㉝ The Only Piece of Writing Chen Lin Left in His Own Hand

Last summer, I wrote four posts on this blog about Commander Chen Lin. They told the story of an arrogant Ming commander who changed his mind after meeting Admiral Yi, and who wailed before the Admiral's death.

👉 ⑤ Admiral Yi and Chen Lin — Part 1

In those posts I quoted Chen Lin's words several times. "You are not a man who belongs in a small country." "He has the talent to rule heaven and earth." But this time, rereading the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo (The Complete Works of Admiral Yi) from the beginning, I learned one thing. Those words were all written down by Koreans. Koreans wrote that Chen Lin had said so.

In the Complete Works, there is only one piece of writing by Chen Lin himself: the funeral address (jemun) he offered before the Admiral's spirit. This post is a reading of that address. I also want to look at how Chinese records wrote about the Admiral.

Chen Lin's Funeral Address in the Complete Works

The address is in Appendix 4 of volume 12 of the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo. Its title is "Address in Sacrifice to Naval Commander Yi" (祭李統制文). In the Chungmugong Gaseung (family records of Admiral Yi), it appears under the title "Funeral Address of Chen Lin, Naval Commander of the Central Court" (中朝水軍都督陳璘祭文). (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 12, footnote)

The address begins like this:

"In the year Gihae, the 27th year of Wanli [1599], on the 11th day of the first month, ten days past the first day, Imo, Chen Lin, Imperial Commissioner, General Commanding the Naval Forces against the Japanese, and Assistant Commissioner of the Chief Military Commission, respectfully prepares offerings of pig, sheep, and clear wine and offers sacrifice before the spirit of Yi [Yi Sun-sin], Naval Commander of Joseon, and declares:" (Chen Lin, "Address in Sacrifice to Naval Commander Yi," Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 12)

It is January 11, 1599, about fifty days after the Admiral was killed at Noryang. The Admiral had not yet been buried. He was buried below Geumseongsan in Asan on February 11 of that year. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

Reading the Address

In a District as Small as a Go Stone

"Alas! The Naval Commander, in a distant vassal state, with the wisdom to bring peace out of peril, led an exhausted army and, in a district as small as a go stone, stopped the Japanese from spying out the west, so that we could keep our defenses within."

Chen Lin wrote that the Admiral had stopped the enemy's advance westward with a worn-out army, and that thanks to this, Ming had been able to keep its defenses within. A Ming commander wrote that Ming owed a debt to a Joseon commander.

"Pillowed on his spear and wearing his iron armor, he had no time to rest until the day was done; repairing ships and making weapons, he did not stop even a little until the year was done. So those he called back from wandering came to ten thousand households, and those who had fled the enemy and returned came to a thousand people."

Chen Lin was at the Admiral's side from July 16 to November 19, 1598: four months, a hundred-odd days. In that short time, Chen Lin wrote down what he saw at Gogeumdo: the Admiral who never rested, the Admiral repairing ships and making weapons, and the people gathering to the Admiral.

👉 ㉛ Admiral Yi, Who Fed His Soldiers and His People

The Man Who Saved Our Ship at Noryang

"In the battle at Noryang, the Naval Commander was in the vanguard, and when our ship was nearly sunk by the Japanese warships, it was you, too, who guarded us and brought us out of grave danger."

This is the passage in the address most worth noticing. Chen Lin wrote that at Noryang his own ship was surrounded by the enemy and nearly sank. And he wrote that the Admiral saved him.

The Joseon records say the same. The Haengnok, the account of the Admiral's life written by his nephew, records:

"When the enemy surrounded the Commander's ship and it was about to be sunk, the commanders, seeing the flags waving from the Admiral's ship urging them on, raced in to break the encirclement and rescue him." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

What a Korean wrote and what Chen Lin himself wrote are the same. The naval commander of a great empire wrote in his own words that he owed his life to the commander of a vassal state. I do not think that was an easy thing to do.

"For One Who Has Disgraced the Nation, One Death Is Not Enough"

"I thought the Naval Commander would be able to escape such a calamity of death; who would have known that you would leave this world struck by a flying bullet? When I think on it, you used to say to people in ordinary times, 'For one who has disgraced the nation, a single death is not enough.' Looking back, now that the nation's land has already been restored and the great enemy has already been repaid, why did you still carry out what you always thought?"

Chen Lin remembered something the Admiral used to say: that for one who has disgraced the nation, dying once is not enough. Chen Lin must have heard those words during the four months at Gogeumdo.

And Chen Lin asks: the land had been recovered, the enemy repaid, so why did you die as you said? It is not a reproach. It was probably the only thing left for those who remained to say.

