By Kim Pong-su

Yi Yi was a noted Confucian scholar and a great statesman. He was born in December 1536 in the same room at Ojukheon in which his mother Sinsaimdang was born. He is better known by his pen name Yulgok, where he spent his childhood days, the name of his father's hometown.

When Yulgok was three years old, he began to recite the poetry his mother was studying which amazed his maternal grandmother. At the tender age of three he asked his mother to be his teacher. She showed him how to grind up black ink stones and draw with black ink with wooden brushes.

When he was six his mother sent him to Seoul for the sake of his studies, but it turned out there wasn't a suitable teacher to be found. Faced with this situation she decided to teach him herself. It was quite natural for her to do this, for who would have been a better teacher given her varied talents?

His learning progressed rapidly not only in reading the Confucian classics, but he also picked up writing calligraphy and drawing. He studied well into the night often passed the time his mother turned in.

He instructed his family servants not to heat the room so as to avoid getting sleepy in a warm environment. Just in case he should happen to get drowsy, he kept ice-cold water on his desk to wake himself up. He used his books as a pillow to ensure that he would never be far from his reading.

One day his mother was surprised to read the following piece of his writing:
``A man of virtue has the virtue stored up on the inside. Therefore, his mind is quiet and untroubled. A man of vice has it stored up on the inside as well. Therefore, his mind is tortured and troubled. Though he pretends to be comfortable outwardly, nothing is at peace inwardly, for his mind is saturated with vice. If this man grabs power, many people will suffer.''

Though she was moved by this beautiful writing, she wondered what it was for.

Yulgok answered that the writing was based on what he saw at his neighbor's house namely, a high government official living lavishly from taking bribes. She sternly admonished him not to talk about adult's affairs.

In order to shield him from these ways of the world, she moved to his grandfather's village in hopes of finding an ideal environment in which to raise Yulgok.

As she had hoped, Yulgok was able to thrive physically and mentally in the pristine countryside. Among other things while he was studying, he was able to wander along riverbanks, take in beautiful sunsets, and walk freely in nature.

She had always emphasized character development as being absolutely necessary, even more important than knowledge.

When he was walking one day, he was so absorbed by the beautiful scenery that he walked all the way to Hwaseokjong pavilion, which his fifth grandfather built. In this setting, he wrote the following poem:

When fall advances at the pavilion in the woods

A poet's thoughts are infinite

A far sway light turns blue when it reaches the sky

Leaves touched by the frost are ablaze in autumn red

The mountains nudge up a lonely round moon and

The ripples in the river embrace the wind from a far away land.

Oh, those geese, where are they flying

Their sad cries trail off into the evening clouds.

After reading these poetic lines, his mother suppressed her urge to compliment as she was afraid that he would fall into complacency. Rather she encouraged him to expand his thoughts deeper and wider to develop his writings.

At the age of 13, he passed his first state-run exam. As this was unheard of, rumor spread quickly that he was a prodigy.

As always, his mother emphasized that scholarship must be accompanied by character development so that the learned material can be put into practice. Yulgok made a firm pledge to keep that in mind.

He joined his father's official business trip to Pyongan Province at the age of 16 with his older brother Sun. When he returned from the trip his mother died and that sent him into serious thoughts about death and life.

Upon completing a three-year mourning period, he retreated to Mahayon hermitage in the Diamond mountain, for he was somewhat attracted to Buddhism.

However, he left the hermitage within a year when he admitted that he made a mistake while trying desperately to console his sorrow after he lost his benevolent mother.

The writer is a professor at the University of Maryland University College in the Asian Division. He can be reached at pskim@asia.umuc.edu.