최치원 崔致遠
Late Silla scholar and prose master who passed the foreign candidates' examination in Tang China; author of the Gyewon Pilgyeong and the four mountain steles
| Life | 857 ~ 908년 이후(미상) |
| Era | 신라 |
| Clan | 경주 최씨 |
Life & career
Choe Chi-won (857-?) was a scholar and prose master of late Silla, known by the courtesy names Gowun and Haeun, and is revered as the middle founding ancestor of the Gyeongju Choe clan. A member of Silla's sixth head rank, he went to Tang China at twelve in 868 and passed the bingong examination at eighteen in 874.
After serving as county defender at Lishui, he worked as a secretary on the staff of Gao Pian, and when Huang Chao's rebellion broke out he wrote the Proclamation Against Huang Chao, winning wide fame. His writings from this period survive as the twenty-fascicle Gyewon Pilgyeong, regarded as the oldest surviving personal collection in Korea.
He returned in 885 and served as royal reader, Hallim academician and head of the Office of Documents, but under pressure from true-bone nobles was sent to provincial posts at Taesan, Cheollyeong and Buseong. In 894 he submitted ten-odd reforms to Queen Jinseong and was granted the rank of Achan, but the reforms were never realized.
He then resigned and, according to tradition, wandered Namsan in Gyeongju, Cheongnyangsa in Hapcheon, Ssanggyesa on Mt. Jiri and Woryeongdae in Masan before retiring to Haeinsa on Mt. Gaya. When and where he died is unclear, and a legend that he became an immortal is widely told.
He composed the Sasan bimyeong, the steles of Masters Jingam, Nanghye and Jijeung and the Sungboksa stele, and in his Nangnang stele preface explained pungnyu as a way embracing Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. Poems such as "Autumn Night in the Rain" and "Floating on the Sea" are also famous, and he is regarded as the founding figure of Korean literary Chinese.
Under King Hyeonjong of Goryeo he was posthumously promoted, enshrined in the Confucian shrine and made Marquis Munchang. He was worshipped at Museong Seowon in Jeongeup, Seoak Seowon in Gyeongju and Baegyeon Seowon in Hamyang, and sites and legends survive nationwide, including Haeundae in Busan, Haeinsa in Hapcheon and Sangnim in Hamyang.
Genealogies hold that his line continued through his son Choe Eun-ham and grandson Choe Seung-no, making him the revered middle ancestor of the Gyeongju Choe clan, though some scholars say the direct father-son tie cannot be confirmed from sources. This page covers his life and achievements, the four steles, his thought, academies and sites, descendants and assessment.
Birth and Family Background
Choe Chi-won was born in 857 (the first year of King Heonan) in Silla's capital, Gyeongju. The Samguk sagi gives his home district as Saryang-bu, while the Samguk yusa gives Bonpi-bu, so the sources disagree. His father is recorded as Gyeon-il, and the family belonged to the sixth head rank.
The sixth head rank sat just below the true-bone aristocracy; however able its members were, the bone-rank system barred them from the highest offices. This barrier is often given as a reason he chose to study in Tang China at such a young age.
His courtesy names were Gowun ("lone cloud") and Haeun ("sea cloud"), and Gowun is the name most often used. Within the Gyeongju Choe clan he is widely honored as the "middle founding ancestor" beneath Sobeoldori, one of the six village chiefs of early Silla, though genealogies differ by branch. See the Gyeongju Choe clan page.
Studying in Tang China at Twelve
In 868 (the 8th year of King Gyeongmun), the twelve-year-old Choe Chi-won crossed to Tang China on a merchant ship. The Samguk sagi says his father told him, "If you do not pass the examination within ten years, you are no son of mine; go and work hard." Parts of this story are traditional, but it is often quoted to convey the resolve of a boy who set out alone.
Tradition adds that he studied by the motto "If others do it a hundred times, I will do it a thousand," tying his hair to a beam and pricking his thigh with an awl to stay awake. These vivid details belong to legend.
Tang maintained a separate bingong examination for foreign students, and Silla students had been passing it regularly. Choe Chi-won became the most celebrated of them.
Passing the Bingong Examination and the Post at Lishui
In 874, at the age of eighteen, Choe Chi-won passed the bingong examination supervised by the vice minister of rites, Pei Zan. He had met his father's ten-year deadline, and the Samguk sagi calls him the top graduate. For a time afterward he wandered around Luoyang, writing poetry.
In 876 he received the minor post of county defender (xianwei) at Lishui in Xuanzhou. He is said to have collected his writings from this period as the Jungsan bokgwe jip in five fascicles, but the work is lost.
