⑱ The Man Who Protected the Admiral at Court: Jeong Tak

In the last post, Yi Won-ik, the Right State Councillor, stood alone in defending Admiral Yi Sun-sin — the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War — when the Admiral was arrested.

But the court did not listen. The Admiral was taken under guard to Hanyang, the capital, and thrown into prison.

Ryu Seong-ryong, the Chief State Councillor, recorded what came next in the Jingbirok, his memoir of the war:

"Yi Sun-sin was imprisoned, and the high ministers were ordered to deliberate on his crime. Only Jeong Tak, the Panjungchubusa, said: 'Yi Sun-sin is a famous general; he must not be put to death. The gains and losses of military secrets are hard to judge from far away. That he did not advance surely does not mean he had no reason. I beg you to pardon him generously and let him earn merit in the days to come.'" (Jingbirok, Book 2)

The subject of this post is that Jeong Tak. He is the last of the three men who protected the Admiral at court.

Who Was Jeong Tak?

Jeong Tak was born in 1526, nineteen years before Admiral Yi. He passed the civil service examination in 1558 and served as Royal Secretary, Inspector-General, and Minister of Rites, of Punishments, and of Personnel. When the Imjin War broke out, he accompanied King Seonjo all the way to Uiju as Second Deputy State Councillor, and in 1595 he became Right State Councillor. His posthumous title is Jeonggan (貞簡), and he is enshrined at Dojeong Seowon, a Confucian academy in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, notes)

In 1597, when the Admiral was imprisoned, Jeong Tak held the post of Panjungchubusa, a senior office of the Privy Council. He was seventy-two by Korean reckoning.

Jeong Tak in the Nanjung Ilgi

In the Nanjung Ilgi, the Admiral's war diary, Jeong Tak appears through letters. Each time his office changed, the name the Admiral called him by changed too.

"A letter also came from Second Deputy State Councillor Jeong Tak." (Nanjung Ilgi, 4th day of the 2nd month, 1594)

"Letters came from the Chief State Councillor (Ryu Seong-ryong) and the Right State Councillor (Jeong Tak), along with a reply from Lord Jaim." (Nanjung Ilgi, 12th day of the 4th month, 1595)

"I wrote letters to the Chief State Councillor (Ryu Seong-ryong), Yeongbusa Jeong Tak, Minister Kim Myeong-won …" (Nanjung Ilgi, 15th day of the 4th month, 1596)

Jeong Tak's name almost always comes right after Ryu Seong-ryong's. He was someone the Admiral never left out when he sent letters to the court. He was not a childhood friend like Ryu Seong-ryong, nor someone who traveled at his side like Yi Won-ik. He was an elder of the court with whom the Admiral exchanged letters.

The 3rd Month of 1597: "He Deserves to Die"

On the 4th day of the 3rd month of 1597, the Admiral was imprisoned in the Uigeumbu, the royal tribunal for grave crimes. On the 12th he was interrogated and wrote a statement. The Haengnok, the account of his life written by his nephew Yi Bun, describes him that day:

"When he was interrogated, he simply set out the whole course of events in clear order, and did not say a single word drawing in anyone around him. People high and low were moved to admiration, and some even wished just to see his face." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 9, Haengnok)

The next day, the 13th, King Seonjo sent the high ministers a royal memorandum:

"Yi Sun-sin's deceiving the court is the crime of disregarding his king; his letting the enemy go without striking is the crime of betraying the nation … With so many crimes, he cannot be pardoned under the law. The statutes should be examined, and he deserves to die." (Annals of King Seonjo, 13th day of the 3rd month, year 30)

The king himself had said first that he "deserves to die." The commentary in the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, the complete collected works of Admiral Yi, explains the mood at court: the king's will was so strong that the ministers were in no position to risk entangling themselves. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, Reference 2) According to the Haengnok, it was a time when even the relatives of naval commanders living in the capital were afraid of being implicated.

The 14th Day of the 3rd Month: Jeong Tak's Opinion

The next day, the 14th, the Uigeumbu gathered the opinions of the high ministers. It was then that Jeong Tak submitted his view. This is called a heonui, a formal opinion offered to the throne. Its title is "An Opinion on the Case of Yi Sun-sin" (李舜臣事議).

