Comprehensive Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts; Muye Dobo Tong Ji) expanded on the eighteen weapons systems identified in the Muyesinbo of 1758.

Written by Yi Tŏngmu [ko], Pak Chega, and Paek Tongsu and published in four volumes in 1795, it preserved the methods and practices of the earlier work while adding equestrian training.

While little more than a field manual for cataloguing required skills, the Muyedobot'ongji is widely regarded as a resource for understanding the nature of Korean military science in the 18th century.

Much of modern-day scholarship related to the classical or pre-modern Korean martial arts, in particular those that predate the Mongol invasions of Korea (during which Korean palaces and libraries that would have contained many documents germane to the study of martial arts and combat self-defense were destroyed), relies on the study of the Samguk sagi compiled by the scholar Kim Pusik and the Samguk yusa compiled by the Buddhist monk Iryeon.

As a result, many national and local defense structures, as well as the training and practice of armed combat, was limited and just sufficient to repel small-scale raids and tribal attacks.

In September 1593, after the initial Japanese invasion was stalled and pushed back thanks to Ming Chinese intervention, King Seonjo established a "Royal Military Training Agency."

Many copies were lost or destroyed, along with much knowledge and practice of Korean military science and martial arts, in the latter years of the Joseon dynasty, much of this occurring during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the first half of the 20th century.

Earlier sources can be traced to Chinese General Qi Jiguang's treatise on troops training, the Ji Xiao Xin Shu (기효신서; 紀效新書, "New Books of Effective Methods").