Korean linguist and poet who compiled the Great Dictionary of the Korean Language
| Life | 1896 ~ 1989 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 전의 이씨 |
Lee Hee-seung (李熙昇, 1896-1989) was a Korean linguist, poet and essayist whose pen name was Ilseok. Of the Jeonui Yi clan, he was born the eldest son of Yi Jong-sik in Poil-ri, Uigok-myeon, Gwangju County, Gyeonggi Province (today Poil-dong, Uiwang). After studying Chinese classics at a village school, he attended the government foreign language school, Gyeongseong High School, Yangjeong Academy and Jungang School, worked for companies, graduated from Yonhi College in 1925 and from the Korean Language and Literature program of Keijo Imperial University in 1930.
Joining the Korean Language Society in 1930, he served as its secretary and head secretary and took part in the Unified Hangeul Orthography (1933) and the standardization of the Korean language (1937), while teaching at Ewha Womans Professional School from 1932. Arrested in October 1942 in the Korean Language Society Incident, he was imprisoned in Hamheung and elsewhere for about three years, until 17 August 1945.
After liberation he became a professor at Gyeongseong University (later Seoul National University), devoting himself to research and training younger scholars; he served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and led the professors' demonstration of 25 April 1960. He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1954 and in 1961 published the Great Dictionary of the Korean Language with some 230,000 entries. He was president of the Dong-a Ilbo for two years from 1963 and later headed the graduate school of Sungkyunkwan University, Dankook University's Institute of Oriental Studies and the Korean Language and Letters Education Society.
His scholarly works include lectures on Hangeul orthography, studies in Korean linguistics and An Outline of Korean Linguistics (1955), regarded as a landmark that set the direction of Korean linguistics. He also published the poetry collections Bakkkot and Fragments of the Heart and essay collections such as Beongeori Naenggaseum, and is widely known for his essay 'Ttalkkakbari', a portrait of the upright spirit of the old scholar. He is buried in the family burial ground at Munbong-dong, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang.
Family burial ground, Munbong-dong, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do