Yi Pyong Do
South Korean historian
Yi Pyong Do (Korean: 이병도; April 28, 1896 – August 14, 1989) was a Korean historian.
Biography
He started working in Korean History Compilation Committee in 1927.
In 1934, he founded the Chin-Tan Society, which would publish the first Korean-language academic journal on Korean history, the Chin-Tan Hakpo.
From 1945 to 1962 he was Professor of Seoul Nation University.
From 1955 to 1982 he was Committee of Korean Nation History Editor.
In April 1960, he became the Minister of Education, but later resigned in August of that year.
Japanese collaboration controversy
After the South Korean liberation from the Japan, there was a drive on the part of Korean historians to present a new history of Korea and it was called Hanguksa sillon. Yi Pyong Do was part of this initiative, which was viewed as new in name only because it inherited the colonialist racial perspective inherited from the Japanese scholarship.
Korean historians such as Cho Yun-jae, Son Chin-tae, and Yi In-yong, among other Chindan hakhoe historians followed another direction in their scholarship, which they also labeled "new" - the new nationalist historiography or sin-minjokjuui yoksahak. This group, specifically, excluded Yi Pyong Do due to his association with the colonial government, particularly the Chōsenshi Henshūkai, which was generally viewed as an instrument used to distort Korean history by suppressing or delegitimizing important texts such as the Samguk yusa.
“Yi Pyong Do” enters the record as south Korean historian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pyong, South and Korean can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Yi Pyong Do” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pyong, South and Korean provides the most credible route into that argument.
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 Apr 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6513165. VIAF identifies the subject as 18502935. The Library of Congress control number is n79086257. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1989, 1927 and 1934.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Yi Pyong Do”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Yi Pyong Do primary sources, Yi Pyong Do archive and Pyong research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yi Pyong Do”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Yi Pyong Do” 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.