Biography
Shin was born on November 7, 1880, and his grandfather was an official in the royal advisory department. His literary name was Tansaeng, which was later changed to Tanjae. Shin had been educated in a traditional Korean way by his grandfather with no exposure to Western thoughts, and received a doctoral degree from the prestigious state-sponsored Confucian academy Seonggyungwan in 1905. He was appointed to become a teacher in the same school, but because of his strong nationalist feelings, he vacated the position upon learning that Japan had claimed Korea as its protectorate. He served on the editorial boards for two of the new papers, the Hwangseong sinmun (Hangul: 황성신문, Hanja: 皇城新聞) and the Daehan maeil sinbo (Hangul: 대한매일신보, Hanja: 大韓每日新報). Shin used his literary prestige to support the Patriotic Enlightenment Movement.
He exiled himself to China in 1910 when Japan declared its annexation of Korea. He helped open the Qingdao Council with his comrades in exile, and also organized the New Korea Youth Society in China in 1915. He was briefly associated with the Shanghai Provisional Government in 1919. Later he became more interested in anarchist thoughts and activities, and got involved in drafting The Manifesto of the Korean Revolution (1923). Shin joined the Eastern Anarchist Association (Hangul: 동방 무정부주의 연맹, Hanja: 東方無政府主義聯盟) some time around 1925-1927.
Shin was arrested by the local police in Taiwan (Jilong) (then a Japanese colony) in May 1928 when he smuggled counterfeit funds from Beijing with a fake Chinese identity by the name of Yu Byeong-taek (Hangul: 유병택, Hanja: 柳烟澤) in order to gain funding for activities of the Eastern Anarchist Association. His first trial took place in Dalian, China (then under Japanese administration), on July 19, 1928, and it continued until April 1930.
Shin was sentenced 10 years in prison, and died in prison of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1936.
Read more about this topic: Shin Chaeho
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