韓國鄉校：打開韓國古典現地研究的鎖鑰

Country Schools: the Key to Korean Classical On-Site Studies

吾人從事韓國古典研究時，常為一些很重要又很基礎的問題所困惑，例如：詩文中的古地名，現代位址何在？其城邑大小、方位、結構為何？旅行者和古地圖家記下了許多道路，它們的實際經過在那裡？縱然是熟悉韓國文字者，對於古今地名轉換，也往往感到困難。本文指出：韓國特有的「鄉校」，乃是解決古地名問題，打開朝鮮古典研究的鎖鑰，任何人只需要接受簡單的訓練，便可以利用鄉校，快速找到朝鮮時代古邑城的位址，進而解讀古地名、古地圖，乃至一切古典文獻。「鄉校」又稱為「廟學」，所謂「廟」，指的是祭祀孔子的大成殿，所謂「學」，就是具備學校功能的明倫堂。朝鮮時代崇尚儒學，朝鮮八道所有府、州、郡、縣皆設立鄉校，至今幾乎全數被保存下來。由於鄉校的建置，與古代邑城有緊密的結構關係，查到鄉校，便不難推算古代邑城的所在，因而可說是打開朝鮮古典研究的必要鎖鑰。 Some important and fundamental questions in terms of Korean classical studies always arise as below: Where are now the locations of ancient places with the old names? How about the size, direction and structure of the ancient places? What exactly were the road routes inscribed by the travelers and map-makers? Even scholars familiar to Korean characters are confused by these questions. This paper points out that a Country School is the key to these questions mentioned above. Anyone with simple training would be able to locate the ancient cities and then cipher the ancient names, maps and even all ancient literature with the help of country schools. Country Schools are also called Temple Schools. Temple means the Main Hall, namely Dacheng Dian of a Confucian temple as a place to worship Confucius, and the school the Lecture Hall, namely Minglun Tang, a place for teaching. During Korea Dynasty, the emperors advocated Confucianism so highly that all the country schools founded then throughout the whole country and almost all of them are conserved now. Because a Country School was built connected closely to a city, it is easily to explore the location of a city when a Country School is located. As a result, a Country School is the key to Korean classical studies.