대원군 하야 후 서원 復設의 동향과 儒疏 활동 - 「請祠院復設疏疏廳錄」을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This article seeks for the process of seowon (Confucian academy) restoration yuso (collective appeal to the king by the young scholars) process of the Youngnam scholars undertaken with the focus on Sosu Seowon after Heungseon Daewon-gun stepping down on the basis of the chronology data and 『Cheongsawonbuseolsosocheongrok』. The contents discussed in the main context should lead to the conclusion. In 1864, Queen Sinjeongwanghoo presented the jeongyo (royal decree) to cut down on seowons and take away of privileges and Daewon-gun utilized the policy to split the rural factions with the beginning of Mandongjo as the holy site of Noron to have the successful disposition of seowons that did not attain the royal charter. In its extension, Yougnam worked its way for closure of the seowons with the royal charter to completely demolish them with only 47 wonsas remaining. The cause of the full-scale seowon disposition by Daewon-gun was to eliminate the special privileges derived from those seowons. Youngnam that was struck hard without any encountering measure in the first of such movement was counter-acted with ‘Maninso’ in the second movement, but they had no success due to the firm resolution of Daewon-gun. In 1873, together with the downfall of Daewon-gun, Mandongmyo was revived and it triggered the seowon restoration activities all over the country. In particular, in Yougnam where the existence of seowons as the reason to exist for Youngnam, people of 16 towns with Sosu Seowon planned of appeals for restoration where they were participated as the officers came to the capital in June 1877. As a result of engaging in the appealing activities under the difficult environment, the fact was informed to the son of Younguijeong (prime minister) Yi Choi-eung. And, Suchan Park Jong-woon who was a younger brother of Sosu submitting the sangso (petition to the king) related to the foregoing and it was accomplished in 25 days at last. However, King Gojong did not allow the request due to the concerns of drastic increase for restoration and issues of finance and ill-effects. As such, the government stringently ordered for not permitting the seowon restoration but the rural town still needed seowons. It would be attributable to the fact that the scholars that flexed their power with the seowons as the means had urgent sense of crisis from the loss of their stronghold and external change of the Seosedongjeom. In addition, there remained strong sense that the seowons that had the role of focal point for unity of clans was the space to confirm the identity as part of the clans. In particular, Youngnam that had been obsessed to the regional power as it was driven to the outside of power all through the second half of the Joseon Dynasty was more conspicuous for such a phenomenon compared to other regions. The reason that the seowons had new establishment and restoration until the present days could be attributed from here.