홍명희 洪命憙

Novelist (Im Kkeok-jeong), writer and activist in the Singanhoe; went north in 1948 and became a vice premier of North Korea

Life & career

Hong Myeong-hui (洪命憙, 1888-1968) was a novelist, independence activist and politician from the Pungsan Hong clan, with the pen name Byeokcho (碧初). He was born in the Hong Beom-sik house at Dongbu-dong, Goesan, North Chungcheong, and Wikipedia gives Hong Man-hyeong, second son of Hong Ju-won and Princess Jeongmyeong, as his tenth-generation ancestor. His great-grandfather Hong U-gil was minister of personnel, his grandfather Hong Seung-mok a councillor of the Central Council, and his father Hong Beom-sik, magistrate of Geumsan, took his own life in protest at the annexation. One account says that the family of Jeong Yak-yong's wife was a collateral branch of his house. He lost his birth mother early and in 1900 married a daughter of Min Yeong-man of the Yeoheung Min clan.

Following his father's last wish, he did not cooperate with the Japanese, and in the March First Movement of 1919 he is said to have been the first in North Chungcheong to join the demonstrations, in Goesan. He then went to Shanghai and, though repeatedly imprisoned, served as editor-in-chief of the Dong-A Ilbo, president of the Sidae Ilbo and principal of Osan School, and helped found the Singanhoe with his son Hong Gi-mun. From 21 November 1928 he serialized the novel Im Kkeok-jeong in the Chosun Ilbo; the serialization was interrupted four times by imprisonment and other circumstances and, after the paper was closed in 1940, appeared in Jogwang. The work has been called "the best living dictionary of the Korean language" and is a leading work of modern Korean historical fiction. With Yi Gwang-su and Choe Nam-seon he was called one of Joseon's "three geniuses."

After liberation he was active from a centrist position and in April 1948 went to the North for the North-South negotiations around the same time as Kim Gu and Kim Gyu-sik, but did not return. He was named a vice premier of North Korea in September 1948, served as vice chairman of the standing committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and died on 5 March 1968, being interred in the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery in Pyongyang. His activities after going north are judged very differently in the South and the North. His birthplace is preserved by Goesan County; a literary monument was raised in Goesan in 1998 but met opposition from some groups objecting to his going north. This text is based on facts given on Wikipedia and offers no political judgment. Whether he has been decorated by the Republic of Korea could not be confirmed here. His son Hong Gi-mun worked as a scholar in the North. The clan association describes him as the author of Im Kkeok-jeong, counted as one of the three geniuses of Joseon.

Im Kkeok-jeong

Serialization began in the Chosun Ilbo in November 1928 and was interrupted four times; it is valued as a treasury of Korean vocabulary.

Family and Father

His grandfather Hong Seung-mok is classed as a collaborator and his father Hong Beom-sik died in protest at the annexation.

Going North and Later Years

He went north for the April 1948 talks and did not return, served as a vice premier, and died in Pyongyang in 1968.

Grave

He was interred in the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery in Pyongyang. His birthplace, the Hong Beom-sik house, is preserved by Goesan County, North Chungcheong.

Descendants

Eldest son Hong Gi-mun (1903-1992, scholar in North Korea), grandson Hong Seok-hyeong and others.

Other 풍산 홍씨 figures