① Admiral Yi's Jieum, the Friend Who Knew His Heart: Jeong Un

Beginning the Series "The People of Admiral Yi"

Starting today, I am beginning a new series called "The People of Admiral Yi."

In this series, I will call forth, one by one, the people recorded in the Nanjung Ilgi (the war diary of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War) and in his reports to the throne. As I introduce each of them, we will look through them at another side of Admiral Yi.

The first figure is General Jeong Un (鄭運), who is called "Admiral Yi's right arm."

Who Was Jeong Un?

General Jeong Un

General Jeong Un belonged to the Hadong (河東) Jeong clan, and his courtesy name was Changjin (昌辰). He was born in 1543, two years before Admiral Yi, and he also passed the military examination before Admiral Yi did. He was born in Yeongam, Jeolla Province — today Daesan-ri, Okcheon-myeon, Haenam County.

In 1570, at the age of twenty-eight, he passed the military examination, and afterward served as a bongsa (junior officer) at the Hullyeonwon (the military training office), naval officer of Geumgapdo, postal station master of Geosan in Hamgyeong Province, and magistrate of Ungcheon, among other posts. A record survives that because of his upright and unbending character, he never stayed long in any post. Then in 1591, at the age of forty-nine, he took up his post as garrison commander of Nokdo (Goheung, South Jeolla Province).

This was just one year before the Imjin War broke out.

"The Sea of Gyeongsang Province Is Also the Sea of Joseon"

In the 4th month of 1592, when the Imjin War broke out, Admiral Yi faced a hard decision. Without an order from the court, leaving his own jurisdiction, the Left Jeolla Naval Command, to go out and fight in the sea off Gyeongsang Province was an overstep of his authority. Hesitating to set out, the Admiral called his commanders together and asked their opinions.

It is said that at this time General Jeong Un strongly urged him to set out. His reasoning was that if they gave up the sea of Gyeongsang Province, in the end they would not be able to defend Jeolla Province either. The exact words exchanged at this meeting differ slightly from record to record, but many sources agree that Jeong Un was one of those who pushed hardest, at the very front, for setting out.

In the end, Admiral Yi decided to set out, and that led to the Battle of Okpo and the Joseon navy's first victory that followed. After that, Jeong Un stood at the very front as assault commander in nearly all the early sea battles — Okpo, Jeokjinpo, Sacheon, Dangpo, Danghangpo, Yulpo, and Hansan Island.

The Two Men Admiral Yi Trusted Most

It is said that within the Left Jeolla Naval Command, General Jeong Un, together with the gungwan Song Hui-rip (宋希立) — a gungwan being a staff officer and combat officer serving directly under a commander — was counted as one of the two men Admiral Yi trusted and relied on most.

The trust in Jeong Un shows clearly in the reports Admiral Yi wrote himself.

In the report he sent on the 11th day of the 9th month of 1592, the Admiral wrote:

"Nokdo Garrison Commander Jeong Un (鄭運) has given his whole heart to his duties, and he has courage and strategy, so he is a man with whom one can take counsel. Since the outbreak, stirred by righteousness, he has forgotten himself for the sake of the nation, never letting his guard down for a moment, and has worked at guarding the frontier even harder than before; so the only men I can rely on are Jeong Un and two or three others."

There is one point worth noting here. Song Hui-rip was Admiral Yi's gungwan — that is, a staff officer under his direct command who always moved with him at his side. General Jeong Un, by contrast, was the garrison commander in charge of Nokdo (Goheung, South Jeolla Province), an independent commander leading his own unit. It is one thing for a staff officer who is always kept at one's side to be trusted, and quite another for a commander leading a separate unit to win this much trust. My own thought is that the reason people later spoke of Jeong Un's death as "losing his right arm" may be precisely that he won such great trust without being a staff officer under the Admiral's direct command.

The Battle of Busanpo: General Jeong Un's Last Day

On the 1st day of the 9th month of 1592 by the lunar calendar, the Joseon navy headed for Busanpo, the Japanese army's main base. Busanpo, where some 470 large ships lay at anchor, was the largest Japanese position the Joseon navy had faced up to that time. In this battle, too, General Jeong Un fought at the vanguard as Right Division Commander (右部將).

Busanpo was different from the earlier sea battles. The Japanese had taken up positions in Busanjin Fortress and on the surrounding hills, and looking down on the Joseon navy floating on the sea below, they poured fire upon it from muskets and large muskets. The Joseon navy had to fight completely exposed, with nowhere to hide. Because of these unfavorable conditions, the Battle of Busanpo remains the battle in which the Joseon navy suffered its heaviest losses of all the sea battles fought up to that time. The Joseon navy's casualties were 6 killed and 25 wounded. General Jeong Un was one of those six who were killed, and the highest-ranking commander among them.

And on that day, General Jeong Un was killed. Unfortunately, the records differ slightly on exactly how General Jeong Un met his end. "Report on Destroying the Japanese Forces at Busan," which Admiral Yi sent to the court right after the battle, says that a large bullet pierced the crown of General Jeong Un's head. On the other hand, the Annals of King Seonjo, which carry the report that Deputy Minister of War Sim Chung-gyeom made to the court in 1594, and records in the line of the Hangeuirok and An Bang-jun's Eunbong Jeonseo, say that a Japanese large musket (大鳥銃) pierced three layers of shields and two sacks of rice and went through Jeong Un's chest. The large musket was a firearm bigger and more powerful in penetration than the ordinary musket, a weapon the Japanese used to pierce defenses such as castle walls and ships.

