The Paju heritage complex associated with Yi I is not his birthplace: he was born at Ojukheon in Gangneung. Paju instead preserves places connected with family life, later years, burial and commemoration, including Jaunseowon and a family cemetery. The academy was founded by local Confucian scholars in 1615 after Yi I’s death, and its buildings passed through suppression, restoration and repair; the present ensemble is not an untouched seventeenth-century original. The site also includes the lives and memorialization of family members such as Shin Saimdang, who should not be reduced to the role of a famous man’s mother. Compare official accounts from Gangneung and Paju, respect the ritual and burial spaces, and separate biography from later veneration.
The Yi I heritage site tells a story of family, education and memorial rites · 🌾