Tomb inscription for Lord Geum, who retired as Grand Minister of the Three Han of the Wall Portraits, Grand Master of the Gold and Purple Imperial Favor, Acting Grand Guardian, Minister of the Chancellery, Associate Administrator of the Secretariat-Chancellery, Grand Academician of the Sumun Hall and Director of the Board of Personnel壁上三韓大匡金紫光祿大夫守大保門下侍郞同中書門下平章事修文殿大學士判吏部事致仕琴公墓誌銘
大抵天之報施。與其角者。不傳之翼。故凡士之得龍頭選。而能遠到者鮮矣。公則不爾。旣首登金榜之科。又極踐黃扉之貴。加之壽考。哀榮終始。俱無缺焉。則此豈無得而然哉。蓋必有天所不得不厚者。而雖取之多焉。天與之不猒者歟。公諱儀。字節之。舊諱克儀。後改爲儀。系出三韓功臣諱容式之世譜。而桂陽之金浦縣。卽其桑梓也。曾祖諱某皇。神虎衛散員贈上將軍。祖諱某皇。檢校大子少保贈左僕射。考諱某皇。昌安宅衙典。以公故贈左僕射。母徐氏皇。檢校軍器監諱淑之女也。以公故贈利川郡大夫人。公少力學工屬文。乙未。入大學。連赴擧。方未第。出理淸道郡。痛礪節淸廉。以剛正不撓爲政。一方號淸道鐵相公。秩滿。旋補入開寶判官。明年。擧春場擢第一。遂籍內侍。上器使之。積官至將作注簿堂後官。遂除拜閣門祗侯。其淸華權要之任。則歷閱尙書吏部員外郞直寶文閣左司郞中起居舍人知制誥刑部郞中大子司經國學直講御史雜端中書舍人史館修撰兵部侍郞翰林侍講學士東宮侍講學士尙書右承右諫議大夫大子贊善大夫。公嘗帶雙學士。至是又兼三大夫。朝廷榮之。公之居諫職也。有非其人而受參官者。公與諸郞執不可。當國者不悅。悉出省郞補他官。公亦例出爲將作監知閣門事執禮。號最難。公雖始試斯任。其進止詳華。踰舊爛熟者。才之無施不可如此。未幾。又拜爲左諫議大夫判祕書省。尋除樞密院右承宣。皆仍諫職制誥學士。循資知奏事知吏部。公累載管喉舌。凡奏對應奉。甚稱上旨。上倚以爲重。政事多所咨。逮壬申。大金使介至。欲入自正門。我朝不許。使重舌人往復詰難。客人猶不肯之。是日大雨。群臣皆霑服立待。上命公往諭。公先問曰。天子之巡狩侯甸。自古有焉。若你國皇帝枉蹕小國。則當入自何門耶。曰。天子所出入。捨中門何自耶。曰。然則人臣而欲入自君之正門可乎。彼大服其言。遂入自西門。其臨機設方略。出人意表皆類此。上大嘉賞之。癸酉。進拜銀靑光祿大夫簽書樞密事左散騎常侍翰林學士承旨。乙亥。入相。金紫光祿大夫政堂文學左僕射寶文閣大學士修國史。丁丑。守太尉中書侍郞平章事。戊寅。門下侍郞修文殿大學士。嘗於八關會。其獸臺之輾動有不如法者。憲臺椽往扼隊正喉衿折辱之。於是軍將呼噪狂顧。遂擲瓦礫于御史臺宴幕。有飛石或過宰相幕次。公大怒。遽下庭特立。厲聲大號曰。若等在君臣上下俱備之國。敢爾耶。苟爲亂。先殺老僕可也。如是者再三。然後軍情稍沮。亂遂不作焉。其臨危不懼亦此類也。公凡廉察春州道。繩吏甚嚴。一切皆革民弊。百姓賴焉。嘗典司馬試及三掌禮闈。所得皆當世聞人。玉筍之盛。近古未有也。庚辰。以壁上三韓大匡守大保門下平章事修文殿大學士判吏部事。解位家居。與舊德元老爲耆老會。日相從宴遨。以遂揮金之樂。庚寅正月二十六日。稍有微恙。然是日使子姓圍棋。觀之至夕。尙從容談笑。及夜寂然而化。雖傍侍者。亦不之覺也。是豈偶然者乎。享年七十八。上聞訃甚悼。命有司襄事。葬于鳳凰山之麓。贈諡曰某公。公之爲人。美風彩。莊重峻整。方妙齡。宋客莊天覺善相人。視之曰後必到宰相矣。果一如其言。性剛果。與人面折無所諱。以是人多憚之。或相謗毀。然心地坦夷。雖當時詬罵。後皆棄之。略不芥滯。故卒能保其身。可謂豁達大度君子也。娶樞密事金諱光軾之女。凡生男子五人女子三人。男曰耆。戶部員外郞。先公歿。曰揆。工部員外郞。曰心正。剃度爲禪師。曰暉。左右衛大將軍。先公歿。曰禧。閤門祗候。亦先沒。曰祺。雜織署令。女一適內侍保勝中郞將尹惟孝。二適戶部郞中李德載。先歿。三適閣門祗候咸景均。子揆等具公之行狀。乞銘甚切。故受而銘之。銘曰。
Now in what heaven repays and bestows, it does not give wings to what it has given horns. For this reason, of all scholars who obtain the first place in the selection, few go on to reach far. The lord was not so. He both rose first in the examination of the Golden Register (金榜) and trod to the end the eminence of a minister of state. Moreover he lived long, and in grief and in glory alike, from beginning to end, there was nothing wanting. If so, how should this be so without cause? Perhaps there was surely something in him that heaven could not but treat generously, so that though he had much, heaven did not weary of giving.