Jeong Tak first explained why the Admiral had not stopped the enemy in time:

"That he failed to cut off the Japanese in time when they stirred again and came across may have circumstances worth discussing. Whether the court's orders reached him in time, and whether the wind at sea was with him or against him — none of this can be known." (Jeong Tak, "An Opinion on the Case of Yi Sun-sin")

Then he spoke of who would rejoice if the Admiral were killed:

"Among the enemy, those who would plot against Yi Sun-sin have truly not forgotten him for a single day. If, without spending even a few taels of gold, they could sit still and see our country suddenly put him to death in public, I fear it would be the enemy's good fortune." (same)

"If, because of this, he cannot in the end escape death, the enemy will surely hear of it, set out a feast, and congratulate one another. And the many officers and soldiers on the southern frontier will all lose heart. This I fear greatly." (same)

His conclusion was this:

"If, on the grounds that he has merit and talent, a special order were given to spare him the death penalty, so that he might earn merit and repay the favor himself, the court's handling of the matter would not lose its propriety." (same)

Jeong Tak's own collected works, the Yakpo-jip, adds one line at the end of this text:

"When the opinion was submitted, a special order came down to spare him the death penalty." (Yakpo-jip, Book 3, quoted in Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, Reference 1)

Jeong Tak Did Not Say "He Is Innocent" Either

There is a passage in this opinion worth noticing. Jeong Tak did not say the Admiral was without fault.

"As for the subtle workings of the heart and how they relate to the deeds he carried out, there are truly some grounds for doubt, just as in the matter of how Won Gyun was handled. He has probably made more than one or two other mistakes as well. But since ancient times, generals of complete virtue have been rare." (same)

"The death of one Yi Sun-sin is truly nothing to regret, but for the affairs of the nation it is by no means without great consequence." (same)

The king had already decided the crime. Jeong Tak did not confront those words head-on. Instead he said that the conditions of the battlefield cannot be known from afar, that such a commander is not easily found, and that killing him would make the enemy rejoice. Instead of weighing the crime, he weighed the nation.

It resembles what Ryu Seong-ryong said before the king in post ⑯. Ryu Seong-ryong, too, first accepted the king's words, then tried to keep the Admiral in his post by saying that changing commanders would make the situation difficult. Neither man tried to win a fight with the king. They tried to save the Admiral.

The Opinion and the Sin-gucha: Which One Saved the Admiral?

When people think of Jeong Tak, they usually think of the Sin-gucha (伸救箚), a memorial whose title means a plea to vindicate and rescue a wronged man. It is widely known as the famous text that saved the Admiral.

But the commentary in Book 12 of the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo tells an unexpected story:

"To save Yi Sun-sin, Jeong Tak first submitted his opinion, and then, as he was preparing to submit a memorial as well, he learned that the king's order to spare the death penalty had come down, and so he stopped. The Sin-gucha in this book is that second memorial he had intended to submit. Therefore what was presented to King Seonjo and changed his mind was not this Sin-gucha, but the opinion submitted first." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, Reference 1)

Another version of the Sin-gucha also carries an added note: "The memorial had been prepared but not yet presented, when a special order came, following the opinion, to spare the death penalty." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, notes)

According to records handed down in Jeong Tak's family, what saved the Admiral was not the well-known Sin-gucha, but the short opinion submitted before it. Among records written about a hundred years later, some say Jeong Tak did submit the memorial. But the chronology in Jeong Tak's own collected works, the Yakpo-jip, says it had "not yet been presented."

Written from a Sickbed

Even so, the Sin-gucha is worth reading. Jeong Tak wrote it while ill. At the end he wrote:

"If my foolish words can add even one part in a thousand to the affairs of the nation, I will count myself fortunate even if I die ten thousand times. I caught a severe cold more than twenty days ago and still have not recovered, so I cannot come to the palace myself, and I respectfully present this memorial." (Jeong Tak, note appended to "A Memorial Pleading to Save Yi Sun-sin," Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, notes)

A seventy-two-year-old elder minister, in the twentieth day of a bad cold, took up his brush again, afraid that one opinion might not be enough.

