Upright official who refused King Yeonsan access to the historians' drafts; compiler of the first Hanyang Jo genealogy
| Era | 조선 전기 |
| Clan | 한양 조씨 |
Jo Won-gi (趙元紀) was an early Joseon civil official of the Hanyang Jo clan, with courtesy name Iji, pen name Donhujae and posthumous title Munjeol (文節). A great-grandson of the founding merit subject Jo On, his grandfather was Jo Yuk and his father Jo Chung-son; he was the uncle of the Sarim leader Jo Gwang-jo.
It is said that at nine he was absorbed in playing janggi until his mother's lament made him repent and turn to study. He passed the licentiate examination in 1483 and the civil examination in 1496, serving as librarian, censor and compiler. As a historian he refused King Yeonsan's order to hand over the historians' drafts, which no one may read while the king lives, and was dismissed. In the 1504 purge he was flogged and exiled for remonstrances he had made as a censor.
Released after the 1506 restoration of King Jungjong, he became an instructor at the national academy and, as magistrate of Gyeongwon, steadied the people and strengthened the frontier, earning promotion to Chief Censor. While serving as royal secretary he was selected as an upright official; after an embassy to Ming in 1515 he served as Inspector-General, Vice-Minister of Personnel and Minister of Punishments, and then Left Chamchan. In 1523 he went to Ming again as condolence envoy, and in 1526 asked to retire but was refused. His career is recorded in the annals of Yeonsangun and Jungjong. Worried that his nephew Jo Gwang-jo's fame had grown too great, he wrote to warn him.
Carrying on the genealogy his father Jo Chung-son, once implicated in the Prince Anpyeong affair, had begun and lost during the 1504 purge, he compiled a draft from what he had heard as a boy and other materials. His kinsman Jo Se-jeong, on his way to become magistrate of Hamchang, revised it and printed it there by woodblock in 1524: the Gapsin (Jiajing) edition, the first Hanyang Jo genealogy. His writings survive as the Jo Munjeol-gong Yugo.