[258] Dispatch of 14/6/Wanli 20 (July 22, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 42; diary entry for 29/5/Imjin (July 8, 1592), Yi Sun-in, Nanjung ilgi, 5.
[259] Japanese accounts of the Battle of Tangpo state that Kurushima, upon seeing the destruction of his men and ships, landed on a nearby island and committed seppuku, the ritual act of suicide (Murdoch, 336).
[260] Dispatch of 14/6/Wanli 20 (July 22, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 43.
[261] Ibid., 44.
[262] Park Yune-hee, 158; Sadler, “Naval Campaign,” 192; George Kerr, Okinawa. The History of an Island People (Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1958), 151-152 and 155.
[263] The names of Yi Sun-sin, Commander of the Cholla Left Navy, and Lee Sun-sin, captain of the Pangtap port under the senior Yi’s command, are composed of different Chinese characters but pronounced the same, and thus easily confused. To distinguish between them I have used the respective surnames “Yi” and “Lee,” which are both common English renderings of the single Korean surname.
[264] Dispatch of 14/6/Wanli 20 (July 22, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 48; Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 304, 21/6/Sonjo 25 (July 29, 1592).
[265] “Three Strategies of Huang Shih-kung,” in Sawyer, 297. (The “Three Strategies” dates from the end of the first century B.C.)
[266] Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 56; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 257, (6/Sonjo 25; July 1592).
[267] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 124 (1/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 5, 1592).
[268] Alexander Kiralfy, “Japanese Naval Strategy,” in Makers of Modern Strategy. Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, ed. Edward Mead Earle (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1943), 464-465; Ballard, 51; Turnbull, Military History, 213.
Chapter 11: On to Pyongyang
[269] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 210 (2/5/Sonjo 25; June 11, 1592); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 245 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592). The top three posts in Korea’s uijongbu, or State Council, were yonguijong, chwauijong, and u-uijong, which I have translated respectively as Prime Minister, Minister of the Left, and Minister of the Right. These titles are also sometimes rendered as Chief State Councilor, Second State Councilor, and Third State Councilor.
[270] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 216-217 and 221 (3/5/Sonjo 25; June 12, 1592); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 245-246 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592).
[271] Yu Song-nyong, 78-79.
[272] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 308 (4/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 6, 1593); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 41 (11/Sonjo 26; Nov.-Dec. 1593).
[273] Han Myong-ki, Imjin waeran hanchung kwangye (Seoul: Yuksa bibyongsa, 1999), 430.
[274] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 24-25.
[275] W. G. Aston, Hideyoshi’s Invasion of Korea (Tokyo: Ryubun-kwan, 1907), 21; Gari Ledyard, “Confucianism and War: The Korean Security Crisis of 1598,” The Journal of Korean Studies 6 (1988-89): 84-85.
[276] Ray Huang, “Lung ch’ing,” 566-567; Goodrich, vol. 1, 830-832.
[277] Letter dated 16/5 (June 25), 1592, in Park Yune-hee, 112-113.
[278] Aston, 14-15.
[279] “Wei Liao-tzu,” in Sawyer, 258.
[280] Yu Song-nyong, 86-87; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 247-248 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592).
[281] Hulbert, vol. 1, 372-373; Jones, 182-183.
[282] Giles, 77.
[283] Ibid., 6-7.
[284] “The Methods of Ssu-ma,” in Sawyer, 142.
[285] Yu Song-nyong, 88-90; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 247 (5/Sonjo 25; June 1592); Hulbert, vol. 1, 379-382; Murdoch, 326-329.
[286] Kato Kiyomasa to Hideyoshi, 1/6/Bunroku 1 (July 9, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 118-119.
[287] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 270-272 (2/6/Sonjo 25; July 10, 1592). Chong Chol accompanied King Sonjo north to Uiju following his return from exile, and in 1593 was sent on a mission to China to express Korea’s thanks for its military assistance in the war. Later that year he was forced to resign from office again by renewed Easterner pressure. He spent his last days in quiet retirement on Kanghwa Island, where he died on February 7, 1594.
