24 Facts About Shin Saimdang

Shin Saimdang was a Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and poet, who lived during the Joseon period.

Shin Saimdang was the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yi I Often held up as a model of Confucian ideals, her respectful nickname was Eojin.

Shin Saimdang was born and raised in Gangneung at the home of her maternal grandparents.

Shin Saimdang's father, Shin Myeong-hwa, from the Pyongsan Shin clan, was a government official and a friend of the scholar Jo Gwang-jo, but he was not politically active.

Shin Saimdang's mother was Lady Yi of the Yongin Yi clan.

Shin Saimdang was a second cousins three removed of Shin Rip and a tenth cousin of Queen Inheon, the mother of King Injo.

Shin Saimdang continued his civil examination preparation with his wife's family's assistance, and visited home several times a year.

However, Shin Saimdang Myeong-hwa did not go beyond the jinsa test, an elementary test for yangban, and gave up the daegwa test due to the massacre of scholars in the year of Kimyo.

Shin Saimdang received an education that was not common for women of that era.

Shin Saimdang was gifted at writing and drawing, earning praise from Yi Suk-kwon.

However, Shin Myeong-hwa prioritised marrying Saimdang to a man who would allow her to continue with her artwork, and Won-su had no objections to this.

Yi Won-su's house was in Paju, but Shin Saimdang's father died in the same year that they got married, so she moved back and forth between the two homes in order to care for her mother.

Shin Saimdang later accompanied her husband to his official posts.

Shin Saimdang moved to several places including Hanseong and Pyeongchang.

Shin Saimdang expressed her love for her mother through a new poem.

Shin Saimdang noticed that her husband, Yi Won-su, loved a kisaeng named Kwon.

When Yi Won-su began living with Kwon, Shin Saimdang strongly disapproved of it and the couple's relationship cooled.

Shin Saimdang, who foresaw her death, asked her husband not to marry another woman after she died.

Yi Won-su argued that Confucius, Zengzi, and Zhou Dunyi had broken their marriages, but Shin Saimdang contradicted him by telling him that none of those people had remarried.

When Shin Saimdang discovered the presence of Kwon, she asked her husband not to invite Kwon to their home.

Yi I loved his mother dearly, so when Shin Saimdang got sick, he went to the shrine where his maternal grandfather's spirit tablet was kept, and prayed for his mother for one hour every day.

Shin Saimdang's children suffered because of Kwon, and Yi I ran away from home.

However, Shin Saimdang was able to develop her talents in part because she had no brothers, so she was able to live at her home instead of her husband's, and because her father sought to select a son-in-law who would let Shin Saimdang develop her skills as much as possible.

Shin Saimdang is the first woman to appear on a South Korean banknote.