The salary was meagre and prospects were poor. He resigned to prepare for another examination, the Erudite Literary Talent exam, but did not succeed and lived in hardship for a while.
Secretary under Gao Pian
Around 880 Choe Chi-won entered the staff of Gao Pian, military governor of Huainan, on his recommendation, as an official in charge of post-station documents. Tang was shaken by Huang Chao's rebellion, and in 881 Gao Pian was named supreme commander of the field armies.
Choe served as a secretary on the campaign and drafted the proclamations, memorials and letters that passed through the headquarters. For this he reportedly received titles such as Censor with Imperial Attendance and the purple-gold fish bag.
After Gao Pian was removed from the supreme command in early 882, Choe continued to handle his correspondence for a time. Writings from these years were later gathered into the Gyewon Pilgyeong.
The Proclamation Against Huang Chao
In the seventh month of 881 Choe Chi-won composed a proclamation denouncing Huang Chao, the Tohwangso gyeokmun, preserved in fascicle 11 of the Gyewon Pilgyeong. Its most quoted line says that not only all the people under heaven wish to put you to death, but even the spirits beneath the earth have already secretly debated your execution.
A story says Huang Chao was so startled on reading it that he fell from his seat, but this anecdote comes from later writings and is not confirmed by contemporary records. Still, it is widely accepted that the piece spread Choe's literary fame throughout Tang.
His many official documents from this period, written in the parallel-prose style full of balanced couplets and allusions, are seen as proof that Korean literary Chinese had reached a level admired even in China.
The Gyewon Pilgyeong and His Writings
The Gyewon Pilgyeong ("Plowing the Cassia Garden with a Brush") collects the memorials, dispatches, proclamations and letters Choe Chi-won wrote under Gao Pian, in twenty fascicles. He presented it to King Heongang after returning in 885, and it is regarded as the oldest surviving personal literary collection in Korea.
The Samguk sagi and Chinese histories also credit him with the Jungsan bokgwe jip (five fascicles), a collection of verse, and the Jewang yeondaeryeok, a chronology of rulers, but most are now lost. Surviving writings include the Gyewon Pilgyeong, the four mountain steles, the biography of the monk Fazang, and poems in the Dongmunseon.
The Gyewon Pilgyeong is also a valuable source for late Tang politics, warfare and diplomacy and is studied by Chinese scholars. A copy is displayed at the memorial in Yangzhou.
Return to Silla and Court Offices
In the autumn of 884 Choe Chi-won sailed home together with Kim In-gyu, a Silla envoy returning from Tang. After a stormy winter crossing he reached Silla in 885 (11th year of King Heongang), aged 28 by Western reckoning.
At court he was appointed royal reader and Hallim academician, vice minister of military affairs, and head of the Office of Documents, serving as the king's writer. He is said to have presented twenty-eight fascicles of his Tang-period writings, including the Gyewon Pilgyeong.
But after King Heongang died, the throne passed to Jeonggang and then Queen Jinseong amid political disorder, and under pressure from true-bone nobles he was soon sent out to provincial posts.
Provincial Governorships
He is recorded as governor of Taesan commandery (around Taein, Jeongeup in North Jeolla), Cheollyeong (Hamyang, South Gyeongsang) and Buseong (around Seosan, South Chungcheong). Taesan is written Daesan in some sources, so the name is not consistent.
At Taein, tradition says the people built a living shrine for him in thanks for good rule, which later became the root of Museong Seowon. At Hamyang he is said to have built an embankment and planted trees against the floods of the Wicheon stream; that grove is today's Sangnim. These are traditions and the dates are unknown.
Haksaru in Hamyang is said to be named for his poetry there. In the early Joseon period, a story about the Haksaru plaque involving the county magistrate Kim Jong-jik is also told as one trigger of the Muo literati purge.
The Ten-Odd Reform Proposals of 894
In 894 (8th year of Queen Jinseong), Choe Chi-won submitted a memorial of ten-odd reform measures. The queen accepted it and granted him the rank of Achan, the highest a sixth-head-rank man could attain. Local tradition places the writing at Sangseojang in Gyeongju.
The individual articles are lost, so their content is unknown; it is understood as a plan to repair a society collapsing under slack discipline, rising local strongmen and peasant uprisings.
It is said that opposition from true-bone nobles prevented its proper implementation. It is often paired with the Twenty-Eight Points submitted about ninety years later by Choe Seung-no, traditionally his grandson, to King Seongjong of Goryeo.
