind an inner gate in a stone wall. It is three bays wide and two deep, with a simple gabled roof, and holds the spirit tablets of Confucius and the five sages, six Song-dynasty scholars and 18 Korean scholars including Jeong Mong-ju, Yi Hwang and Song Si-yeol. It was designated a Daejeon cultural heritage site (No. 6) on 18 March 1989.

The school of Jinjam county

Every county in Joseon had its own hyanggyo, and this one served Jinjam-hyeon, the old county of Jinjam. Even the name of the neighbourhood, Gyochon, means "school village". The city of Daejeon has grown right up to it, but the wooded hill behind and the stone walls still give it the feel of an old county school.

Tripto tips

• Rites: the Seokjeon rite for Confucius is held on the first jeong day of the second and eighth lunar months, and incense is offered on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month. A jeong day is one whose heavenly stem in the traditional calendar is jeong, so the solar date changes every year. Visit on a rite day and you can see Confucian scholars in ceremonial robes performing the rite, the hyanggyo doing what it was built for.
• Etiquette: the rule at hyanggyo is to enter by the east gate and leave by the west. The central door of the shrine gate is reserved for the spirits, so people use the side doors.
• Opening: the gates are sometimes closed. If you want to go inside, check with the Yuseong-gu culture and tourism office before your visit. Even from outside the walls you can see Heunghangnu and the rooflines.
• Time needed: 30 minutes to 1 hour. The address is 67 Gyochon-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.