Sin Gyu-sik
Founded the Dongjesa in Shanghai and led the 1917 Declaration of Great Unity; served the Provisional Government as Justice Minister and acting Premier
Known as Yegwan, he was born at Munui near Cheongju in Chungcheong and became an officer after graduating from the Korean Empire's military academy. On hearing of the Eulsa Treaty in 1905 he took poison; he survived but lost the use of his right eye, and is said to have taken the pen name Yegwan, "looking askance," from then on. He worked in the enlightenment movement through the Korea Self-Strengthening Society and other groups.
Exiled to Shanghai in 1911, he joined Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance and took part in the Xinhai Revolution, forming ties with many Chinese revolutionary leaders. In 1912 he founded the Dongjesa with Park Eun-sik and others, laying the groundwork for the independence movement in Shanghai, and set up the Bakdal School for young Koreans. In 1917 he led the Declaration of Great Unity, which held that when Emperor Sunjong gave up sovereignty it passed to the people, and called for a provisional government based on popular sovereignty. He wrote The Soul of Korea on why the country had fallen and on the national spirit.
He helped found the Provisional Government in 1919 and served as its minister of justice, and in 1921, as acting premier and foreign minister, he visited Sun Yat-sen's Constitutional Protection Government in Guangzhou and won its de facto recognition. Distressed by the government's divisions in 1922, he refused food and medicine for twenty-five days, and died on 25 September calling out "the government, the government." He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Republic of Korea Medal) in 1962.