Dirge for Lord Jo, Grand Master of Splendid Happiness with Golden Seal and Purple Ribbon, Acting Defender-in-Chief, Vice Director of the Chancellery, Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery, Senior General, Grand Academician of the Hall of Literary Cultivation, Compiler of the National History, and Director of the Ministry of Rites金紫光祿大夫守大尉門下侍郞同中書門下平章事上將軍修文殿大學士修國史判禮部事趙公誄書
嗚呼。貞祐八年秋九月三日。大尉平章事趙公感疾薨。仍殯于私第。以是月二十八日。葬于某山之麓。禮也。公諱冲。字湛若。橫川人也。考諱永仁。仕至門下侍中。時號名宰相。公自幼嗜學。工屬文。年二十。擢進士第。以相門子。早踐仕途。召入內侍。自始官至三品。尙不離內廷幾三十年矣。貞祐六年。拜國子監大司成寶文閣學士知制誥。復兼翰林學士。凡侍臣例。不居星官。公喜曰。吾歷位多矣。未嘗得文翰之任。綴班蛾眉。今日之授。實符吾志。於是益專精經史。力於爲文。凡高文大冊。皆出其手。俄遷禮部尙書。進拜樞密院副使翰林學士承旨。上以公有文虎之才。特除上將軍。文臣兼上將之任。自文相國克謙始。而中間遂寢。至公迺復矣。是時。契丹犯境。上命榮陽相國鄭公爲元帥。以公副之。往屯江西。未幾。元帥以持軍無狀見劾。公亦例免。實非其罪也。明年。復起爲守司空左僕射政堂文學修文殿大學士。虜日熾。官軍懦弱。不能制。朝廷復授公斧鉞。敦促遣之。軍令嚴明。秋毫不犯。虜褫氣。入江東自固。時韃靼與東眞國。大擧兵入境。以破契丹救我爲名。然韃靼於夷狄。最凶悍。且未嘗有與我通好之舊。以是中外震駭。疑其非實。朝議亦依違未報。遂稽往犒之禮。公獨量其勢可勿疑。馳聞不已。達旦怒其緩。呵責甚急。公隨勢從宜。輒和解焉。久迺得朝廷之報矣。達旦俗好以銛刃擧肉臠啖人。往復不容瞥。我人皆有難色。彼帥之於公亦爾。公獨偃肆自若。承迎如宿慣者。彼帥又善飮。將與公校優劣。約不勝者罰之。公引滿輒釂。雖至許多爵。略無醉色。及闋擧一杯不飮曰。非不能飮。若勝而如約。則公必受罰矣。寧我見罰耳。主人而罰客可乎。彼重其言而大悅。由是。深加挹敬。其遇東眞之帥及我軍之巨官大將也。狎弄戲謔。無所不爲。至見公雖愛且昵。不得陵犯。約以公爲兄。俾居己右。公雖託以意所難者。輒曰吾兄命之。敢不承稟。及訣。執公手泣下嗚咽。實誠而非貌也。東眞國帥頗知人。謂我人曰。你國帥。奇偉非常人也。你國有此帥。天之賜也。公嘗被酒。枕其膝而睡。東眞帥恐其驚寤。略不得動。其左右請易以枕。帥終不肯之。嗚呼異哉。古之眞人。有能馴猛虎擾毒蛇者。達旦禽獸也。其惡不啻若猛虎毒蛇。而公能制服之如此。豈其忠義恩信之能感動異類。若古之眞人者乎。虜平。入拜守大尉門下侍郞平章事修國史。卒享年五十。公爲人魁梧。外莊重內寬和。搏聞強記。諳練典故。早綰銀黃。揚歷淸要。三掌文闈。所得皆當世聞人。凡遇士。無貴賤。愉愉然不施戟級。士有造謁。輒置酒盡歡。率以爲常。一時之士爭歸之。宰相之好客。當世莫若也。平時莅事。未嘗露稜角。故世徒知寬厚豁達長者。而未窺蘊蓄之幾許。及持大兵臨大事。然後乃知有蓋天塞地磊落不常之器矣。然此亦公之細也。若小益以壽。則焉知不有奇功異迹之萬倍此者乎。上聞訃震悼。命官庀喪事。輟視朝三日。贈諡曰文正公。仍命小臣誄以發揚。其詞曰。
Alas, on the third day of the ninth month, in the autumn of the eighth year of Jeongu, Lord Jo, Defender-in-Chief and Manager of Affairs, fell ill and passed away. His coffin was laid in his private house, and on the twenty-eighth day of that month he was buried at the foot of such-and-such a mountain, as the rites require.
