㉜ The Diary of the Last Two Months: Admiral Yi Holds His Tongue

The diary for the last year of the Nanjung Ilgi, the year Musul (1598), is very short.

Right after January 4 comes September 15. For the eight-odd months in between, neither the handwritten diary nor the Jeonseo edition survives. What remains is a little over two months.

Even those two months do not come in a single version. The handwritten diary the Admiral wrote himself ends on October 7. The diary in the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (The Complete Works of Admiral Yi) continues until November 17, two days before the Battle of Noryang. In between, the entries from October 13 to November 7 are missing even from the Jeonseo edition.

Two Last Days

The last entry of the handwritten diary: October 7

"In the morning, Song Han-ryeon offered four sacks of military rice, one of millet, five doe of oil, and three doe of honey. Kim Tae-jeong offered two seok and one mal of rice." (Nanjung Ilgi, October 7, 1598)

The last sentence the Admiral wrote with his brush is a record of rice and honey offered by the people. According to the footnotes of the Sinjeong Yeokju Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (a newly revised, annotated translation of the Complete Works), this sentence is missing from the Complete Works and exists only in the handwritten diary.

The last entry of the Jeonseo edition: November 17

"Yesterday the ambush commanders, So Gye-nam, Commander of Balpo, and Jo Hyo-yeol, Commander of Dangjinpo, chased a middle-sized Japanese ship, fully loaded with provisions and crossing the sea from Namhae, as far as the waters off Hansan Island. The Japanese climbed the shore and fled overland, but the captured Japanese ship and its provisions were taken from them by the Ming soldiers, and they came back empty-handed to report." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, November 17, 1598)

They had captured an enemy supply ship. But the Ming soldiers took the ship and its rice. The commanders came back empty-handed. The Admiral wrote that down and added nothing more.

Both editions end with rice. One is rice offered by the people; the other is rice taken away.

A Man Who Used to Write Sharply

In my earlier post on the original draft and the Jeonseo edition of the Nanjung Ilgi, I quoted some of the Admiral's sharp sentences.

"Yi Bin, the Border Defense Commissioner, sent an official letter full of nonsense. It is laughable." (Nanjung Ilgi, May 26, 1593)

"Won Gyun, Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Right Province, came. He spat out many sly and treacherous words, which was utterly outrageous." (Nanjung Ilgi, August 28, 1593)

He was a man who wrote it down as it was when something displeased him. So reading the diary of the last two months, I was surprised. There was plenty to be angry about, yet the Admiral said almost nothing.

What He Wrote Without Comment

In the autumn of 1598, the Joseon navy fought alongside Chen Lin, the Ming naval commander. It was a fight to block, from the sea, the army of Konishi Yukinaga in the Suncheon Japanese Fortress. Command was in effect in Chen Lin's hands.

These are sentences the Admiral wrote in those two months:

"So we took that ship and its various goods and brought them back, and immediately presented them to the Commander." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, September 21, 1598)

What our soldiers had chased down and seized, he presented to the Ming commander.

"The Commander grew angry. He had the Commander of Seocheon, the commander of Hongju, the commander of Hansan, and others each given seven strokes of the cudgel. He also had the Commanders of Geumgapdo, Jepo, and Hoeryeongpo each given fifteen strokes." (Nanjung Ilgi, September 23, 1598)

A Ming commander had Joseon commanders flogged. They were the Admiral's own subordinates. This sentence exists only in the handwritten diary and was left out of the Complete Works.

After the handwritten diary ends, the Jeonseo edition continues with days like these:

"Two Japanese ships came out to the middle of the sea on the matter of a peace settlement, and the Commander had a Japanese interpreter go out to meet them. … It is said that at the hour of sul (7–9 p.m.), a Japanese commander came into the Commander's headquarters in a small boat and presented two pigs and two barrels of wine to the Commander." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, November 14, 1598)

"The Commander sent Chen Wendong into the Japanese camp, and a little later three Japanese ships brought a horse and spears, swords, and the like and presented them to the Commander." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, November 16, 1598)

The enemy commander came and went bearing gifts to the commander of the allied forces. It was probably meant as a request to open the way for retreat. The Admiral wrote only "it is said that he presented" and "brought and presented." There is not a single word of judgment.

And the next day is the last diary entry we saw above, the day even the enemy rice they had captured was taken by the Ming soldiers.

Twice His Heart Showed

That does not mean the Admiral said nothing to the very end. Twice, his heart shows.

Once was the night of October 3. Chen Lin had received a secret letter from Liu Ting, the Ming army commander, and went out to fight at night. Then the tide went out, and the Ming ships burned badly.

