Tomb inscription for Lord Yun, Gentleman for Service Entry, Inspector-General Minister of Taxation in the Chancellery and acting Assistant Director of the Bureau of Justice in the Chancellery, granted the purple-and-gold fish pouch登仕郞檢校尙書戶部侍郞行尙書都官員外郞賜紫金魚袋尹公墓誌銘
予爲文。至碑碣銘誌。苟不誠其人信其實。固拒而不受。心竊道曰。南山之石。其有何辜。忍雕損貞姿。書溢美之辭耶。及尹公之卒也。旣得誠其人。又得其實。故不可以不敍。公諱承解。字子長。樹州守安縣人也。三韓功臣內史令明義公尹逢之七世孫也。曾祖檢校大子詹事諱衡。皇祖大樂署丞諱壽。皇考檢校戶部尙書行尙書戶部郞中賜紫金魚袋諱裕延。皇公實尙書府君第二子也。少力學。年十八。中司馬試一科。再擧春官不捷。以門蔭從仕。調補知水州事判官。水州號俗阜。率爲人求得。故鮮克淸廉。政皆姑息。吏狃成習。頗緩弛無紀。公到官。一切以法繩之。吏畏憚莫敢正視。凡約束一如條禁。無敢犯者。以政異聞。秩滿。除玄德宮錄事。尋遷左右衛錄事參軍事。俄出爲珍島縣令。淸約一如水州所理。威愛則加焉。縣在海中。腥陋有蠻䝤風。凡應對賓客。不似沿路他郡。奉使者苦之。公悉更革。使如巨官大邑。又民恃魚鹽。不甚力農。公督令歸畝。始也民有憚色。及得其入。然後顧樂趨之。雖歲儉不匱。入爲神虎衛錄事參軍事。癸巳歲。輦下兵起。衣冠搢紳。無不逃竄。公獨守官確固。神色自若。上聞而嘉之。召見面奬曰。昔聞若之忠勇。今見其實。改授神虎衛別將。公以虎職非本情。故不受。後拜閣門祗侯。旋擢監察御史。出爲西北道分臺。先是。成州豪儻。擅殺官妓。前後奉使者。初欲窮理其狀。延及平民。無不械縛。闔郡騷擾。未幾置而不問。由是常爲貨賂之藪。公入州。鞫按詳審。得首謀與手殺者誅之。餘悉不理。一州安之。內外俱慶。入爲尙食奉御。賜緋魚袋。又遷尙書都官員外郞。賜金紫。上嘗遣諫官宋端南。方採訪十年來前後典郡者之政績優劣。水州以公所理擧爲最。凡三十年矣。宋公曰。朝旨以十年爲界。此甚遼遠。恐違詔條之意。吏民曰。天子所以遣使臣。弟求異政耳。尹公遺愛。至今未嘗去民心。尙如前日。故擧之。豈論遠近耶。皆伏地叩頭。其請至痛切。宋公頷而奏之。上益嘉嘆。有司亦不敢訾焉。某年月日。得疾卒于第。年若干。某月日。葬于某山。夫人張氏。大府卿諱忠義女也。生子男二人。曰松筠曰松竹。松筠嘗倅密城。以淸苦嚴毅聞。松竹尙爲散官。女一人。未適人。公爲人資端直敢言。所至率淸素。家無甔石之儲。凡不問家事。怡怡如也。旦夕但以奉官守職爲志。眞朝廷之正人也。而官不過員郞。惜哉。子松筠等。敍公之世系官爵。因人之與予有舊者。來請銘於予。予不敢拒者。以予先君嘗與公同寮。每見訪。衮衮接話言。予雖未測淵源。頗窺畔岸。又所書遺迹。則皆播在人口。而非其嗣之列以來請者。是非誠其人信其實者耶。故執筆而銘之云。遺子百金。惟禍之召。公獨以淸。萬世之寶。有鬱斯岡。𡪡安宅兆。公保於此。迺子孫之保。刻銘納竁。爲後之考。
When I compose writings, in the matter of stele texts and tomb inscriptions I have firmly refused and not accepted them unless I could trust the man and believe the facts about him. In my heart I said to myself: "What fault have the stones of the South Mountain, that one should bring oneself to chisel and spoil their upright form and cut words of excessive praise upon them?" When it came to the death of Lord Yun, I could trust the man and I had the facts as well, and so I could not but write.
The lord's taboo name was Seunghae (承解) and his style Jajang (子長), and he was a man of Suan District (守安縣) in Suju. He was in the seventh generation from Yun Bong (尹逢), Director of the Royal Secretariat and Lord Myeong-ui, a merit-subject of the Three Han. His great-grandfather was Hyeong (衡), Inspector-General Attendant of the Heir Apparent; his grandfather was Su (壽), Assistant Director of the Court of Grand Music; his father was Yuyeon (裕延), Inspector-General Minister of Taxation and acting Director of the Bureau of Taxation in the Chancellery, granted the purple-and-gold fish pouch. The lord was in fact the second son of that minister.
