Official who served as aide to Commander-in-Chief Kwon Yul in the Imjin War; pen name Haewol; founder of the Haewol-gong branch and reviser of the clan genealogy
| Life | 1556 ~ 1622 |
| Era | 조선 중기 |
| Clan | 평해 황씨 |
Hwang Yeo-il (1556-1622) was a mid-Joseon official of the Pyeonghae Hwang clan, with courtesy name Hoewon and pen names Haewolheon and Maewolheon, best known simply as Haewol. He was born in Sadong-ri, Giseong-myeon, Uljin, and as a fourteenth-generation member opened the Haewol-gong branch, part of the Yebin-gong line of the Munjeol-gong branch. Sources such as the Academy of Korean Studies record his great-grandfather as Hwang Se-chung, his grandfather as Hwang Yeon and his father as the scholar Hwang Eung-jing (黃應澄). Some introductions write the name Hwang Eung-cheong, but the father's name in the biographical entry is Hwang Eung-jing, which this entry follows.
He became a jinsa in 1576 and passed the civil examination in 1585. In 1588 he was dismissed as an examiner-historian for entering and leaving his post improperly; in 1594, after serving as a bureau director in the Ministry of Punishments, he went down as aide to Gwon Yul and took part in the Imjin War. For this he was named a second-class Seonmu original-merit subject, which Korean Wikipedia renders as second-class Seonmu merit subject. He then served as instructor, remonstrance official, head of the Jangagwon, magistrate of Yecheon (1601), magistrate of Gilju (1611) and a military commander at Dongnae (1617). He travelled to Ming China as secretary on a mission under Seonjo, with sources dating the trip either to 1598 or only to Seonjo's reign, and his record of it survives as Jocheon-rok.
His greatest gift to descendants was the genealogy. When the clan's records burned in the Imjin War, he published the Pyeonghae Hwang chogan sebo in 1604 while magistrate of Yecheon, restoring ancestors' offices and tomb sites in considerable detail; its preface laments that a long-serving family had scattered until kin were more distant than strangers met on the road. The pavilion Haewolheon is known to have been built in 1588 and was moved by descendants to its present spot in 1847, and its signboard is said to be in the hand of Yi San-hae. The house is the Haewol head house of the Pyeonghae Hwang in Uljin, a North Gyeongsang folk heritage, where his permanent tablet is kept in the shrine. After death he was posthumously made vice-minister of personnel and enshrined at Myeonggye Seowon in Pyeonghae; his Haewol-jip (14 volumes, 7 books) was published at Myeonggye Seowon in 1776. His son Hwang Jung-yun also passed the civil examination.
The Haewol head house at Sadong-ri, Giseong-myeon, Uljin has three buildings, the main house, a mill building and a shrine; the pavilion Haewolheon is a four-bay hall with a raised floor. It was designated a North Gyeongsang folk heritage in 2012; the designation number is given differently in different introductions, so it is not stated here.
His tomb could not be confirmed here. His permanent tablet is kept in the shrine of the Haewol head house at Sadong-ri, Giseong-myeon, Uljin.
His son Hwang Jung-yun passed the civil examination, and the independence activist Hwang Man-yeong is recorded as his eleventh-generation descendant.