⑫ Admiral Yi Sun-sin's Record of Illness

Most people remember Yi Sun-sin as the undefeated admiral, the commander who never wavered.

But reading through the Nanjung Ilgi in chronological order, you run into one phrase, unexpectedly often:

“My body is unwell.” “My body is extremely unwell.” “I groaned all day.”

This phrase repeats, more times than can easily be counted, across the whole of the Nanjung Ilgi.

Today I want to look at the two stretches where it's recorded longest and in the most detail -- March 1594 and August 1596 -- to look behind the victories at the body of the man himself.

March 1594 -- An Illness That Lasted More Than Two Weeks

In the third month of 1594 (the gapo year), Admiral Yi found himself needing to draft a reply to a letter from the Ming vice-commissioner Tan Zongren, ordering him not to attack the Japanese. And it was exactly at this moment that he fell ill.

On the 6th, he wrote that his body was in such pain that even sitting or lying down was uncomfortable.

On the 7th: “My body is extremely unwell, so much that it's hard even to move.” Yet when he found the reply drafted by a subordinate unsatisfactory, he wrote:

Despite my illness, I forced myself to sit up and compose the letter myself, then had Jeong Sa-rip copy it out and sent it off.

In a body too weak even to sit up properly, he got up himself rather than leave it to someone else, and corrected the document by hand.

After that, his condition swung back and forth between better and worse.

The 8th: “No real improvement. My strength is failing further, and I was in pain all day.”

The 9th: “I feel a little better, so I moved to a warm room and lay down.”

The 10th: “My condition seems to be gradually improving, but the fever keeps rising, and all I want is something cold to drink.”

The 11th: “My condition has improved a great deal, and the fever has come down too -- truly fortunate.”

It would have been nice if it had ended there, but the next day he collapsed again.

The 12th: “My body is very unwell.”

The 13th: “My body seems to be gradually improving, but my strength is utterly exhausted.”

The 14th: “My body seems better, but my head feels heavy and my mood is poor.”

The 15th: “I groaned all day.”

The 16th: “My body is very unwell.”

The 17th: “My body has not recovered.”

The 18th: “My body feels quite unpleasant.”

The 19th: “My body is unwell, and I groaned all day.”

The 20th and 21st: “My body is unwell.”

The 22nd: “My body seems to have improved a little.”

From the 6th to the 22nd of March -- more than two weeks. Just as he seemed to improve, he would fall ill again, and through it all, he never once let go of the daily business of his camp.

August 1596 -- Chills and Cold Sweats, Once Again

Two years later, in the eighth month of 1596 (the byeongsin year), a similar record appears.

On the 4th, after writing that he stopped shooting a few rounds at the archery range because he felt unwell and went back inside, he wrote:

My body shook as if it were freezing and cracking apart, so I put on thick clothes at once and made myself sweat. Toward evening, the Gyeongsang naval commander came to inquire after my health and left. That night the pain was twice as bad as during the day. I spent the night groaning in agony.

It sounds like a night when chills and high fever struck together. He did not recover the following day, either.

The 5th: “My body was unwell, so I did not go out, and sat inside.”

The 6th: the assistant commander and several officers came to inquire after his health.

The 7th: “My body was unwell, so I did not attend to official business. I wrote a letter to Seoul. That night, sweat soaked both my upper and lower garments.”

The 9th: “My body is extremely unwell. Around ten at night, I broke into a sweat.”

The 10th: “My body is extremely unwell, and I lay with my head on a pillow for a long while.”

The entry for the 7th stands out in particular. He couldn't attend to official business, but in that condition, he still wrote a letter to Seoul. Night after night his clothes were soaked through with sweat, and still he never let go completely.

How Modern Medicine Views These Symptoms

So what exactly was Admiral Yi suffering from?

Four hundred years' distance and diary symptoms alone can't pin down an exact diagnosis. Still, modern medical professionals have offered some educated guesses based on the Nanjung Ilgi's records, which I'll share here for reference.

According to one medical publication, compiled with input from a family-medicine specialist, the symptoms recorded in the Nanjung Ilgi break down broadly into three possibilities:

Nervous gastritis: the frequent stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea, and pain severe enough to prevent eating may point to digestive dysfunction brought on by extreme stress.

Autonomic nervous system disorder: the recurring insomnia and sleep disturbances are read as classic symptoms of autonomic dysfunction under extreme psychological pressure.

Hyperhidrosis: the sweat that soaked his clothes and bedding night after night may point to secondary hyperhidrosis brought on by severe stress.

On top of all this, there was likely also the lingering effect of the gunshot wound he suffered at the Battle of Sacheon in 1592.

👉 Related post on the after-effects of the gunshot wound at Sacheon: ⑪ The Nanjung Ilgi: Reading the Extraordinary Hidden in the Ordinary

The Real Pain He Had to Endure

Laying the two periods side by side, a common thread appears. Even while ill, he never once left his post as commander of the camp. Despite his illness, he corrected documents by hand; in a body he could barely hold up, he wrote letters; and even when his officers came to check on him, he was back handling official business again the next day.

He didn't win his battles because he was superhuman.

If anything, he was sick often, groaned through the night, and soaked his clothes with sweat.

That modern medicine points to extreme stress and psychological pressure as the likely cause is, to me -- an ordinary person -- an easy diagnosis to accept, once you understand the conditions he had to bear at the time.

He suffered a gunshot wound at the Battle of Sacheon that passed through his left shoulder and troubled him for a year afterward, yet on the very day he was shot, the Nanjung Ilgi records only, “It was not a serious wound.”

Perhaps the real pain he endured was far greater, and lasted far longer, than what he ever set down in the Nanjung Ilgi.

“What a foolish man -- why did he have to keep fighting like that, in that condition, in a battle no one would ever even recognize?” That thought crosses my mind unbidden, and it aches.

👉 Next post: ⑬ 23 Battles, 23 Victories: The Truth Behind the Number

— Momcheolhak.