Retirement and Wanderings
Unable to realize his ideals, Choe Chi-won is said to have given up office and wandered the mountains and rivers. Places named as his haunts include Namsan in Gyeongju, Mt. Bing in Yeongju, Cheongnyangsa in Hapcheon, Ssanggyesa on Mt. Jiri, and a country villa at Happo (the Masan area of today's Changwon).
Woryeongdae in Masan is said to be where he strolled looking at the moonlit sea, and Haeundae in Busan is said to take its name from his pen name Haeun. A carved inscription reading "Haeundae" on Dongbaek Island is traditionally attributed to him. Most of these sites rest on tradition rather than confirmed history.
Gounsa in Uiseong is said to have taken its name from his pen name and to have received its pavilions from him. Such stories scattered across the country show how deeply he is imprinted in later memory.
Haeinsa and His Last Years
The Samguk sagi says Choe Chi-won finally entered Haeinsa on Mt. Gaya with his family and lived out his days there. Tradition holds that his elder brother, the monk Hyeonjun, and the monk Jeonghyeon lived at Haeinsa.
The fir at Haeinsa's Haksadae is said to have grown from his walking stick. A poem attributed to him at the Hongnyudong valley on Mt. Gaya runs: "Rushing wildly among piled rocks, it roars through the peaks; human voices cannot be told apart even at arm's length. I always fear that the noise of right and wrong may reach my ears, so I let the flowing water wrap the whole mountain."
When and where he died is unclear. He is known to have been alive in 908, after which records stop; some scholars think he lived past 924. A widely told legend says he became an immortal, leaving only his hat and shoes in the forest.
The Four Mountain Steles (Sasan Bimyeong)
Choe Chi-won was commissioned to compose the inscriptions for eminent monks of late Silla. His four major works are called the Sasan bimyeong: the stele of Master Jingam at Ssanggyesa, Hadong (c. 887); of Master Nanghye at Seongjusa, Boryeong (c. 890); of Master Jijeung at Bongamsa, Mungyeong (893); and the Sungboksa stele on Mt. Chowol, Gyeongju (c. 885).
The Jingam stele is National Treasure No. 47, the Nanghye stele No. 8, and the Jijeung stele No. 138. The Sungboksa stele is heavily damaged and only fragments survive. Written in parallel prose, they are precious sources on Silla Buddhism, the Seon schools, and royal and aristocratic society.
These texts reveal Choe's outlook, which embraces Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. In Joseon times, scholars wrote commentaries on the Sasan bimyeong.
Thought: Three Teachings and Pungnyu
Choe Chi-won's thought is described as a harmonizing view of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. His Preface to the Stele of Nangnang, honoring the hwarang Nangnang, is partly preserved in the Samguk sagi.
There he says that the country has a profound and mysterious way called pungnyu, whose origins are detailed in the records of the immortals, and that it embraces the three teachings and transforms the people. Being filial at home and loyal to the state is Confucius's purport; acting without contrivance and teaching without words is Laozi's teaching; avoiding evil and practicing good is the Buddha's instruction.
The text is valued as a key source for pungnyu, an indigenous Korean way of thought. His writing of monks' steles and his stay on Mt. Gaya show his deep ties to Buddhism as well.
Representative Poems
"Autumn Night in the Rain" (Chu-ya-u-jung) is a famous five-character quatrain about loneliness in Tang. In translation: "In the autumn wind I chant my bitter verse, but few in the world know my voice. Outside the window, rain at the third watch; before the lamp, my heart ten thousand li away."
"Floating on the Sea" (Beomhae) records his feelings on putting out to sea, opening: "Hoisting sail, I float on the blue sea; the long wind blows through ten thousand li. Riding a raft I think of the Han envoy, gathering herbs I recall the Qin boys." In "Mallow Flowers" (Chokgyuhwa) he is read as comparing himself to a hollyhock blooming on rough ground.
Others include his poem on the upper chamber of Cihe temple in Runzhou, his Gaya mountain study poem, and verses given to the monk Huirang of Haeinsa. Translations and readings vary by edition.
Enshrinement in the Confucian Shrine
Under King Hyeonjong of Goryeo, Choe Chi-won was greatly honored. He was posthumously made Chief of the State Council (Naesaryeong) and enshrined in the Confucian shrine in 1020 (11th year of Hyeonjong), and in 1023 received the title Marquis Munchang. Sources give slightly different years, so both are noted.
Together with Seol Chong of Silla he is remembered as a Silla-born scholar enshrined in the shrine, and he is counted among the eighteen Korean sages alongside the Goryeo scholar An Hyang. Late-Goryeo and Joseon scholars respected him as a pioneer of Confucian learning in the East.
