Yi Sun-sin
Admiral; Commander of the Three Provinces Naval Forces
"I still have twelve ships, and I am still alive. The enemy shall not take the western sea."
Biography
Yi Sun-sin passed the military examination at thirty-one — late, after falling from a horse and breaking his leg on his first attempt, which he splinted with a willow branch and finished the test on. His career then stalled repeatedly because he refused to flatter superiors or make the customary arrangements: he was demoted twice and once reduced to the ranks. In 1591 the prime minister Ryu Seong-ryong, an old childhood neighbour, pushed him into an obscure southern naval command over more senior objections. He spent the next year repairing ships, drilling crews, and building turtle ships for a war that the court had officially decided was not coming. When it came, he was the only Korean commander who was ready. Over six years he fought at least twenty-three engagements and won every one of them, usually outnumbered, against a navy built to board and grapple — while he fought an artillery war and simply never let them close. At Hansan Island he enveloped a fleet with the crane-wing formation and destroyed 59 of 73 ships without losing any, closing Japan's sea supply route and stopping the invasion by starving it. His own government arrested him in 1597 on a fabrication planted by Japanese agents, tortured him, and reduced him to a common soldier. Two months later, after his replacement lost virtually the entire fleet in a single night, they gave him back thirteen ships. He took them into the Myeongnyang strait against at least 133 and won. At Noryang, in the war's last hour, he was hit by an arquebus ball and told his nephew to keep beating the drum and not announce his death until the battle was over.
Did you know?
He fought at least twenty-three naval engagements and lost none of them — a record no other admiral in history approaches — for a government that arrested him, tortured him, and reduced him to the ranks in the middle of the war.
Key Battles
Battle of Okpo
Joseon Korea & Ming China victoryJune 16, 1592 · 1,000 total casualties
Yi Sun-sin had been demoted, imprisoned, and reduced to the ranks earlier in his career for refusing to flatter superiors, and had been posted to an obscure southern command in 1591 on Ryu Seong-ryong's recommendation. He used the posting to build a fleet for a war nobody else believed was coming. Okpo was the first sign that the sea would be a different war entirely.
Battle of Sacheon
Joseon Korea & Ming China victoryJuly 8, 1592 · 800 total casualties
The turtle ship is famous, but the real weapon was doctrine. Korean ships were built as gun platforms with heavy cannon on strong flat-bottomed hulls; Japanese ships were troop transports built to close and board. Yi never let them close. He fought an artillery war against an infantry navy and lost, across six years and more than twenty engagements, not one battle.
Battle of Hansan Island
Joseon Korea & Ming China victoryAugust 14, 1592 · 9,000 total casualties
One of the most complete naval victories in history, and the strategic hinge of the entire war. Japan's plan depended on supplying its armies by sea up the west coast while they marched north; after Hansan the Yellow Sea was closed, and 158,000 men in Korea had to be fed overland through a country whose peasants were now rising against them. The Japanese advance died of logistics, and Hideyoshi ordered his navy never to fight Yi again.
Battle of Chilcheollyang
Toyotomi Japan victoryAugust 28, 1597 · 10,000 total casualties
The only Korean naval defeat of the war, and it took a court intrigue to arrange it. In one night Korea threw away five years of Yi's work and the sea route was open again — Japan's second invasion could be supplied. The court, with nothing left, released Yi from prison and reappointed him to command the thirteen surviving ships.
Battle of Myeongnyang
Joseon Korea & Ming China victoryOctober 26, 1597 · 4,000 total casualties
Probably the most lopsided naval victory ever won, and it saved the war. Japan's second invasion depended on the sea route; Myeongnyang closed it again with thirteen ships against a fleet ten times the size, using a tide Yi had spent his career learning. He had been tortured by his own government two months earlier. His diary entry that night records only that it was a great blessing of heaven.
Battle of Noryang
Joseon Korea & Ming China victoryDecember 16, 1598 · 12,000 total casualties
The last battle of the war, fought over an enemy who was already leaving, and it killed the man who had won it. Yi Sun-sin fought at least twenty-three engagements and never lost one, against a navy that outnumbered him at every turn, for a government that had imprisoned and tortured him. He is Korea's national hero without qualification, and the Japanese admirals who fought him said so too — Tōgō, who destroyed the Russian fleet at Tsushima in 1905, reportedly refused comparison with him.
Life Journey
Timeline
April 28, 1545
🌅 Birth
Born in Hanseong to an impoverished gentry family
1576
📚 Education
Passes the military examination at thirty-one
February 13, 1591
📍 Posting
Given the Jeolla naval command on Ryu Seong-ryong’s recommendation
June 16, 1592
⚔️ Battle
First victory at Okpo — 26 ships, no losses
August 14, 1592
⚔️ Battle
Destroys 59 of 73 ships at Hansan Island
March 1, 1597
🕊️ Postwar
Arrested, tortured, and reduced to the ranks
October 26, 1597
⚔️ Battle
Thirteen ships defeat over 130 at Myeongnyang
December 16, 1598
✝️ Death
Killed at Noryang; orders his death concealed until the battle ends