Gugang Seowon

Gugang Seowon enshrines a portrait and memorial tablet honoring the scholarship and virtue of Yi Je-hyeon, pen name Ikjae.

Yi Je-hyeon was a scholar and statesman of late Goryeo. As a Confucian scholar, he played a critical role in adopting and advancing Neo-Confucianism, and as a literary master, he left behind a substantial body of poetry and prose that elevated Goryeo's classical Chinese literature to new heights. He also made significant contributions to historical scholarship; his surviving works include the ten-volume Ikjae Nango and the two-volume Yeokong Paeseol. The fact that a single scholar left his mark across Confucian studies, literature, and history all at once adds real weight to this academy.