Tomb inscription for Lord Baek, Deputy Prefect of Gyeongsan Prefecture and Assistant Director of the Board of Rites京山府副使禮部員外郞白公墓誌銘
歲甲申月孟秋。京山府守白公卒于理所。夫人至京師。旣襄事而將葬也。知予於君爲舊執。使其孤希諗叔明等來泣乞銘。予於是論次而識之云。君爲人。敦篤謹愿。不抗以自高。不婉而苟順。實醇厚正。直君子也。少力學工屬文。年十九。擧省試中之。是戊午夏之五月也。至六月。又擧春官擢第。大抵連月再捷。士所難得。而君又年少。故人益異焉。泰和六年。籍屬內侍。居近密者。十有九載。以幹事貞固稱。我朝成例。凡禪敎選席。使近臣之能文者主之。故上以曹溪之選委君焉。君精汰遴揀。所得皆一時名衲子。後多爲法王宗匠騰蹂叢林者。又西海經契丹寇擾。凋弊尤甚。上遣君爲蘇復。使君以便宜賑貸。所活不可數。民於是幾骨而復肉矣。凡閱官。自句覆院判官。歷補祕書校書郞衛尉寺注簿少府寺丞。五遷至閣門祗候。未幾。以禮部員外郞。賜紫金魚袋。拜宣州防禦副使。病不克赴。間一年。復出守京山府。到官數月。病復作遂不起。享年四十六。以是年九月某日。葬于某山。嗚戲。以君之聰明才幹。得官爵壽命止於此。而文章不得以潤色皇猷。道德不得以康濟時用。是尤可惜者已。君諱賁華。字無咎。淸州藍浦郡人也。故朝議大夫判祕書省事翰林學士知制誥諱光臣之子。而故大僕卿贈三重大匡諱司淸之孫也。娶尙書左僕射林諱惟謙之女爲配。凡生二男。曰希諗。祝髮爲浮屠。曰叔明。甫冠未仕。君晚喜禪法。自號參禪居士云。銘曰。
In the early autumn of the gap-sin (甲申) year, Lord Baek, prefect of Gyeongsan Prefecture (京山府), died in the place he governed. When his wife had reached the capital, held the funeral and was about to bury him, knowing that I was an old friend of his, she sent his sons Huisim (希諗) and Sungmyeong (叔明) and the others to weep and beg an inscription. And so I set it down in order.
The gentleman as a man was generous, careful and worthy. He was not stiff and did not set himself up as lofty, nor was he soft and complying out of expediency; he was truly a gentleman, pure and upright and straight.
In his youth he worked at learning and excelled at composing writings. At nineteen he went up for the Chancellery examination and passed, in the fifth month, in summer of the mu-o (戊午) year. When the sixth month came he went up for the Spring Office examination as well and passed. Now to win twice in consecutive months is a thing a scholar can hardly achieve, and the gentleman was moreover young in years, so that men thought it the more remarkable.
In the sixth year of Taihe his name was entered among the palace attendants, and he was in a post near the sovereign for nineteen years. He was spoken of for handling affairs well and for being straight and firm.
By the firm precedent of our court, in all the selections for the Zen and the doctrinal schools, one of the near attendants who writes well is made to preside. And so the king entrusted the selection at Jogye (曹溪) to the gentleman. The gentleman made the selection with precision, and those he obtained were all famous monks of the age, and many of them afterwards became Dharma Kings and masters of their schools and went up and down the monastic groves.
Moreover the Western Sea (西海) had suffered the plundering of the Khitan, and its withering and exhaustion were the more severe. The king sent the gentleman to revive it and to relieve and lend to them as circumstances allowed. Those whose lives he saved were beyond counting, and the people, who had been reduced almost to bones, had flesh upon them again.
The offices he passed through began with Administrator of the Office of Review (句覆院), and he went through Editor of the Palace Library, Registrar of the Court of the Imperial Regalia and Assistant Director of the Court of the Lesser Treasury, and by five transfers came to Usher of the Gate Office. Before long he received the purple-and-gold fish pouch (紫金魚袋) as Assistant Director of the Board of Rites and was appointed Deputy Defense Commissioner of Seonju (宣州), but could not take up the post because of illness. After a year's interval he went out again to take charge of Gyeongsan Prefecture; and a few months after taking up the post his illness rose again and in the end he did not recover. The years he enjoyed were forty-six. On such a day of the ninth month of that year he was buried on such a mountain.
Alas, with the gentleman's intelligence and ability, the office and the life he obtained stopped here. His writing could not give brilliance to the sovereign's counsels, and his way and his virtue could not rescue the needs of the time; and this is the more to be regretted.
The gentleman's taboo name was Bunhwa (賁華) and his style Mugu (無咎), and he was a man of Nampo Commandery (藍浦郡) in Cheongju. He was the son of the late Gwangsin (光臣), Grand Master for Court Counsel, Director of the Palace Library, Academician of the Hallim and Drafter of Edicts, and the grandson of the late Sacheong (司淸), Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, who received the title Grand Minister of the Triple Degree. He married the daughter of Im Yugyeom (林惟謙), Left Vice Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs, and made her his wife. He had in all two sons: Huisim shaved his head and became a monk, and Sungmyeong has just come of age and does not yet hold office. In his later years the gentleman was fond of the Zen Dharma and called himself the Zen-Practicing Layman (參禪居士).
The inscription says:
2Inscription
嗚戲。白君止此而已耶。束髮飛騰。意在千里。孰云暴顚。齎志入地。宅兆孔寧。維子孫之祉。
Alas, Lord Baek — does it merely stop here? From the time he bound up his hair he soared, and his aims lay a thousand li away. Who could have known that of a sudden he would fall, and enter the ground with his aims still in his breast? His grave-place is most at ease; it will be his descendants' blessing alone.