The Lord's name was Chung (冲), his courtesy name Damyak (湛若), and he was a man of Hoengcheon (橫川). His father Yeongin (永仁) rose in office as far as Director of the Chancellery and was called a famed chancellor of his time. From childhood the Lord loved learning and excelled at composition. At twenty he was chosen as a presented scholar. As the son of a chancellor's house he trod the path of office early and was summoned into service among the royal attendants. From his first post until he reached the third rank he still did not leave the inner court, and this went on for nearly thirty years.
In the sixth year of Jeongu he was appointed Chancellor of the National Academy, Academician of the Bomun Pavilion, and Drafter of Royal Edicts, and he again held concurrently the office of Academician of the Hallim Academy. Now by the rites of a servant who attends upon his ruler, one does not hold the offices of composition. The Lord rejoiced and said, "I have held many posts, but I had never been given a charge of composition and taken my place in that rank. Today's appointment truly suits my own wish." Thereupon he gave his mind still more wholly to the classics and the histories and labored at composition. All the lofty writings and the great documents came from his hand.
Before long he was transferred to Minister of Rites, and then advanced to be appointed Vice Commissioner of the Privy Council and Recipient of Edicts in the Hallim Academy. The king, holding that the Lord had talent in letters and in arms alike, appointed him Senior General by special favor. That a civil official should hold the charge of Senior General concurrently began with Chancellor Mun Geukgyeom (文克謙), then ceased midway, and with the Lord it came to life again.
At this time the Khitan invaded the frontier. The king commanded Chancellor Jeong of Hyeongyang to be commander-in-chief and made the Lord his second, sending them to encamp at Gangseo (江西). Soon afterward the commander-in-chief was impeached for having led his troops poorly, and the Lord too was dismissed according to precedent, though in truth it was not his offense. The next year he was raised again and became Acting Minister of Works, Left Vice Director, Academician of Political Affairs, and Grand Academician of the Hall of Literary Cultivation.
The barbarians grew stronger by the day, and the royal army was weak and could not hold them in check. The court once more gave the Lord the battle-axe and urged him forth. His military orders were strict and clear, and not a hair's breadth of them was transgressed, so that the barbarians lost heart and went into Gangdong (江東) to hold out there behind their own defenses.
At that time the Tatars and the state of Dongjin (東眞國) raised great armies and entered our borders, giving as their pretext that they would crush the Khitan and rescue us. But the Tatars were the most savage and fierce of the barbarians, and moreover there was no old history of friendly dealings between them and us. For this reason all within and without trembled in alarm and doubted whether it was true. The deliberations of the court too wavered this way and that and could give no answer, and so the rite of going to console them was put off. The Lord alone judged that there was nothing in the situation to doubt, and he hurried to report it and did not cease. The Tatars, angered at the delay, rebuked us most urgently, but the Lord followed the circumstances and did what was fitting, and each time he brought about a reconciliation; only after a long while did he obtain the court's reply.
It is a Tatar custom to lift a slice of meat on a sharp knife and to delight in feeding it to another, and the knife goes back and forth without allowing so much as the time to blink. All our people wore embarrassed faces, and their general did the same to the Lord. The Lord alone was at ease and unruffled, and received it as one long used to it.
Their general was also a great drinker, and he wished to match himself against the Lord to see which was the better, and they agreed that the one who lost should be punished. The Lord filled his cup and drained it at a draught, and though it came to ever so many cups he showed not the least sign of drunkenness. Toward the end he held up one cup and did not drink it, saying, "It is not that I cannot drink. If I were to win and we kept to our agreement, you would surely have to take the punishment. I had rather take it myself. Would it be right for the host to punish his guest?" They took his words gravely and were greatly pleased, and from this they held him in deep and humble respect.
When that man met the general of Dongjin, or the high officials and great generals of our army, he made free with them and joked and jested and left nothing undone. But when he looked upon the Lord, though he loved him and was familiar with him, he could not slight him or trespass upon him. He agreed to take the Lord for his elder brother and had him seated at his own right hand. Even when the Lord asked of him something hard to grant, he would say at once, "My elder brother commands it; how should I dare not to obey?" At parting he took the Lord's hand and wept, sobbing until his voice choked, and this was true sincerity and no show.
The general of Dongjin had a fair eye for men. He said to our people, "The general of your country is strange and great and no ordinary man. That your country has such a general is a gift of Heaven." Once the Lord, drunk with wine, slept with his head on that man's knee. The general of Dongjin was afraid of startling him awake and did not stir in the least. Those about him asked to change the knee for a pillow, but the general would not hear of it to the end.
