Royal messenger (seonjeongwan) who reported on the front by travelling between Gwon Yul's and Yi Sun-sin's camps in the Imjin War, later magistrate of Hwangan; pen name Munwoldang
| Life | 1559 ~ 1616 |
| Era | 조선 중기 |
| Clan | 함양 오씨 |
O Geuk-seong (吳克成, 1559-1616) was a mid-Joseon military official of the Hamyang O clan, with courtesy name Seongbo and pen name Munwoldang. He was born at Daecheon-ri, Yeongyang-eup, in Yeongyang, North Gyeongsang, to O Min-su, a royal-tomb steward, and a daughter of Park Bung of the Muan Park clan. His grandfather O Pil was an early Joseon soldier and his father is said to have helped found Yeongsan Seodang, the district's first school. His younger brother was O Yun-seong and his son O Yeon. The name Munwol (asking the moon) is said to come from a poem by Li Bai.
When the war began his father's illness kept him at home; he hung the words 'Take revenge on the Japanese bandits' on the wall, studied tactics, and wrote to Yun Du-su, Gwak Jae-u and Kim Seong-il with advice on raising troops and defending Gyeongsang. In the first month of 1594 he passed the military examination with his brother and became a royal messenger. When news from the front was cut off he volunteered, travelled the southern provinces in commoner's dress, hiding by day and moving by night, and reported the war to the court in dispatches from the camps of Gwon Yul and Yi Sun-sin. King Seonjo is said to have called him a truly loyal subject and he was promoted within a month.
He became magistrate of Hwangan in 1596, helped the army commander in the 1597 renewed invasion, and in 1598 is said to have fought at Noryang under Yi Sun-sin, setting up uniformed straw dummies along the coast so that the enemy thought itself surrounded. He served as officer of the Military Training Office in 1601 and later as head of the Bongsangsi, and in 1602 rose to royal lecturer, a rare post for a military graduate, but left office and returned home, saying that buying and selling posts was wrong. He was named a Seonmu Wonjong merit subject in 1605 and died in the eleventh month of 1616 at 58. His Munwoldang Munjip survives; a war diary is also said to have come down, but accounts of how it was transmitted differ and could not be confirmed.
In 2016 Yeongyang County published a 110-page biography for young readers, 'Munwoldang O Geuk-seong, Who Threw Down His Brush to Save the Country', telling how a man trained in both letters and arms turned to the military during the Imjin War.
An anecdote says that at Noryang in 1598 he set uniformed straw dummies along the coast so that the enemy believed it was surrounded. The Yi Chungmu-gong Jeonseo compiled in 1795 is said to record that he was enrolled as a merit subject for his service in Yi Sun-sin's camp.
His old house at Daecheon-ri, Yeongyang-eup, is a square courtyard building seven bays wide and four deep. The pavilion Munwoldang, about a hundred paces to the south, burned and was rebuilt in 1969. Daecheon-ri is counted among the main Hamyang O clan villages.
His tomb could not be confirmed here. At Daecheon-ri in Yeongyang stand his old house (North Gyeongsang Cultural Heritage Material No. 498) and the pavilion Munwoldang; his tablet was kept at Myeonggo Seowon in Ilwol-myeon until the 1871 suppression of private academies.
His brother O Yun-seong and son O Yeon are linked with the root of the Munwoldang-gong branch (Yonggye, Ujae, Chwisudang). His old house was repaired around 1760 by a great-great-grandson, O Hak-ji, and the Munwoldang pavilion, lost to fire, was rebuilt in 1969 by the head descendant O Chang-mok.