He was born in Jongji-ri, Hansan-myeon, Seocheon-gun, Chungcheongnam-do. His real name is Gey-ho. He was the president of the Independence Association and published the first Korean private newspaper, "Independence Newspaper". When Korea was a colony of Japan, he was active in the movement to establish the Korean Private University. Also, he was the first president of Singanhoe, one of the biggest independence groups in Korea.