Alas, how strange. Among the true men of old there were those who tamed fierce tigers and ruled venomous snakes. The Tatars are beasts. Their ferocity is more than that of a fierce tiger or a venomous snake, and yet the Lord held them in check and brought them to submission like this. How should this not be a case of loyalty and righteousness, kindness and good faith moving another kind, as with the true men of old?
When the barbarians had been put down, he came in and was appointed Acting Defender-in-Chief, Vice Director of the Chancellery, Manager of Affairs, and Compiler of the National History. When he died, the years he had enjoyed were fifty.
In his person the Lord was tall and large; outwardly grave, and within generous and harmonious. He had heard widely and remembered well, and he was versed in the old institutions. He wore in his day the silver seal and the gold seal and passed in turn through all the pure and pivotal offices. Three times he had charge of the examination gate, and those he obtained were all famed men of their age. Whenever he met a scholar he did not choose between the high and the low, but was glad of him and set up no halberds to mark off degrees of rank. When a scholar came to call upon him he would at once spread a drinking-mat and make the pleasure complete, and this he commonly made his rule. The scholars of a whole age vied in turning to him; for a chancellor who loved guests there was none in his time to match him.
In ordinary times he never showed a sharp corner when he came to a matter. Therefore the world knew him only for a generous, warm, and open-hearted elder, and did not glimpse how much he had stored up within. Only after he had led great armies and faced great affairs did men know that he had in him a vessel that covered the sky and filled the earth, towering and out of the common. Yet even this was a small matter for the Lord. Had but a little more been added to his span of life, who knows whether there would not have been strange deeds and uncommon traces ten thousand times greater than these?
When the king heard the notice of his death he grieved deeply, commanded his officials to furnish the funeral, and ceased to hold court for three days. He bestowed on him the posthumous name Munjeong (文正公) and then commanded his humble servant to set his praise forth in a dirge. The words are these.
2The words of mourning
石門鐵鎖。城堅且峙。重扉複戶。宮室嚴邃。斯謂國耶。子曰非是。有賢言言。如我大尉。矩步廟堂。謨謀論議。不爾出將。令嚴籌祕。叱咜羌戎。使之風靡。於以鎭安。然後曰國。山有猛虎。人莫採藿。國有賢人。隣敵自却。烈烈我公。邦之柱石。黃鉞紅旗。威震西北。達旦剛戾。如角狼虎。一忤其意。翻覆跋扈。公以仁信。披示肺腑。獸心知感。號泣愛慕。微公之力。魚肉吾民。公實活之。賜首與身。三韓之業。公復創新。天胡不弔。大命奄臻。哀哀我公。棄世大早。來旣爲民。去何之暴。搢紳工庶。癡童騃老。聚手彈指。莫不相弔。股肱云違。帝意彌悼。寵終豐縟。窀穸有光。仍命小臣。誄以發揚。臣拜稽首。招掇遺芳。綴兹鄙詞。焜耀無疆。
A stone gate with an iron lock, walls firm and towering high, double gates and double doors, the palace stern and deep. Shall we call this a state? I say that it is not. There is a worthy man, lofty and high: one such as our Defender-in-Chief. At court he walked by the measure, laying plans and taking counsel. Then he went out as a general: his orders strict, his stratagems hidden. He rebuked the barbarians and made them bend as before the wind. Only when they are pressed down and quieted thus do we call it a state. If there is a fierce tiger on the mountain, men cannot pluck the bean leaves; if there is a worthy man in the state, the neighboring foe withdraws of itself. Keen and keen was our Lord, the pillar and the footing-stone of the state. With the yellow axe and the red banner his majesty shook the northwest. The Tatars were hard and savage, like horned wolves and tigers; cross their will but once and they overturned and raged. The Lord, with kindness and good faith, laid his inmost heart open to them, and even beastly hearts knew how to be moved: they wept aloud, and loved him, and longed for him. Had it not been for the Lord's strength, our people would have been made fish and flesh. It was the Lord who truly gave them life, who gave them head and body. The work of the Three Han the Lord opened anew. Why did Heaven not look after him, that the great summons came so suddenly? Alas and alas, our Lord: far too early did he leave the world. When you came, it was for the people; why then is your going so abrupt? Officials and artisans and the multitude, down to small children and foolish old men, there was none who did not join his hands and snap his fingers and mourn with his neighbor. A servant who was as his leg and arm has gone, and the king's heart grieves the more. The favor that honors his ending is ample and thick, and there is light upon his tomb. Then he commanded his humble servant to set his praise forth in a dirge, and your servant bows and knocks his head and calls together the fragrance he has left. I weave these paltry words; may their brightness be without end.