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Jeonju Confucian School is known to have been built in Goryeo age and present building is told to have been established in Seonjo age of Lee dynasty. In the center of Daeseongjeon five memorial tablet of 5 saints of Confucius, Anja, Joengja, Mencius. There are five big and old ginkgo trees in Confucian School, the one in front of West gate in Confucian school is 400 years old. It is said that the meaning of planting ginkgo trees in Confucian school is for students of Confucianism to become an upright person as the ginkgo trees do not get infested with insects. One interesting fact is that the ginkgo tree on the right side of Daeseongjeon in Confucian school is called bisexual tree as "male turned into female to produce ginkgo”. Still ancestral rites is being performed, and legend says that if one supplicate wish with 250-year old ginkgo taken in front of Ilwok gate he can pass state examination.
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Korea is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world with over five thousand years of history. According to the original creation myth, the world we live in today is the work of the Heavenly Prince Hwanung, whose father was the King of Heaven.The Heavenly Prince asked his father to give him some land to govern, so the Father sent him down to Mount Taebaek. With him the Prince brought the Minister of Clouds, the Earl of Rain and the Chancellor of Wind. They also brought three thousand helpers.Under the shade of a sandalwood tree the Prince founded a holy city called Sinsi, the City of God. He put his Ministers in charge of three hundred and sixty areas of human culture, teaching them to grow crops and to make laws concerning what is good and what is evil.A tiger and a bear living in a nearby cave saw this city and desperately wanted to become human. Every day they came to the sandalwood tree at the center of the city to pray fervently for becoming humans.Hwanung saw their devotion and gave them instructions to remain in the cave and fast for one month, eating nothing but garlic and mugwort. The tiger was too impatient to stand the long and boring days in the cave, so he gave up and left, but Bear maintained the fast. At the end of the month she was transformed into a beautiful woman who became the mother of the Korean people.Her first son was Don-gun, the First King of the Korean people. When Don-Gun passed on the throne to his own son, he became a Mountain God. It is interesting that mountain gods are still worshipped today in Korea.Text by Steve Smith.