The lord's taboo name was Ui (儀) and his style Jeolji (節之). His former name was Geug-ui (克儀), which he later changed to Ui. His line came out of the lineage of Yongsik (容式), merit-subject of the Three Han, and Gimpo District (金浦縣) in Gyeyang (桂陽) was his home village. His great-grandfather So-and-so was the late Supernumerary Officer of the Sinho Guard, who received the title Senior General; his grandfather So-and-so was the late Inspector-General Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, who received Left Vice Director. His father So-and-so was the late clerk of the Changan Residence (昌安宅), and on the lord's account received Left Vice Director. His mother, of the Seo clan, was the daughter of the late Suk (淑), Inspector-General of the Directorate of Armaments, and on the lord's account received the title Grand Lady of Icheon Commandery.
In his youth the lord worked at learning and excelled at composing writings. In the eul-mi (乙未) year he entered the Great Academy and went up for the examination repeatedly, but had not yet passed. He went out to govern Cheongdo Commandery (淸道郡), where he whetted his integrity hard, was pure and clean, and governed with firmness and uprightness and without bending, so that a whole region called him "the Iron Minister of Cheongdo." When his term was full he came in at once and was appointed Administrator of Gaebo. In the spring of the next year he went up to the examination hall and was selected first, and at last his name was entered among the palace attendants.
The king took him for a vessel and employed him. His offices accumulated until he reached Registrar of the Directorate for Palace Buildings and Secretary of the Chancellery Rear Hall, and at last he was appointed Usher of the Gate Office. In the pure and brilliant and the powerful and essential posts, he went through Assistant Director of the Board of Personnel in the Chancellery, Officer of the Bomun Pavilion, Director of the Left Bureau, Diarist and Drafter of Edicts, Director of the Bureau of Justice, Household Officer of the Heir Apparent, Lecturer of the National Academy, Assistant Director of the Censorate, Secretary of the Secretariat, Compiler of the Historiography Office, Minister of War, Lecturing Academician of the Hallim, Lecturing Academician of the Eastern Palace, Right Assistant Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs, Right Grand Master of Remonstrance, and Grand Master Counselor of the Heir Apparent. The lord had earlier held two academicianships together, and coming to this he held three grand-masterships concurrently as well, and the court held it a glory.
