Paper: "Admiral Yi Sun-sin and the Art of War"

[Daemado]

Just something that came up through Google ... I don't know a thing about the author but it's an interesting read.

ADMIRAL YI SUN-SIN AND THE ART OF WAR:

APPLICATION OF THE SEVEN MILITARY CLASSICS OF ANCIENT CHINA IN THE IMJIN WAR

BY WOO C. LEE

faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/Joe27pages/Admiral%20Yi.htm

[pakyownage4eva]

wow. that was a great read--and yet even more praise for admiral Yi.


reading this part moved me:

"Admiral Yi had twelve ships against three hundred. He had his flagship anchored at the throat of the narrow channel and held his position while the other ships were waiting behind him. As the enemy advanced on him, his subordinate officers gave him up for dead and started to retreat. At this critical juncture, Admiral Yi "whipped off the neck of a sailor rowing back and hung it up high on the ship's mast, then roared 'Attack!' " This decapitation seems harsh and cruel, but it must have worked in galvanizing the men. Admiral Yi and his twelve ships destroyed 133 ships that day."

Beautiful. eloquently conveys Yi's exploit.

it would be even more-- awesome-- if he added that the Chosun fleet of over 100 ships was almost completely demolished in a previous battle under Won Gyun, and only 12 ships and 120 men were left.




~~ this is why Yi Sun Shin is my hero

[moreshige unlogged]

It was over 200 ships that were destroyed that Won Kyun failed to protect.

[pakyownage4eva]

dang that really hurts. not even 100, but 200 in one battle?

I can still rest knowing that Yi Sun Shin annihilated a lot more...


anyway, from reading that excerpt, I want to ask how he "whipped off the neck of a sailor rowing back" if the sailors were on the bottom deck?...

and the author credits all of Yi Sun Shin's tactics to some book but I believe a venerable man like the admiral didn't borrow everything...

[ronin]

Thanks, man. I've been reading Sun Tzu's book since college. This version was translated by some British journalist in the early 1900's. I'm ordering Sun Bin Art of War II which was recently discovered in China in the 1970's Takeda Shingen studied Sun Tzu's book and even wrote some of Sun Tzu's words in his banner during the Sengoku Jidai.
“Steady as a mountain, attack like fire, still as a forest, swift as the wind."
A French monk in China in the 18th century also translated the book in french and it said that Napoleon studied a copy of this translated book and it was his secret weapon in the Napoleonic wars.