Why didnt koreans use swords?

[kimchi guest]

whenever u see koreans fighting hand 2 hand combat u rarely see the korean soldiers using swords but they use those spear things. why didnt the korean soldiers use swords?

[donilpark]

You have to remember that the drama is poor on showing us the real army equipment used at the time. You see Korean soldiers only using the trident (or Tangpachang), but surely there were hundreds of other types of weapons.
They just sort of stylized the Korean army and fixed its image with the uniform and weapon you see in the drama.
Also, sword was never the standard equipment of Korean army.
And despite what the drama, games, anime or whatever led you to think, sword was not the standard equipment of Japanese army either.
For both, it was spears. (besides from the projectile weapons)
Swords may have been used in 1 on 1 duel, but in a large scale battle, sword is not the best weapon of choice.
It's relatively easier to train soldiers how to use spears too; far easier than training them with swords.

[Choko]

According to the book named "Muyedobotongji (무예도보통지)" written by Park Je-ga and Yi Deok-mu under the command of King Jeong-jo in 1790...

"Chosun has valued archery above everything else. Other martial arts such as swordmanship and spearmanship have not been properly trained although we have those weapons in our hands. Therefore, when Japanese soldiers made a dash in a combat (during the Imjin war), Chosun soldiers were not able to draw their sword or thrust their spear before the enemy brandished a sword. That's because our arts of sword and spear have not been put on record.... " (So, they wrote this book blah blah....)

우리나라에는 예로부터 전하는 것이 오직 활쏘기 일기뿐이고 검·창 등은 한갓 그 기구가 있을 뿐 이를 익히고 쓰지 않았다…따라서 왜인과 싸움에 있어 왜병이 돌진해 오면 아군은 비록 창을 갖고 검을 차고 있으면서도 검은 칼집에서 나올 틈이 없고 창은 적의 그것과 맞서보지도 못하고 모두 적의 칼날에 쓰러지고 만다． 이러한 까닭은 전혀 검·창의 습법이 전해지지 않았기 때문이다

[FrederickII]

Choko

Do you know if there are translations of Korean books into English such as :THe Legeng of King Dongmyeong"? as well as the one you mention above?
?

[Choko]

No, I've never heard of it.

[TheBo]

blah, blah, blah? Hah, hah. So funny. Thank you, Choko, that makes so much sense now.

I am reminded of a show I saw yesterday, oh, I look back in nostalgic haze... Anywho, I'm sort of a Stargate junkie and on Sci-Fi channel they had a show about the new season where they asked one of the characters why everyone just walks around on the planets and doesn't have hovercraft or small airships or something, and he looks at the camera and says, "Money. They only have so much MONEY to spend on the series, so they aren't going to have a whole bunch of special effects when people can just walk around." So, even though they couldn't work with swords for the reasons quoted by Choko, I think it's a similar situation with the range of weaponry and costumery on these TV shows. Aside from the fact that things probably didn't change too much in the span of time we're seeing on the various TV shows, they've got a "historical drama" expectation set up in people's minds, that weapons look like so and uniforms look like such, just like the expectation that historical actors talk deep in their throats and modern ones talk more normally. It's a special set of cliches for the drama audience to know immediately what is going on. Come to think of it, just like the set of expectations sci-fi fans have for what the "future" will be and look like--dark, grey and oppressive.

Whew. Blah, blah, blah...

Bo

[JPh]

A spear vs sword. Which will win? Sword is glamorous, but I bet my odds on the spear which can knock the sword out of the hands of the swordsman..

