Back in 2018 because of the unbelievable expressway exit payment booth problem, I missed opportunity to visit Donam Seowon in Nonsan, five years later I returned to South Korea and I intent to fulfill my previous trip by visiting two listed Seowons, Oksan Seowon and Dodong Seowon during my 4th visit to Gyeongju. After breakfast I drove my rental car to Oksan Seowon, it was an enjoyable drive and I reached Oksan without problem. From empty carpark I passed the complex of traditional house and at the end of the walkway I found a complex of shrine-liked buildings and beautiful small river gorge with cascading waterfall, the whole area was perfect for hiking. After enjoyed mother nature, I started to look for Oksan Seowon, I walked back to that shrine-liked complex to find out that Oksan Seowon was in front of me!

I opened the old wooden door and found small courtyard surrounded by old wooden buildings which turned out to be classrooms. There was nothing inside these buildings, just empty room with some calligraphies on the walls. The layout of building reminded me of Hutong, a typical Northern Chinese House; however, since the complex was built on the slope, the different leveling of main two building was quite unique. Behind the classroom complex was the complex of shrine buildings that dedicated to local scholars instead of the Confucius which made Korean Seowons unique enough from other Confucian schools in China. I saw everything in the complex within 15 minutes, it was indeed quite a small place. In the afternoon I visited the quite popular with local tourists Dodong Seowon outside Daegu City, I found that the location of Dodong Seowon was again quite lovely in the beautiful nature just next to the modern tunnel and the road that full of speedbumps! From outside Dodong Seowon was quite like noble residence complex than shrine, but inside the layout of Dodong Seowon also like Oksan Seowon but with more spacious and again I saw everything in the complex within 15 minutes. 

These eastern educational heritages were not my cup of tea, and ironically that instead of appreciating historic Korean education I found problem of Korean modern education from Seowons. Nobody even the sites caretakers I met could explain the meanings of those calligraphies inside the halls or even the meaning of the place as they could not understand those classic Chinese alphabets. Later I learnt about the Korean Alphabet Exclusivity policy in the 70’ that continued until 2013 which caused generations of no classic Chinese alphabets knowledge and confusing homophone problem in Korean Language. Thanked to google translate that helped me understand those beautiful and meaningful calligraphies in Seowons. I even more appreciated my visit to Oksan after I read its meaning as Jade Mountain School which resonated the beautiful surroundings very well, and the name of Dodong was even more deep but perfectly represented its role of school.    

Apart from the enshrinement of local scholars instead of Confucius, beautiful natural surrounding especially at Oksan Seowon and subtlety unique of architectural elements, to be honest there was nothing much to see in these two Seowons. Maybe I should visit other bigger listed seowons to understand more about its universal outstanding value. In my opinion, those seowons are not special but the back story of Neo-Confucian of Korea is far more interesting, its development and its role on Korean society especially during the Joseon period was a social phenomenal of East Asia that so unique for World Heritage listing.