An Minyong was one of the last great shijo poets. He belongs in the tradition of poets who devoted themselves to the simple delights of nature. Though he had friends in high places, notably the regent Taewon’gun, he was blocked from preferment by his non-yangban status. In 1876, in collaboration with his teacher Pak Hyo’gwan, he compiled the third great shijo anthology, Kagok wollyu.
A very large number of An Minyong poems have been discovered in recent times. These poems await detailed scholarly evaluation. However, it is safe to number him among the great exponents of shijo. Perhaps his most acclaimed poems are in the “Song of the Plum” series, eight poems composed on the occasion of a party in the mountain home of his teacher, Pak Hyo’gwan, in praise of a plum that Pak had cultivated.