최익현 崔益鉉

Late-Joseon "defend orthodoxy, reject heterodoxy" Confucian scholar and righteous-army commander

Life & career

Choe Ik-hyeon (1834-1907), a leading Confucian scholar of the "upholding orthodoxy, rejecting heterodoxy" school under his teacher Yi Hang-no, forced the retirement of the regent Heungseon Daewongun with a scathing 1873 memorial, and famously protested the 1876 treaty opening Korea's ports by prostrating himself before Gwanghwamun Gate with an axe, signaling his readiness to die rather than yield.

After the 1905 Eulsa Treaty stripped Korea of diplomatic sovereignty, he raised a righteous army of some 900 fighters in Taein, North Jeolla, in 1906, but was captured and deported to Japan's Tsushima Island, where he died after a hunger strike. He was later enshrined in the Jongmyo royal shrine in 1928, and a descendant, Choe Chang-gyu, became a political science professor at Seoul National University.

Grave

Gwaneum-ri, Gwangsi-myeon, Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province

Descendants

He had sons including his eldest son Choe Yeong-jo, and his descendants continued within the Gyeongju Choe clan.

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