Yu Hyeong-won

Yu Hyeong-won (1622–1673), known by his pen name Ban-gye, was a Silhak (practical learning) scholar of the mid-Joseon period. He never took government office, devoting his life instead to scholarship and the teaching of younger students, and he stands among the first generation of Silhak thinkers within the Namin faction. In his major work, the Ban-gye surok, he set out reforms to the land system and to state institutions as a whole, opening the way for the agrarian-centered current of Silhak.