YI CHEHYON

(1287–1367)

Yi Chehyon was a Korean statesman and scholar who became known, as well, as a painter and writer.Yi Chehyon was an official in the late Koryo dynasty (918–1392), which had instituted a State Civil Service examination in emulation of the Chinese system during the TANG DYNASTY. He won first place in the examination in 1301, at the age of 14, and began a government career that lasted some 60 years under five sovereigns and culminated in the important post of chief minister of the Chancellery for State Affairs.

As a government diplomat,Yi Chehyon made at least six trips to China, accompanying Korean kings who spent time in residence at the Yuan or Mongol court in Dadu.In China in 1314, he became acquainted with a number of important Chinese intellectuals, including the influential painter Zhao Mengfu, whose style of calligraphy Yi Chehyon is credited with introducing into Korea. Like most Korean writers of the Koryo period, Yi Chehyon wrote poetry and prose inhanmun(letters of Han), or classical Chinese characters, since Korea did not have its own vernacular alphabet until the following century. Among his works are theTales of Yogong(1342), a collection of notes and anecdotes about the people and events in his own life. This text is thought to have influenced the development of theyadam, a Korean genre of simple short story written in classical Chinese. In his verse Yi Chehyon emulated the classical poetry of China and had studied Chinese versification. Perhaps his best-known poems, however, are Korean folk songs that he translated into Chinese and calledA Small Collection of Folk Songs. These brief lyrics are fresh and charming, and some have female speakers, like the following:

A magpie chatters in a flowering bough by the hedge,

A spider spins a web above the bed.

Knowing my heart, they announce his return—

My beloved will be back soon.

(Lee 2002, 226)

Yi Chehyon’s collected works were first published immediately after his death, in 1368. They were popular enough to be reprinted in 1432, 1693, and 1814.

■ Hungguyu, Kim.Understanding Korean Literature. Translated by Robert J. Fouser. New Studies in Asian Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharp, 1997.

■ Lee, Peter H., ed.The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.