DISINTEGRATION OF THE EARLY CHOSON 75a market system financed by a new tax, and that effort was led by active, prag-
matic officials at court, particularly Kim Yuk. Was this kind of reform a kind of
moral capitulation to the fundamental evil of the population in general, their
incapacity to overcome their material desires for profit against the nobler and
disinterested goal of moral cultivation and perfection? Or did it represent an awak-
ening of a hidebound Confucian officialdom to the more progressive and liber-
ating force of free economic activity, or a more flexible approach to reform
designed to find a different method to relieve the public of the graft and cor-
ruption associated with illicit tribute contracting arrangements?
MILITARY DEBACLE: DEFEAT AND RECONSTRUCTION
The Consolidation of Military Power in JapanThere are certain events in human history that appear incomprehensible because
they strike suddenly and unexpectedly, completely disrupting the standards of
life that have prevailed for long periods. Such was Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea
in 1592, the famous Imjin War, that, had the Koreans believed in anything like
the vengeful God Jahweh, would have convinced them that they were being pun-
ished for a millennium of accumulated sins. Lacking such beliefs, however, the
Koreans have been convinced ever since that they were forced to suffer, for no
apparent moral or legitimate reason, a scourge of their people by the barbarous
elements of a totally warlike and uncivilized people. Even though there was noth-
ing in their recent history so heinous as to have justified the trauma and suffer-
ing that they had to undergo at Hideyoshi's hand, the failure of the Koreans at
the time to foresee the tragedy and take the steps necessary to avert disaster has
provided the wherewithal for almost a blanket condemnation of most of the
Korean leaders of the period, save a handful of heroes who fought bravely and
heroically against impossible odds.
Viewed more dispassionately, however, it is possible to see this brutal inva-
sion as the juxtaposition of opposite trends in the histories of Japan and Korea.
Although Hideyoshi's unleashing of the brutal force of his armies against the
innocent people of Korea without ostensible provocation may have been tinged
by the megalomania of an all-powerful military dictator intoxicated by his vic-
tories over all domestic rivals, his decision to launch an invasion of Ming China
through Korea was as much the consequence of the developments under way
since the mid-fifteenth century as his own will and drive.
Hideyoshi's grasp of political power over all of Japan was the consequence
of a century of internecine feudal conflict after the outbreak of the Gnin War
of 1467-77. The feudal lords or daimyo of Japan had expanded their domains
and military power by either defeating their rivals or incorporating them into
their own forces as subordinates. This process of consolidation culminated in
the career of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a peasant who rose from the ranks in the armies
of Oda Nobunaga, who overthrew the Ashikaga Shogun in 1573. Hideyoshi