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Person1831 – 1879

O Gyeong-seok

Also called: Yeongmae

Interpreter who brought back from Qing books on Western affairs such as the Haiguo tuzhi and Yinghuan zhilüe, a pioneer of enlightenment thought

Born into a chungin family of hereditary interpreters, he became an interpreter himself and travelled to Qing many times. In Beijing he obtained books on world geography and Western affairs, such as Wei Yuan's Haiguo tuzhi and Xu Jiyu's Yinghuan zhilüe, and passed them to his friend Yu Hong-gi. With Park Gyu-su he urged the opening of the country, becoming a pioneer of enlightenment thought. His son was O Se-chang, the calligrapher and one of the national representatives of the March First Movement.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1870 – 1879Rise of Enlightenment Thoughtleader

    Park Gyu-su, O Gyeong-seok, Yu Hong-gi and others, heirs of the Northern Learning school who absorbed knowledge of the West reaching Korea through Qing, argued for opening the country and making it rich and strong. Their students Kim Ok-gyun, Park Yeong-hyo, Yu Gil-jun and others became the Enlightenment Party.

People who appear alongside

  • Park Gyu-su1807 – 1877

    Grandson of Park Ji-won; as governor of Pyeongan he burned the General Sherman, later urged opening to trade and taught the reformers

  • Yu Hong-gi1831

    Daechi. A chungin physician who studied enlightenment ideas with O Gyeong-seok and guided young reformers such as Kim Ok-gyun, earning the name "prime minister in plain clothes"

  • Kim Ok-gyun1851 – 1894

    Radical reformer who led the 1884 coup, fled to Japan and was assassinated in Shanghai

  • Park Yeong-hyo1861 – 1939

    Radical reformer and son-in-law of King Cheoljong who led the Gapsin Coup with Kim Ok-gyun and headed a coalition cabinet with Kim Hong-jip in the second Gabo Reform

  • Hong Yeong-sik1855 – 1884

    Radical reformer and head of the Post Office, at whose opening banquet the Gapsin Coup began; he was killed when the coup failed

  • Yu Gil-jun1856 – 1914

    Studied in Japan and the US after the 1881 inspection mission and the 1883 mission to America; wrote "Observations on a Journey to the West" and took part in the Gabo and Eulmi reforms