UNESCO status out of reach for Korea's largest Confucian institute

Sungkyunkwan's lecture hall Myeongnyundang is seen through the leaves of ginkgo trees, one of which is 500 years old. / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

As UNESCO lines up to grant World Heritage status to Korea's nine Confucian academies of the Joseon Kingdom era (1392-1910), the nation's main higher-education institution once again is left in the dust.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), an advisory body for UNESCO, made the recommendation on May 14 that UNESCO add to its list the nine sites, known as “seowon,” a form of Confucian school.

The sites, all in remote areas across Korea, are shoe-ins for the list, but Sungkyunkwan, located in the northeastern corner of central Seoul today, remains unable to achieve the illustrious status.

Sungkyunkwan, established in Seoul in 1398, precedes by centuries the seowon dating to 1543. The roughly 30,000-square-meter campus at the foot of Mount Bugak contains two main areas, one for academics and another serving as a functional Confucian temple. All seowon and hyanggyo Confucian schools are based on its design. The campus is also the site of various Confucian rituals, such as the twice-annual Seokjeon Daeje.

Sungkyunkwan, well-preserved on par with the nearby royal palaces, is a site of traditional beauty and an overlooked tourist destination of the capital. Its setting for the 2010 K-drama “Sungkyunkwan Scandal” also increased the site's appeal. Its origins are royal, as students attended on a full scholarship on their way through the second stage of the three-stage civil service exam system.

But Sungkyunkwan's central location in Myeongnyun-dong, Jongno-gu, has left it prone to redevelopment, and while it is much larger than the other nine seowon campuses, it has also lost much more. Much of the campus' original footprint now serves Sungkyunkwan University uphill, and the three-floor Yurim Hall in front leaves a presence that imposes on the traditional campus' historicity. According to a representative at Seoul City's World Heritage Research unit, the campus currently occupies only 60 percent of its original footprint.

The troubles with registering Sungkyunkwan, which is owned by the state and managed by Jongno-gu Office, on UNESCO's World Heritage List don't end there. In 2011, the Seokjeon Daeje ceremony was determined to fall short of UNESCO criteria. And in 2014, the city government chose the campus as a site for UNESCO registration, but it came up against its own dead ends.

The Sungkyunkwan education system, which predates the Joseon Kingdom, was also found in modern-day China and Vietnam, both former Confucian states, according to an official of Seoul City. But UNESCO required the countries to form a coalition to register the sites together, and when contacted, the other two countries expressed a lack of interest.

However, there is one more Sungkyunkwan that has UNESCO World Heritage status. The oldest Korean Sungkyunkwan, founded in 992 in the 918-1392 Goryeo Kingdom capital of Gaeseong, in present-day North Korea, received UNESCO World Heritage status in 2013, as evidenced by a plaque in front of the site, known today as the Koryo Museum.

The North Korean site skimps on its Confucian heritage, instead presenting unrelated Buddhist relics and displaying negative information about the bad old prerevolutionary days. However, it gained UNESCO recognition as part of the Historic Monuments and Sites in Kaesong on the World Heritage List. And doing so for Sungkyunkwan in Seoul would be all but impossible, requiring a halt in urban development, according to the official.

So while Seoul's Sungkyunkwan is a remarkable historic tourist destination, it is unlikely for it to receive the recognition it deserves in due time. But it is still easily reachable during daytime hours, near Hyehwa Station on Seoul subway line No. 4.