Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 57

Painting of “ Yi Sun-Shin at Training Camp ” by Jung Chang ( 1978 ). Image source : http :// www . geocities . com / yi _ sun _ shin _ adm / yisunshinImages . html
ors have difficulty enduring criticism when it reflects badly on their own performance .
Yi Sun-Shin accepted an appointment as acting commandant of Konwon fortress on Korea ’ s troubled northern frontier , where his superiors may have hoped he might meet his end in combat . Shortly after he took charge there , his post was assaulted by Manchurian ( Jurchen ) forces . During this battle , Yi Sun-Shin lured his opponents into a trap , captured the Jurchen leader , and defeated his forces . However , at the end of that same year , Yi Sun-Shin ’ s father died and he was obligated to resign his post to fulfill his filial duties as a mourner , which , according to ancient Korean tradition , lasted three years . A year after returning to service in 1586 , he again saw action against Manchurian invaders . While leading a counter-attack , he was wounded in the leg by an arrow , which he removed himself without letting anyone else see his injury . He did so out of a concern that the sight of a commander ’ s wound might demoralize his troops , a principle that he literally took to his grave .
Although Yi Sun-Shin was always careful to attribute his successes to others and share such glory as came his way , his superiors again grew jealous of his achievements and had him arrested . Since Yi Sun-Shin refused to confess to the false charges brought against him even under torture , his accusers had to settle for stripping him of his rank and imprisoning him . In what may have been an act of leniency or even empathy , King Sŏnjo ( 1567 – 1608 ) freed him under the condition that he would fight thereafter as a common soldier . When he bore this demotion without complaint , the King again intervened , pardoning him for his “ crimes ” in 1588 .
Yi Sun-Shin eventually returned to his country ’ s service as a staff officer and then as the King ’ s personal bodyguard and messenger . Due to the King ’ s continuing interest in his career , he was twice made a magistrate and re-appointed as a commander on the northern frontier , but such patronage only attracted more enemies , who forced his transfer from one post to another . In 1591 , Yi Sun-Shin ’ s merry-go-round of appointments led to his arrival in the seaport of Yosu as Commander of Cholla Left Naval Station ( whereas the British Royal Navy is divided in its command structure into Admirals of the Red , the White ,
and the Blue , Korea ’ s naval forces were divided between commands labeled Left and Right .) In Cholla , Yi Sun-Shin began to address a perennial threat , Japanese piracy , which turned out to be but the prelude to the greatest military challenge yet faced by the Korean armed forces , the Japanese invasion of 1592 – 1598 .
THE JAPANESE CHALLENGE Though for centuries the Japanese had menaced the Korean coastline , 2 by the early modern period relations improved as Japan seemingly had little interest in continental politics . The Japanese state even took a benign view of Korea ’ s support of the Mongol invasions of their homeland in 1274 and again in 1281 , as it recognized that Korea was under Mongol occupation and had little choice in the matter . The failure of these assaults ended the possibility of an Asian pax mongolica . However , in the unsettled times that followed , Korea experienced decades of attacks by Japanese pirates in league with Chinese and Korean freebooters ( collectively known as Waegu ). One such attack in 1371 resulted in the sacking and burning of the Koryŏ kingdom ’ s capital at Songdo ( present day Kaesong ), which may have hastened the end of that kingdom in 1392 . 3 Mindful of the barbarity and destruction long wrought by its sea-borne enemies , the ruler of the succeeding Chosŏn dynasty , King Sŏnjo , understood the seriousness of a threatening communication he received in 1592 from Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( 1536 – 1598 ), who had recently achieved domination over virtually all of Japan . As Hideyoshi confided to Sŏnjo , that achievement was not enough to quench his self-admitted lust for conquest , which apparently embraced not merely Korea , but “ all of Asia .” 4 Hideyoshi , who prided himself on his diplomatic skills , informed King Sŏnjo that it was his intention to conquer China and he called upon Korea to “ help clear my way ” and thus “ save her own soul .” 5
King Sŏnjo may have thought Hideyoshi was unbalanced for even thinking of an advance on China . By then , Korea was acting as a vassal of China and Sŏnjo would have had little doubt that China would make short work of the Japanese and Korea as well if the later aided in the planned assault . Sŏnjo ultimately declined to permit his kingdom to serve as a smooth path of conquest for a state whose bid to become the dominant power in Asia offered Korea little advantage and would expose it to neighboring China ’ s wrath in the likely event that Japan ’ s bid failed .
Hideyoshi responded to Korea ’ s defiance by launching one of the most destructive military assaults Korea has ever experienced , known as the Imjin Wars ( 1592 – 1598 ). The first assault wave of over 24,000 men , carried in over 800 ships , arrived at Pusan in May of 1592 . This initial force was commanded by the Christian Lord Konishi Ukinaga and is believed to have been largely composed of Christian troops . These units were later joined by the Buddhist warrior Lord Kato Kiyomasa as the force grew to more than 150,000 men armed with thousands of gunpowder weapons , largely muskets , which the Koreans lacked in great numbers . This enabled the Japanese to reach the Chosŏn capital at Seoul within three weeks , even though they paused along the way to destroy virtually every Buddhist monastery and monument they encountered , which may or may not have been an expression of Lord Konisha Ukinaga ’ s hostility to a rival faith . 6 Their destruction was not limited to buildings or institutions . Eventually , thousands of skilled workers , from printers to glazed pottery ( celadon ) makers , were taken
EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 12 , Number 1 Spring 2007
57