He achieved early success as a government official, but his straightforward character made enemies at court and he was banished for imprudent criticism of those in power.

He spent most of his 85 years in his rustic country home, contemplating the nature of life, teaching and writing poetry.

[3] His most famous composition is The Fisherman's Calendar (어부사시사, 1651)[4] a cycle of forty seasonal sijo.

In both Chinese and Korean classical poetry, the fisherman symbolized a wise man who lives simply and naturally.

In art, the fisherman appeared almost invariably in one of the most common genres of Asian water colors: sets of four paintings, one for each season of the year.