Late-Goryeo civil official and scholar; father of Yi Saek (Mogeun)
| Life | 1298 ~ 1351 |
| Era | 고려 |
| Clan | 한산 이씨 |
Yi Gok, courtesy name Jungbo and pen name Gajeong, was a native of Hansan in Chungcheong Province. After passing the Goryeo civil service examination in 1320, he placed first in the 1332 provincial examination of the Yuan dynasty's Jeongdong Branch Secretariat and then second in the palace examination, becoming a celebrated man of letters who also held Yuan office.
In Goryeo he rose to the post of Docheomui Chanseongsa and was enfeoffed as Lord of Hansan. Moving between the Yuan and Goryeo courts, he submitted a memorial to the Yuan court calling for an end to the practice of exacting young Goryeo women as tribute concubines, and the practice was suspended for a time as a result.
His notable works include the allegorical tale Jukbuinjeon, personifying a bamboo wife, and the essay Chamaseol; his collected writings, the Gajeongjip, were compiled and transmitted by his son Yi Saek, who went on to become one of the towering scholars of the late Goryeo period. He was posthumously titled Munhyo.
His son Yi Saek (李穡, Mogeun) was a Neo-Confucian scholar representative of late Goryeo, and the Hansan Yi clan became a distinguished family through the father-son pair of Yi Gok and Yi Saek.