Yi Mae-chang (1573–1610) was a gisaeng and poet born to a local government clerk in Buan. Buan County describes her as accomplished in poetry and the geomungo and as one of Joseon’s representative women writers alongside Hwang Jini and Heo Nanseolheon.
Claims about becoming a gisaeng at twelve and an exact surviving poem count have been omitted because official accounts do not consistently establish them. Her writing and name endure beyond the limits of her social status.