The Invention of a Patriotic Sage: State Ritual, Public Memory, and the Remaking of Yulgok Yi I

This article examines how the Park Chung Hee regime reshaped the public memory of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Yi I (penname Yulgok, 1536–1584) by recasting him as a model of patriotic nationalism. Beginning with the inauguration of the Yulgok Festival in 1962, Yi I was no longer commemorated solely as a scholar of the Chosŏn dynasty; instead, the regime portrayed him as a patriotic sage who advocated for military preparedness. Drawing on archival materials (presidential speeches, heritage management reports, newspaper articles), this study reconstructs the policy discourse surrounding Yulgok and traces the state-driven mechanisms that reframed his public image. The analysis shows that Yulgok’s image became embedded in political rituals, monumentalized in public spaces, circulated in everyday life through currency iconography, and materialized in physical heritage sites transformed to embody a purified, idealized vision of the past. Together, these initiatives positioned the state as the custodian of Yulgok’s memory, aligning his image with the ideological priorities of the militarist state.