He used various art names: Wandang (阮堂), Chusa (秋史), Yedang (禮堂), Siam (詩庵), Gwapa (果坡), Nogwa (老果) etc.

When he was 7, the famed scholar Chae Chegong (蔡濟恭, 1720–1799) is said to have been impressed on seeing the "Ipchun Daegil Cheonha Daepyeongchun" (立春大吉 天下太平春) good-luck charm marking the coming of spring that he had written, pasted on the gate of the family home.

His teacher Pak Je-ga also died that year and these multiple deaths seem to have encouraged his already deep interest in Buddhism as a source of consolation and meaning.

His adoptive mother also died at around this time and once mourning for her was over, he married a slightly younger second wife in 1808, a member of the Yean Yi clan (禮安 李氏).

Ruan Yuan gave him a copy of his "Su Zhai Biji" (蘇齋筆記), a book about calligraphy, and Kim continued to correspond with them after his return to Korea.

For a time after returning home he did not take up any official position but continued to study the Northern Learning and write essays criticizing rigid Neo-Confucianism.

Passing the gwageo national exam held to mark an eclipse year in 1819, he rose to such positions as secret inspector and tutor to the Crown Prince.

Factional in-fighting increased and in 1840, when he was due to be a member of the Chinese embassy, Kim Chŏnghŭi was instead condemned to exile in Jeju Island.

Cho-ui consecrated several of his building projects in the temple to helping sustain Kim during his exile and visited him in Jeju-do 5-6 times, bringing him gifts of tea.

[5] In 1844, during his exile in Jeju Island, he produced his most celebrated ink painting, usually known as "Sehando" or "Wandang Sehando" (阮堂歲寒圖, 'Wandang' was one of Kim's most frequently used 'Ho' names; 'Sehan’ means ‘the bitter cold around the lunar new year,' 'do' means 'painting'), which he gave to his disciple Yi Sangjŏk (이상적; 李尙迪, 1804–1865) in gratitude for his friendship, which included bringing him precious books from China.

After Yi's return to Korea, some Korean scholars also added their tributes, creating a unique cumulative work combining painting, poetic writing and calligraphy.

After the northern exile, he settled in Gwacheon (to the south of Seoul, where his birth father was buried) in a house he called Gwaji Chodang (瓜地草堂).

A complete edition of his works, (Wandang Seonsaeng Jeonjip 阮堂先生全集), was published by his great-great-grandson Kim Ikhwan (김익환; 金翊煥) in 1934.

Among his calligraphic work, a number of copies of Buddhist Sūtras and other texts survive and he wrote name boards for halls in Daeheung-sa, Bongeun-sa and other temples.

The reformists of the Practical Learning tradition often showed an interest in either Catholicism or Buddhism, as part of their reaction against the rigidly secular Neo-Confucianist philosophy.

In 1815, Cho-ui first visited Seoul and established strong relationships with a number of highly educated scholar-officials, several of whom had been to China, who became his friends and followers.

It was most unusual for a Buddhist monk, who as such was assigned the lowest rank in society, to be recognized as a poet and thinker in this way by members of the Confucian establishment.

As a monk, Cho-ui was not allowed to enter the city walls of Seoul and had to receive visits from these scholars while living in Cheongnyangsa temple 淸涼寺 outside the capital's eastern gate or in a hermitage in the hills to the north.