Tomb inscription for Lord Yi, Grand Master of the Silver and Blue Imperial Favor, Chief Minister of the Privy Council and Grand Master of the Censorate銀靑光祿大夫樞密院使御史大夫李公墓誌銘
予嘗論之。勇不必以力。而先以氣爲本。以義爲主者也。何則。生重於義則其氣怯。氣怯則雖鶡冠猛士。有臨陣而股弁者。義重於生則其氣激。氣激則雖緩帶君子。有雄入九軍。略無懼容者。是理之常也。夫所謂義者。有可以濟國難活萬人。則以身當之。奮不顧生者是已。誰其得之。維樞密相國李公一人而已。越貞祐五年丙子。契丹犯境。上命三軍討之。以公爲右軍兵馬判官。及與虜戰於貫花驛之南壤。虜乘勝進擊。我軍皆奔北。無一人反顧者。公獨瞋目直前。手殺數虜。然後遂叱衆俱進。賊衆遂却。是日微公。官軍幾殆矣。明年。轉左軍兵馬副使。復與虜戰於廣灘。公先登大捷。俘獲甚衆。上奇其勇。除左右衛將軍。公固辭不受。尋改將作監。出爲慶尙道按察使。會朝廷勑諸道按廉使。各率管內軍士赴三軍爲羽翼。三軍亦欲待以爲援。屢督促之時。虜兵遮屯要會。元帥密傳以勿由其路。公曰。所以赴戰。固敵是求。避敵非勇也。行由徑路似怯也。遂直衝虜屯而行。虜果出圍之。公與戰大勝。斬䤋不可數。獻俘于元帥府。元帥大加咨賞。未幾。又命公以所部軍士。押轉軍資於順州。虜自殷州。出於不意。公唯與麾下百餘人。與戰却之。元帥自城上望之。嗟嘆至垂涕。己卯三月。以尙書左承被召。是年賊稍平。餘種入江東城自保。朝廷鍊銳兵。以公爲都統。公固辭領兵。以單騎赴之。以其界兵士。悉討平其賊。仍留爲東北面兵馬使。明年。以樞密院右承宣召之。蓋公嘗固辭將軍。故以喉舌貴官寵之也。公諱績。其先砥平縣人也。曾祖諱某。祖諱某。考諱某。監門衛大將軍追贈尙書左僕射。公始屬茶房。出爲猛州倅。及代。凡八年未調。明昌某年。復屬茶房。旋移籍內侍。累歷官至閣門祗候。出爲高州守。入爲尙舍奉御。閱都官兵部二員外。又遷至軍器將作監吏部侍郞尙書右丞樞密院左承宣司宰卿判大僕事左散騎常侍。貞祐十年壬午。擢樞密副使。甲申。遷院使御史大夫。明年卒。享壽六十四。公先娶某官某氏女。無嗣。後娶某官女。又無嗣。公爲人端平簡直。平和恭謹。人未嘗見慍色。雖至貴官。常獨處一室。淡然若書生措大。略不以家事掛意。平時姁婾柔弱。似無膽勇者。及臨戰陣。其勇敢之過人拔群如此。則豈可以常調論之耶。求之古人。不可多得者歟。凡歷官內外。其淸廉礪節與夫興利除害者。不可勝紀。然以公之忠義勇烈功業之卓然者言之。此則公之細也。故於此不具焉。養息某官某。來乞銘勤勤。敢受而銘之云。
I have argued the point before. Courage is not necessarily a matter of strength; it takes vital force for its ground and righteousness for its master. Why so? If life weighs more than righteousness, then one's force takes fright. When force takes fright, then even a fierce soldier in a pheasant-feather cap (鶡冠) may be one whose legs tremble on reaching the battle line. If righteousness weighs more than life, then one's force surges up. When force surges up, then even a scholar with his sash loosely tied may be one who strides valiantly into a ninefold battle array without the least look of fear. This is the constancy of the principle. Now what is called righteousness is this: that when there is something by which the state's difficulty may be relieved and ten thousand men saved, one meets it with one's own person, rises up and does not look back at life. Who has attained it? There is only one man, Lord Yi, Chief Minister of the Privy Council.
In the byeong-ja (丙子) year, the fifth of Zhenyou, the Khitan violated our borders. The king commanded the three armies to strike them, and made the lord Administrator of Troops of the Right Army. When they fought the barbarians in the field south of Gwanhwa Station (貫花驛), the barbarians pressed in on the strength of their victory, and our soldiers all fled and not one of them looked back. The lord alone glared and went straight forward, and after killing several barbarians with his own hand he at last upbraided the host and they went forward together, so that the brigand horde at last fell back. Had there been no lord that day, the royal army would have been in grave peril.
The next year he moved to Deputy Commissioner of Troops of the Left Army. When they again fought the barbarians at Gwangtan (廣灘), the lord was first up and won a great victory, and his captives were very many. The king, marveling at his courage, appointed him General of the Left and Right Guards, but the lord firmly declined and would not accept. It was then changed to Director of the Directorate for Palace Buildings, and he went out to be Inspector of the Gyeongsang Circuit.
