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Hyujeong (Seosan Daesa)

Hyujeong (Seosan Daesa)

1520 CE–1604 CE · Modern · Anju, South Pyongan

1520–1604 CE

Hyujeong (1520–1604 CE), widely known by his honorific Seosan Daesa ('Great Master of the Western Mountain'), was the preeminent Korean Seon master of the mid-Joseon period. He gave Korean Seon a durable synthesis of meditation and doctrine, and his concise practice manual, the Seon-ga gwigam ('Mirror of the Seon School'), is still studied by Korean monks. He is also remembered for organizing monk-militias during the Japanese invasions (Imjin War) of the 1590s, helping in the recovery of the capital. His life and dates are well documented.

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Anju, South Pyongan

What they did here

DOCUMENTED ORIGIN: born in Anju in the northwest of Joseon Korea; orphaned young and later ordained, he rose to lead the Seon order.

About Anju, South Pyongan

Anju, in South Pyongan Province in what is now North Korea, was the birthplace, in 1520, of the Sŏn master Hyujeong (Sŏsan Daesa), an important Joseon-era figure who wrote influential guides to Sŏn practice and later led monk-militia in defence of Korea against the Japanese invasions of the 1590s.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Hyujeong (Seosan Daesa)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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