Sunheung is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

administered as part of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Yeongju Yeongju (; ) is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It has an area of 668.84 km2 and a population of 113,930 people according to the 2008 census. The city borders Bonghwa county to the east, Danyang County of North Chungcheong Pr ...

North Gyeongsang North Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in eastern South Korea, and with an area of , it is the largest province in the Korean peninsula. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remaine ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. The present local government administers an area of . Located in Sunheung is

Sosu Seowon Sosu Seowon () is a Joseon-era ''seowon'' (private Neo-Confucian academy), now located in Sunheung-myeon, Yeongju, South Korea. It is the oldest extant ''seowon'' in Korea. It was founded by (1495–1554), then the magistrate of Pungseong County ...

, a

Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a Morality, moral, Ethics, ethical, and metaphysics, metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768� ...

Academy built in the 16th century and today a UNESCO

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Name

Sunheung is an

anglicization Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English languag ...

of the

McCune–Reischauer McCune–Reischauer romanization ( ) is a romanization system for the Korean language. It was first published in 1939 by George M. McCune and Edwin O. Reischauer. According to Reischauer, McCune "persuaded the American Army Map Service to ad ...

romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

''Sunhŭng''. Its official romanization in South Korea is ''Sunheung''. In 19th century sources, Sunheung appears as Sioun-heng-fu, from a French transcription of the Korean placename and the Chinese pronunciation of its status as the seat of a district or commandery. Although the name literally means "Adhering to", "Obeying", or "Following Prosperity" or "Success", Sunheung is also ''

bongwan Korean clans are groups of Korean people that share the same paternal ancestor. They are indicated by the combination of a ''bongwan'' () and a family name. Korean clans distinguish clans that happen to share the same family name. The ''bongwan' ...

'' of a Korean clan in the area which included the influential Korean Confucianist

An Hyang An Hyang (; 1243 – 12 September 1306), also known as An Yu (), was a leading Confucian scholar born in Yeongju in present-day South Korea, and was from the Sunheung An clan. He is considered the founder of Neo-Confucianism in Korea, introducin ...

History

Under the late

Joseon Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

, Sunheung was a district capital overseeing the plains and hinterland around Mount Taebaek. Its mountains were the site of Korea's first foreign mining concern, a silver mine whose permit was revoked by the royal court in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

after a few months of operation in the early 1850s.

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