MILITARY REORGANIZATIO]\; 519
day was that it indicated a continuation of the same deficiencies that had weak-
ened Korean forces before Hideyoshi's invasions over a half-century before.
WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY
Muskets
Yu Songnyong's Praise of Foreign Methods. Yu Hyongwon was inspired by
Yu Songnyong's argument for the importance of weapons and technology. He
was also disturbed about deficiencies in conventional technology, such as poor
workmanship in bows, arrows, spears, and armor, shortages of warships, cav-
alry horses, carts and chariots, poor construction of walls and ramparts, and poorly
maintained beacon warning post -station systems.^49 He also cited Yu Songnyong's
criticism of the inferior and hack ward equipment of Korean troops during the
Imjin War and mentioned that he was among the first to record awareness of the
superiority of the musket to the bow and arrow, especially in its range, a lesson
learned from bitter experience. "When [our] soldiers are lined up against the
enemy ranks, our arrows do not reach the enemy while their musket balls rain
down upon US."5°
Majority opinion during the invasions was opposed to the adoption of the mus-
ket or fowling piece because Korean customs were different from foreigners and
muskets were believed to be either unsuitable to Korea or of no value in war-
fare. Yu Songnyong urged the court to overcome its prejudice against newfan-
gled things, just as other nations, present and past, had gained an advantage by
responding quickly to the superior techniques of their enemies.
If you think the world is divided into geographical regions. that the talents and
skills of each are different, and that those of one region cannot be understood by
another, then how do you explain how [in the Chou period in China] the armored
soldiers of the state of Wu learned from the state of Ch'u her method of fighting
on chariots and in the end was able to subjugate Ch'u?
Even if one does not talk about examples from remote antiquity, in recent
times in China they did not have muskets [either]; they first learned about them
from the Wako pirates in Che-chiang Province. Ch'i Chi-kuang trained troops
in their use for several years until they became one of the skills of the Chinese,
who subsequently used them to defeat the Japanese. .l^1He developed his argument on the superiority of the musket to a general the-
ory of the importance of adaptation and progress:If you look at it from this [point of view], there is not that much difference in
human nature [among different peoplesJ; it is just that their customs are differ-
ent. I have never heard it said thaI something could not be accomplished just