Im Yunjidang

Im Yunjidang (任允摯堂; 1721-1793) was a Korean scholar, writer and neo-Confucian philosopher. She defended a woman's right to become a Confucian sage and argued that men and women did not differ in their human nature by interpretations of Confucianism values in moral self cultivation and human nature.

Im Yunjidang belonged to the yangban class and lived a life according to accepted convention. Due to the gender bias of the Confucian society, her work, Yunjidang Yugo, could not be published until after her death. She is counted as the first female Confucian philosopher in Korea, and one of the few female ones alongside Kang Jeongildang. She was also one of few women to be published in Joseon-Korea, alongside the poet Seo Yeongsuhap (1753-1823), and Yi Bingheogak, who published the women's encyclopedia Guyhap chongseo about household tasks in 1809.

References

• Pae-yong Y: Women in Korean History 한국 역사 속의 여성들
• Sungmoon Kim: The Way to Become a Female Sage: Im Yunjidang’s Confucian Feminism
• Youngmin Kim & Michael J. Pettid: Women and Confucianism in Choson Korea: New Perspectives