(b Kyongju, 1287; d 1367). Korean painter, connoisseur, scholar and statesman. In 1301 he won first place in the state examination. Thereafter his official career took him steadily to the post, in 1356, of Chief Minister of the Chancellery for State Affairs. Active in the Koryo period (918–1392), he served five sovereigns during his years in office and made many trips to Yanjing and to Dadu, the capital of the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), on behalf of his country. After King Ch’ungson (reg 1308–13), who spent more time in Yanjing than in the Koryo capital of Songdo, had built the Man’gwondang (Hall of Ten Thousand Volumes) in Yanjing, Yi Che-hyon was called to China in 1314. There he met many eminent Chinese scholars, among them the painters Zhao Mengfu (see ZHAO, (1)) and ZHU DEREN. Yi Che-hyon is credited with having brought Zhao Mengfu’s calligraphic style to Korea, where it remained popular until the 16th century (see KOREA, §V). In his Ikjae nango (‘Ramblings of Ikjae’) he described viewing paintings with Zhu Deren and recording their opinions on such Chinese painters as Li Kan and Ren Renfa. Yi Che-hyon’s acquaintance with Zhao Mengfu and Zhu Deren may have served as a channel for the popularization in Korean painting of the Li–Guo school, associated with Li Cheng and Guo Xi, and the Mi school, associated with Mi Fu (all landscape painters of the Northern Song period (960–1127)).