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Yi Yuksa

Korean poet and Korean independence activist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ2948453
Source-derived summary

Yi Wŏllok (Korean: 이원록; Hanja: 李源祿; May 18, 1904 – January 16, 1944), better known by his art name Yi Yuksa (이육사; 李陸史), was a Korean poet and independence activist. As one of his country's most famous poets, he and his works symbolize the spirit of the anti-Japanese resistance of the 1930s and 1940s.

Life

Yi was born in Dosan-myeon, Andong on May 18, 1904. Yi was a descendant of the scholar Yi Hwang, better known as Toegye. Yi completed his basic education in Andong, graduating at the age of 15 in 1919.

In 1920, at age 17, he moved with his family to Daegu and married. Yi became a teacher at the academy at which he studied, but in 1924 left for Japan to study at university.

In 1925, Yi returned to Daegu. Along with his brothers, he joined the Heroic Corps, an association formed in response to Japanese repression of the Korean independence movement. The Heroic Corps was associated with acts of sabotage and assassination.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Yi Yuksa” as korean poet and Korean independence activist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904, 1944, 1919, 1920—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1904-05-18. The account is most persuasive where Yuksa, Korean and poet can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as korean poet and Korean independence activist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2948453. VIAF identifies the subject as 248168217. The Library of Congress control number is n81082654. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1944, 1919 and 1920.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Yi Yuksa”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Yi Yuksa primary sources, Yi Yuksa archive and Yuksa research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yi Yuksa”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Yi Yuksa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.