이순신의 『난중일기』

The War Diary of Yi Sun-Sin

In his 『War Diary』, Admiral Yi-Sun-Sin sticks to an attitude to describe the experiences in his actions and feelings in the course of the war he was invalued in. He expresses extensively his private life as well as his public life. The characteristics of the 『War Diary』 which was written in the course of the Japanese Invasion of 1592 can be summarized as follows. First, the 『War Diary』 is one of the finest piece among war memorials which has been written by a commader in chief who ran the risk of his life in the battlefields. Second, the 『War Diary』, as an essence of the war literature that recorded the detailed features of an war, is evaluated very highly due to its merit of recording details of the war. Third, the 『War Diary』 can be regarded as a 'literature of a true record' in the sense that it reveals the presonal episodes as well as the public aspects in the war. Fourth, the 『War Diary』 can be a compensation to the public compliatin of history such as 『Sillik』. Last, the 『War Diary』 retains historiographical importance in the sense that it shows a classical form among war diaries before or after.