Moon Ik-jeom the scholar

A sudden autumn chill has replaced the sweltering summer heat, and as the seasons speed toward winter, Koreans once again feel grateful to someone who helped Koreans keep warm during the freezing months. That person is Moon Ik-jeom, who brought in cotton seeds from China in the 15th century and revolutionized the way Koreans dressed.

Born in 1329 in Gangseong in southeastern Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, Moon Ik-jeom became a student of the renowned Confucian scholar Yi Gok at age ten. Yi was admired for his intellect and pursuit of justice as seen in the case in which he helped abolish the atrocious and demeaning 80-year-old practice of sending young Goryeo girls to Chinese emperors as tribute. Under Yi’s tutelage, Moon learned how to live as a genuine intellectual and humanitarian. After ten years under Yi’s tutelage, the 20-year-old Moon entered Gyeongdeokjae, a national academy specializing in Chinese poetry, and three years later passed a national exam administered by a Chinese-sponsored educational agency set up in Goryeo.

Then in 1360 Moon passed the national exam to start his government career. He was first appointed to the position of assistant county chief, a lever 8 post, in Gimhae, then moved on to become a professor at the Confucian school Sungkyunkwan, and an advisor to the king. In 1363 he got a chance to go to China as a part of a diplomatic delegation. At the time, however, the relations between Goryeo and China were in dire straits, as China very much disapproved of King Gongmin’s plans to regain sovereignty and his removal of pro-China officials from his court. King Gongmin had attempted to better relations by sending several envoys, but China had detained them each time.

So it was extremely dangerous for Moon or anyone to go to China at the time. Nonetheless, he willingly accepted his new mission for the future of his motherland, Goryeo. Not surprisingly, Moon was detained by Chinese authorities for 42 days after which he was banished to the Winnan region in southern China where he lived for three years in exile. He was finally allowed to return home in 1367 with a very special and secret gift for Goryeo.

Sowing the seeds of hope

Moon had studied a Chinese agricultural textbook called Nongsangjipyo under Yi Gok’s teaching. He learned of cotton while studying farming methods and textiles in the book, and actually got to see how cotton was cultivated during his three-year exile in China. He realized then that it was his mission to bring cotton to Goryeo and make warm fabrics for his fellow countrymen. At the time, most of the Goryeo people’s clothes were made of hemp, which may be good for keeping cool in summer, but is hardly adequate in the cold winter months.

In those days China was particularly vigilante against smuggling out cotton seeds, but Moon found a way to hide ten cotton seeds in the hollow part of a brush to bring them back to Goryeo. Upon returning home, Moon worked with his father-in-law Jeong Cheon-ik, who was deeply involved in agricultural studies, to cultivate cotton and after three years of hard work they finally succeeded in growing cotton in Goryeo. His cotton crop flourished enough for his entire village to grow the crop four years later, but there still was much work to do to turn cotton into fabric. He needed a machine to get cotton fibers and weave them into fabric, and thanks to a Chinese Buddhist monk, who was visiting Moon’s father-in-law’s home at the time, he was able to devise a cotton gin and a weaving machine. With that, the era of cotton began on the Korean Peninsula.

Moon’s Cotton Seeds Changing the Country

The cultivation and production of cotton from Moon’s cotton seeds were, to Goryeo and the following dynasty of Joseon, tantamount to the Industrial Revolution of the later time. Cotton helped boost the national income and improved people’s lives. Warm and tough cotton fabric revolutionized the textile industry, and the production of weaving machines paved the way for other manufacturing equipment. Cotton fabric was also used as currency or bartering means, and became a signature export item to Japan and China.

Moon’s sacrifice and bold feats were recognized many years later during King Sejong’s reign in Joseon Dynasty. In 1440 King Sejong posthumously appointed Moon, who died in 1398, as his prime minister and granted the name “Buminhu,” which commemorated his service for enriching the lives of ordinary Koreans. By revolutionizing the lives of Koreans with little cotton seeds, Moon is still revered as an innovator who changed the paradigm of national industries.