韓國在朝鮮王朝時期的軍事系統至今仍然令人難以理解：書面上看來維持良好，但是每當面臨國防任務時，便不幸失效。包括國王在內的領導者似乎都極為支持強有力的國防，但是每當面臨如何付諸實現的問題時，他們幾乎總是背叛自己原先的計畫。問題出在統治階級的士族成員，儘管
他們口頭上強調國防的重要性，卻試圖為自己免除兵役上的義務。他們逃避兵役的努力總被證實是成功的，使國家的軍力在需要時幾乎癱瘓。作者在本文中追溯十七世紀初期的士族如何在國家方才飽受外族入侵的驚恐之後不久試圖逃避兵役。為了免除軍役，士族轉向學識所賦予的特權：儒家思想認為學識較武術具有更高的價值。就其本身而言，政府承認士族的階級利益，免除他們的兵役。當受到外力威脅的強烈壓力時，政府往往訴諸於臨時性措施（如：考講測驗和號牌制度），以動員士族，但是這些措施並未帶來任何改變。作者探討文、武的價值──兩者皆為儒家思想所接受──如何在嚴重充滿無可逾越的階級利益，士族受到偏袒的朝鮮王朝政治上互相對立。

Chosŏn Korea's military system remained enigmatic in that, on paper, it
looked well maintained; however, whenever it was faced with the task of national defense, it failed miserably. The leaders, including the king, seemed to be highly supportive of strong national defense, but when it came to the issue of how it should be put into practice, they almost always betrayed what they purported. The problem was the members of the ruling-class sajok who tried to free themselves from the duty of military service despite their verbal emphasis on the importance of national defense. Their efforts at avoiding military service always proved to be successful, leaving the nation's military capacity all but much paralyzed whenever it was needed. In this article, Hur traces how, in the early
seventeenth century, just after the nation had been subjected to the terror of foreign invasion, sajok men tried to avoid military service. To free themselves from military duty, sajok men turned to the privileges bestowed by learning, which, under Confucianism, was considered to be of greater value than the military arts. For its part, the government recognized the class interests of the sajok and exempted them from military service. When hard pressed by foreign threats, the government often resorted to ad hoc measures (such as the kogang test and hop'ae law) in an attempt to mobilize sajok men, but such measures did not result in any changes. Hur explores how the values of the civil and military arts, both of which were embraced by Confucianism, were pitted against each other in Chosŏn Korea's politics, which was heavily laden with unbridgeable class interests that favored the sajok.