"Nineteen shachuan (Ming ships) and more than twenty huchuan (Ming ships) burned. The Commander's flustered stumbling and floundering was beyond words." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, October 3, 1598)

The other was three days later. Kwon Yul, the Supreme Field Commander, sent a letter. It was news that Liu Ting was about to withdraw.

"The Supreme Field Commander (Kwon Yul) sent a military officer to deliver a letter, saying, 'Commander Liu Ting was about to flee.' This is truly enraging. What will become of the affairs of the nation!" (Nanjung Ilgi, October 6, 1598)

The words "What will become of the affairs of the nation" exist only in the handwritten diary. The Complete Works left this part out.

In those two months, these are the only two times his heart shows. And both times, he spoke not of his own situation but of the fighting and the affairs of the nation.

Words Found Only in the Haengnok

When we think of the Admiral in his last year, we often remember these words:

"A commander cannot speak of peace, and an enemy cannot be let go." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

The Haengnok, the account of the Admiral's life, says that when Chen Lin urged him to allow a peace, the Admiral answered this way, and Chen Lin flushed with shame. It is a record left by his nephew, Yi Bun.

But these words are not in the Nanjung Ilgi. In the diary for the same time, there is only the sentence "it is said that he presented them to the Commander."

The death of Hwang Se-deuk, the Commander of Sado, is the same. Hwang Se-deuk was a cousin of the Admiral's wife. The Haengnok says that when the commanders came to offer condolences, the Admiral said this:

"Se-deuk died in the service of the nation, so his death is truly a glorious one." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

The diary for the same day has only this one line:

"The Commander of Sado (Hwang Se-deuk) was struck by an enemy bullet and killed in action, and Yi Cheong-il also died." (Nanjung Ilgi, October 2, 1598)

This does not mean the Haengnok is false. These may be words his nephew, who was at his side, heard. But the Admiral's own brush did not write them down. The Admiral that later people remember and the Admiral he left of himself are a little different.

A Ledger Listing Each Gift

Attached to the handwritten diary for the last year is a record other than the diary itself: a list of gifts received from Ming commanders, dated April 26 and October 4, 1598.

He wrote down who gave what, all of it. Guerrilla General Ji Jin gave "four live chickens." Captain Zheng Wenlin gave "one pair of summer socks" and "a packet of pepper." Guerrilla General Fu Yisheng gave "two live chickens" and "salted mutton." He wrote everything down, down to a packet of tea and a set of tea spoons. (Sinjeong Yeokju Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 8, records outside the diary entries in the handwritten diary)

Among them is a "gilded belt" given by Guerrilla General Wang Yuanzhou. A footnote in the annotated translation notes that this belt is now designated a Treasure of Korea and kept at Hyeonchungsa, the shrine to Admiral Yi in Asan.

He was a man who wrote down what he received. The same hand that had recounted the rice of the military farms was still keeping a ledger in his last year.

Back at His Headquarters After Six Years

On September 19, the Admiral stood again where his war had begun: the Jeolla Left Naval Headquarters, today's Yeosu.

"In the morning we moved to the waters off the Left Naval Headquarters. The scene before my eyes is wretched." (Nanjung Ilgi, September 19, 1598)

In May 1592, the Admiral had set out on his first sortie from these very waters. Returning six years later, he found his headquarters in a wretched state. He wrote only that one sentence, and that night he moved his ships again by moonlight.

Why Did He Hold His Tongue?

To be honest, the reason cannot be known from the records alone.

A few things can be guessed. Without the Ming army, the fighting could not be brought to an end. If he fell out with Chen Lin, he could not hold off the enemy. So he may have held back. With the fighting going on, he may not have had time to write long diary entries. He may also have known that his diary could be read by someone.

I do not know which it was. But this much is clear. In the diary of his last two months, the Admiral did not write a single line about his own grievances. His heart showed only twice, and both times it was about the fighting and the affairs of the nation.

I read this silence as the Admiral's unshakable heart. A man who had been sharp cut back his words at the end. It reads to me as the record of a man who kept only what had to be done and laid down the rest.

A Diary That Ended With Rice

The Admiral's brush ended with two seok and one mal of rice offered by the people. The Jeonseo edition ended with the enemy supply ship that was taken away.

And two days later, the dawn of Noryang came.

👉 Related post: ⑨ The Battle of Noryang — A Final Requiem for a Million Lost Souls

👉 Next post: ㉝ The Only Piece of Writing Chen Lin Left in His Own Hand

— Momcheolhak