Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions. Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty - James B. Palais

PART IV

Military Reform

INTRODUCTION

Yu Hyongwon began writing his Pan' gye surok around 1650, thirteen years after
the humiliating Manchu invasion of 1637. The situation in the middle of the
seventeenth century had changed significantly since the circumstances existing
just prior to Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in 1592. For the next two hundred
years the threat of foreign invasion would decline significantly, but the risk of
domestic rebellion would increase. After the Yi K wal rebellion of 1624, Kim Ik
attempted a coup d'etat against King Hyojong in 1651, and members of the Dis-
ciple's Faction rose up in rebellion against King YOngjo in 1728. In the nine-
teenth century, Hong Kyongnae led a rebellion in the northwest in 1812, and
the largest domestic rebellion of the dynasty broke out in the south and else-
where in 1862. Because sufficient force was needed to defend the throne against
these domestic threats, there was a change in thinking among kings and gov-
ernment officials about the optimum deployment of divisions throughout the
country.
Significant changes had also taken place in the nature of the Choson military
system as well. The Five Guard system of the early Choson system had been
abandoned and replaced by the Five Military Divisions created since 1592 and
most of the new units were controlled by political generals who used them as a
basis of power for themselves and their factional associates. After 1659, polit-
ical factionalism became more intense, creating a greater potential for domes-
tic trouble and maintaining the necessity for adequate military forces, thereby
reducing the benefits that international peace should have brought to the body
politic.
The late Ming method of troop organization based on the incorporation and
integration of musketeer squads with archers and spearmen had spread through-
out the army and the need for cannon. gunpowder, ammunition, and fortifIca-
tions increased. These requirements, in addition to the addition of new units and
divisions, created a greater financial burden than in earlier times.

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