On the night before the Battle of Noryang, the Admiral prayed to heaven on the deck of his ship:

"If I can destroy these enemies, I will have no regret even in death." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

Losing the Commander Who Guarded the Nation

"Alas, Naval Commander! When the nation is weakened, who will govern it with us, and when military affairs fall into ruin, who will rise up? How could I have thought we would lose the commander who guarded the nation, and lose too a fine, high rampart? Recalling the past, when my thoughts come to this, how can I not shed tears? If your spirit is not darkened, come here and partake of these humble offerings."

"The commander who guarded the nation" is gibo (祈父) and joa (爪牙) in the original. Gibo is an office in the Book of Songs in charge of weapons and armor, and joa is the claws and fangs of a fierce beast. Both refer to a commander who guards the nation. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 12, footnote)

Chen Lin did not liken the Admiral to a Ming commander. He simply called him a commander who had guarded the nation. Whether that nation was Joseon or Ming does not seem to have mattered.

Chen Lin Before and After the Address

Reading the address alone does not show all of Chen Lin's heart. The Haengnok shows Chen Lin before and after the address.

When the battle was over, Chen Lin rowed over to the Admiral's ship.

"The Commander rowed his ship up in haste and shouted, 'Naval Commander! Come out quickly! Come out quickly!' Wan stood at the bow weeping and said, 'My uncle has passed away.' The Commander fell down three times on the deck, then wailed aloud, saying, 'You saved me after you were already dead,' and beat his chest again and wailed for a long time. The Commander's soldiers, too, all threw down their meat and would not eat." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

"You saved me after you were already dead." When the Admiral's ship came to Chen Lin's rescue, the Admiral had already breathed his last. His ship was leading the fight with its flags waving, but the Admiral was no longer there. Chen Lin learned this only after the battle was over. The words Chen Lin wrote in his address, "it was you who guarded us," carry this event within them.

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

The Haengnok also records what happened after that.

"The Commander and the commanders under him all composed funeral banners in mourning, and when withdrawing to go home, the Commander, on entering Sinchang County, first sent someone ahead to announce that he would come to offer sacrifice. But just then the envoy of Military Commissioner Xing was pressing him to go up to the capital, so the Commander only sent several hundred nyang of silver." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

Chen Lin meant to come as far as Asan to offer sacrifice. But because Xing Jie, the Ming Supreme Commander, was pressing him, he could not. The funeral banners Chen Lin is said to have composed do not survive in the Complete Works. What remains is the address dated the 11th of the first month. I think he may have let this writing stand in for the sacrifice he could not offer in person.

On the road, Chen Lin met Yi Hoe, the Admiral's eldest son. The two dismounted, took each other's hands, and wept. Hearing from Yi Hoe that he still held no office, Chen Lin said, "In China, even during mourning, the practice of granting rewards for merit is not set aside, but your country is slow. I must speak to the king about it." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

Things Passed Down as Chen Lin's Words

Now I return to the words of Chen Lin I mentioned at the start.

"Not a Man Who Belongs in a Small Country"

The earliest record is the Haengnok, written by the Admiral's nephew Yi Bun.

"He always called the Admiral 'Yi-ya,' saying, 'You are not a man who belongs in a small country,' and urged him many times to come to China and take office." (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 9, Haengnok)

Yi-ya (李爺) means "Elder Yi." Chen Lin called the Admiral this instead of by his name.

"The Talent to Weave Heaven and Earth, the Merit of Mending the Sky and Bathing the Sun"

These words are said to have been in a letter Chen Lin submitted to King Seonjo. Gyeongcheon wiji ji jae (經天緯地之才) means the talent to weave heaven and earth as warp and weft, and bocheon yogil ji gong (補天浴日之功) means the merit of mending a collapsed sky and washing the sun. It refers to the great merit of rebuilding a nation. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, opening volume, footnote to the royal Spirit-Road Stele inscription)

These words appear again and again in the sijang (an account of conduct for a posthumous title) written by Yi Sik (around 1641–1643), the Spirit-Road Stele inscription written by Kim Yuk (completed 1660), and King Jeongjo's royal Spirit-Road Stele inscription. But the letter Chen Lin is said to have submitted to King Seonjo is not in the Complete Works. And as far as I have searched the text of the Complete Works, these words do not appear in the earliest records, Yi Bun's Haengnok and Choe Yu-hae's haengjang (account of conduct, 1641).