[288] Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 137.
[289] “The Methods of Ssu-ma,” in Sawyer, 139.
[290] Yu Song-nyong, 98-100.
[291] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 276-277 (9/6/Sonjo 25; July 17, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 102-103; Pak Dong-ryang, “Kigae sacho,” in Saryoro bonun, 68-69.
[292] The Chinese military classic Wei Liao-tzu lists the following rule for holding a city wall: “The rule for defending a city wall is that for every chang [ten feet], you should employ ten men to defend it, artisans and cooks not being included. Those who go out [to fight] do not defend the city; those who defend the city do not go out [to fight]” (Sawyer, 253).
[293] Yu Song-nyong, 111-112; Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 294 (15/6/Sonjo 25; July 23, 1592); Aston, 20-21; Hulbert, vol. 1, 386-387.
[294] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 301 (19/6/Sonjo 25; July 27, 1592).
[295] Yu Song-nyong, 112-113; Park Yune-hee, 117-118. One hundred thousand sok of rice equals approximately 7,200 metric tons.
[296] Yu Song-nyong, 114-118; Hulbert, vol. 1, 388.
[297] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 284-287 (13/6/Sonjo 25; July 21, 1592).
[298] Ibid., 299 (18/6/Sonjo 25; July 26, 1592); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 267 (6/Sonjo 25; July 1592).
[299] Sonjo sillok, vol. 5, 306 (22/6/Sonjo 25; July 30, 1592).
[300] Ha Tae-hung, Behind the Scenes, 170.
Chapter 12: The Battle for the Yellow Sea
[301] Hideyoshi to Wakizaka Yasuharu, 23/6/Bunroku 1 (July 31, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 159.
[302] Yu Song-nyong, 129.
[303] Yi Sun-sin does not give a precise number in his battle report. According to the Japanese chronicle Korai funa senki, however, at the coming Battle of Angolpo, “Among the large [Korean] ships were three mekura-bune [blind ships, i.e. turtle ships]” (Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 106).
[304] Dispatch of 15/7/Wanli 20 (Aug. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 59. The enemy commander Yi refers to may have been Wakizaka Sabei or Watanabe Shichiemon, who served under fleet commander Wakizaka Yasuharu and are known to have been killed in the battle.
[305] Ibid., 56-60; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 279 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).
[306] Wakizaka ki, in Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 104.
[307] Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 56, footnote; Park Yune-hee, 165.
[308] Dispatch of 15/7/Wanli 20 (Aug. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 62-63.
[309] Ibid., 61; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 279 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).
[310] Dispatch of 10/9/Wanli 20 (Oct. 14, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 76.
[311] Yi Pun, 215.
[312] Hideyoshi to Todo Sado no Kami (Todo Takatora), 16/7/Tensho 20 (Aug. 23, 1592), Elisonas, “Trinity,” 279, n. 66; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 107.
[313] Yu Song-nyong, 129.
[314] For example: “So ended, we may well believe, one of the greatest naval battles of the world….It signed the death-warrant of the invasion. It frustrated the great motive of the invasion, the humbling of China” (Hulbert, vol. 1, 400.) Also: “[I]t was a naval battle that really decided the campaign and saved Korea, even when a hostile force of close to two hundred thousand of the finest soldiers of the age were encamped upon her soil” (Murdoch, 337).
Chapter 13: “To me the Japanese robber army will be but a swarm of ants and wasps”
[315] “Wei Liao-tzu,” in Sawyer, 243.
[316] Yu Song-nyong, 125; Kuno, vol. 1, 156; Hulbert, vol. 1, 400.
[317] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 35 (20/7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 26, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 124-126; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 135-136.
