Who is Kim Si-seup?

A prodigy who learned traditional Chinese philosophy texts such as The Great Learning and The Doctrine of the Mean at the age of five...
One of the six loyal subjects who resisted when King Sejo usurped his nephew’s throne…
A Buddhist monk who lived a vagabond life…
A genius poet and fictional biographer…

All of these impressive epithets refer to the multi-talented Kim Si-seup, a genius scholar of Joseon. But even those do not give a full description of this historical figure, who cannot be defined in just a few phrases.


Five-Year-Old Genius

Kim Si-seup was born to the son of Kim Il-sung in Seoul in 1435. It is said he was able to read eight months after he was born and wrote a Chinese poem at the age of three. The poem reads, “It isn’t raining. Where is the thunder coming from? Yellow clouds are scattering in pieces.” He wrote this poem after watching barley grinding in a millstone.

Hearing the widespread rumor of the child genius, King Sejong called the five-year-old boy to the palace. To determine whether the rumor was true, the king wrote a phrase, ‘The baby’s learning is like a white crane dancing in the sky,’ and ordered him to complete the passage. Without hesitation, the young boy answered, ‘The king’s virtue is like a dragon resting in the sea.’

Impressed, the king called him a five-year-old genius and promised to use his talent when he grew up. Unfortunately, the promise was never really kept.


Remaining Faithful to Principles as one of Six Loyal Subjects

When Kim lost his mother at the age of 15, his mother’s family was left to take care of him. But he lost his aunt less than three years later and returned home, only to find that his father was ill. At 19, in 1453, he failed to pass the stage exam.

Two years later, while he was studying at the Jungheung Temple at Bukhan Mountain, he heard that Prince Suyang dethroned his nephew, King Danjong, and became king himself. Enraged, Kim burned all of his books and shaved his hair off to become a Buddhist priest.

He is dubbed one of the six loyal subjects who never took government posts under the new king’s reign and remained faithful to the ill-fated king Danjong throughout their lives.

Kim collected the bodies of six martyred subjects who were executed for their failed attempt to reinstate Danjong and buried them at Noryangjin. In the following nine years, he led the life of a wanderer, drifting from place to place throughout the country.

During the long period of his aimless roaming, he held Buddhist services with clean water, wailed for the deceased and wrote poems every day to express his deep distress and the uncertain, fragile world. He wrote 2,200 poems during that period.

For seven years starting in 1465, Kim stayed at Nam Mountain in Gyeongju and wrote a legendary work that marked a milestone in the history of Korean literature.


[Geumosinhwa], the First Novel Written in Classical Chinese in Korea

He wrote [Geumosinhwa], the first novel written in classical Chinese in Korea. Five pieces of the novel still remain, but it is assumed that more pieces were included in the book in the beginning, given the arrangement of the book. [Geumosinhwa], meaning “Myth of Geumo Mountain,” portrays mysterious episodes that beautiful and talented people experience in a dream world. It brings to light the author’s philosophy that compassion and truth in the human world should never be abandoned in any circumstance.

Kim moved up to Seoul and lived there for ten years as a Buddhist monk. He then returned to secular life to engage in farming and writing.

When the political situation was in chaos after the tragic incident involving deposed queen Yun during the reign of King Seongjong, Kim left Seoul again. He wandered lonely like a cloud before passing away at Muryang Temple in Hongsan, Chungcheong Province, in 1493. He was 58. In his will, he asked people to carve the phrase, indicating ‘An old man who dreamed until his death,’ on his gravestone.

Kim led a life that is hard to define with one concept. But his extensive, clear thought encompassing Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism and his animated and profound writing were adored by countless scholars and kings throughout the Joseon Dynasty. As seen in his penname, Maewoldang, referring to the apricot flower and the moon, Kim Si-seup was a man of lofty virtue and fidelity brightening the future, like moonlight in the dark.