진천군청

Birthplace of Yi Sang-seol in Jincheon

10, Isangseoran-gil, Jincheon-eup, Jincheon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, 27846, Republic of Korea

• Designated : Local Monument No. 77(March 31, 1987)
• Period : The late Joseon Dynasty
• Size : Site [1243 m3(376 Pyeong)], Floor floor space [41m2 (12.35Pyeong)]
• The main building and shed
• Material : Wooden thatched house

This is the birthplace of the great scholar Yi Sangseol (1870~1917); the premises consists of a main building and a wooden thatched house.

Yi Sangseol was the son of Yi Hanewoo, a scholar, and passed the civil service examination in 1894. He served as a teacher at Sunggyunkwan University and an instructor at Hanseong College of Education. He spoke 7 languages including English and French and was a keen student of modern literature.

He joined work at the Judicial Affairs Office under the Ministry of Finance in 1904 and was selected as an administrator for the city of Uijeongbu in 1905.
He was also active politically and was prominently involved in the campaign for independence from the Japanese. Yi was bitterly opposed to the Eulsa Treaty (signed on November 7th 1905) that made Korea a protectorate of Japan. After this event, he dedicated himself to the cause of independence.

He set about educating the Korean people about the threat posed by the Japanese to Korean sovereignty and was sent by the Korean Emperor Gojong to attend the Second Hague Peace Convention in Hague from June through July in 1907 along with Yi Jun and Yi Wijong to announce the independence of Korea and the Korean people’s will toward the recovery of its sovereign rights to the international community. However, the mission failed because the emissaries were not granted admission to the conference. Yi Jun, devastated by this failure, committed suicide in Hague.

Yi Sangseol did not return to Korea. Instead, he visited a number of countries including Britain, France, Germany and the United States to educate the international community about the brutality of the Japanese invasion and to insist that the independence of Korea was the key to peace in East Asia.

After the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910, he moved to the territory of the former Soviet Union, established a Korean village and educated the Korean people there. He died in 1917 at the age of 47.

• Location
  • 1 When you go toward Chopyeong from Jincheon by an intra-city bus for about 5 minutes (3km), you can find a sign of showing the entrance of to the Birthplace of Yi Sang-seol in Jincheon. You can find the premises as you walk 2km along the pavement after getting off.
  • 2 When using a car, drive about 3km from Jincheon to Chopyeong, turn left and then drive 2km further.