Kim Iryeop
Kim Iryeop, also spelled Kim Iryŏp, was a South Korean writer, journalist, feminist activist, and Buddhist nun. Her given name was Kim Wonju. Her courtesy and dharma name was Iryeop.
Biography
Kim Iryeop was born to a Methodist pastor and his wife in a northern part of the Korean Empire and became a modern literary, Buddhist and feminist thinker and activist.Having completed her primary education after the death of her parents, she moved to Seoul to attend Ehwa Hakdang, which later became Ewha Girls' High School. In 1915 she moved on to Ewha Hakdang. She completed her education at Ewha in 1918 and married a professor of Yeonheui Junior College.
In 1919, Iryeop went to Japan to continue her studies and returned to Korea in 1920. Upon returning, she launched a journal, New Woman, which is credited to be the first women's journal in Korea that was published by women for the promotion of women's issues.
Iryeop influenced the Korean literary society of her time by writing about activities that reflected trends in the women's liberation movement and this was her impetus for her founding New Woman. Over the years, a great number of her critical essays, poems and short novels about women's liberation struggling against the oppressive traditions of the period of Korea under Japanese rule were published in such Korean-language daily newspapers as The Dong-a Ilbo and The Chosun Ilbo, as well as in literary magazines including Kaebyeok and Chosun Mundan.
Iryeop ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1933 and moved into Sudeoksa in 1935, where she lived until she died.
Works
Books
Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun Having Burned Away My Youth In Between Happiness and MisfortuneNovels
- 《Revelation》
- 《I go: An agape and a sob story》
- 《A girl's death》
- 《Hye-Won》
- 《Death of Chaste love》
- 《Self-awareness》
- 《Love》
- 《Dress-up》
Essays
- 《Let youth last forever》
- 《When the flowers fall, My eyes get cold》
- 《Left behind attachment》
- 《What have you become to me》