A Scholar-Soldier in Mourning Robes: The Politics of Remembering Imjin War Hero No In (1566–1622)

Abstract

This paper examines the postwar commemoration of No In (1566–1622), a scholar and militia leader during the Imjin War, who was captured and taken to Japan, escaped to China, returned home after three years of adventures and hardship, and lived the remainder of his life as a military official and a Neo-Confucian scholar. No's memory was revived in the eighteenth century by his descendants, who appealed to the state to honor him as a hero who had been forgotten due to unfortunate circumstances in his later life. By comparing No's own accounts in his wartime diary with later biographies, this paper reveals that some important details in No's life that contradicted the biographers' visions of the hero were excluded in later commemorative biographies. The evolution and expansion of No In's biographies in post-Imjin War Chosŏn demonstrates the tensions and collaborations between the Hamp'yŏng No lineage, the elites of Honam, and the Chosŏn state, all three of which sought to increase and exercise their power and influence through their claimed connection to No In.