덕수 이씨(德水 李氏) — An ancestral seat that produced Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin and Yulgok Yi I; its founder is said to be Yi Don-su, a Goryeo military official.
An ancestral seat that produced Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin and Yulgok Yi I; its founder is said to be Yi Don-su, a Goryeo military official. In the 2015 Census the 덕수 이씨 clan numbered about 58,513 people, one of Korea's major surnames and clans. Even among people surnamed 이, a different clan seat (bon-gwan, 덕수) means a different lineage. New to these terms? See the bon-gwan, pa & hangnyeol guide.
Munseong-gong branch, Chungmu-gong branch, Munjeong-gong branch
Branch divisions vary by lineage and jokbo; confirm your own branch in your family's records.
Yi Don-su(founder of the Deoksu Yi clan), Yi Sun-sin(Joseon military official, Chungmugong), Yi I(Neo-Confucian scholar, styled Yulgok)
Tap a name for the full profile (life, career, grave, descendants).
덕수 이씨 figures recognized as independence patriots (National Independence Hall / Gonghun public data). Tap a name for the citation.
덕수 이씨 figures listed by the Presidential Committee or the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators (Minjok Munje Institute).
The Deoksu Yi clan (德水 李氏) takes as its ancestral seat the Deoksu (德水) region of Gaeseong. Its founder is said to be Yi Don-su (李敦守), who served as Jungnangjang (a military office) during the reign of King Gojong of Goryeo. When his fourth-generation descendant Yi Yun-un was posthumously enfeoffed as Lord of Deoksu, his descendants took Deoksu as their ancestral seat. In the 2015 Statistics Korea census the clan numbered about 58,513 people.
Although there are several branches, the most widely known are the Munseong-gong branch (文成公派), whose founding ancestor is the 13th-generation descendant Yulgok Yi I, and the Chungmu-gong branch (忠武公派), whose founding ancestor is the 12th-generation descendant Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin. Owing to Yi Sun-sin's influence, the Chungmu-gong branch established itself as a distinguished family of military officials after the Imjin War, producing 267 successful candidates in the military examination and 13 Naval Commanders of the Three Provinces (三道水軍統制使) over the generations; its head household is the old Yi Sun-sin residence near Hyeonchungsa Shrine in Asan. The Munseong-gong branch continued around Haeju in Hwanghae Province, where Yulgok's ancestral home stood, and after the national division a small number of descendants who fled south remain in South Korea.
The Deoksu Yi clan produced 105 successful candidates in the civil service examination, 7 State Councillors (Prime Ministers), 5 Grand Scholars (大提學), 4 merit subjects, and 2 incorruptible officials (淸白吏) during the Joseon period. In particular, 7 State Councillors and 4 Grand Scholars came from the Yeonheon-gong branch (蓮軒公派), and 1 Grand Scholar was Yulgok Yi I of the Munseong-gong branch. Remarkably, more than half of the figures on South Korean currency come from this family: Yi Sun-sin on the 100-won coin, Yulgok Yi I on the 5,000-won note, and Shin Saimdang (Yi I's mother) on the 50,000-won note are all of the Deoksu Yi clan.
The detailed branches and lineage (世系) vary by clan and genealogy, so please check your own family history in the genealogical record you hold.
The 덕수 이씨 clan association can be found in the Korean E-Jokbo Library clan-association directory.
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