Yi Hwang (Toegye) 1501 – 1570

Yi Hwang, known by his pen name Toegye, was a Korean Joseon dynasty Confucian scholar and the most influential Korean philosopher in the Neo-Confucian tradition of Zhu Xi. He served briefly in court office and devoted most of his life to teaching and writing at the Dosan Seowon, the Confucian academy he founded. His Ten Diagrams of Sage Learning, prepared for the young king Seonjo, presents in concise form a complete program of Neo-Confucian self-cultivation, while his long correspondence with Gi Daeseung on the relation of principle and material force shaped Korean Confucian metaphysics for centuries. His portrait appears on the Korean thousand-won note.