Easterners (Korean political faction)

38°19′N 127°14′E / 38.317°N 127.233°E / 38.317; 127.233

Easterners 동인, 東人
1570s leader	Kim Hyowon
1580s leaders	Yi Bal, Choe Yeonggyeong, Yu Seongryong
1590s leaders	Yi Sanhae, Yu Seongryong
Founder	Kim Hyowon
Founded	1575 (1575)
Dissolved	1591 (1591)[i]
Split from	Sarim
Preceded by	Sarim
Succeeded by	Northerners, Southerners
Ideology	Philosophy of Yi Hwang and Jo Sik
Religion	Neo-Confucianism
^ The division of Northerners and Southerners was a gradual process, with no clear date in which they could have been said to have completely divided. The extremists and the non-extremists existed far before 1591, but in the 1580s they are generally considered to have been united. Jeong Yeorip's Purge in 1588 could be said to have divided the Easterners, but the date 1591 is selected in this article because 1591 was the date that decisively split the Easterners in half, due to the controversy regarding the fate of the Westerner Jeong Cheol.

The Easterners (Korean: 동인; Hanja: 東人; RR: Dongin; lit. East people) were a political faction of the Joseon dynasty. This faction appeared during the reign of Seonjo of Joseon in sixteenth-century Korea,^[1] in 1575.^[2] Originating from friends of Gim Hyowon, they soon encompassed most of the disciples of Jo Sik and Yi Hwang, conflicting with Yi I and his followers, who formed the core of the Westerners. Though emerging as the dominant faction in the 1580s, it nearly collapsed at the suicide of Jeong Yeo-rip and the succeeding bloodshed in 1589.^[3] After Westerner Jeong Cheol was exiled for attempting to make Prince Gwanghae the Crown Prince, the Easterners divided into Northerners and Southerners.^[4]