My Adopted Province, Korea's Confucian Heartland

"North Gyeongsang Province produced a slew of prominent scholars compared to other regions, mainly due to the environmental benefits that were good for study and meditation," said the curator of an exhibit titled "North Gyeongsang Province, the Unity of Nature and Human Beings," marking "2009: The Year of North Gyeongsang Folk Culture" — Folk Museum Features Confucian Tradition.

"The region also developed the pavilion culture," the article informs us, "which turned the natural environment into a place of co-existence between people and nature." More:

Surrounded by mountains, this unique geographical condition provides a perfect natural environment for ``seonbi,'' or Confucian scholars, who want to live with nature to write poetry or meditate as spiritual training throughout their lives.

As a result, the seonbi built houses with pavilions in the mountains, enjoying a sense of inner peace by becoming one with nature.

For the seonbi, the natural surroundings of the region were perfect for realizing harmony with the cosmos and for attaining an ideal life in the province.

"The seonbi believed that providing a proper education in Confucian principles for their children was one of their top priorities," says the author, elaborating:

They also believed that real leadership is achieved through education and good government in Confucianism. Thus they preferred to home-school younger family members rather than sending them to a public school. Usually, one of the respected, educated and older family members led the youth education. The first of seowon, or private academies, was established in the region. The seowon with their own ancestral shrines provided a Confucian education.