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Person1869 – 1940

Yi Dong-nyeong

Sinminhoe member who helped found the Sinheung school in western Jiandao and served as Speaker of the Provisional Assembly and head of the Provisional Government

Known as Seogo, he was born at Mokcheon near Cheonan in Chungcheong. Active in the Independence Club, he was jailed over the Assembly of Ten Thousand People, and in 1904 he campaigned against Japanese encroachment with Jeon Deok-gi and others in the Sangdong Youth Society of Sangdong Church. In 1906 he founded the Seojeon School at Yongjeong in northern Jiandao with Yi Sang-seol, and in 1907 the Sinminhoe with Ahn Chang-ho, Yang Gi-tak and others.

After the annexation he moved with the Yi Hoe-yeong brothers to Samwonbo in western Jiandao, helped found the Gyeonghaksa, and became the first head of the Sinheung School. In April 1919 in Shanghai he chaired the first Provisional Assembly, which named the country Daehan Minguk (Republic of Korea) and adopted the Provisional Charter establishing a democratic republic.

In the 1920s, when the movement scattered and the Provisional Government was at its weakest, he served as premier and chairman and held it together with Kim Gu. In 1930 he founded the Korea Independence Party and became its chairman, and after Yun Bong-gil's attack in 1932 he led the government as it moved, pursued by Japan, from Hangzhou all the way to Qijiang. He died of illness at Qijiang in Sichuan in March 1940. In 1948 Kim Gu brought his remains home to Hyochang Park in Seoul. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Republic of Korea Medal) in 1962.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1907 – 1911Sinminhoe (New People’s Association)participant

    Ahn Chang-ho, Yang Gi-tak and others founded the secret New People’s Association, aiming to recover sovereignty and build a modern republic by fostering education and industry and setting up independence bases abroad.

  2. 2
    1911Gyeonghaksa and the Sinheung School in Western Jiandaoparticipant

    Sinminhoe members including the Yi Hoe-yeong brothers and Yi Sang-ryong moved to Samwonbo in western Jiandao and founded the self-governing Gyeonghaksa and the Sinheung school to train independence fighters.

  3. 3
    1919Founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Koreaparticipant

    After the March First Movement, on 11 April 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was founded in Shanghai, the first Korean government to adopt a democratic republic. In September it merged the several provisional governments.

People who appear alongside

  • Ahn Chang-ho1878 – 1938

    Founder of the Sinminhoe and the Heungsadan; as Interior Minister of the Provisional Government he set up the yeontongje network

  • Yi Si-yeong1869 – 1953

    Younger brother of Yi Hoe-yeong who went into exile with his brothers, helped found the Sinheung school, served the Provisional Government as Minister of Justice and Finance and became the first Vice President of the Republic of Korea

  • Yang Gi-tak1871 – 1938

    Co-publisher of the Daehan maeil sinbo who led the National Debt Repayment Movement and the New People’s Association

  • Yi Seung-hun1864 – 1930

    Sinminhoe member who founded the Osan School in Jeongju, was jailed in the Case of the 105 and was a Christian representative in the March First Movement

  • Yi Hoe-yeong1867 – 1932

    Sold his family estate with his five brothers and founded the Gyeonghaksa and Sinheung school in western Jiandao

  • Yi Seok-yeong1855 – 1934

    Elder brother of Yi Hoe-yeong who gave the great fortune he had inherited from his adoptive father Yi Yu-won to found the Sinheung school, and died in poverty in Shanghai

  • Yi Sang-ryong1858 – 1932

    Head of the Imcheonggak house of Andong, founder of the Gyeonghaksa and first State Councillor of the Provisional Government

  • Syngman Rhee1875 – 1965

    First President of the Provisional Government, who worked through diplomacy in the US; later first President of the Republic of Korea

Themes this person appears in

  • Republican China and Imperial Japan1912 – 1949

    The age when the Republic of China, born of the 1911 Revolution, passed through warlord division, the May Fourth Movement, the United Front and the Northern Expedition, fought Japan’s invasion and split in civil war — as Japan moved from Taishō democracy through the Manchurian Incident and military coups to the war in China and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and colonized Korea resisted through the March First Movement and armed struggle

  • Pyongyang194 BC – 2007

    From Wanggeom-seong of Gojoseon to the inter-Korean summits — capital of Goguryeo, Western Capital of Goryeo, the great city on the Taedong