Goryeo general who fought the Mongols; common ancestor of the three main Jeonui Yi branches
| Era | 고려 후기(13세기) |
| Clan | 전의 이씨 |
Yi Cheon (李仟) was a military official of Goryeo under King Gojong, of the Jeonui Yi clan. According to the clan genealogy he was the seventh-generation descendant of the founder Yi Do; his father was Yi Sun, a Boseung guard officer, his grandfather Yi Yun-gwan, vice minister of punishments, and his mother a daughter of the officer Chae Chung. The Goryeosa records his name as Yi Cheon (李阡).
In 1256, amid repeated Mongol invasions, he led a naval force of 200 men south to resist the Mongols. According to the annals of King Gojong in the Goryeosa, he killed several dozen enemy soldiers at Onsu-hyeon (today's Onyang area of Asan, South Chungcheong) and rescued over a hundred captured Goryeo men and women, and the military ruler Choe Hang rewarded his troops with six geun of silver. Later sources such as his grandson Yi Eon-chung's epitaph say he rose to general of the Eungyang Guard and director of the Ministry of Rites.
He stands at the point where the clan's three main branches divide. According to the genealogy and the Ssijok Wollyu, his first wife, a daughter of Chancellor Kim Gi-son, bore his eldest son Yi Ja-won (founder of the Daesaseong-gong branch) and second son Yi Hon (founder of the Munjang-gong branch), and his second wife, a daughter of the officer Jang In-gi, bore his third son Yi Ja-hwa (founder of the Jeonseo-gong branch). Most Jeonui Yi and Yean Yi descendants today therefore trace their descent to him.
He is still commemorated today: the Republic of Korea Navy's Jang Bogo-class submarine SS-062, built by Daewoo Shipbuilding, launched in 1992 and commissioned in 1994, was named Yi Cheon after the commander who repelled the Mongols at sea. His career and family are recorded in sources such as his grandson Yi Eon-chung's epitaph, the ancestral genealogy in Yi Je-sin's Cheonggang-jip and the Ssijok Wollyu.