In his youth he worked at learning, and at eighteen he passed one section of the preliminary examination. Twice he sat the examination of the Board of Rites but did not pass, and he entered office through hereditary privilege, being appointed Administrator of the Acting Prefecture of Suju. Suju was reputed to be a district of ample means, and on the whole it was a post men sought to obtain. For this reason men of integrity there were few, and the government was all show for the moment, so that the clerks had grown used to it and were quite slack and without discipline. When the lord took up his post he took hold of everything by the law, and the clerks were afraid and did not dare look him in the face. His regulating was in all things according to the articles and prohibitions, and none dared transgress. His government became known as out of the ordinary.
When his term was full he was appointed Recorder of the Hyeondeok Palace, and then moved to Recorder and Adjutant of the Left and Right Guards. Not long after, he went out to be Magistrate of Jindo District, and his purity and frugality were in all respects as in his governing of Suju, while his authority and his kindness were greater still. The district lies in the midst of the sea and had rank, squalid, barbarous ways. Its receiving and entertaining of guests was not like that of other districts along the highway, and those who came bearing commissions found it a hardship. The lord changed it all and made it like a great hostel in a great town. Moreover, the people trusted to fish and salt and did not work at farming. The lord pressed them to go back to the fields, and at first the people had a look of reluctance. Only after they had got the harvest did they instead follow him gladly, and even when a bad year came they did not fall short.
He came in to be Recorder and Adjutant of the Sinho Guard. In the gye-sa year war broke out in the capital, and there was not one official who did not flee and hide; yet the lord alone held his post firmly, with a face wholly composed. The king heard of it and held it fair, summoned him and saw him and praised him face to face: "Formerly I heard of your loyalty and courage; now I see the substance of it." He changed his appointment to Squad Leader of the Sinho Guard, but the lord said that a military office had never been his wish, and did not accept it.
Afterwards he was appointed Usher of the Gate Office, and was soon chosen as Inspecting Censor and went out as divisional censor for the Northwest Circuit. Before this, strongmen of Seongju (成州) had wantonly killed a government courtesan. Those who came bearing commissions, before and after, at first tried to search out the facts to the end, so that it reached even to common folk and there was not one who was not put in the cangue and bound, and the whole district was in an uproar; and then before long they abandoned it and asked no more. By this means it had always become a den of bribes. The lord entered the district, examined and questioned carefully and closely, found out the one who led and the one whose own hand had killed, and put them to death; the rest he left untouched altogether. The whole district was at peace, and within and without men rejoiced together.
He came in to be Superintendent of the Royal Table and received the fish pouch of silver, and then moved to Assistant Director of the Bureau of Taxation in the Chancellery and received the gold and purple. The king once sent the remonstrating official Song Dannam (宋端南) to look into whether the records of those who had held districts, before and after, over the past ten years were better or worse. In Suju they cited the lord's governing and made it first, though it was a matter of fully thirty years before. Lord Song said, "The court's intent set a limit of ten years; this is too far back, and I fear it goes against the sense of the decree." The clerks and the people said, "The reason the Son of Heaven has sent an envoy is only to seek out government out of the ordinary. The love Lord Yun left behind has never to this day departed from the people's hearts, but is still as in days past. That is why we have cited him — why should we reckon far and near?" They all lay prostrate on the ground and knocked their foreheads, and their asking was utterly earnest. Lord Song nodded and reported it, and the king held it the fairer and sighed in admiration, and the officials did not dare disparage it.
On such a day of such a month of such a year he fell ill and died at home, at such an age. On such a day of such a month he was buried on such a mountain. His wife was of the Jang (張) clan, daughter of Chung-ui (忠義), Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial Clan. She bore two sons, Songgyun (松筠) and Songjuk (松竹). Songgyun once became deputy officer of Milseong (密城) and was known for purity, endurance of hardship, sternness and firmness; Songjuk is still a supernumerary officer. One daughter is not yet married.
The lord as a man was upright and straight in his stuff and spoke straight words, and wherever he went he was pure and frugal, so that there was not a single bushel heaped up in his house. He did not ask after household affairs and was content and cheerful. Morning and evening he made it his sole aim to uphold his office and keep to his duty — truly an upright man of the court. And yet his office did not pass beyond Assistant Director; what a pity.
His son Songgyun and the others wrote out the lord's lineage and his offices, and came through a man with whom I have long been acquainted to ask me for an inscription. That I did not dare refuse is because my late father was once in the same office with the lord, and whenever he called they would talk on and on, so that although I could not fathom his depth I did at least glimpse him at the water's edge. Moreover, the traces I have set down here are all things that have spread through men's mouths, and not things his son laid out in coming to ask me. Is this not to trust the man and believe the facts about him? Therefore I take up the brush and compose the inscription.
To leave white gold to one's son is only to call down calamity. The lord did it by purity alone, and that is a treasure of ten thousand ages. On this luxuriant hill his grave-place has been set at ease. The lord is preserved here, and that is the preserving of his descendants. The inscription is cut and laid in the vault, to be a record for later men.