It happened that the court commanded the inspectors of the several circuits each to lead the troops within their jurisdiction and go forward to the three armies to be their wings. The three armies too wished to wait for them and make them their support, and urged them repeatedly. At that time barbarian troops were encamped athwart the key ground and blocking it, so the marshal sent word secretly not to take that road. The lord said, "The reason for going into battle is in the first place to seek the enemy. To avoid the enemy is not courage, and to go by a byway looks like cowardice." In the end he went stabbing straight at the barbarian camp. The barbarians did indeed come out and surround him, but the lord fought and won a great victory, and the heads he took were beyond counting. He presented the captives at the marshal's headquarters, and the marshal sighed in great admiration and praised him.
Before long the lord was further commanded to use the troops he led to carry military supplies over to Sunju (順州). The barbarians came out of Eunju (殷州) unlooked for, but the lord, with only the hundred-odd men he led, fought and drove them off. The marshal watched from the top of the wall and sighed, and came even to shedding tears.
In the third month of the gi-myo (己卯) year he was summoned in as Left Assistant Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs. In that year the brigands were somewhat put down, and the remnant of them entered the fortress of Gangdong (江東城) and held it for themselves. The court selected swift troops and made the lord commander-in-chief. The lord firmly declined to lead troops and went off galloping alone on horseback. With the troops of that region he struck and pacified those brigands entirely, and stayed on there to be Commissioner of Troops of the Northeast Region. The next year he was summoned as Right Transmitter of Directives of the Privy Council. On the whole, because the lord had earlier firmly declined a generalship, he was favored with an eminent office issuing and receiving royal commands.
The lord's name was Jeok (績), and his forebears were men of Jipyeong District (砥平縣). His great-grandfather was So-and-so, his grandfather So-and-so, and his father So-and-so, Senior General of the Gammun Guard, who received Left Vice Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs.
The lord was first attached to the Tea Office (茶房) and then went out to be head of Maengju (猛州). Until the time he was replaced he had in all gone eight years without a transfer. In such-and-such a year of Mingchang he was attached to the Tea Office again, and his name was soon moved to the palace attendants. Through several offices he came to Usher of the Gate Office. He went out to be prefect of Goju (高州) and came in to be Superintendent of the Royal Carriages, and served as Assistant Director of both the Bureau of Justice and the Board of War. He moved further and came to the Directorate of Armaments, the Directorate for Palace Buildings, Minister of Personnel, Right Assistant Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs, Left Transmitter of Directives of the Privy Council, Chief Minister of the Court of Sacrificial Worship, Director of the Court of the Imperial Stud, and Left Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary. In the im-o (壬午) year, the tenth of Zhenyou, he was chosen Deputy Commissioner of the Privy Council; in the gap-sin (甲申) year he moved to Chief Minister of the Privy Council and Grand Master of the Censorate; and the next year he died. The years he enjoyed were sixty-four. The lord first married the daughter of So-and-so of such-and-such office, but had no child to carry him on; afterwards he married the daughter of So-and-so of such-and-such office, and again had no child to carry him on.
The lord as a man was upright and smooth, plain and straight. He was peaceable, courteous and careful, so that men never saw an angry look on his face. Even when he had reached eminent office he was always alone in a single room, as plain as a poor scholar at his books, and he did not hang the least of his household affairs upon his heart. In ordinary times he was gentle and cheerful and soft, as though he had neither gall nor courage. Yet on reaching the battle line his bravery surpassed others and he stood out from the crowd in this way — how should one judge him by the measure of an ordinary man? Is he not one of whom, even seeking in antiquity, not many could be found?
Of all that he did while passing through offices within and without — his purity and cleanness and his whetting of integrity, and his raising of benefit and removing of harm — it is beyond all recording. Yet as against the lord's loyalty and righteousness, his fierce courage and his eminent achievements, such things are small matters in him. For this reason they are not set down here in full. His adopted son, So-and-so of such-and-such office, came and begged diligently for an inscription, and so I dare to accept and compose it.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
Composed together with a preface
2Inscription
君子之勇。必本於義。義生於情。激之者氣。氣以激之。又輔以智。以此當敵。何懼何畏。寧我捐身。活人是貴。活衆故軍完。軍完故身全。捐身得全。是所尤賢。烈烈我公。智勇兼焉。一國之城。三軍之天。云何不淑。奄若逝川。有焯其名。日月同懸。伯道無兒。天意茫然。刻詞貞珉。光于九泉。
The courage of a gentleman is necessarily grounded in righteousness. Righteousness is born of the feelings, and what makes it surge up is vital force. Make it surge up with force, and aid it with wisdom as well. Meet the enemy with this, and what is there to dread, what to fear? Rather is it precious to cast away one's own body and let others live. Because he saved the host, the army was whole; and because the army was whole, his own person was whole. He cast away his body and yet gained wholeness, and this is the more worthy in him. Fierce and fierce, our lord, who joined wisdom and courage: he was the wall of a whole country and the sky of the three armies. How was it that things went ill, and all at once he is like a stream flowing away? His name shines out, and hangs together with the sun and the moon. Baidao (伯道) had no son, and heaven's intent is unfathomable. The words are cut on firm stone, to shine in the world below.