The moment we turn away from the truth, the history of shame repeats itself!

There is something unusual about Korean society.
Signs of an unprecedented crisis are pouring out across all areas: politics, economy, security, and diplomacy.
In particular, Korea-Japan relations are heading towards an endless conclusion, with the exclusion of whitelisted countries, the termination of GSOMIA, economic retaliation, and boycotts.
Moreover, our society is divided into two camps and is engaged in fierce debate.
The 500-year Joseon Dynasty came to an abrupt end due to incompetent leadership, humiliating servility, diplomatic isolation, and economic and security collapse.
And as of 2019, the situation in South Korea is so unsettling that it brings to mind the final days of the Korean Empire.

『Jingbirok』, written by Ryu Seong-ryong, is a book written to look back on the wounds of the tragic Imjin War, warn against mistakes, and avoid future troubles.
In other words, it is a ‘report on the history of failure.’
This book, 『The Record of the Invasion of the Republic of Korea』, was also written to realize the truth of history and prevent the repetition of tragedy.
For us, who have only learned about the glorious history and the history of pride, the truth in the shadows can be uncomfortable.
But the records of failure and traces of regret are also part of our history.
The moment we ignore these past warnings, the tragedy is bound to repeat itself.

The Republic of Korea in 2019 is eerily similar to the international relations of Joseon 200 years ago.
What about the leaders?
Are you awake?
Is the power strong?
Joseon, which had been blind for 200 years, was destroyed by Japan, which had awakened.
Aren't the current leaders of South Korea, just like they were 200, no, 400 years ago, turning their backs on the world, being complacent, and leading the country in a complacent manner?

Unless the leaders of the Republic of Korea abandon the behavior of the leaders of the Joseon Dynasty for 500 years, the Republic of Korea will perish.
Joseon was ruled by a wise king armed with a brilliant cultural tradition and a spirit of love for the people, and the philosophy of Neo-Confucianism, but Joseon fell.
There must be a reason.
Joseon perished according to the law of cause and effect, which has no margin of error even by a millimeter.
To avoid a second ruin, I plan to visit and investigate the lands where this country's leaders have erred for 200, no, 500 years.
For the future, it's so unpleasant.
--- From the prologue, "Unpleasant Reflections for the Future"


On September 23, 1543, a large ship arrived in Tanegashima, Japan.
There were over 100 sailors.
The appearance was strange and the language was incomprehensible.
Wu Feng, a Ming scholar who was on board, said that they were merchants from the southwestern Manchuria.
Two days later, the fugitive Tanegashima Tokitaka met them.
…they held two or three-foot sticks in their hands.
The stick had a hole in the middle.
He placed a goblet on a rock and aimed it at his eye. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and the goblet shattered.
It seemed as if it could topple mountains made of silver and penetrate walls made of iron.
Tokitaka said, “This is a rare treasure,” and bought two of them for a large sum of money. He also learned how to make gunpowder and made them his family heirlooms.
Tokitaka, who was fifteen years old, sent it to the monk general Sunoginobo in Kishu, saying, “Everyone wants it, so how can I keep it to myself?”
One of them was given to the blacksmith Yaita Kinbe and ordered to be reverse engineered.
--- From Chapter 2, “Everything Began That Year”

On May 21, 1555, 12 years after Japan acquired firearms, the Office of Military Affairs reported to King Myeongjong.
…Pyeongjangchin, a person from Daema Island, came to Dongrae at that time and said that if Joseon accepted him, he would teach them how to make a general.
…The next day, the Office of the Inspector General suggested to King Myeongjong, “We need to cast a gun, but we don’t have any iron, so please cast a gun using the large bell that was thrown away.”
…Myeongjong answered with a sharp tone.
“Old things are sacred, so it is not right to break and use things that have been passed down from ancient times.”

On July 1, 1589, the people of Tsushima Island visited Gyeongbokgung Palace in Joseon and presented muskets to King Seonjo.
'The Daemadoju Pyeonguiji and others offered three samjeong guns.
It was from this time that our country began to have matchlock guns.’ … That day, Pyeonguiji also presented a peacock.
The Joseon government released the peacocks on an island in the southern sea and put the muskets in the armory.
There is no record of the gun being fired, disassembled, or cleaned.
I just put it in the armory without anyone knowing.
… Three years later, in 1592, the year of Imjin, Toyotomi’s musket troops trampled Joseon.
--- From Chapter 2, “Everything Began That Year”

It is 1852.
The two Angbuilgu installed during the reign of King Sejong disappeared without a trace.
Instead, he said, “There is a square stone in front of the Jongmyo gate, which is said to be the large stone where Angbuilgu was enshrined.”
In early June 1930, that very square stone was excavated from under the sidewalk in front of a noodle restaurant at 45 Jongno 4-jeongmok, Gyeongseong.
It was buried in the ground when tram tracks were laid in Jongno in 1889.
… The scientific spirit and popularization policy contained in Angbuilgu were not things that should simply be buried in history.
… Joseon was the first country in the world to invent and practically use a rain gauge, and it was also the first country in the world to develop metal type and mass-print books.
While the tragedy of Joseon forgetting how to use the science and technology it had developed was unfolding, its neighboring country, Japan, was overtaking Joseon.
Joseon scholars, immersed in the framework of Neo-Confucianism, dismissed all other academic disciplines as mere ‘tools for sages to advise’.
--- From Chapter 3, “Ominous Signs”


Suwon Hwaseong Fortress was completed in 1796.
The subjects asked that the record be left behind.
In particular, he proposed to include the groundbreaking technology of 'Geojunggi', which shortened the air travel time and reduced costs, in the king's anthology, 'Hongjaejeonseo'.