When the lord was in the office of a remonstrating official, there was a man who, not being fit for it, had been granted the post of Participant. The lord, together with the several bureau directors, held out that it would not do. The man in charge of the state was displeased, and sent all the chancellery directors out and appointed them to other offices. The lord too went out as a matter of form and became Director of the Directorate for Palace Buildings and Administrator of the Gate Office. The handling of ceremony is said to be the hardest of all. Though the lord took on this charge for the first time, his advancing and halting were careful and brilliant and surpassed those long practiced in it. Such is talent: there is nowhere it can be applied where it will not do.
Before long he was further appointed Left Grand Master of Remonstrance and Director of the Palace Library, and then appointed Right Transmitter of Directives of the Privy Council, in each case keeping his posts as remonstrating official, Drafter of Edicts and Academician. In due course he became Administrator of the Chancellery and Administrator of the Board of Personnel. For several years the lord was the sovereign's throat and tongue, and all his reporting and answering and upholding of commands accorded closely with the king's intent. The king leaned on him and held him weighty, and asked him much about government.
When the im-sin (壬申) year came, an envoy of the Great Jin (大金) arrived and wished to enter by the main gate. Our court would not allow it and had the interpreters go back and forth to argue the point, but the guest still would not listen. On that day a great rain fell, and all the officials stood waiting with their robes soaked. The king commanded the lord to go and admonish him. The lord first asked: "That a Son of Heaven should make a progress through the lands of his vassals has been done since of old. If your country's emperor were to bend his carriage and come to this small country, by which gate should he properly enter?" "When a Son of Heaven goes in and out, what should he do but the middle gate?" "If so, is it right that a subject should wish to enter by his sovereign's main gate?" The other side was greatly subdued by these words and in the end entered by the western gate. That the lord met the moment, laid his plan and came out beyond others' thinking was in all cases like this. The king held it greatly fair and praised him.
In the gye-yu (癸酉) year he advanced and was appointed Grand Master of the Silver and Blue Imperial Favor, Signatory Commissioner of the Privy Council, Left Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary and Recipient of Edicts of the Hallim Academy. In the eul-hae (乙亥) year he entered the ministry as Grand Master of the Gold and Purple Imperial Favor, Academician of the Administration Hall, Left Vice Director, Grand Academician of the Bomun Pavilion and Compiler of the National History. In the jeong-chuk (丁丑) year he became Acting Defender-in-Chief, Minister of the Secretariat and Associate Administrator; and in the mu-in (戊寅) year, Minister of the Chancellery and Grand Academician of the Sumun Hall.
Once, at the Palgwan assembly, there was a beast-shaped carriage rolled out whose movement did not go by the rules. A clerk of the Censorate went and seized a squad officer (隊正) by the neck and bent him down and shamed him. Thereupon the officers of the troops shouted and looked wildly about, and at last threw tiles and stones at the Censorate's feast canopy. Some of the flying stones even passed over the ministers' canopied seats. The lord grew greatly angry, went down hastily into the courtyard, stood there alone and cried out in a loud voice: "You are in a country where sovereign and subject, high and low, are all in place — how dare you do this? If you truly mean to raise a revolt, kill this old man first." Only after he had done so two and three times over did the soldiers' hearts give way a little, and the revolt in the end did not come about. That he did not fear when faced with danger was also like this.
When the lord once inspected the Chunju Circuit (春州道), he governed the clerks most sternly and corrected all the abuses afflicting the people, so that the people were relieved. He once took charge of the preliminary examination and presided three times at the Rites Gate (禮闈), and those he obtained were all famous men of the age. The ranks of outstanding talents were full as had not been known in recent times.
