''Nanjung ilgi'' or ''War Diary of Yi Sun-sin'' is the personal diary of
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
Yi Sun-sin
Admiral Yi Sun-sin (April 28, 1545 – December 16, 1598) was a Korean admiral and military general famed for his victories against the Japanese navy during the Imjin war in the Joseon Dynasty. Over the course of his career, Admiral Yi foug ...
(
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The l ...
: 이순신,
Hanja
Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom.
(, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...
: 李舜臣), a Korean naval commander who lived during the
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and r ...
. It was written between January 1, 1592 and November 17, 1598, a first person narrative of the admiral's perspective on the
Japanese invasions of Korea in the late 16th century.
It is the 76th
national treasure of Korea and listed in
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
's
Memory of the World registry.
Contents
The original ''Nanjung ilgi'' consists of 205 folio pages divided into 7 volumes. Entries detail the admiral's daily life in a military camp, his strategies, his naval campaigns, the names and dispositions of various military officers and civil officials with whom Admiral Yi interacted, geographic and atmospheric details, and his personal observations and commentary on the events and circumstances of his military command. These entries are not continuous: there are breaks in the narrative throughout the diary, representative of periods of time in which Admiral Yi was unable to maintain daily entries. There is also some overlap between Volumes 5 and 6, where Admiral Yi apparently later revised earlier entries.
Volume 1
Volume 1 consists of 27 folio pages, covering the entries from the 1st of 5th moon 1592 to the 22nd of 3rd moon 1593.
Volume 2
Volume 2 consists of 30 folio pages, covering the entries from the 1st day of 5th moon 1593 to the 15th day of 9th moon 1593.
Volume 3
Volume 2 consists of 50 folio pages, covering the entries from the 1st day of 1st moon 1594 to the 28th day of 11th moon 1594.
Volume 4
Volume 4 consists of 41 folio pages, covering the entries from the 1st day of 1st moon 1596 to the 11th day of 10th moon 1596.
Volume 5
Volume 5 consists of 27 folio pages, covering the entries from the 1st day of 4th moon 1597 to the 8th day of 10th moon 1597.
Volume 6
Volume 6 consists of 20 folio pages, covering the entries from the 4th day of 8th moon 1597 to the 4th day of 1st moon 1598.
Volume 7
Volume 7 consists of 8 folio pages, covering the entries from the 15th day of 9th moon 1598 to the 7th day of 10th moon 1598.
References
Sources
*
External links
''The War Diary of Yi Sun-sin''이충무공 난중일기 부서간첩 임진장초- 문화재청
Joseon dynasty works
Military books
Yi Sun-sin
1590s books
Korean non-fiction books
National Treasures of South Korea
Memory of the World Register
Chinese-language literature of Korea
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