정여창 鄭汝昌

Early-Joseon Sarim-faction Neo-Confucian scholar; one of the Five Sages of the East

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Life1450 ~ 1504
Era조선
Clan하동 정씨

Life & career

Jeong Yeo-chang (鄭汝昌) had the courtesy name Baeguk (伯勗) and the pen name Ildu (一蠹), and was from Hamyang, Gyeongsang Province. A disciple of Kim Jong-jik, he was, together with Kim Goeng-pil, a Neo-Confucian scholar representative of the early-Joseon Sarim faction.

Having passed the higher civil service examination in 1490, he served as editor of the Office of Royal Decrees and as tutor at the crown prince's tutorial office, and governed well as magistrate of Aneum. However, in 1498 he was implicated in the Muo Literati Purge and exiled to Jongseong in Hamgyeong Province, where he died in 1504. In the following year, during the Gapja Literati Purge, his corpse was subjected to mutilation (bugwanchamsi).

He was later exonerated, posthumously granted the office of right state councillor in 1517, and enshrined in the Confucian shrine (Munmyo) in 1610. Together with Kim Goeng-pil, Jo Gwang-jo, Yi Eon-jeok, and Yi Hwang, he is counted among the "Five Sages of the East" (東方五賢) enshrined in the Munmyo. Works such as the Yonghak juso survive, though many were lost in the purges. His posthumous title was Munheon (文獻).

Grave

Seungan-dong, Umyeong-ri, Sudong-myeon, Hamyang County, South Gyeongsang Province

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