In Joseon times many academies were built to honor him, showing that later people revered him not merely as a writer but as a model of learning and morality.
Academies and Shrines
Museong Seowon in Chilbo-myeon, Jeongeup, is said to have originated in a shrine (Taesansa) to Choe Chi-won and received a royal plaque under King Sukjong of Joseon. It is Historic Site No. 166 and was inscribed in 2019 as part of the UNESCO World Heritage "Seowon, Korean Neo-Confucian Academies."
He was also worshipped at Seoak Seowon in Gyeongju, Baegyeon Seowon in Hamyang, and the Goun Yeongdang at Yeongpyeong, Pocheon. Gounsa in Uiseong takes its name from his pen name, and traces and steles linked to him remain at Haeinsa in Hapcheon and Ssanggyesa in Hadong.
Memorial spaces thus remain wherever he had deep ties of learning, administration or Buddhism. Please check opening status and hours before visiting.
Assessment and Criticism
Choe Chi-won is generally regarded as the founding figure of Korean literary Chinese. Having won fame in China and returned to propose reforms, he is treated as the representative sixth-head-rank intellectual, and as an early example of the stream of such scholars who supported the new dynasty in early Goryeo.
There is criticism too. His frustration against the bone-rank wall is understood as a limit of his age, but some point to a deferential attitude toward Tang. In modern times Shin Chae-ho is known to have criticized him as the beginning of flunkeyism.
The Samguk sagi records that he supported Wang Geon's founding with the lines "Gyerim is yellow leaves, Gokryeong green pines," but many scholars now regard this as a later embellishment. Assessments thus vary by era and viewpoint.
Descendants and the Gyeongju Choe Clan
Documents and genealogies hold that Choe Chi-won's line continued through his son Choe Eun-ham and his grandson Choe Seung-no. Eun-ham is recorded as having submitted to Goryeo along with King Gyeongsun, and Seung-no, who presented the Twenty-Eight Points to King Seongjong in 982, was a chief minister who greatly helped to organize the early Goryeo state.
Some scholars note, however, that the direct father-son tie between Choe Chi-won and Choe Eun-ham is not clearly confirmed by historical sources; the lineage rests mainly on genealogies and clan tradition.
The Gyeongju Choe clan produced many figures through Goryeo, Joseon and modern times. Among people on this site, Choe Jin-rip, Choe Je-u, Choe Si-hyeong, Choe Ik-hyeon and Choe Hyeon-bae belong to the Gyeongju Choe clan. For the clan as a whole see Gyeongju Choe.
Modern Commemoration and Sites to Visit
On Dongbaek Island in Haeundae, Busan, a statue honoring Choe Chi-won is known to stand, and it is introduced together with the origin of the Haeundae name. Sangnim in Hamyang, Woryeongdae in Masan, Haeinsa in Hapcheon, Ssanggyesa in Hadong and Museong Seowon in Jeongeup are typical sites for those following his trail.
In Yangzhou, China, a Choe Chi-won memorial has been built and is presented as a symbol of China-Korea friendship, with a friendship monument in its garden. Being remembered in both countries shows his distinctive place.
If you plan a trip, you might follow a route through Gyeongju (Sangseojang, Seoak Seowon, Namsan), Jeongeup (Museong Seowon), Hamyang (Sangnim, Haksaru), Hapcheon (Haeinsa, Haksadae), Hadong (Ssanggyesa), Masan (Woryeongdae) and Busan (Haeundae).
Related People
Seol Chong is remembered alongside him as the other Silla scholar in the Confucian shrine, and An Hyang is one of the eighteen sages from Goryeo. Kim Bu-sik wrote Choe Chi-won's biography in the Samguk sagi.
Choe Chung, later called the "Confucius of Haedong," is a Goryeo scholar often mentioned alongside Choe Chi-won as a famed Choe scholar. A later Gyeongju Choe figure is Choe Jin-rip.
Kim Jong-jik is linked to him through the Haksaru story from his time as Hamyang magistrate, and Shin Chae-ho is cited for his critical assessment.
Grave
No tomb is confirmed; tradition says he spent his last years at Haeinsa on Mt. Gaya. He is worshipped at Seoak Seowon in Gyeongju, Museong Seowon in Jeongeup and Baegyeon Seowon in Hamyang.
Descendants
Revered as the middle founding ancestor of the Gyeongju Choe clan; documents and genealogies trace a line through his son Choe Eun-ham and grandson Choe Seung-no, though some scholars say the direct father-son tie cannot be confirmed from sources.
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