After quoting these words in his sijang, Yi Sik added one line:

"Though these words may not hit the mark exactly, on the whole they showed that he respected and followed him at heart." (Yi Sik, Sijang, Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 10)

I cannot know whether Chen Lin said these words or not. But I think it is honest to call them "words that have been passed down." In Part 4 of my earlier Chen Lin series, I wrote that Chen Lin submitted these words to the Ming emperor. The Complete Works records it as a letter submitted to King Seonjo. I correct it here.

👉 ⑧ Admiral Yi and Chen Lin, Part 4 (Conclusion)

The Commander's Seal

There is also a story that, on Chen Lin's report, the Ming emperor granted the Admiral the seal of a Commander (dudu). It appears in the "Gisil" section of volume 13 of the Complete Works and in Kim Yuk's Spirit-Road Stele inscription. But in the commentary in the opening volume of the Complete Works, Nosan Yi Eun-sang wrote down his doubts. Chen Lin and the Admiral were together for only a hundred-odd days, too short a time for a report to go and a seal to come back. He also noted that the story appears neither in the Haengnok nor in Yi Hang-bok's stele inscription. Yi Eun-sang judged that the Admiral probably did not receive this seal in his lifetime. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, opening volume, commentary)

How Did Chinese Records Write About the Admiral?

This is how Chen Lin's address wrote about the Admiral. What about other Ming records, then? The first part of the "Gisil" section in volume 13 of the Complete Works contains excerpts from several Chinese records.

The History of Ming: One Line

In the biography of Chen Lin in the Mingshi (History of Ming), the official history of the Ming dynasty, the Admiral appears like this:

"Just then Hideyoshi died and the enemy commanders were about to flee, so Chen Lin hurriedly sent Deng Zilong to advance together with the Joseon commander Yi Sun-sin." (Mingshi, Biography of Chen Lin, quoted in Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 13)

The biography of Deng Zilong in the Mingshigao (Draft History of Ming) is a little longer.

"The enemy took advantage of the situation and attacked, and Deng Zilong was killed; Yi Sun-sin, too, died while rushing to his rescue." (Mingshigao, Biography of Deng Zilong, quoted in Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 13)

In the official history of Ming, the Admiral appears in a single line beside Deng Zilong. The heroes are Chen Lin and Deng Zilong, and the Admiral is a Joseon commander who died going to rescue Deng Zilong.

Xu Xijin's Dongzhengji: The Rescue Reversed

The Dongzhengji (東征記, Record of the Eastern Campaign), written by the Ming author Xu Xijin, is the Chinese record that describes the Battle of Noryang in the most detail. But in this record, the direction of the rescue is reversed. It is the Admiral who is surrounded by the enemy, and Chen Lin who goes to save him.

"Chen Lin thought that since they were as one body, if he did not go to the rescue and the attack failed, our side's morale would be broken, and if they won first this time, it would be all the more outstanding merit. … At last he commanded his officers and men to row in, spears in hand, to the rescue. Then the enemy clung to them like a swarm of ants, gathered like a swarm of bees, and this time Chen Lin's ship was in turn surrounded two or three deep, and the situation became critical." (Xu Xijin, Dongzhengji, quoted in Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 13)

The Dongzhengji records that in this battle 700 to 800 Japanese ships were burned and hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers killed. And at the end it says:

"Deng Zilong died, and Yi Sun-sin died too."

What Did Chen Lin Himself Write?

For the same Battle of Noryang, there are three records.

The Joseon Haengnok records that the Admiral saved Chen Lin. The Ming Dongzhengji records that Chen Lin went to save the Admiral. And Chen Lin himself wrote in his funeral address that the Admiral saved him.

Whether the Admiral went first to save Chen Lin, or Chen Lin went first, cannot be settled now. It was a fight on the sea at night. Each may have gone to save the other. But one thing is clear. In the writing he put his own name to, Chen Lin did not put forward his own merit. He wrote that the one who saved him was the Admiral.

Closing

Chen Lin was a fierce-tempered, arrogant commander. His men would seize Joseon officials and flog them if the supplies displeased them even a little. The court worried that the Admiral's forces would be pushed around by Chen Lin and defeated once again. (Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, vol. 13, "Gisil")

Four months later, that same Chen Lin offered an address before the Admiral's spirit. In that address there is none of the pride of a Ming commander. There is only a commander who held off the enemy with a worn-out army, a commander who repaired ships without rest, and a commander who saved him.

The single piece of writing Chen Lin left is short, and characters are missing here and there. Even so, there is something in it that no other record has: Chen Lin's own voice.

👉 Next post: ㉞ The History of the Turtle Ship (Geobukseon) Through the Records

— Momcheolhak