Damyang Hyanggyo, the local Confucian school located in Hyanggyo-ri, Damyang-eup, is said to have been established more than 630 years ago, during the reign of King Chunghye of Goryeo. The man who founded it was Jeon Nok-saeng, a native of Damyang who had risen to become a jaebo — a prime-minister-level senior official. He donated the house he lived in, along with its land, to the state, and the hyanggyo was built on that very site. A private residence, in effect, became a local educational institution.
A hyanggyo was a state-established educational institution built across the country during the Joseon dynasty, serving to hold ancestral rites for Confucius and other sages while also cultivating local talent. That Damyang Hyanggyo was founded during the Goryeo period, before Joseon's founding, shows that a foundation for Confucian education already existed in this region well before the dynasty that is usually associated with such schools. What began as one high official's private donation has maintained its identity as an educational institution across a change of dynasties and centuries of history since.