[318] Yu Song-nyong, 124-126; Ryusaku Tsunoda, trans., and L. Carrington Goodrich, ed., Japan in the Chinese Dynastic Histories. Later Han Through Ming Dynasties (South Pasadena, Calif.: P. D. and Ione Perkins, 1951), 142; Hulbert, vol. 1, 401.
[319] Yu Song-nyong, 135.
[320] Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 136.
[321] Kuno, vol. 1, 156.
[322] Ibid., 157.
[323] Lee Hyoun-jong, 13-24.
[324] Kuno, vol. 1, 159.
[325] Dispatch of 17/9/Wanli 20 (Oct. 21, 1592), Yi Sun-sin, Imjin changch’o, 72.
[326] Ibid., 69-75; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 287 (8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 1592).
[327] The Koreans also were not eager to accept help from Nurhaci. Yu Song-nyong in particular sent a petition to King Sonjo in October urging him to reject the offer.
[328] Tsunoda and Goodrich, 142; Goodrich, vol. 1, 730-731.
[329] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 106-108 (17-18/8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 22-23, 1592).
[330] Aston, 25.
[331] Ibid., 24-25; Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 137-138 (8/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 12, 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 135-136.
[332] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 132 (4/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 8, 1592).
[333] Goodrich, vol. 1, 830-832.
[334] Ibid., 830-832.
[335] Stramigioli, 99-103.
Chapter 14: A Castle at Fushimi
[336] Sansom, 363.
[337] Hideyoshi to Koya, no date (1589), in Boscaro, Letters, 34. Koya was a lady-in-waiting to Hideyoshi’s wife, O-Ne, who in turn took responsibility for the care of Hideyoshi’s mother.
[338] Hideyoshi to Lady O-Mandokoro, 1/5/Tensho 18 (June 2, 1590), ibid., 38-39.
[339] Sansom, 363.
[340] Yamakichi (Yamanaka Kichinai) to Ladies Higashi and Kiyakushin (ladies-in-waiting to Hideyoshi’s wife), 18/5/Bunroku 1 (June 27, 1592), in Kuno. vol. 1, 319-320.
[341] Hideyoshi to Maeda Gen’i, 11/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 13, 1593), in Boscaro, Letters, 48.
[342] Sen Soshitsu XV, 392.
[343] Hideyoshi to Maa (his youngest concubine), 26/12/Bunroku 1 (Jan. 28, 1593), in Boscaro, Letters, 49.
Chapter 15: Suppression and Resistance
[344] Letter dated 26/5/Bunroku 1 (July 5, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 112.
[345] Elisonas, “Trinity,” 275.
[346] Imperial Japanese Commission, History of the Empire of Japan (Tokyo: Dai Nippon Tosho Kabushiki Kwaisha, 1893), 281-282.
[347] Kato Kiyomasa to Hideyoshi, 1/6/Bunroku 1 (July 9, 1592), in Park Yune-hee, 118.
[348] Yu Song-nyong, 91.
[349] Yu Song-nyong, 92; Hulbert, vol. 1, 389-390.
[350] Elisonas, “Trinity,” 275.
[351] Yi Sik, “Yasa chobon,” in Saryoro bonun, 126-128; Yu Song-nyong, 92-93; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 281-283 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).
[352] Shimokawa Heidayu, “Kiyomasa Korai no jin oboegaki,” in Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 79.
[353] Kato Kiyomasa to Ki(noshita) Hanasuke, 20/9/Bunroku 1 (Oct. 25, 1592), in Elisonas, “Trinity,” 275-276.
[354] Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 82.
[355] Ha Tae-hung, Behind the Scenes, 173.
[356] Yun Hyong-gi, “Choya chomjae,” in Saryoro bonun, 106.
[357] Pak Dong-ryang, “Kijae sacho,” in Saryoro bonun, 108; Yu Song-nyong, 145-146.
[358] Ha Tae-hung, Behind the Scenes, 173-174; Hulbert, vol. 1, 392.
[359] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 76 (7/8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 12, 1592); Hulbert, vol. 1, 393.
