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

516 MILITARY REFORM

these men are plaeed in the midst of arrows and stones where they have to fight

to the death and give their all in the fight to gain a victory over the enemy. Is this

not indeed difficult [for them to do)?3^8

The inadequacies of military training were as serious as backward technol-

ogy. Yu Songnyong, of course, had criticized the lack of training among troops

during the lmjin Wars and blamed it on the practice of excusing men from duty

in return for cloth payments. He also mentioned the laxity of the officers in call-

ing the roll during training sessions, and the general disorganization in the ranks:

In particular, our military system is not in good condition and the standards of

order are in a state of confusion. Our weapons and tools are not 'sharpened' [in

good repair], our ranks are not well ordered, and our pledges [? yaksok] are not

clear. Our soldiers do not hear the beat of the metal drums with their ears nor

distinguish the colors of the I nnil] banners with their eyes. They do not know

what it means to sit [in wait] or to stand, to attack or to thrust. And when all of

a sudden they do meet with a powerful enemy, the officers do not know their

troops, nor the troops their officers, and they are broken up like clods of earth

and smashed like tiles.")

He citcd eho Hon, who had also criticized the absence of regular training exer-
cises, the lack of organization and discipline during training sessions after his
return from his trip to China:

The ranks of the troops are not clear and the banners drums are not in order,

and anyone who observed them would think that they only look like little chil-

dren at play. If it is like this in peacetime. what could we do during wartime?

Even though we have regulations requiring soldiers on duty to train in shooting

and take military examinations, the officials in charge of training only receive a

piece of paper [affidavit?) from the absentees [who receive 1 absolutely no train-

ing in the methods of shooting the bow and arrow .... [In China, by contrast].

the men engage in military training every day, so that there is no concern about

the state of the army.40

Yu Hyongwon, writing almost a century later, also felt that the regulations for
training of both duty and off-duty soldiers and periodic testing of their skills was
lax and that the country lacked a reserve guard, obviously a problem derivative
of the substitution of cloth taxes for service and training. As we will see, his
concerns were reflected in his extensive proposals for the training of all kinds
of troops on a regular basis. The officers were even more of a problem, for they
were not selected on the basis of skill or ability.41