I believe the report Admiral Yi sent is the most reliable. And a "large bullet" probably means a large musket, doesn't it? It is a passage that makes me think again about the power of the muskets and large muskets fired down from the hills at that time.

Admiral Yi's Right Arm and His Jieum

It is said that Admiral Yi grieved deeply at the news of General Jeong Un's death. In his report, the following words of mourning remain:

"On that day, as we were about to return, he was struck by an iron bullet and died; I grieve that his noble spirit and clear soul may fade away into loneliness and never be known to later generations."

Admiral Yi did not stop there; he resolved not to leave Jeong Un's spirit alone. At the Nokdo harbor there was already a shrine to Yi Dae-won (李大源), a commander of his nephew's generation who had been killed five years earlier, in 1587, fighting Japanese pirates at Sonjukdo Island off Heungyang (Goheung). Admiral Yi arranged for General Jeong Un's spirit to be enshrined in this same shrine and receive rites together with him. The Nanjung Ilgi records it like this:

"Since Yi Dae-won's shrine still stands at that harbor, I will call back his spirit to the same altar and hold rites for them together, both to comfort a righteous spirit and to serve as a warning to others."

This shrine is Ssangchungsa (雙忠祠), which still stands today at Nokdong Port in Goheung. Its name means "shrine of two loyal subjects"; in 1683 it received a name plaque from the court, and today it is designated a South Jeolla Province Monument.

Admiral Yi went one step further. For the death of a single commander under him, he wrote a funeral oration himself and offered it before the spirit tablet. This text survives in Admiral Yi's collected works, the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (李忠武公全書), Volume 1, in the "Miscellaneous Writings" (雜著) section, under the title "Funeral Oration for Jeong Un, Posthumously Named Deputy Minister" (祭贈參判鄭運文).

Alas! In human life there is surely death, and in death and life there is surely the will of Heaven.
For a man to die once is truly nothing to regret,
yet the reason my heart aches at your death alone is this:
the nation fell into misfortune and the barbarians invaded; the many fortresses of Yeongnam crumbled before the wind;
before their onrush nothing could stand,
and in a single evening our capital became the enemies' den.
His Majesty's carriage moved a thousand ri to the northwest; when I gaze at the northern sky my very heart is torn.
Alas, when my dull talents found no way to strike the enemy,
you took counsel with me, and all became clear as the sun.
Braving death you went forth at the front, and hundreds of the foreign foe bled all at once;
black smoke covered the eastern clouds.
Four battles won — whose merit was it? We could even have hoped to restore the ancestral altars.
Who could have imagined that Heaven would not help, and you would be struck by an enemy bullet!
O blue Heaven above, this is beyond my understanding.
We came back, made ready again, and swore to take revenge,
but it was dark and even the wind was not fair, and the wish could not be fulfilled;
could there be any grief in my whole life greater than this?
Having written this far, it hurts as though my flesh were cut;
you were the one I relied on — what shall I do now?
All the commanders in the camp grieve at the injustice of it:
your talents never fully spread, your virtue high but your rank low;
the nation unfortunate, the soldiers and people without blessing.
Loyalty like yours is rare in all ages, past and present;
the body you cast down for the nation, though dead, still lives.
Alas, in this world who will understand my heart?
With utmost sincerity I offer you one cup of wine.
Alas, how sorrowful!

Before the death of a commander under him, Admiral Yi did not hide his personal grief but showed it just as it was. I believe that to Admiral Yi, General Jeong Un was his closest friend — in other words, something like a jieum (知音, a friend who truly understands one's heart). I think you, too, will have felt this fully in Admiral Yi's words. People call General Jeong Un Admiral Yi's right arm, but having read this text, I would like to call General Jeong Un Admiral Yi's jieum. Those who have lost their jieum know what Admiral Yi's funeral oration is saying...

Remembering General Jeong Un Today

After his death, General Jeong Un was posthumously named Deputy Minister of War and enrolled as a Meritorious Subject of the First Class (Seonmu Wonjong Gongsin).

In 1796, King Jeongjo raised his posthumous rank to Minister of War, and in 1798 granted him the posthumous title Chungjang (忠壯).

Places honoring General Jeong Un remain in several locations.

In his hometown, Daesan-ri, Okcheon-myeon, Haenam, there is the Jeong Un Loyal Subject Pavilion (鄭運忠臣閣, South Jeolla Province Monument No. 76), built in 1681 (the 7th year of King Sukjong's reign) and moved to its present site in 1985. At Molundae in Dadae-dong, Busan, where General Jeong Un was killed, there is the Jeong Un Martyrdom Monument, erected in 1798 by his eighth-generation descendant Jeong Hyeok when he took up the post of garrison commander of Dadae. And in 1996, the Navy gave his name to the sixth Jang Bogo-class submarine, naming it the Jeong Un (SS-067).

Closing

The "People of Admiral Yi" series will continue with figures such as Yi Eok-gi, Eo Yeong-dam, Bae Heung-rip, Kwon Jun, Sin Ho, Na Dae-yong, Song Hui-rip, Jeong Geol, and An Wi. As I introduce figures you may not yet know, I believe you will be able to see, through them, another side of Admiral Yi.

👉 Next post: ② Admiral Yi's Closest Fellow Commander: Yi Eok-gi

— Momcheolhak