In the gyeong-jin (庚辰) year he laid down his place as Grand Minister of the Three Han of the Wall Portraits, Acting Grand Guardian, Associate Administrator of the Chancellery, Grand Academician of the Sumun Hall and Director of the Board of Personnel, and stayed at home. He formed a Society of Elders with the old men of former virtue, and day by day they followed one another, feasted and roamed and achieved the joy of scattering coin.
On the twenty-sixth day of the first month of the gyeong-in (庚寅) year he had a slight illness. Yet on that day he had his children and grandchildren play go and watched until evening, and still talked and laughed quietly. When night came he died in stillness, and even those attending at his side did not notice. How should this be by chance? The years he enjoyed were seventy-eight. The king heard of his death and grieved deeply, commanded the officials to carry out the funeral, buried him at the foot of Bonghwangsan (鳳凰山) and granted him the posthumous title Lord So-and-so.
The lord as a man was fair of bearing and weighty and strict. In his youth a guest from the Song, Jang Cheongak (莊天覺), was good at judging men, and seeing the lord said, "He will surely reach the ministry in time." And it turned out exactly as he said. His nature was firm and decisive, and he had no scruples about facing a man and breaking him down. For this reason many men shrank from him, and some even disparaged him to one another. Yet the ground of his heart was smooth, and though he scolded and railed at the moment, afterwards he let it all go and did not hang the least of it upon his breast. For this reason he was in the end able to preserve himself, and may be called an open and large-hearted gentleman.
He married the daughter of Kim Gwangsik (金光軾), Commissioner of the Privy Council, and had in all five sons and three daughters. Of his sons, Gi (耆) was Assistant Director of the Bureau of Taxation but died before the lord; Gyu (揆) is Assistant Director of the Bureau of Works; Simjeong (心正) shaved his head and became a Zen master; Hwi (暉) was Senior General of the Left and Right Guards but died before the lord; Hui (禧) was Usher of the Gate Office and also died before him; and Gi (祺) is Director of the Miscellaneous Services Office. His eldest daughter married Yun Yuhyo (尹惟孝), Palace Attendant and Palace Commandant of the Boseung Guard; his second daughter married Yi Deokjae (李德載), Director of the Bureau of Taxation, and died before him; and his third daughter married Ham Gyeonggyun (咸景均), Usher of the Gate Office.
His son Gyu and the others prepared an account of the lord's acts and begged most earnestly for an inscription. And so I accept and compose it. The inscription says:
2Inscription
孰相皇朝兮大鳴一國。猗我大保兮寔人之特。步驟臺閣兮奮髥正色。奸吏屛氣兮顚倒蒲北。正門言言兮人莫敢廁。戎使迹穢兮欲蹈其閾。公則往諭兮一言中的。彼雖獸心兮豁然自釋。廟謀密勿兮以手指畫。綠野歸來兮任性閑適。霞輧安往兮雲路遐逖。舊德云亡兮于誰取則。鳳凰之山兮有騫其翼。土肥泉甘兮灌木植植。於焉相攸兮是公之宅。納銘隧道兮流耀罔極。
Who it was that aided the court and rang out greatly through a whole country — how fair, our Grand Guardian, truly outstanding among men. Moving his steps in the great terraces, shaking his beard and setting his face straight, the devious clerks held their breath and fell over themselves in flight. The main gate stands high and high, where no man dares intrude; a barbarian envoy would have soiled it with his tracks and trodden upon its threshold. The lord went and admonished him, and a single word struck the target; and though they had the hearts of beasts, they opened out and gave way of themselves. He worked diligently at the court's strategies, pointing and marking with his hand; and he came back to the green fields and lived at leisure, giving himself to his nature. Where has the sunset-cloud carriage gone? The cloud road is far away. The virtue of old has departed; from whom shall we take our pattern? The mountain of the phoenix has lifted up its wings, the earth is rich and the spring sweet, and the trees stand thick. Looking at the site, here then is the lord's house; the inscription is laid in the tomb path, and its light shall flow without end.