Seowon and Confucian tradition
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By Kim Jin-hyun
Suncheon, a city about 400 km south of Seoul, has a population of 300,000 and acts as a hub for transportation linking the South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla provinces.
It has a great deal of cultural heritage such as the thatched roof houses at Nagan Eupseong, as well as the Songgwangsa and Seonamsa temples. The mud flat in Sucheon Bay is also well known.
In addition to this cultural and ecological environment, “Suncheon Bay Garden Expo 2013” provided this southern city with the motivation to become an environmentally friendly city.
Suncheon, also known as an educational city, is divided into two districts ― the Old Town and New Town.
There is Okcheon Seowon (a memorial hall and lecture hall) near Okcheon stream in Okcheon -dong in the Old Town. The building was built to commemorate Kim Gwoeng-pil, a great scholar in the Joseon Kingdom, by Lee Jung, a delegate in Suncheon, at the king’s order in 1564.
The teacher, while in office, was exiled at age 47 from Suncheon after massacres of Confucian scholars in 1498. He was later killed at age 51 in 1504.
In those days, Confucianism was popular for scholars. Most of them used it to achieve success in their lives. On the contrary, Kim concentrated on awakening himself. To achieve this, he persuaded youngsters to learn a book called “Sohak” (teaching for basic rules in life) and he himself practiced the teachings of the book until he was 30 years old.
While staying in Suncheon, Kim taught people for three years and became friends with many of them. Concerned about his people-friendly teaching, one day one of his friends advised him to stop teaching because many scholars were denouncing his innovative attitude, stating the philosophy was only for the aristocratic class.
He answered back, “The awakened should help uncivilized people and enlighten them. Thus, I only deliver my knowledge and wisdom to anyone who tries to learn.” His philosophy was based on practicing basic rules in life and sharing such teachings with citizens.
Today, when competitive and materialistic values are so prevalent, ethics in education or with family has been neglected to get high scores. Basic rules in society are not observed properly. As a result, children are becoming rude. Nevertheless, if they are outstanding students, their bad actions are dealt with leniently.
In society, people who violate laws but have opportunistic lives seem to be more successful than honest people who obey the rules. This is because citizens think that their circumstantial judgment is quick, or their worldly wisdom is blended with everyone. Worse still, most Cabinet members under the Park administration have violated the law. Even at parliamentary hearings, they don’t admit their wrongdoings.
Under this ethically insensitive age, Okcheon Seowon was built to pay tribute to a teacher’s spirit, and shows us the role model of a true intellectual.
Confucians believe that human beings are born good, but as they grow old, greed begins to control one’s spirit. Humans then become bad. Therefore, one should constantly train oneself to discard desire. Such an attitude in life is the image of a person of virtue, the teacher said.
As a way of realizing this message, we can practice our lives by continuously asking ourselves who I am and what I was born for, learning self-satisfaction and self-restraint. Then, the ethics of our citizens and leaders will increase, leading our society to become happier.
The writer is an English teacher at Yeosu High School in South Jeolla Province. His email address is shinykim60@hanmail.net.