People Dear To Yoon Dongju
Meet the valuable people who influenced the life and work of the one of the most beloved Korean poets, Yoon Dongju.
Photograph of Yoon Dongju with his relatives at Longjing (1942) by Dongju YoonYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Yoon Dongju met many people in his life, and many who interacted with him, including his family, hometown friends, juniors and classmates in school, and teachers, cherished and loved him. It is because these people risked their lives to protect his relics even in difficult circumstances, such as censorship, war, and evacuation, that the poet’s existence and his poetry were revealed to the world. What they protected was not merely a poetry book of an individual, but the soul of a young man who sought for his way through difficult times and the will of this individual and the community to overcome the painful past and take a new path forward.
Photograph of Yoon Dongju and Jeong Byeonguk together (1941) by Dongju YoonYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Jeong Byeonguk, a friend who preserved Yoon Dongju’s poetry
Jeong Byeonguk (1922–1982, right on the photo), Yoon Dongju’s junior in Yonhui College, was a literary friend with whom the poet lived in the same dormitory and boarding houses and shared his literary world. Jeong Byeonguk preserved the only manuscript of the poet’s poetry book for charity and made efforts to publish this manuscript shortly after liberation and war. He later worked as a professor at Yonsei University and Seoul National University, making outstanding achievements in the fields of both classical poetry and classical literature, such as by writing Korean Literature, Industry, and School (Shingu Media & Publishing, 1959). His pen name, Baek Yeong, is said to have derived from Dongju’s poem, 'A White Shadow'.
Photograph of Song Monggyu's graduation from Yonhui College (1941) by Yonsei University MuseumYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Song Monggyu, a lifelong companion
Song Monggyu (1917–1945), Yoon Dongju’s first cousin, was a bright and active student who grew up in the same village as the poet. Song Monggyu wrote a work under his childhood name of Song Hanbeom, which was selected as a prize winner for the annual literary contest organized by “Dong-A Ilbo” (Jan. 1, 1935). He is a figure who was on the blacklist of people under surveillance by the Government General and ended up being arrested in Kyoto along with the poet on charges of independence movement. He had a lifelong relationship with the poet, the two mutually relying on each other and spending their entire lives together all through Yonhui College and their studies overseas until their deaths at the Fukuoka Prison in Japan.
Photograph of Kang Cheojung's graduation from Yonhui College (1941) by Yonsei University MuseumYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Kang Cheojung, a precious classmate of Yonhui College
Kang Cheojung (1917–?), Dongju’s classmate in Yonhui College, played a major role in preserving the poet’s relics and promoting his poems. Referred to as the Pinson Hall trio along with Yoon Dongju and Song Monggyu, Kang Cheojung was an active editorial staff member of Munwu (A Literary Friend), a student magazine of the College of Liberal Arts in Yonhui College. He treasured the books and desk Dongju left behind and the poetry work created during the poet’s days in Japan until he delivered them to the bereaved family later on. After liberation, he worked as a reporter for The Kyunghyang Shinmun, introducing Dongju’s "A Poem Easily Written" on the daily newspaper and contributing to making Dongju’s poems far-famed.
Photograph of Yoon Dongju's graduation at Myung-dong Primary School (1931) by Dongju YoonYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Moon Ikhwan, a hometown friend
Moon Ikhwan (1918–1994, first left on the front row of the photo), a pastor and a poet, came from the same hometown village as Yoon Dongju and attended the same schools with the poet in Myung-dong, Longjing, and Pyeongyang. In his 1968 memoir of the poet, Moon Ikhwan reminisced and shared previously unknown stories of Dongju as a lively literary boy. This memoir is a valuable resource because Dongju spent his childhood in Bukgando, and after liberation and division of the Korean Peninsula, there are unfortunately few people who can testify of the poet’s childhood in the South.
Photograph of Professor Choe Hyeonbae's class (1929) by Yonsei University MuseumYoon Dongju Memorial Hall, Yonsei University
Choe Hyeonbae, Yoon Dongju’s teacher
‘Oesol’ Choe Hyeonbae (1894–1970) is a Korean linguist who compiled the grammar system of the Korean language that was being suppressed during the colonial period and passed it down to later generations. He taught Korean language in Yonhui College, which was prohibited by the educational policies of the Government General of Joseon, and worked hard to educate the younger generation. This got him embroiled in the Joseon Language Institute Incident and to serve a prison term. Yoon Dongju is said to have always placed Choe Hyeonbae’s The Grammar of Our National Language on his desk and told his younger siblings about his pride in learning the Korean language systematically from Choe Hyeonbae. After Dongju entered Yonhui College, he began creating poems with more accurate and refined poetic words.
Learn more about the story of Yoon Dongju's impressive life and great poems, here.
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.