Andong, Part II (6/7)

Our group assembles outside our camp site

W E   A W O K E   T H E   next morning to the peaceful Korean countryside, rested and ready for another day of touring Korea's past. We boarded our swanky bus for Dosan Seowon, a famous Confucian academy not far away. I was amazed by the skill with which our driver maneuvered our massive bus through the winding and hilly roads of the countryside and was thankful to arrive in one piece! Be sure to check out the video from my last post for a clip of our winding way there!

A picture of a picture of Dosan Seowon

A map of the Seowon's grounds

Dosan Seowon was built in 1574 to protect the teachings of several Confucian scholars who had fled a warring China. It was the home of Yi Hwang, a very influential Korean philosopher of the time who had close connections to the king. It was the site of a very famous national exam given in 1792 to more than 7,000 people. Typically these exams were given in the capital of Seoul, but King Jeongjo sent government officials to administer the test there in Yi Hwang's honor.

The island on which the famous exam took place

The Seowon itself, in accordance with the ecological principles of the neo-Confucian brand of thought that was practiced there, had a beautifully elegant relationship with its surroundings. There were many gorgeous old trees and ponds and wells filled with frogs and flowers mixed between the walls and buildings. Many of these features bore names like "Purifying Pond" and "Well of Mental Clarity" that added to the grounds' peaceful and enlightening atmosphere. This was another place where you could feel both the history and the peacefulness in the air around you.

The school and its surroundings

Looking down from the lecture hall

One of the many impressive trees on the campus

A look inside one of the rooms walled and windowed with Korean Paper

One of the many historic wells on the grounds

W E   S P E N T   our afternoon at the Andong Folk Museum not far from the Seowon, and then headed back to Yeungnam University. There, most of us turned in early-- it'd been a busy two days, and we had class again in the morning to prepare for!