Yi Hwang

Yi Hwang
Korean name
Hangul	이황
Hanja	李滉
Revised Romanization	I Hwang
McCune–Reischauer	Yi Hwang
Art name
Hangul	퇴계
Hanja	退溪
Revised Romanization	Toegye
McCune–Reischauer	T'oegye
Courtesy name
Hangul	경호
Hanja	景浩
Revised Romanization	Gyeongho
McCune–Reischauer	Kyŏngho
Posthumous name
Hangul	문순
Hanja	文純
Revised Romanization	Munsun
McCune–Reischauer	Munsun

Yi Hwang (Korean: 이황; 1501–1570) was a Korean philosopher, writer, and Confucian scholar of the Joseon period.^[1] He is considered the most important philosopher of Korea - he is honored by printing his portrait on the (most often used) 1000 Won banknote, on the reverse of which one can see an image of his school, Dosan Seowon. He was of the Neo-Confucian literati, established the Yeongnam School and set up the Dosan Seowon, a private Confucian academy.^[2]

Yi Hwang is often referred to by his art name Toegye ("Retreating Creek"). His courtesy name was Gyeongho.^[3]

His interpretation of Neo-Confucianism was influential not only in Korea, but also in Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and is now being studied even in the mainland China. His main work, Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, originally published in classical Chinese language, has been already translated into modern Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, English, French, German, Russian and Polish.

Some of his writings were looted by the Japanese military during the Japanese invasion of Korea.