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Excerpted from his paper:
ADMIRAL YI SUN-SIN AND THE ART OF WAR:
APPLICATION OF THE SEVEN MILITARY CLASSICS OF ANCIENT CHINA
IN THE IMJIN WAR
http://www.intellisys.net/kuksool/admiral_yi.htm
Prepared for
Prof. Milan Hejtmanek
Korean History 111 -- HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Jan 10, 1997
Admiral Yi and (Awesomeness)
All of the Seven Military Classics cover generalship and what it means to be a good general in battle and how to
motivate the soldiers. King Songjo was very fortunate because Admiral Yi embodied many, if not all, of the qualities
of the good general. As Wu-Tzu said, "Now the commanding general of the Three Armies should combine both
military and civilian abilities. The employment of soldiers requires uniting both hardness and softness. In general when
people discuss generalship, they usually focus on courage. However, courage is but one of a general's many
characteristics . . . ."
The one characteristic that Admiral Yi must have had and cultivated is the concept of (Wei). Sawyer translates this as
"awesomeness".
In antiquity as today, the image of authority frequently constituted the real and frequently the only basis of power and means of
controlling men. Wei, which is perhaps best translated as "awesomeness", is a term commonly employed to describe the aura of the
authoritative figure. According to Confucius, wei is the image, the impact of the man of righteousness when he dons his armor. It is
the ultimate power of a general or the remoteness of a ruler wielding the might of a trembling empire.
To analyze what motivated the men to row their way deep into Pusan Harbor to repeatedly attack the enemy under a
barrage of enemy fire, one can only think that Admiral Yi must possess the Wei (awesomeness). Without it Admiral
Yi would have lost the allegiance of his men. He would have been an impotent admiral whose men would have not
followed him into battle. Worse, his orders and commands would have been simply ignored. These Korean sailors
and local magistrates, even if they were loyal patriots or dedicated soldiers, were unlikely to have motivated
themselves to show such courage. It takes a special general who can lead a group of men to walk into death together.
To better understand the difficult situation Admiral Yi faced, his 32nd Memorial to Court, "State of the Navy and
Comparison of Land and Sea Battle," is presented below:
I memorialize the throne for recommendations.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I, as a common sailor, have fought many sea battles, so I take the liberty of comparing the easy and hard points in land and sea
battles. Among our Korean people, out of every ten there are eight or nine fainthearted persons as against one or two lion hearts.
Even in peace-time, when a crowd of people hears some terrorizing rumor, they stampede to take the lead in a race from the scene to
save their own lives. Even though a brave individual remains at the scene unafraid, how can he be expected to fight alone and die on
the enemy's lashing sword? Had they entrusted many choice recruits to the valiant and intelligent commanders to train and lead to
war, today's emergency should not have come to this tragic end.
In sea battle, all the sailors take one boat, and they cannot run away at the sight of the enemy vessels even though they wish to do
so, because the supervising officers wave flags and beat the drum to row fast and charge into the enemy position, and kill them
outright if they disobey the order. There is no alternative [author's emphasis]. The sailors must fight with their whole might - much
more, the Turtle Ship dashes in front and the board-roofed ships follow after, shooting cannons marked "Earth" and "Black", and
pouring down fire-balls and mortal arrows like rain and hailstones until the enemy loses his morale and his bleeding warriors drop
into the water like falling leaves in the autumn wind.
The emphasis in the memorial ". . . kill them outright if they disobey the order. There is no alternative." is haunting.
Admiral Yi was not a cruel man. He was also not an overzealous patriot who would throw himself and his sailors at
the enemy needlessly (meaning a suicide charge). Admiral Yi was simply so pragmatic that he made the rules very
simple. There would be no indecision or confusion on the part of his men, especially during the heat of the battle.
Sawyer explains that this concept of rewards and punishments are one of the two elements of Wei. As Huang
Shih-kung says in the Three Strategies, "Rewards and Punishments must be certain as Heaven and Earth, for then
the general can employ the men." Tai Kung's Six Secret Teachings says it little differently, " In general, in employing
rewards one values credibility; in employing punishments one values certainty."
An extreme example of Admiral Yi using the Wei's concept of rewards and punishments comes directly out of the
military classics. In Wei Liao-Tzu, Chapter 8, "Martial Plans", it states, "In general, executions provide the means to
illuminate the martial. If by executing one man the entire army will quake, kill him." In his famous stand off against the
Japanese at the Miracle of Myongnyang in 1597, Admiral Yi had twelve ships against three hundred. He had his
flagship anchored at the throat of the narrow channel and held his position while the other ships were waiting behind
him. As the enemy advanced on him, his subordinate officers gave him up for dead and started to retreat. At this
critical juncture, Admiral Yi "whipped off the neck of a sailor rowing back and hung it up high on the ship's mast, then
roared 'Attack!' " This decapitation seems harsh and cruel, but it must have worked in galvanizing the men. Admiral
Yi and his twelve ships destroyed 133 ships that day.
In all fairness to Admiral Yi, there are many, many more examples of him employing rewards. After the defeat of the
enemy in the third campaign at Hansando, he shared the spoils of war with his men. In fact, Admiral Yi is famous for
his benevolence to the local populace. Under Admiral Yi's guidance and protection, many refugees resettled into his
district and began to cultivate rice again. However, the focus of this section was to understand the extreme measures
of Wei (awesomeness) used by Admiral Yi.
CONCLUSION
From analyzing in detail Admiral Yi Sun-sin's tactics used in the first year of the Imjin War, a clear and consistent
pattern of tactics from the Seven Military Classics emerges. It is evident Admiral Yi was familiar with the military
classics, especially since he was a military exam passer. The Seven Military Classics are part of the exam. However,
it is truly remarkable that among the many thousands of military exam passers in the Choson Dynasty; only Admiral Yi
emerges as a military general who completely mastered the military classics. He proved it in his battles in the Imjin
War. A rough tally shows his navy sank or destroyed by fire over three hundred Japanese ships in the first four naval
campaigns.
Admiral Yi's naval campaigns were compared to two historic naval battles which also occurred in the late sixteenth
century. What stands out is the Japanese invasion force was still using the boarding tactics as found in the Battle of
Lepanto. The reason was simple. Hideyoshi's main objective was to invade and conquer Asia -- and that required
soldiers with muskets. The muskets proved to be useful on land, but not at sea. The Koreans, on the other hand, had
developed some very powerful cannons. Originally manufactured to protect fortresses, the Koreans soon figured out
how to put them on ships. The impetus to do so came from two hundred years of Wako pirate raids on Korea.
The Koreans like the English in the Defeat of the Spanish Armada had superiority over its enemies with fast,
maneuverable warships. Both countries adapted these sea-fighting techniques to combat against an enemy whose
strengths lay in its soldiers and boarding tactics. However, the Defeat of the Spanish Armada ended in a draw;
whereas, Admiral Yi was decisive in his victories. He won every battle in 1592 against a far larger number of enemy
ships without losing a single warship of his own! Even Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake can not make that
claim in 1588.
It is easy to immortalize Yi Sun-sin as a great national hero because his naval victories contributed to the failure of the
Hideyoshi Invasion. Yet, Admiral Yi was much more than a great military leader. He was an astute student of both
military and literary Chinese classics -- he was a true soldier-scholar in the tradition of General Robert E. Lee and
General Douglas MacArthur. Not only did he study the classics as many others have done, he actually knew how to
apply the ancient principles to his contemporary times. Admiral Yi certainly stands out as embodying all aspects of the
sage general.
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