Culture of Remembrance in Late Chosŏn Korea: Bringing an Unknown War Hero Back into History

Numerous scholarly works have been produced on "memory projects" as the culture and politics of nation-states in the modern world. Yet remaking of the past is not the monopoly of modernity. This paper investigates the problem of engineering memory in Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) through the case of Kim Kyŏngsŏ, a commanding general during the Ming-Chosŏn joint war against the rising Jurchen in 1619. I examine competing memories constructed by various social political groups and the historical and cultural contexts in which such construction took place. In particular, I analyze the processes of inventing, commemorating, and enshrining "public memory" as a way for a disadvantaged social group of local elites from Chosŏn's northwestern region to overcome social and political discrimination against them.