MILITARY REORGANIZATION 531MILITARY EDUCATION AND THE TOTALLY
MOBILIZED POPULATION
One of the major themes of twentieth-century observers of the Choson dynasty
particularly during the difficult years of the Hideyoshi and Manchu invasions
from 1592 to 1637 has been the conclusion that the weakness of the Korean mil-
itary was largely the product of the Confucian emphasis on literary culture and
civil officials at the expense of military affairs and training. Had it not been for
this deleterious influence of Confucian education and morality, a more efficient,
dedicated, and patriotic officialdom would never have allowed national defense
to deteriorate.
Choson dynasty reformers in the seventeenth century, however, were not will-
ing to admit that the main cause of military weakness was Confucian education
and values. On the contrary, men like Yu Hy6ngwon wcre convinced that the
flawed men of their dynasty had misconstrued the true Confucian message in a
number of ways by overemphasizing literary culture at the expense of the proper
balance between civic pursuits and military training that was the hallmark of
the classical age.
In his discussion of the role of the provincial governor and provincial mili-
tary commander, for example, Yu wanted to remove the distinction between civil
and military affairs. His application of this principle was not confined merely
to the commanding officers of the province, but also to the district magistrates,
the general population, and even the nature of knowledge and training. He
believed that once a distinction was made between soldiers and people, the fun-
damental unity and solidarity of classical times was destroyed beyond repair.
Then in peacetime the soldiers became oppressors of the people and the culti-
vated scholars who received no military training were no different from "deli-
cate and tender women and children" when they had to fight. Under the ancient
Chou system the commanders of units in the military chain of command dur-
ing wartime would become officials in charge of the districts in the civil hier-
archy during peacetime. The ideal type of leader, the sa (shih in Chinese, a term
that meant warrior elite in the Chou, but changed to scholar or scholar-official
by the late Chou and Han), engaged in what Yu called Practical Learning (Sirhak).
which was required before they could become garrison commanders.
Since the term Sirhak has becn applied by most twentieth-century scholars
to the entire corpus of Yu Hyongwon's writing, it would be of some interest to
sec what he himself meant by the term in one of the few times he used it. In this
case he meant the Chou ideal of broad and catholic learning extending to the
military arts as well as classical literature and history. Hc contrasted it with nar-
row and specialized learning that appeared after the deplorable division of gen-
eral knowledge into parts, a trend that accompanied the disappearance of the
liberally educated generalists of Chou times and the risc of the narrow military
and literary specialists of the post-Chou era.
"In later ages letters became the occupation of people who used pen and ink