Park Eun-sik's Painful History of Korea

In Shanghai Park Eun-sik published the Painful History of Korea, tracing Japanese aggression since the opening of the ports. He argued that if the nation’s spirit survived, the country could be regained.

Published in 1915, it covers Japanese aggression from Gojong’s accession in 1864 to annexation. In the preface Park wrote that a state is the body and history the spirit: though the body has perished, the nation can rise again while the spirit lives. His emphasis on the national soul (gukhon) became, with Sin Chae-ho’s work, a foundation of nationalist historiography.

In 1920 he published the Bloody History of the Korean Independence Movement, centred on the March First Movement. After Syngman Rhee’s impeachment in 1925 he became the Provisional Government’s second president and amended its constitution to a cabinet system under a State Councillor.