④ Life and Death Are Heaven's Will — If I Must Die, I Will Die

At the end of my last post, I left you with a question: with everything taken from him by King Seonjo, the ruler of Joseon at the time, and grieving the death of his own mother, what was it that sent Admiral Yi back into battle?

In search of an answer to that heavy question, I find myself remembering a day, years ago, when I visited Hyeonchungsa alone.

During my summer vacation in 2015, I wanted to spend an entire day with Admiral Yi Sun-sin. So I rode the subway all the way from Seoul to Onyang by myself. This time, I planned to see the Admiral's long sword, take some photographs, and perhaps write a poem if the feeling struck me. Just thinking about spending a whole day with him made my heart flutter with something close to happiness.

The Admiral's Sword at Hyeonchungsa, Asan

I finally arrived at Hyeonchungsa, the shrine built in the Admiral's honor, and wandered slowly through its grounds. I saw the Admiral's long sword with my own eyes, and read aloud the inscription carved into its blade:

"With this three-foot sword I swear before Heaven, and the mountains and rivers tremble; with a single stroke I sweep all before me, and blood stains the land."

As I was walking around afterward, I stepped into a restroom — and a framed passage hanging right in front of me stopped me in my tracks. I still haven't forgotten the feeling that struck me that day, of all places, in a restroom.

A Lonely Declaration from the Uigeumbu Prison

A saying of Admiral Yi

"Life and death are Heaven's will. If I am to die, I will die."

The caption beneath the passage explained that the Admiral had spoken these words calmly, in March 1597, from the prison of the Uigeumbu — the royal tribunal — to those around him who feared for his life.

March 1597 was the moment his life hung by a thread, arrested and tortured on the orders of a merciless king. Seonjo had decided Yi Sun-sin deserved to die for supposedly showing contempt for the court, and warned that anyone who dared defend him would face the same punishment. At a time when no one in the royal court dared even speak his name aloud, how could the Admiral, whose own life was at stake, remain so utterly composed before the people who feared for him?

The Serene Detachment That Ran Through the Admiral's Entire Life

We tend to remember the Admiral's death dramatically, in his final battle at Noryang. But he did not transcend death only in that last moment of his life. This same bearing ran through the whole of it. He never feared death, and he never fled from any danger set before him.

In his diary entry for April 1, the day he walked out through the prison gate of the Uigeumbu, he wrote only: "Clear skies. I walked out through the prison gate" — nothing more. No resentment, no protest against the men who had driven him to the edge of death. He had fought with everything he had, and left the outcome to Heaven, accepting it without complaint.

How could people who cling desperately to their own lives ever truly understand a man who lived his entire life entrusting even the line between life and death to Heaven's will?

"Life and death are Heaven's will. If I am to die, I will die."

👉 Next post: ⑤ The Disgrace of Chilcheollyang, and His Reinstatement as Naval Commander

— Momcheolhak