The Meaning of Toegye Yi Hwang's Return to Home and Seowon Revival Movement - From the perspective of the pioneering model of community revitalization -

The purpose of this study is to analyze the socio-cultural transformation of Toegye Yi Hwang's return to his hometown and the Seowon revival movement in the middle of the Joseon Dynasty, and to examine the modern implications of Seowon as a pioneering model of today's 'local era'. Toegye felt the moral limitations of central politics, voluntarily returned to Hyangchon, reorganized the Hyangyak, and established a seowon, thereby re-establishing the ethical order and autonomy foundation of the local community. He realized complex functions such as education, feast, economy, and public debate centering on Dosan Seowon, and settled Seowon as the central device of local community organization. This study examined how the multifunctionality of seowon and the normative system reorganized the structure of Hyangchon society, and analyzed that seowon served as a local public forum and operated as a prototype practice of local autonomy. Furthermore, it was suggested that Toegye's seowon movement can be linked to modern regional governance, community character education, and resident autonomy model, and attempted to clarify that seowon can be re-examined as a philosophical and institutional tradition of balanced regional development today, not just a Confucian heritage.