Slack Drill, Charging the Ministry of War, and Resigning the Training Directorate陳鍊車解弛請令兵曹統領責成因辭訓鍊都監都提調。啓
臣昨日病未趨仕今始來詣賓廳伏覩。答兵曹判書沈忠謙。聖批臣不勝感激惶恐之至臣於上年冬暫管訓鍊都監事其後因他職務無暇兼察自四月以後又連月大病今纔起頭又未能一見敎閱等事其解弛與否臣不得詳知也然軍心之勸勵頗不如前而所習技藝行陣之法反益生疎人多憂其廢墮而無效此則臣亦聞之而未知其何由也今此唐人所言固所不較但鍊軍大事也如不日進而乃日退則亦終於廢墮而已此臣之所以日夜憂念者也且臣有愚見不得不言治軍有大要號令出一一也分數分明二也賞罰必行三也不然而日月已久怠惰繼之弊端滋生氣象陵替則無惟於日懈而不振也故臣於前日。啓辭暫及此意而請以軍事責成於兵曹誠欲號令出一而體統相維也至於唐人雖爵秩卑微然旣以鍊兵之事求之於彼則待之不可不厚而得其懽心易曰以貴下賤大得民也。聖教云云實出於此此亦有司之臣所當敬謹而奉行者也臣積病之餘精力不逮勢不暇更察都監之事而凡國家軍政兵曹自當專力爲之不必又使大臣攙錯請遞臣訓鍊都監都提調而專委該曹以正朝家任人之體則庶或便益惶恐敢。啓
Yesterday I your servant could not go to my office for illness, and only now have I come to the Guests' Hall (賓廳). Looking with respect upon the sage reply (聖批) you gave to Sim Chung-gyeom (沈忠謙), Minister of War, I cannot overcome my gratitude and my awe.
I your servant took charge of the business of the Training Directorate for a short while last winter, but afterward, with other duties, I had no leisure to oversee it concurrently; and from the fourth month on I was again gravely ill for several months, and only now have I barely raised my head. I have not once seen the teaching and the reviewing of the troops, so whether it has grown slack or not I do not know in detail. Yet the urging of the soldiers' hearts to effort is a good deal less than before, and the skills they had learned and the methods of forming ranks have grown rawer instead, so that many fear it will fall into ruin and be without avail. This I too have heard, but for what cause I do not know.
What this man of Ming (唐人) has said is truly beyond comparison. Only, the drilling of troops is a great matter: if it does not advance by the day but retreats by the day, it too will merely fall into ruin. This is what I your servant worry over night and day.
Further, I your servant have a foolish view that I cannot leave unsaid. In the governing of troops there are great essentials: that commands issue from one source is the first; that the sections be clear is the second; that reward and punishment be unfailingly carried out is the third. Where this is not so, as the days grow long sloth follows after, abuses multiply, and spirit crumbles, so that it only slackens by the day and cannot be roused. This is why in my memorial of the other day I touched briefly on this sense and asked that military affairs be charged to the Ministry of War: truly it was so that commands should issue from one source and the chain of authority be joined together.
As for that man of Ming, though his office is low and slight, he has already been sought out for the business of drilling the troops, so we cannot but treat him generously and win his goodwill. The Book of Changes says, "When the honorable lowers himself to the humble, he greatly wins the people." What you said in your instruction (下敎) truly comes from this, and it too is what the officials in charge (有司) should reverently and carefully carry out.
I your servant, after a long illness, have not the vigor for it, and in the circumstances I have no leisure to oversee the Directorate's business again; and as for the state's military administration, the Ministry of War will devote its own strength to it, so there is no need for a minister of state to step in besides and confuse matters. I beg that my post as Superintendent of the Training Directorate be changed and the charge given wholly to the ministry concerned, which would set right the court's manner of entrusting men and might perhaps be convenient and profitable. In awe I venture to report.