Yi Jip

Yi Jip (李集, 1327 – 1387) was a scholar and man of letters in the late Goryeo period. His family seat was Gwangju (廣州), his birth name was Won-ryeong (元齡), his courtesy name was Hoyeon (浩然), and his pen name was Dunchon (遁村).

He passed the civil service examination during the reign of King Chungmok. In the 17th year of King Gongmin (1368), he incurred the enmity of Sin Don and faced a threat to his life, so he fled to Yeongcheon and escaped death. The place where he lived in hiding at that time was Dungul. In the 20th year of King Gongmin (1371), when Sin Don died, he returned to Gaegyeong and was appointed Sapprentice Minister of the Office of Editing and Collation (判典校寺事), but soon resigned and ended his life composing poetry in Cheonnyeong County (川寧縣), Yeoju. After the founding of Joseon, he and his colleague Bang Sun (方恂), who had served as Sapprentice Minister of the Office of Editing and Collation (判典校侍事) and Counselor (參議), secluded themselves at Sutgol and kept their loyalty to Goryeo.

His poetry contains many natural and plain works written in a direct style rather than with ornamentation or indirection. He exchanged poems with many people of his time, more than sixty, including Im Simun (任深文).

Yi Jip's tomb is located in Seongnam City. It was designated Seongnam Local Cultural Heritage No. 2 on August 2, 1993, and on May 26, 2008, the designation was changed to Gyeonggi Provincial Monument No. 219.

Dunchon-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, takes its name from his pen name.