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From an indigent family to an enlightenment activist of the late Korean Empire

Gye Bong-woo was born on August 1, 1880(lunar calendar date) from a slave family in Yeongheung, Hamgyeongnam-do Province. Apart from the fact that his mother went by the family name “Jang,” there is nothing much known about him — even his family name or father's name. Gye’s childhood was about teaching himself to grow. He attended a private village school from the age of seven and began to learn Chinese characters. By the age of 14, he was already reading Saseosamgyeong(“Four Books and Three Classics”) and the Records of the Grand Historian. He had studied to take the national civil service exam, but the exam was abolished with the Gabo Reform that made him to discontinue his studies. As he was figuring out what to do with his life, he joined Donghak from the age of 15 to 24, studied the Jeonggamnok, divination, Four Pillars of Destiny, and physiognomy, and read countless military books. He also went around looking for Master Choi Tong, as well as Jeongdoryeong from the Jeonggamnok in Baekdusan Mountain, spending his adolescence in turmoil.

After hearing about the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 led by the Japanese, Gye read Siilyabangseongdaegok of Jang Ji-yeon and corrected his mindset. In October 1906, he established Hongmyeong School in Yeongheung with Kim Jeong-hyu and Kwon Yeong-ho, and taught the Joseon history, geography, and Chinese characters. From 1907 onward, he joined the Daehan Jaganghoe and Yeongheung branch of Seobuk Association by the recommendation of Lee Dong-hwi, and also participated in the national salvation movement by joining the New People’s Association, a secret nationalist group. He adopted Christianity in 1908 and served as a teacher in Yeongsaeng Middle School, a Christian school in Hamheung, in 1910.

National movement in North Jiando and the Maritime Province of Siberia after the first asylum

After the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty was made, Gye sought asylum in North Jiando with Lee Dong-hwi and 30 other colleagues in the name of “Christian mission” in December 1910. He then taught Joseon history and support for Joseon at Gildong Christian School located in Xiaoying Town in North Jiando. He also joined youth organizations and the Daedong Association, and worked as a chief editor of the monthly magazine Daejin. In 1912, he wrote history textbooks, including Joseon History, Osubulmang, and Shinhan Dongnipsa. Gye joined the Liberation Group that was a secret anti-Japan organization formed in North Jiando around 1911. In the spring of 1912, after he had moved to Vladivostok, he served as a reporter of Gweoneop Shinmun by joining the Gweoneophoe formed by the people of Joseon.

In October 1913, he worked as a senior secretary of the government of the Korean Independence Army formed by Lee Dong-hwi. The position of the highest officer of the military government that will lead the war for independence in the event of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War or Sino-Japanese War was Jeongdoryeong from the Jeonggamnok that was influential among people at the time. The first Jeongdoryeong was Lee Sang-seol, and the second was Lee Dong-hwi. Based on materials given by An Jeong-geun, the brother of An Jung-geun, Gye published “Mangouisa Anjunggeunjeon” in Gwoneop Shinmun from June to August of 1914.

After the First World War broke out in August 1914, the Russian government that was diplomatically suppressed by Japan issued arrest orders and deportation orders on 36 Korean leaders. Lee Dong-hwi and Gye ran away to Razdolnoye in North Jiando. In November 1916, when Lee was in Razdolnoye to meet with family and friends to celebrate the birthday of his wife Kang Jeong-hye, the Japanese consulate general in Yongjeong dispatched investigators to raid the house of Lee. Lee escaped in advanced after receiving information by neighbors, but Gye was caught by the Japanese police and was sent to Joseon. Gye was in exile for a year in Yeongjongdo Island for violating the security law and later confined in his hometown in Yeongheung for three years.

March First Movement and revolution movements in China and Russia after the 2nd asylum

Gye found out that a popular anti-Japanese movement was being prepared in Seoul through Kang Gi-deok, a student of Boseong School whom he met in Deokwon, Hamgyeongnam-do Province, in 1918. He left for Seoul on February 27, saying that he had to go through admission procedures for Pyeongyang School of Theology. During the March First Movement, Gye drafted a declaration at an enclosed room in Severance Hospital by the request of Kang Ki-deok, the leader of the second Manse Demonstrations.

Gye then took the train after observing the funeral of King Gojong on March 3 and left for Pyeongyang, and then to Yeongheung. He met Kang Woo-kyu in Wonsan and was introduced to Choi Ja-nam who later became an accomplice of the bombing of the Japanese Governor-General Saito Makoto. They sought asylum together in Shinhan Village in Vladivostok in August 1919.

After Gye joined the Chyeohyeol Gwangbokdan in Shinhan Village, he visited Razdolnoye to see his family. The national association of North Jiando appointed Gye and Yoo Rye-kyun as members of the Korean Provisional Congress in Shanghai. In November 1919, he left North Jiando and participated in the ceremony for his inauguration as the leader of Cheolhyeol Gwangbokdan. Some members of the organization opposed, but he decided to choose to leave for Shanghai according to the general opinion.

After Gye arrived Shanghai on November 26, 1919, he served as a member of the Korean Provisional Congress and a material collector for independence movement history. He also published writings on Korean society and national movement in North Jiando and the Maritime Province of Siberia from January to May of 1920 by the request of Lee Kwang-su, the chief editor of Dongnip Shinmun.

