Korea's national hero Admiral Yi Sun Shin (이순신-李舜臣 1545-1578) is perhaps the first Korean that I know. My first trip to Korea was actually to Jinhae and not Seoul. I happened to see this statue of him standing in the centre of a roundabout in Jinhae.
Through some luck, I was able to lay my hand on his biography. The book was written in English but I found it to be rather thin, about 100 over pages, considering him being one of the greatest naval commanders in the world naval history. Admiral Yi was respected for his unshakeable loyalty, his filial piety, his great leadership in thwarting repeated invasions by the Japanese and his invention of the most advanced warship of his time, the turtle ship (거복선).
For all his contributions to the country, Admiral Yi Sun Shin was conferred the posthumuous title of Chungmugong (충무공-忠武公) by the Joseon government. There are many things in Korea that are named after Admiral Yi like Chungmuro (충무로-忠武路) or Chungmu Art Hall. The use of Chungmu in Korea is almost equivalent to our use of Raffles in Singapore though Raffles is not a hero in any sense. Raffles was the founder of Singapore and that was his only contribution to Singapore history.
Through some luck, I was able to lay my hand on his biography. The book was written in English but I found it to be rather thin, about 100 over pages, considering him being one of the greatest naval commanders in the world naval history. Admiral Yi was respected for his unshakeable loyalty, his filial piety, his great leadership in thwarting repeated invasions by the Japanese and his invention of the most advanced warship of his time, the turtle ship (거복선).
For all his contributions to the country, Admiral Yi Sun Shin was conferred the posthumuous title of Chungmugong (충무공-忠武公) by the Joseon government. There are many things in Korea that are named after Admiral Yi like Chungmuro (충무로-忠武路) or Chungmu Art Hall. The use of Chungmu in Korea is almost equivalent to our use of Raffles in Singapore though Raffles is not a hero in any sense. Raffles was the founder of Singapore and that was his only contribution to Singapore history.
Yes, I guess you can say that he is the equivalent to.....lt adnan, right?
ReplyDeleteYup. . . you got the idea.
ReplyDelete