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③ (Baegui Jonggun Road) From the Old Home to Gongju

Admiral Yi Sun-sin — the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War, now walking south as a disgraced man stripped of rank — set up his mother's mourning hall and stayed three more days at his old home. Then a clerk of the State Tribunal, the royal court that tried officials, came from Gongju and pressed him to leave. There was no time to hold the funeral. This post covers the eighth and ninth days. We leave the old home in Asan, pass Geumgok and Bosanwon, and go on to Ilsin Station in Gongju. The road the Admiral covered in one day on horseback, we walk in two. 👉 ② (Baegui Jonggun Road) From the Old Home to Gebawi What to Know First Itinerary for This Post Day Route Distance Date (lunar → solar) Overnight 8 Old home in Asan (Hyeonchungsa) → Gokgyocheon Stream → Geumgok → Bosanwon about 24 km 4.19 → 6.3 near Bosanwon, Gwangdeok-myeon, Cheonan 9 Bosanwon → Ilsin Station, Gongju about 29 km 4.19 → 6.3 Gongju (where the Admiral slept) The d...
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㊲ About Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Mother

Many people know that Admiral Yi Sun-sin was a deeply devoted son. His mother appears more than a hundred times in the Nanjung Ilgi , his war diary. But how that mother raised him is not well known. To be honest, few records remain. Nothing she wrote has come down to us. The records of the Admiral's childhood are only a few lines. So in this post I want to gather the fragments that remain: a few lines from the "Haengnok" and a few lines from the diary. Through those fragments, I will follow what kind of woman his mother was, and what kind of man the son she raised became. The Name "Sun-sin" The Admiral's mother was Lady Byeon of Chogye. The Admiral was born in 1545 in Geoncheon-dong in Hanyang (Seoul), the third of four sons. His elder brothers were Hui-sin and Yo-sin, and his younger brother was U-sin. The "Haengnok" tells the story of his birth this way: "When the Admiral was first born, his grandfather, the Honorable Champan [Yi Baek-...
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㊱ Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Poetry and Music

I love poetry. I love history, and I love music. While rereading the Nanjung Ilgi , Admiral Yi Sun-sin's war diary, by topic, I had a strange feeling. Everything I love was there in his diary. The Admiral listened to the sound of the flute, had the geomungo played, and strung a newly made gayageum . On sleepless nights he recited poems, and on rainy days he read history books. We know the undefeated admiral. In this post, I want to meet the admiral who recited poems and listened to the flute. The Flute on a Moonlit Night on Hansan Island I first met the Admiral through a single sijo poem. "On a moonlit night on Hansan Island, I sat alone in the watchtower, my long sword at my side, sunk deep in worry, when from somewhere a single flute cry (一聲胡笳) pierced through, and it broke my heart." ( Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo , vol. 9, "Haengnok") Rereading this sijo , I lingered long over its last line. Ilseong hoga means a single strain of the flute. The hoga (胡笳) ...
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㉟ The Heart That Beheads and the Heart That Gives Away Its Clothes: Admiral Yi Sun-sin

In the autumn of 1596, Admiral Yi Sun-sin, as Supreme Naval Commander of the Three Provinces ( Samdo Sugun Tongjesa ), was traveling through Jeolla Province. It was an inspection tour, stopping at each district to look into its affairs. On the 13th day of the 9th month, at Mujang (present-day Gochang), the Admiral met a man named Yi Jung-ik. Yi Jung-ik told him at length about his poor and pressing circumstances. The Admiral took off the clothes he was wearing and gave them to him. ( Nanjung Ilgi , September 13, 1596) Here is the diary from one week later. "In the morning I examined the offenses of the clerks ( saengni ) in charge of various affairs." ( Nanjung Ilgi , September 20, 1596) Two days later he again wrote that he "examined various offenses." Three days after that he wrote that he "examined the offenses of the clerks and of Seon Jung-rip." ( Nanjung Ilgi , September 22 and September 25, 1596) Within a little more than ten days, the Nanjung ...
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㉞ The History of the Turtle Ship (Geobukseon) Through the Records

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I have already written six posts about the turtle ship on this blog: the series "Why Did the Turtle Ship Fight for Only Three Months?" That series was about how the turtle ship was used in battle. 👉 ⑮ Why Did the Turtle Ship Fight for Only Three Months? (Part 1) In this post, I will follow the old records of the turtle ship ( geobukseon ), the armored assault ship that Admiral Yi Sun-sin — the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War — sent into battle against the Japanese. The name "turtle ship" first appears in 1413 and continues until 1886. That is more than 470 years. I will set down that long span of time in order. A Turtle Ship Seen 180 Years Before Admiral Yi The Turtle Ship King Taejong Saw The first record in which the name "turtle ship" appears is the Annals of King Taejong . "As the king passed Imjindo (臨津渡), he watched a turtle ship [龜船] and a Japanese ship (倭船) fight each other." ( Annals of King Taejong , Vol. ...
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㉝ The Only Piece of Writing Chen Lin Left in His Own Hand

Last summer, I wrote four posts on this blog about Commander Chen Lin. They told the story of an arrogant Ming commander who changed his mind after meeting Admiral Yi, and who wailed before the Admiral's death. 👉 ⑤ Admiral Yi and Chen Lin — Part 1 In those posts I quoted Chen Lin's words several times. "You are not a man who belongs in a small country." "He has the talent to rule heaven and earth." But this time, rereading the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (The Complete Works of Admiral Yi) from the beginning, I learned one thing. Those words were all written down by Koreans. Koreans wrote that Chen Lin had said so. In the Complete Works , there is only one piece of writing by Chen Lin himself: the funeral address ( jemun ) he offered before the Admiral's spirit. This post is a reading of that address. I also want to look at how Chinese records wrote about the Admiral. Chen Lin's Funeral Address in the Complete Works The address is in Appendix 4 of v...
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㉜ The Diary of the Last Two Months: Admiral Yi Holds His Tongue

The diary for the last year of the Nanjung Ilgi , the year Musul (1598), is very short. Right after January 4 comes September 15. For the eight-odd months in between, neither the handwritten diary nor the Jeonseo edition survives. What remains is a little over two months. Even those two months do not come in a single version. The handwritten diary the Admiral wrote himself ends on October 7. The diary in the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (The Complete Works of Admiral Yi) continues until November 17, two days before the Battle of Noryang. In between, the entries from October 13 to November 7 are missing even from the Jeonseo edition. Two Last Days The last entry of the handwritten diary: October 7 "In the morning, Song Han-ryeon offered four sacks of military rice, one of millet, five doe of oil, and three doe of honey. Kim Tae-jeong offered two seok and one mal of rice." ( Nanjung Ilgi , October 7, 1598) The last sentence the Admiral wrote with his brush is a record of...
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㉛ Admiral Yi, Who Fed His Soldiers and His People

I once read Admiral Yi's janggye , the official reports he sent to the royal court, from beginning to end. There were fewer victory reports than I expected. Most of them were about rice: reports that there were not enough gyeokgun (oarsmen), reports of sick soldiers, reports of refugees. So many seok (sacks of grain), so many men, so many ships. The numbers went on without end. Put it in football terms. There are players who defend, players who make assists, and players who score. The Admiral did all three. He broke the enemy at sea and protected Honam, the southwestern grain region of Joseon. And behind all that, he found food for tens of thousands of people. This post is not about fighting. It is about food. Five Hop a Day per Man In the third month of 1594, the Admiral sent the court this calculation: "Of the warships of the Left and Right Provinces, the 110 that gathered first, together with 110 scout boats, carry archers and oarsmen to the number of no fewer than ...
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