Yi Sang-ryong
Head of the Imcheonggak house of Andong, founder of the Gyeonghaksa and first State Councillor of the Provisional Government
Known as Seokju and born Yi Sang-hui, he was head of the main line of the family at Imcheonggak in Andong, and was educated as a Confucian scholar. After the Eulmi Incident he prepared to raise a righteous army but could not, and turned to the new learning: he helped found the Hyeopdong School in Andong, led the Andong branch of the Korea Association, and joined the Sinminhoe.
In January 1911 he led his family into exile at Samwonbo in western Jiandao. Before leaving he is said to have burned the family's slave registers and freed its slaves. That year he founded the self-governing Gyeonghaksa with Yi Hoe-yeong, Yi Dong-nyeong and others, served as its head, and opened the Sinheung School to train independence fighters. He led its successors, the Bumindan and the Hanjokhoe, and in 1919 became head of the Western Route Military Administration, directing the armed struggle in southern Manchuria.
In 1925, after Syngman Rhee's impeachment, the constitution was changed to a cabinet system led by a premier, and he went to Shanghai as the Provisional Government's first premier (gungmuryeong). Unable to form a cabinet, he resigned the following year and returned to Manchuria. He died at Shulan in Jilin in May 1932, leaving word that his remains were not to be carried home until the country was free. Sons, grandsons and other members of his family gave their lives to the movement, and Japan ran the Jungang railway line through the grounds of Imcheonggak, tearing down part of the house. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Independence Medal) in 1962, and his remains were brought home in 1990 and buried at the Seoul National Cemetery.