임진왜란 초 官軍의 재편과 성격에 대한 재인식

Abstract

While much research has been conducted on the Righteous Militias (義兵) in the study of the Imjin Japanese Invasion of Korea [[[or Joseon]]] (the Imjin War, 壬辰倭亂) after liberation from the Japanese colonial occupation into the 1990s, there remained a lack of studies on the regular Royal Army (官軍) of Joseon as a major actor in overcoming the war, which produced a negative view that focused on the weakness of the regular Royal Army during the war and the incompetence of the Joseon government in responding to the war. Yet, in the 2000s, starting from reviews on the previous recognition and the attitude toward the Imjin War, studies with new perspectives on the Royal Army’s responses to the war have become more visible. These results can be summarized as follows. Even though the Royal Army of Joseon fought against the Japanese invasion by maintaining its normal mobilization system immediately after the outbreak of the Imjin War, the army was defeated consecutively in the ensuing initial battles by the overwhelming offensives of the unexpectedly large Japanese army. This led to the collapse of the regular Royal Army command, and King Sunjo (宣祖) had to leave the palace to seek shelter in Gaeseong, and then in Pyongyang and Bukju, causing a national crisis. Looking into the response patterns of the regular Royal Army from a macroscopic perspective after the fall of Hanseong (漢城), it ostensibly seems that the regular Royal Army almost collapsed and the Righteous Militia took the lead in the battles against the invading Japanese army. Looking more closely into the situations and the details, however, the Royal Court (朝廷) of Joseon had taken various measures such as strengthening its military forces by adding regular armies in the Northern regions and the Royal Guards in the Southern regions so to take superior control of the war. On the contrary, even though the Japanese army occupied Hanseong (漢城), its speed of advance began to slow and the activities of Joseon’s navy and the participation of the Ming (明) army began to put the Japanese invaders on the defensive. Reorganization of the regular armies in each province was also quickly conducted. Subsequently, regular armies of Joseon regained major regions by launching systematic counterattacks and began to wage an overall offensive against the invading Japanese army. In addition, by actively using gunpowder weapons, the regular armies of Joseon gradually began to overwhelm the Japanese military armed with firelocks (鳥銃). Two to three months after the start of the war, the regular armies of Joseon took control in the battles, which is different from the existing recognition that the responses of the regular army of Joseon on land during the Japanese invasion were nearly helpless and, thus, the Righteous Militia (義兵) ultimately had to take control of the battle in place of the regular army. This means that the military might of the regular army of Joseon and its confidence recovered rapidly. Furthermore, this was possible because the Joseon dynasty had maintained strong administrative control and acquired experience in self-defense. Therefore, more accurate evaluations of the regular army of Joseon must be conducted based on the overall understanding of the history of the Imjin War.