Clever Turtles

I'm trying to stay in the habit of posting something, so here's more random martial arts and history stuff.

According to Yu Song-ryong's "Ching Pirok" ["Secret Document of Punishment"?], during the Imjin Wars [when Japan invaded Korea in the 16th Century] he asked the Ming dynasty commander Nak Sang-ji for help, and from his unit the Elite 63 ["Chang Yuk Sam", literally "Head Six Three"] he took 10 men as tutors to teach to the Choson soldiers the sword, the spear, and the thorny spear. Nak Sang-ji, through the unit dispatched to the admiral, attached the name of the "Admiral's Sword" to [the following] system.

While Yi Yo-song was in Choson, he adopted a daughter of the T'ongjin Gum clan and took her in as a maid, and when he left Choson he gave her the sword he was wearing as a token, saying, "If a son is born, name him 'Ch'on-gun' ['Root of Heaven']." Some time later, of course, Ch'on-gun was born and his descendants are still living in Goje.

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I had to look up Yi Yo-song. Apparently he was one of the notable figures of the Imjin Wars and fought alongside Yu Song-ryong, eventually dying in battle. He was a bastard son of a military instructor, and so to escape discrimination he left Korea and entered into service as a soldier in Ming China, where he was known for carrying an unusually large spear. During the Imjin Wars he was stationed with the Ming forces in Korea resisting the Japanese attacks, and according to wikipedia he did not make much of a name for himself as a commander. Apparently he left an illegitimate child of his own; "maid" in this case being a euphemism.