Gwolli Shrine

This description was machine-translated from the Korea Tourism Organization's Korean original.

This place was founded by Gong Seo-rin (Gong Seo-rin, 1483–1541), a civil official of the early Joseon period and a descendant of Confucius (Kongzi, 551 B.C.–479 B.C.), the scholar of China’s Spring and Autumn period, to teach later students. In 1792 the site was renamed Gwolri after the village in the state of Lu where Confucius lived, and after a shrine was built it was called Gwolrisa. It was abolished under King Gojong’s seowon abolition (seowon abolition; in 1871, only 47 seowon nationwide, including private shrines, were left and all others removed), then rebuilt in 1900. Gwolrisa is largely divided into the Seongmyo (Seongmyo; the building housing Confucius’s portrait) zone and the Seongsangjeon (Seongsangjeon; the place with Confucius’s stone statue) zone. The Seongmyo zone consists of Seongmyo, which enshrines Confucius’s portrait, and Jegigo (Jegigo), a storehouse for ritual vessels needed for ancestral rites. The shrine Seongmyo building has a gable roof with three bays in front and two on the side; inside, the wall was set back to create a separate niche (gamsil; a structure made to enshrine spirit tablets, portraits, and the like) that holds Confucius’s portrait. The Seongsangjeon zone centers on Confucius’s stone statue, with stone statues of the sages Yanzi, Mencius, Zengzi, and Zisi also standing. In addition, Gwolrisa has Yanghyeonjae (Yanghyeonjae) for teaching Confucius’s thought, the Confucius Culture Exhibition Hall, Haengdan (Haengdan), as well as a hongsalmun, a hamabi (dismounting stele), and a merit stele.