[360] Yun Hyong-gi, “Choya chomjae,” in Saryoro bonun, 106; “Somyo chunghung-gi,” ibid., 106-107; Hanguk chongsin, vol. 1, 111-112.
[361] “Sonmyo bugam,” in Saryoro bonun, 120.
[362] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 283-285 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592); “Sonmyo bugam,” in Saryoro bonun, 121-122; Yi Myong-han, “Baekju-chip,” ibid., 123-125; Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 402.
[363] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 32-33 (6/Sonjo 26; July 1593); Hulbert, vol. 1, 394.
[364] Hankuk chongsin, vol. 1, 485-486; Yu Song-nyong, 145; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 276 (6/Sonjo 25; July 1592), and 286 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592); Hulbert, vol. 1, 395-396; Jones, 188.
[365] Yi Su-kwang, “Chibongyusol,” in Saryoro bonun,110; Mun Yol-kong, “Cho Hon shindobi,” ibid., 111.
[366] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 25-26.
[367] Ibid., 26-28.
[368] Ibid., 81-82.
[369] “Chungbong Choson saenghaengjang,” in Saryoro bonun, 113-114; Samuel Dukhae Kim, 80-84; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 288 (8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 1592); Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 455.
[370] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 86-89; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 294-295 (8/Sonjo 25; Sept. 1592).
[371] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 86-90.
[372] Shin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in Saryoro bonun, 132-134; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 307 (9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 1592); Jones, 187-188.
[373] William Griffis, quoted in Boots, 36-37.
[374] Yu Song-nyong, 143; Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 514.
[375] Hulbert, vol. 1, 407.
[376] Quoted in Yang Jae-suk, Dashi ssunun, vol. 1, 193.
[377] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 305-306 (9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 1592).
[378] Yang Jae-suk, Dashi ssunun, vol. 1, 192-193; Yu Song-nyong, 143-144; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 125; Hulbert, vol. 1, 407-408; Joseph Longford, The Story of Korea (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1911), 164-165. Korean historian Choi Du-hwan successfully test fired a reconstructed pigyok chinchollae from a daewangu mortar for a television program on Korea’s KBS TV on January 12, 2002. The delayed fuse worked perfectly. The only problem was that the sphere, which was made from heavy cast iron based on archaeological finds, did not explode apart when the gunpowder ignited. The lid sealing the top of the device where the fuse was inserted simply blew off and the shrapnel packed inside blasted out of the hole. (The lid on the test-fired device was held in place by metal wedges tapped into the gaps around the edge.)
[379] Hanguk chongsin, vol. 1, 344; Palais, Confucian Statecraft, 84-85.
[380] Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 129. The Japanese naginata, comparable to the European glaive, was a polearm with a knife-like blade on the end. The Korean version featured a wider and heavier blade than the Japanese, and would have been a fearsome thing to have thrust in one’s face.
[381] Heung Yang-ho, “Haedong myongjangchon,” in Saryoro bonun, 144-147; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 310-311 (10/Sonjo 25; Nov. 1592); Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 556; Hulbert, vol. 1, 406-407; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 129-130.
Chapter 16: Saving History
[382] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 146-147 (13/9/Sonjo 25; Oct. 17, 1592); Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 278 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592); Yu Song-nyong, 133.
[383] Munhon pigo, quoted in G. M. McCune, “The Yi Dynasty Annals of Korea,” Transactions of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 29 (1939): 63, n. 7.
[384] Kukcho pogam, ibid., 58.
[385] McCune, 74-76; Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 278 (7/Sonjo 25; Aug. 1592).
PART 4: STALEMATE
[386] “Wu-tzu,” in Sawyer, 208.
Chapter 17: The Retreat from Pyongyang to the “River of Hell”
[387] Hints of a general lack of enthusiasm for the Korean campaign were now beginning to appear in letters sent home from the front (Sansom, 357). In letters home dated August 17 and 20, 1593, Date Masamune attributes the deaths of many Japanese troops to the fact that “the water in this country is different.” They were likely contracting cholera or typhus. Date also speaks of an outbreak of beriberi in which eight of ten sufferers died (Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 155).
