Ch'oe Ch'ung was born in 984, to the
Haeju Ch'oe clan, which was of Silla aristocratic origins. In 1005, he took and passed the chinsa degree examination with the highest marks. In 1047, he was promoted to the position of chancellor (). Ch'oe founded the in the capital city of
Kaegyong, a private school for the children of aristocratic families to prepare them for the
civil service examinations. The academy taught pupils the Nine Confucian Classics (the
I Ching, the
Book of Documents, the
Classic of Poetry, the
Book of Etiquette and Ceremonial, the
Rites of Zhou, the
Book of Rites, the
Zuo Zhuan, the
Gongyang Zhuan, and the
Guliang Zhuan) and the 3 histories (the
Records of the Grand Historian, the
Book of Han and the
Book of the Later Han). The success of the school and its pupils led other leading Confucian scholars to establish similar own private educational institutions. Due to Ch'oe's efforts in popularizing the private school system, his contemporaries would nickname him the "Confucius of Korea". On October 13, 1068, Ch'oe died. He was given the posthumous name of Munhŏn. ==Family==