Confucian architecture in the Chosŏn Kingdom

Conference by Francis Macouin, former Chief Curator of the Guimet Museum Library, member of the EHESS-CNRS China-Korea-Japan research team, at 18:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Cernuschi Museum.

The Chosŏn Kingdom, founded in 1392, adopted Confucianism as its ideological foundation. This was the version given to him by Chinese philosophers of the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. The doctrine implied that the aristocracy sacrificed to the manes of the ancestors, that the memory of eminent Confucians was honored. It was also necessary to organize teaching to spread the doctrine; for this, schools, public and then private institutions, were established. These establishments functioned as both temples and educational establishments. The constructions which were built for these purposes respect the general uses of Korean architecture but are marked by a sobriety, an austerity, a refusal of ostentation and superfluous decoration which constitute the marks imposed by the doctrine officially in force.