The crane was a machine introduced in the 『Collection of Ancient and Modern Books』, which King Jeongjo purchased from the Qing Dynasty for 2,150 nyang of silver.
King Jeongjo personally selected the 'Gigidosul', which describes the principles of pulleys, from this book and taught it to Jeong Yak-yong, and entrusted him with supervising the construction of Hwaseong Fortress.
The suggestion to include the achievements of King Jeongjo, the general director, in the collection of King Jeongjo's writings was quite natural.
King Jeongjo did not allow this obvious and reasonable suggestion.
The reason was simple and unexpected.
“It is only the most basic of crafts, so how can it be left to future generations?” … Aside from the public discourse of Neo-Confucianism, practical learning and technology were not worth recording for King Jeongjo.
… The geomancy that everyone except Jeongjo had praised was once again thrown into the Hongmungwan, and the scholars, along with the king, took out their books on Neo-Confucianism again.
--- From Chapter 5, "The World Takes a Step Back"

Nabeshima Naoshige, the lord of the Saga Domain, brought in potters to 'make treasures of Japan.'
The treasure is white porcelain.
He had kidnapped his own technician, but had no clay to make his own.
What was needed was a pure white, iron-free magnet that could melt and bond without breaking at temperatures of 1,300 degrees.
In 1616, Joseon man Lee Sam-pyeong discovered white porcelain clay in Izumiyama along with 18 other potters.
Naoshige gave him the surname Kanegae and married him to a maid.
… In 1917, the residents of Arita erected the ‘Dojo Isampyeong Monument’ on the summit of Mount Rengeishi above the shrine.
…Since its founding, the Joseon Dynasty has treated commerce as a pathological abnormality.
The logic is that profit-seeking commerce is evil in the moral society pursued by Neo-Confucianism.
… In a country like this, the cutting-edge technology that had been developed, the porcelain manufacturing technology, was destined to self-destruct.
…the domestic market was suppressed by policy.
The lowly production was undertaken by the common people.
Will you starve to death in contempt, or will you live as a warrior and enjoy life as an expert?
The answer was obvious.
Potter Lee Jak-gwang returned to Joseon and returned to Japan with his younger brother Lee Gyeong.
Another potter, Jon-gye, led his disciples back to Japan and died there.
The anonymous potter Lee Sam-pyeong became a god.
--- From Chapter 6, “The Opium Wars and the Missing Potters”

On the morning of the 30th of that month, a banquet was held at Hamnyeongjeon Hall in Gyeongungung Palace.
The next morning there was another feast, and another feast at night, and another feast on the morning and night of June 1st.
The feast was held again on the 6th and 18th.
On the night of the 19th, at the Imperial Guest House, Daegwanjeong (now behind the Plaza Hotel), 'all ministers, consuls, and gentlemen were invited to a feast with musical instruments.' Eighty gisaengs in charge of dance and music from Pyongyang, Seoncheon, Jinju, and Seoul were mobilized for the palace feast.
According to Maecheon Hwang Hyeon, the Imperial Household Department purchased French candlesticks and rice bowls for the banquet.

That year, starving Gyeonggi-do residents invaded the pine forest of Jangneung Tomb in Injo-reung, Paju, and stripped all the tree bark.
The soldiers could not stop it.
There was a line of dead people crouching under the pine grove.
… On August 10, 1902, the official document sent by the Cheonggyeong Ceremony Office to the State Council stated that the cost of the Cheonggyeong ceremony was 1 million won.
The total budget of the Korean Empire in 1902 was 7,585,877 won (based on expenditures).
13.2% of the national budget disappeared into thin air.
--- From Chapter 8, “The Collapsing Joseon”

The Imjin War, Injo Restoration, Jeongjo's reforms, the Opium War, Emperor Gojong's personal rule, the two Yangyo and Ganghwa Treaty, and the Gapsin Coup and the Independence Association...
Several decisive opportunities came my way.
Each time, the Joseon rulers kicked away that opportunity.
When a crisis came, I didn't have the ability to recognize what the crisis was.
The Japanese powers that be seized every opportunity and put it in their pockets.
When the crisis came, Japan knew it was a crisis and responded quickly.
The way we dealt with opportunities and crises repeated the same pattern.
…openness and exchange, diversity and public awakening.
The attitude of a leader toward these four words has led a nation to hardship and has led a nation to prosperity.
Europe goes without saying.
This is the 'key to Jingbi' that connects the three events that occurred in 1543 AD to 21st century South Korea.
…we were originally brave, and our great artists and craftsmen made good things.
We were originally a people of tenacity and indomitable courage who overcame wind, cold, and snowstorms.
It was a brilliant civilization that breathed life into the stagnant ancient history of Japan.
Now, all that remains is to resurrect everything that was lost through 'awakening' once again.
Let us overcome the history of colonialism and war brought about by incompetent rulers and continue the Republic of Korea created by awakened citizens.

--- From the epilogue, "Openness and Awakening"