[388] Ibid., 151. Turnbull concludes that by April 1593 the Japanese had 53,000 men left from their original 158,800-man invasion force. This loss, representing an overall decline of nearly sixty-seven percent, appears too high, for it exceeds the sixty-five percent loss sustained by Konishi’s first contingent, which Turnbull states “suffered the most.” (The figure of 53,000 more likely represents the number of troops in Seoul at that time.) A more accurate loss figure is provided by the Jesuit father Luis Frois, who was close to Konishi Yukinaga. Frois wrote that of the 150,000 Japanese soldiers and laborers who crossed to Korea in 1592, one third died, mostly the victims of disease, hunger, exhaustion, and cold (Luis Frois, Historia de Japan, ed. Josef Wicki (Lisbon: Bilioteca Nacional de Lisboa, 1976-1982), vol. 5, 599).
[
389] Elisonas, “Trinity,” 276.
[390] Goodrich, vol. 1, 832; Huang, “Lung-ch’ing,” 568.
[391] Huang, 1587, 179-180; Chan, 55.
[392] Chan, 205-207.
[393] Stamigioli, 103; Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 295-297 (30/11/Sonjo 25; Jan. 2, 1593), and 304 (3/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 5, 1593).
[394] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 305 (3/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 5, 1593). Yun Gun-su was at this time the Minister of the Board of Rites.
[395] Kuno, vol. 1, 162.
[396] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 368-369 (25/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 27, 1593).
[397] Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 3, 322 (12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 1593).
[398] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 90 and 92.
[399] Yi Hyong-sok, vol. 1, 650-651. In a meeting with King Sonjo, Yi Dok-hyong estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 Japanese troops were stationed at Pyongyang. (Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 371 [27/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 29, 1593]).
[400] Yu Song-nyong, 155.
[401] Ibid.
[402] Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 26 (11/1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 11, 1593).
[403] Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 140.
[404] Sonjo sillok, vol. 6, 368-369 (25/12/Sonjo 25; Jan. 27, 1593).
[405] Ibid., vol. 7, 26 (11/1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 11, 1593).
[406] Samuel Dukhae Kim, 92-93; Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 139.
[407] Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 25-28 (11/1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 11, 1593); Yu Song-nyong, 156-157.
[408] Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 28 (11/1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 11, 1593); Sin Kyong, “Chaejo bonbangji,” in Saryoro bonun, 161; J. S. Gale, James Scarth Gale and His History of the Korean People, ed. Richard Rutt (Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, 1972), 262-263.
[409] Yoshino Jingozaemon oboegaki, in Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 141.
[410] Hulbert, vol. 2, 7.
[411] Goodrich, vol. 1, 833.
[412] Ibid.
[413] Sonjo sillok, vol. 7, 28 (11/1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 11, 1593).
[414] Yoshino Jingozaemon oboegaki, in Turnbull, Samurai Invasion, 142.
[415] Yu Song-nyong, 161-162.
[416] The Imjin River at this time of year was said to have posed a considerable obstacle, for with the warming of the weather the ice had broken into a welter of grinding blocks, making it difficult to take a boat across. The Koreans solved this problem by throwing a rope bridge made from arrowroot vines across the river, a feat that has been hailed as the world’s first suspension bridge (Hulbert, vol. 2, 8-9). With the ice preventing supporting piles from being driven into the riverbed at midstream, two thick cables were stretched across the river, suspended from a framework of heavy timbers on either bank, and were twisted and thus tightened until they hung well clear of the water and the ice. Willow branches were then laid between them and dirt packed on top to make a walkway. With this structure in place, the allied troops were able to cross the river in safety. (Sonjo sujong sillok, vol. 4, 8-9 [1/Sonjo 26; Feb. 1593]).
The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China Page 72