In April 1920, Gye encountered socialism after reading The Essence of Socialism by Japanese anarchist Kotoku Shusui by the recommendation of Kim Rip, and immediately joined the Korean Socialist Party and worked as a chief editor of Jayujong. Executives of the Korean Socialist Party held an extended executive meeting in September 1920 and reformed the party as the Korean Communist Party. During the meeting, Gye was selected as a delegate to Russia together with Kim Rip and Lee Han-yeong. Gye left Shanghai on September 23 and made stops in Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Ulaanbaatar, and Verkhneudinsk before entering Chita, the capital of the Far Eastern Republic.

In December 1920, Gye was selected as one of the five members of the Korean department under the Far East department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Russia. He was given the position as a director for propaganda publication and published Nodong Shinmun since February 1921. Later, Gye faced oppression by the Korean Communist Party of the Irkutsk group and the East Secretariat of the International Communist Party that supported the former.

East Secretariat Head B.Z.Shumiasky formed a temporary Korean Revolution Court on May 18 and tried Korean department executives, including Gye. Korean department executives had already been arrested by the general headquarters of the Far Eastern Republic on May 9 and transfered to Irkutsk on May 16. The trials ended with a five-year sentence of imprisonment for Park Ae and three years for Gye, Jang Do-jeong, and Kim Jin. Thanks to the diplomatic activities carried out by the delegation of the Korean Communist Party in Moscow in the fall of 1921, Gye was released and worked as a chief editor of Saesaram, a magazine of Joseon youth organization, in Chita.

Education and cultural movements in the Far East after the end of the civil war in Siberia

Since 1922, when the civil war in Siberia had come to an end, Gye wrote textbooks of the Joseon language for Korean children and taught the Joseon language in elementary schools in the Far East of Russia by the request of several organizations. In addition, to break down religions and traditional superstitions and customs that remained in Korean society, Gye formed an atheist alliance with Oh Seong-muk and issued writings on anti-religion and atheistic movement on the Korean newspaper Seonbong. Enemy of Science(1930) and The Old Calendar and Holiday Superstitions of Goryeoin(1931) are some outcomes of his activities. Gye actively participated in two debates related to language activities of Korean society, which were the debate on Goryeo Munjeon with Oh Chang-wan and debate on abolition/limitation of Chinese characters.

After the Mukden Incident in 1931, with weakened powers of the Far East, Gye refrained from public activities and concentrated in systematically organizing his publications. Donghak Party Riot(1932) and Joseon History Vol. 1, 2(1936) are some fruits of his efforts. In 1937, he co-authored the Textbook of the Goryeo Language(1937) with Kang Chae-jeong, a faculty member of Korea University College of Education.

On January 28, 1936, Gye wrote his own Resume. This publication had records of education and writing projects until 1935. However, the national revolution project ended in 1920, when Gye left for Verkhneudinsk after being dispatched by the Korean Communist Party in Shanghai. To find out about the reason, one should pay attention to the date of January 28, 1936, when Resume was published. During the period of November 1935 to March 1936, key members of the Shanghai group, including Aphanasi Kim, Mikhail Kim, Lee Mun-hyeon, Choi Tae-yeol, Lee Min-hwan, Ilya Park, and Lee In-seop, were being arrested by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. Gye must have been foreseeing the great oppression of Stalin. Gye’s fourth son Gye Hak-rim recalled that Gye stopped to contact colleagues whom he worked with, got rid of group photographs with them, and lived silently and out of sight as a teacher in the countryside. 

Last years in Kyzylorda after forced migration

After Gye was forced to migrate to Kyzylorda in Kazakhstan in 1937, Seonbong discontinued publication and Lenin Gichi, a Korean newspaper with a new title, was issued. The newly recruited editors were less experienced and had a lot to learn. They invited Gye to hold multiple short courses and study Korean grammar. In 1941, during the period of war between Germany and the Soviet Union, Mikhail Park who later became a renowned Russian scholar of Korean studies came to see Gye. Gye helped Park in learning Chinese characters and showed him the manuscript of Donghak Party Riot and Joseon History.

Gye then lived as a pensioner from the year he turned 60 in 1940. He started to write his biography Dream in a Dream which was completed in 1944. He also gave his all in writing activities to complete academic achievements he had made throughout his lifetime. Law of the Joseon Language(1941), Joseon Grammar(1947–1948), Joseon Literature History(Vol. 1, 2; 1950), Joseon History(Vol. 1, 2, 3; 1953), and Law of the Joseon Language(1955) are the outcomes of his work. Gye Hak-rim donated these writings of his father to the Independence Hall of Korea in 1995, when he visited Korea to celebrate the 50th anniversary of national liberation.

Gye passed away on July 5, 1959, at 7:30 AM. The funeral was held on May 7 at 5 PM. He was buried in a foreign land far away from home that he was always reminiscing. The remains of Gye and his wife Kim Ya-gan were returned to Korea via the presidential plane of the former President Moon Jae-in, who had made a state visit to Kazakhstan, and laid to rest in the National Cemetery. Although it was not Yeongheung, the hometown of Gye that he truly missed during his lifetime, his remains had come back to the southern part of the Korean peninsula, after a century since he had left home.