The Sin-gucha also contains a passage worrying about torture:

"Generally, when prisoners go through one round of interrogation, they are badly wounded, and some die in between … Now this man has already undergone one interrogation under torture. If it is applied again, under so strict an inquiry it is hard to promise that he will survive, and I fear it would harm Your Majesty's true wish to spare life." (Sin-gucha, Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12)

Jeong Tak had once been in charge of such inquiries himself. He knew what a second round of torture meant.

Why He Praised Won Gyun

The Sin-gucha also contains a somewhat surprising passage. Jeong Tak praises Won Gyun, the naval commander who would replace the Admiral.

"Won Gyun's talent for commanding a navy is especially outstanding; he is loyal by nature, does not shrink from any task, and is good at charging straight in. So if the two generals work together with all their body and heart, driving off the enemy will not be difficult." (Sin-gucha)

Why did he praise Won Gyun? At the time, many at court took Won Gyun's side. If a text arguing to save the Admiral had run Won Gyun down, it would have been read as taking one side. Jeong Tak acknowledged Won Gyun as well, while arguing to save the Admiral. I believe that only by not dividing people into sides could he hope to have the king listen.

The 30th Day of the 3rd Month: The Death Penalty Is Reduced

King Seonjo's order reducing the sentence came down through the Uigeumbu on the 30th day of the 3rd month. The commentary in the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo sees it this way: having received Jeong Tak's opinion, the king seems to have deliberated for many days before deciding to reduce the sentence. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, Reference 2)

Let me add one thing. The diary of Yi Deok-yeol, then a royal secretary, also records that the high ministers all said, "To apply the full statute to a man with merit is excessive." (Yi Deok-yeol, Yanghodang Ilgi, quoted in Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, Book 12, Reference 2) This differs a little from the Jingbirok, which says Jeong Tak alone spoke up. But Jeong Tak himself wrote in the note appended to the Sin-gucha: "Following the opinions gathered by the Uigeumbu, I once stated my humble view, but it did not agree with the other opinions, and my words did not fully convey my meaning." It seems certain that Jeong Tak's opinion was the clearest.

The Jingbirok recorded the outcome this way:

"And so, after one round of torture, the death penalty was reduced; he was stripped of his office and enlisted in the army." (Jingbirok, Book 2)

On the 1st day of the 4th month of 1597, the Admiral walked out of the prison gate. That day's diary records the names of those who sent people to him:

"The Chief State Councillor (Ryu Seong-ryong) sent a servant, and Panbusa Jeong Tak, Minister Sim Hui-su, Right State Councillor Kim Myeong-won … sent people to ask after me." (Nanjung Ilgi, 1st day of the 4th month, 1597)

Right after Ryu Seong-ryong comes the name of Jeong Tak. The elder minister who had saved the Admiral sent someone to ask after him even on the day he left prison.

What Jeong Tak Protected

In the 7th month of that year, the Joseon navy under Won Gyun collapsed at Chilcheollyang. In the 8th month, the court called the Admiral, then serving as a common soldier in disgrace, back to be Supreme Naval Commander of the Three Provinces. In the 9th month, with the thirteen ships he had left, the Admiral stopped the enemy at Myeongnyang.

What would have happened if the Admiral had died in the 3rd month? They say there is no "if" in history. But one thing is clear: there was still a living commander for the court to call back that autumn because, in the spring, someone had said, "Do not kill him."

In his opinion, Jeong Tak wrote that "the enemy will surely set out a feast and congratulate one another." What Jeong Tak prevented was that feast. What Jeong Tak protected was one man's life, and that one man protected the seas of Joseon.

Closing the Story of the Three Men

Over three posts, we have met the three men who protected the Admiral at court.

Ryu Seong-ryong recommended the Admiral. Yi Won-ik defended the Admiral. Jeong Tak protected the Admiral.

The three were different from one another. Ryu Seong-ryong was a childhood friend; Yi Won-ik was a superior who watched the Admiral's work from close by; Jeong Tak was an elder of the court who exchanged letters with him. But the three had one thing in common: when the Admiral was in the greatest danger, they did not turn their backs on him.

At sea there were the commanders who fought alongside the Admiral. At court there were people who chose their words carefully and submitted their writings for his sake. The Admiral was not alone.

— Momcheolhak