[ronin]

Japanese fought in line formation when they were using arquebusiers like the Europeans. One line would fire, while the line behind them would reload, light the match, and fire. But in this show they fire like it was an automatic or semi-automatic M-16A2 rifle or AK-47 rifle. During the later part of the Sengoku Jidai and in the Imjin war, it was mostly arquebusier rifles. Their foot infantry also mostly used yari spears when fighting in close quarter combat against enemy foot infantry or to guard against cavalry attack. Cavalry used swords or yari spears for attacking. The Samurai foot infantry did use much longer two handed swords in combat called the no-dachi but they mostly used yari spears. You can find out more info here: www.geocities.com/klancesegall/5.htm
They would also fight together in formation not individually in a martial arts showdown like in this show. This is what their formation might be: www.ezgame.com/Takeda/gallery_formations.html
Here’s some examples:
Battle of Nagashino (the dark cloud is gunsmoke)

[Kimchee755]

WhOA!!! is this a real game, i didnt even know u can create thease many soldiers or have over 100 on a screen, is this game availible in the united states?

[BungalowDweller]

Thanks for the links, ronin! My husband will have a lot of fun with this.

[moreshige unlogged]

This game has been around for years already. The latest version is called ROME TOTAL WAR

[Kimchee755]

Oh, iv'e heard of eat its just that im use to seeing no more than 100 soldiers on a screen since im use to playing warcraft 3, Rise of nations, age of mythology on which u can no more 100 people+soldiers.

[ronin]

The game is called Shogun Total War. It’s made by a gaming company from the UK called Creative Assembly. Here’s their website: www.totalwar.com/ I’m a frequent member of their board. They should have the CD Jewel Case under $10 in the bargain bins in Gamestop.com stores, EB Games, or CompUSA. Check it around. It’s an old game now. I think I got the complete box around Spring 2002 at CompUSA along with Operation Flashpoint and GTA3 for the PC. They also did Medieval Total War and Rome Total War. In order to win in this game you have to study Sun Tzu’s Art of War. You have to build two types of armies. Your regular army to fight in the battlefied and your “army of darkness”. That is you build a special forces army of spies(shinobis), ninjas, and Geisha Assassins to monitor troop movements of your enemy’s army, cause rebellions in your enemys’ provinces or assassinate emissaries and heirs or other daimyos. You also accept trade with foreign gaijin, Portuguese or Dutch merchant mariner traders. I like Shogun and Medieval Total War better despite a few historical inaccuracies with the family clans and missing medieval european kingdoms and barbarian tribes in the game. In Medieval Total War you can have holy wars like in real history such as Crusades or Jihads . This is a panorimage of Medieval Total War
click here
I’m waiting for another Roman game to come out called Legion II. It’s made by another UK gaming company called Slitherine. The units in Legion II are more diverse looking than Rome Total War where everyone looks like clones. Here’s the website: Slitherine Company
Here’s screenshot preview of their upcoming game. screenshots I don’t want to post their screenshots on another messageboard like here because it might be copyrighted. I plan on building a new gaming computer to play that game. I’m hoping they do Spartan again or Chariots of War. I’m interested in ancient Greek history and Egyptian/Mesopotamian/Levantine history during biblical times. BTW, here’s some info of real battle formations the Daimyos and their taishos used in the battlefield mentioned in Samurai-Archives.com: click here

[Obsidian*Gryphon]

Ronin, is STW & MTW worth getting?

Thus far, I've only played RTW and am contemplating the box set which comprised the other 2 earlier wars.

WhOA!!! is this a real game, i didnt even know u can create thease many soldiers or have over 100 on a screen, is this game availible in the united states?

More than that. I actually took the trouble to count each unit initially to see if they really sport that number and they do! A 161 Principis really has 161 soldiers.

But the maximum number fielded across the computer screem was actually more than 5000. I had it happened once when I wasn't expecting it.

My general was marching with a full army when a Roman ally nearby with about 1200 troops asked for aid against a Germanic foe with 2000 over troops.

The battle began with the Roman AI marching straight off to engage when my units have not even entered the field!

But anyway, that was the biggest number I've seen thus far. I didn't try to maneuver for another such scenario ... my pc handled it quite well but I wouldn't bank on it not stuttering should the numbers hit over 7000.

[moreshige unlogged]

My ssn in Shogun total War was Kwangaetto, a famous Koguryo general/king. What memories of destroying my enemies through mountain surprise attacks during the winter. Many were loppsided victories. But now, if I were to go back to online wargaming again I would come back as our dear YSS.