Andong: Hot Spot for Confucianism, Mask Dance
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
For those who are sick and tired of noisy urban life, there is one great retreat place. It's Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, home of the Confucian culture. The small city, with population of less than 170,000, is a travel destination off the beaten track and certainly worth a visit.
The inland city is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from downtown Seoul and is renowned for its Hahoe masks and a picture perfect folk village surrounded by a river, mountain and breath-taking pine tree forest where people sharing the family name of Ryu live together.
It seems to be less known, however, that the city, which is called the capital of the Korean spirit for its abundant cultural heritage, has two private academies ― Dosan and Byeongsan Seowons ― which were built more than four hundred years ago.
By exploring these places, visitors can get a sense of how old Korean intellectuals would have led their lives and what values they cherished most as a guiding light during their lifetime.
Back in the 1500s, a swarm of young and middle-aged intellectuals of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) flocked to Andong to broaden their understanding of neo-Confucianism as well as building networks with renowned academics. Unrivaled academic Lee Hwang taught his students at the Dosan Seowon.
The age of the intellectuals having joined the academy varies from teenagers to those in their late 30s and 40s and their family background, places of birth and level of understanding were different. Despite the differences, they did have one thing in common: a thirst for knowledge of neo-Confucianism.
No admissions in advance were needed for students to study there. Once they arrived at the academy, scholars tested the new students' level of understanding of Confucianism through a question-and-answer session. Once the level test was completed, students received books or materials fit for their level and were asked to study them for about two weeks.
These students lived in a dormitory, called Nongunjeong-sa, which has a small single room with an open living room. During the two weeks, students learned by themselves and studied assigned readings and then met their supervisors for a verbal or written test aimed to check their level of understanding before advancing to the next level.
If a student failed to pass the test, he had to repeat his studies until he had full understanding of the assigned readings. The period of stay of these students at the academy varied from student to student. Some stayed there for several months, some were there longer.
``History said great scholar Lee tried to spend as much time as he could teaching and training his students at the Dosan Seowon,'' said Lee Hye-sook from Andong Tourism Information Center who led a group on a guided tour of the city.
Besides the educational service, Lee said Seowon had one more distinct function: worshipping ancestors. Kim Gui-hwa, another volunteer guide having led a tour to Byeongsan Seowon, an academy located near Hahoe folk village established by Ryu Seong-ryong in 1572, explained that the students and scholars sought the pleasures of learning, instead of offering a one-size-fits-all education.
``Some 467 people attended Byeongsan Seowon until King Hyojong of the Joseon Kingdom, and only 10 of them were known to have passed the state exam to recruit people in public services. This indicates that Confucian scholars were not interested in exam-oriented education there,'' Kim said.
Museum of Confucian Culture
The museum, which was built in 2006 at the Korean Studies Advancement Center, is the only one devoted to Confucian culture in the nation. It is a four-story building with a combined floor space of 2,675 square meters. Of which 1,880 square meters are set aside for the exhibition of products and art works.
Inside the museum, Jangpangak displays wooden printing blocks selected from traditional written materials collected by the center. The collection project will continue until 2010. The printing blocks, of which contents vary from a personal letter, to a contract for the transaction of slavery, to fiction, were collected from general citizens. These are a valuable reference for historians as the wooden blocks offer a lot of clues showing the socio-economic life of the Joseon period they were written in.
Andong Mask Dance Festival
The festival, which was chosen as one of two great festivals representing Korean culture, is scheduled to take place from Sept. 26 to Oct. 5 in Andong. For details, call 054-840-6398. Express bus runs between Seoul and Andong at Dong Seoul Terminal every 30 minutes beginning at 6 a.m.