Yi Gi-pung

Life

Yi was born in Pyongyang, Pyeongan Province. His birth year is commonly given as 1865, though some sources record it as 1868. As a young man he was hostile to Christianity and to Western missionaries. According to a well-known account, he threw a stone at the missionary Samuel Moffett (Korean name Ma Po-sam-yeol) while Moffett was preaching in Pyongyang, injuring his jaw. Around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, Yi took refuge in Wonsan, where he met the missionary William Swallen (Korean name So An-ron), became a Christian, and was baptized. He is said to have later apologized to Moffett. He then worked in Hwanghae Province and elsewhere as a colporteur (勸書), selling Bibles and evangelizing, and as a helper (助事) assisting missionaries.

In 1903 he entered Pyongyang Theological Seminary, and in 1907 he graduated as one of the seven members of its first graduating class. In September of that year the Independent Presbytery of the Korean Presbyterian Church was organized; it served as the highest governing body during the period when there was only one presbytery in the entire country. At its first meeting he was ordained a minister together with Gil Seon-ju, Seo Gyeong-jo, Yang Jeon-baek, Han Seok-jin, Bang Gi-chang, and Song In-seo.

Ministry and Accomplishments

The Independent Presbytery sent him as a missionary to Jeju, where he arrived in early 1908. At first he faced rejection and threats from the local population. Together with his wife, Yun Ham-ae, he persevered in evangelism and public enlightenment work, and he took part, directly or indirectly, in founding Seongnae Church (now Seongan Church) and churches in Jocheon, Geumseong, Moseulpo, and elsewhere.

After his health declined, he returned to the mainland and pastored Bukmunan Church in Gwangju (now Gwangju First Church). He served as moderator of the presbytery for the South Jeolla region in 1920 and as moderator of the 10th General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church in 1921. He later pastored in Suncheon and Goheung, returned to take charge of Seongnae Church in Jeju, and then moved to Beolgyo. In the 1930s, at around seventy years of age, he took up a pastorate at Uhak-ri Church in Nam-myeon, Yeosu, and evangelized the nearby islands. He was arrested and tortured for refusing the Japanese colonial authorities' demand for Shinto shrine worship. Released on bail because of illness, he died from the aftereffects of his torture on June 20, 1942, in Uhak-ri.

Influence on the Korean Church

His mission is regarded as the first instance of Korean Presbyterianism sending a Korean minister as a missionary. The Encyclopedia of Jeju Culture and other sources see his ministry as leading to the sending of missionaries to Shandong, China, after the General Assembly was organized in 1912. He is credited with laying the groundwork for the Korean church's transformation from a mission-receiving church into a mission-sending church. The Yi Gi-pung Missionary Memorial Hall stands in Jocheon, Jeju, and a mission memorial monument was erected at Seongan Church in Jeju in 1994. Because he went from persecuting missionaries to becoming a minister, he is sometimes called "the Apostle Paul of Korea." The General Assembly Martyrs' Memorial Mission Society of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap), among others, honors him as a martyr. His daughter, Yi Sa-rye, wrote Sungyobo (The Martyr's Record), an account of her father's life.

Assessment

In the Korean church he is generally regarded as a model of mission and martyrdom. However, sources differ on many points in his chronology (年譜, a year-by-year record of his life), including:

• His birth year
• The date of his baptism
• The year he left Jeju (variously given as 1915–1918)
• The date he took up his post in Gwangju
• The year of his arrest for refusing shrine worship (1938 or 1940)

His great-grandson, the Rev. Yi Jun-ho, argued in a research paper that parts of the established chronology, such as the dates of his tenure at Goheung-eup Church, are in error. Accounts of his life before and after his conversion, such as the stone-throwing incident, rely mainly on later biographies and oral tradition, and their details vary somewhat from source to source.