⑮ How Admiral Yi Changed People, and How He Trusted Them

As I have been writing "The People of Admiral Yi," two things kept catching my eye.

One is the people who were completely changed after meeting Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War. The other is the people the Admiral trusted so much he would stake his life on them — and the fact that this trust did not waver even in the face of hardship.

Today I would like to gather the stories told so far and sum up how Admiral Yi dealt with people.

Admiral Yi, Who Changed People

A man who tried to avoid fighting becomes the commander who charges first; a man who made false reports becomes a loyal subordinate; a man who wanted to shrink back in fear becomes the first to plunge into the enemy line. Just recalling a few of the people already introduced in this series shows this.

Yi Yeong-nam (李英男) was originally a subordinate of Won Gyun, the Right Gyeongsang Naval Commander. But as he grew close to Admiral Yi, he became someone who reported Won Gyun's misdeeds to Admiral Yi instead, and in the end he was killed fighting alongside Admiral Yi at the Battle of Noryang.

Kim Wan (金浣) did not make a good first appearance. His name first entered the diary with an absurd report that he had "searched alone" the whole Suncheon district in half a day. But soon after, at the Battle of Hansan Island, he took sixteen enemy heads and was reborn as a brave commander.

An Wi (安衛) was a man who only wailed right after the defeat at Chilcheollyang. On the day of the Battle of Myeongnyang, it was only after Admiral Yi's thunderous rebuke that he barely charged into the enemy line. Yet from that day until his death, he lived a life of defending his country.

Sin Ho (申浩) was the man about whom, before his first sortie, the Admiral lamented that he "seemed to have a mind to avoid battle." Yet only two months later, at the Battles of Hansan Island and Busanpo, he had become the commander who charged first.

The same goes for Chen Lin (陳璘), the Ming admiral, who was not one of Admiral Yi's own men. At first he was an arrogant man who tried to press down the Joseon navy with force and authority, but before Admiral Yi's character he came in the end to trust and respect him deeply.

These people have something in common. Each first appeared carrying a flaw of his own — fear, falsehood, or arrogance. And beside Admiral Yi, or in clashing with him, each became a completely different person. The diary does not tell us in detail each time what changed them. What we can guess is that they changed as they watched, from up close, the fleet under Admiral Yi win victory after victory; as they shared the experience of fellow commanders who did not fear death; and above all, as they saw Admiral Yi himself fighting at the front.

Five Commanders "Who Vowed to Die Together"

But there is another side to the way Admiral Yi dealt with people. Just as important as changing people was trusting to the end those he already trusted. That trust shows most clearly in the report Admiral Yi sent to the court on the 11th day of the 9th month of 1592, after the Battle of Busanpo.

"Among the commanders, Kwon Jun (權俊), Yi Sun-sin (李純信), Eo Yeong-dam (魚泳潭), Bae Heung-rip (裵興立), and Jeong Un (鄭運), each having something to rely on, vowed to die together, and discussed and planned everything together…" (Report to the throne, 11th day of the 9th month, 1592)

When the war had barely entered its fifth month, Admiral Yi singled out these five to the court as men who had "vowed to die together." Five commanders sworn to share death — in this post, for convenience, I will call them the "Five Commanders of the Death Pledge" (決死).

Of these, Jeong Un was killed at that very Battle of Busanpo. In the same report Admiral Yi wrote of him, "the only ones I could rely on were Jeong Un and two or three others," so dear was he to the Admiral. The other four — Kwon Jun, Yi Sun-sin (李純信), Eo Yeong-dam, and Bae Heung-rip — stayed at Admiral Yi's side for a long time afterward.

Men Who Suffered Trials Even After Earning Merit

But "stayed at his side for a long time" does not mean those years were smooth. Looking back not only at these four but at all the people we have met in "The People of Admiral Yi," a strikingly large number went through trials, large and small. Yet the shape of those trials differed from person to person.

First, if we set side by side what happened later to the four surviving members of the Five Commanders — all but Jeong Un, who was killed at Busanpo — a pattern appears that seems strange to call coincidence. All of these men who had sworn to fight together at the risk of their lives went through trials of a similar kind between 1593 and 1595.

Eo Yeong-dam: As magistrate of Gwangyang, he was dismissed twice in 1593 over matters such as the grain in his storehouses — even though it was in fact military grain and relief rice he had stored for the people. After 126 people of Gwangyang submitted a petition and Admiral Yi himself asked that he be kept on, he was restored as an assistant commander, but in the 4th month of the following year, 1594, he caught the plague during the war and died.

