Kim Jeong-hui - Final Years

Final Years

After the northern exile, he settled in Gwacheon (to the south of Seoul, where his birth father was buried) in a house he called Gwaji Chodang (瓜地草堂). In 1856 he went to stay for a while in Bongeun-sa temple, in what is now Seoul’s Gangnam area, and is said to have become a monk. Later that same year he returned to his home in Gwacheon, and continued to write until the day before he died.

In the years following his death, his disciple Nam Byeong-gil (南秉吉) and others prepared and published collections of his letters (Wandang Cheokdok 阮堂尺牘) and of his poems (Damyeon Jaesigo 覃糧齋詩藁) in 1867; a collection of his other writings (Wandangjip 阮堂集) was published in 1868. A complete edition of his works, (Wandang Seonsaeng Jeonjip 阮堂先生全集), was published by his great-great-grandson Kim Ik-hwan (金翊煥) in 1934.