Il-yeon
Silla Buddhist monk
Il-yeon (Korean: 일연; 1206–1289), also spelled Iryeon, was a Korean Buddhist monk and All-Enlightened National Preceptor (보각국사; 普覺國師) during the Goryeo Dynasty of Korea. His birth name was either Kim Gyeong-myeong (金景明) or Jeon Gyeon-myeong (全見明), and his courtesy name was Hoe-yeon (晦然).
He became a monk at the temple Muryangsa at the age of nine and passed the Seon national examination at 22. At 54, he was given the rank of Great Teacher. When he was 78, King Chungnyeol offered him a position of rank and tried to make him National Preceptor, but Il-yeon declined. The king again appointed him National Preceptor, and Il-yeon came down to the capital Kaesong (then Gaegyeong) but soon returned to the mountains on the pretext that his aged mother was sick. On the eighth day of the seventh month in 1289, he held a conference with various monks and then died.
Il-yeon is known as a prolific writer, and according to the inscription on his tombstone, he wrote around 80 volumes on Buddhist topics. Today only one book of his survives: Samguk yusa, which is not mentioned in the inscription formally.
“Il-yeon” enters the record as silla Buddhist monk. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Il-yeon, Silla and Buddhist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q484286. VIAF identifies the subject as 39397390. The Library of Congress control number is n82094556. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1206 and 1289.
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