Sungmundang Hall is located on the left of Myeongjeongjeon Hall, the main hall of Changgyeonggung Palace. The term “Sungmun” in its name means “revering a writing or literature”. It was used as the king’s study hall, where the king attended lectures and discussed Confucianism with his subjects.

There was no record to track the exact year of the establishment of Sungmundang Hall. The only disclosed information is that it was erected when King Gwanghaegun rebuilt Changgyeonggung Palace after the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. However, it was burned down in 1830 and later rebuilt in 1834.

King Yeongjo used Sungmundang Hall the most. He even wrote the signboard for the hall. However, as the hall was rebuilt during the reign of King Sunjo, the signboard was rewritten by others afterwards.

The kings in the Joseon Dynasty stayed in Sungmundang Hall to exchange ideas about Chinese classics. They read “Rites of Zhou”, a Confucian scripture; “Seogyeong”, a Chinese classic; and “Doctrine of the Mean”, one of “The Four Books” in Confucian. They shared their thoughts about the book they had read with their subjects or interpreted the contents after they had read the books. It is said that King Yeongjo used to recommend helpful books to his subjects in the meeting. Also, he later asked King Jeongjo to study together, who was known as a genius. Since King Jeongjo studied hard with King Yeongjo from a young age, he later became a sage who was able to fairly identify talents.