Kwon Jun: On the 25th day of the 10th month of 1594, while he was magistrate of Suncheon, he was dismissed on unknown charges and taken away under guard. In his diary that day, Admiral Yi wrote only briefly, "My heart is not at ease." Five months later, in the 3rd month of 1595, he returned with the rank of Dongji, and three months after that he was promoted to Right Gyeongsang Naval Commander.

Bae Heung-rip: While he was magistrate of Heungyang, he was taken under guard to the Uigeumbu, the royal tribunal for grave crimes, over three days beginning on the 26th day of the 1st month of 1595. Again, the charge is not recorded in the diary. But before long he came back to Admiral Yi's side and stayed with him through the time the Admiral served as a common soldier in disgrace during the second invasion.

Yi Sun-sin (李純信): On the 16th day of the 3rd month of 1595, while he was Chungcheong Naval Commander, he was found by the jodo eosa, the royal inspector of provisions, on suspicion of misusing military grain, and was interrogated. For some time after that his movements are unclear, until in the 12th month of 1597 he was reunited with Admiral Yi as Right Gyeongsang Naval Commander.

A fifth case, which overlaps with these four even in its timing, has now been confirmed.

It is Sin Ho, magistrate of Nagan. In the 2nd month of 1594, when a secret royal inspector recommended to the court that four magistrates, including Sin Ho, be dismissed, Admiral Yi was enraged, saying it was "no different from what Qin Hui did to Yue Fei" — comparing it to the Song-dynasty minister who had the loyal general Yue Fei put to death. Even so, Sin Ho eventually stepped down as magistrate of Nagan within that year, and only in the 2nd month of the following year did he return as an assistant commander.

Something similar happened once more a few years later.

Kim Wan, garrison commander of Sado, was dismissed in the 2nd month of 1596 after a report by the inspector of provisions. Yet just a month and a half later, in the 3rd month, he appears in the diary again as "Assistant Commander Kim Wan." The original records do not say why he was dismissed or how he was reappointed, but it is clear that the brave commander who led the first victory at the Battle of Okpo and took sixteen enemy heads at the Battle of Hansan Island lost his post for a time and then came back.

Within almost the same few years, Admiral Yi's closest commanders were, one after another, dismissed or taken away for murky reasons, and then came back. Whether this was the result of power struggles at court aimed at Admiral Yi's inner circle, or a string of coincidences in the chaos of war, I have not yet found a source that proves it clearly. Observing that "a pattern stands out" and declaring that "it was intentional" are different things, so here I will simply set the facts side by side.

But one thing is clear. Before these trials, Admiral Yi's attitude never changed.

When Kwon Jun was taken away, the Admiral saw him off in person, his heart aching; when Sin Ho was slandered, he was enraged, comparing it to the death of a loyal subject in history. And when they came back, he ate and drank with them and stayed their friend just as before. I believe these are the moments when trials reveal Admiral Yi's heart — his wish to trust to the end, and to protect, those he had once trusted.

Those Who Never Came Back from the Battlefield

There were also those who never had the chance to come back. Jeong Un was the only one of the Five Commanders killed — on the day of the Battle of Busanpo itself. Yi Eok-gi was killed at the Battle of Chilcheollyang in 1597, and Yi Yeong-nam at the Battle of Noryang in 1598. Yi Eon-ryang, the turtle ship assault commander, was also killed at the Battle of Noryang, fighting alongside his son Yi Seom — and even his merit was for some time not properly recognized, caught up in disputes over the fairness of rewards.

Closing

The way Admiral Yi dealt with people seems to have had two main sides.

One was to keep even those who came carrying fear, falsehood, or arrogance at his side, fight together with them, and in the end turn them into different people. The other was to keep those he already trusted at his side with a pledge staked on their lives, and not to turn his back on them even when they suffered unjust trials.

That four of the five commanders who had vowed to die together later went through dismissal and arrest one after another, and yet came back to Admiral Yi's side, shows that this trust was not something that held only when things went well. And the shape of the trials differed: some were dismissed and came back, some never came back, and some, even after death, went unrecognized for a time. Before all these trials, Admiral Yi did not turn his back on people. The power to change people, and the faithfulness to protect the changed to the end. What I confirmed again and again while writing "The People of Admiral Yi" was, in the end, Admiral Yi's unshakable heart.

👉 Next post: ⑯ The Man Who Recommended the Admiral at Court: Ryu Seong-ryong

— Momcheolhak