Han Yongun

Han Yongun

 or Manhae

(born 1879, Korea—died 1944, Korea) Korean poet and religious and political leader. After participating in the failed Tonghak Uprising, he fled to Mount Solok and studied Buddhism. He became a priest in 1905 and set out to restore and nationalize Buddhism in Korea. In 1910, when Korea came under Japanese rule, he joined the independence movement. He helped draft a Korean Declaration of Independence in 1919 and was arrested and jailed for three years. In 1927 he led in the establishment of the Singanhoe society, a united national independence front. His best-known work is a volume of poetry, The Silence of the Lover.