Past Life Story

In the first year of King Injong, you were born in Hanyang into a yangban family. The clan was the Deoksu Yi, of good name but not wealth. Your father loved learning, and your mother was strict and upright. Her teaching became the lamp of your whole life. "A person must keep his own place." At five you played at war with friends. You were always the captain. To other children it was a delight, but to you it was earnest. If a friend broke discipline, you treated him strictly. Even adults marveled at the gravity of so young a child. At twenty-eight you passed the military examination. It was a late entry, but from then on your true worth became apparent. At a small frontier garrison you struggled against corruption. When superiors ordered unjust deeds, you refused. Several times you were demoted, but you never bent your way. In your forty-eighth year, the Imjin War began. You were then the Naval Commander of the Left Jeolla. While the Japanese landed at Busan, while Hanyang fell, while the king fled to Uiju, you prepared in silence at your post. You built Geobukseon, organized the fleet, drilled your men. In the fifth month of that forty-eighth year, you fought your first naval battle—the Battle of Okpo. Without losing a single ship, you destroyed twenty-six of the enemy's. That was the beginning. From that day, you fought twenty-three battles and won twenty-three. Not a single defeat. At fifty you fought the Battle of Hansando. With the formation called Hagikjin, the Crane-Wing, you overwhelmed the enemy fleet. Of seventy-three enemy ships, you destroyed fifty-nine that day. The king bestowed upon you the office of Samdo Sugun Tongjesa, Naval Commander of Three Provinces. You rose to the place that commanded all the Joseon navy. But your path was not smooth. Through the slander of factional strife, you were reduced to a private soldier in service to the army. You could no longer wear a sword; you put on commoner's clothes and walked to the frontier. You never once resented the king. You only walked your road in silence. That was your loyalty. In your fifty-third year, the second invasion of the Imjin War began. The Joseon navy suffered great defeat at Chilcheollyang. The enemy again sought Hanyang. The king summoned you again. What you received were a mere twelve ships. You sent that famous letter to the king. "Your servant still has twelve ships. If we fight with all our strength, it shall be possible." In the autumn of that fifty-third year, you fought the Battle of Myeongnyang. To stop one hundred thirty-three enemy ships with only twelve. All said it was impossible. But you made it possible. That day you destroyed thirty-one enemy ships, and the enemy retreated. It was not mere victory. It was a miracle. It was a miracle wrought by the will of one human being. In the eleventh month of your fifty-fourth year came the Battle of Noryang. The final battle. The enemy was fleeing, but you would not let them go. "Let not one survive!"—that was your command. In the dawn battle that day, an enemy arrow pierced your chest. You gave your final order to your subordinates. "Do not announce my death. Continue the battle." You departed that day. But your death was not announced that day. Your subordinates kept your command, and the battle ended in victory. The Imjin War ended thus. When the king learned of your death, he wept. The people wept. Your journal—the Nanjung ilgi—was discovered later, and it became the most honest record of one hero. Within those pages, you were not a hero but a single human being. Lonely, fearful, longing for your mother—a single human being. You were not a hero but a man. Yet as a man you did the work of a hero. That was your greatness. Your name—Yi Sun-sin—is engraved forever on the heart of the Korean people. You saved an age, and became the soul of a people.