Dirge for Duke Munsun誄書
維歲在辛丑秋九月二日。守大保門下侍郞平章事李公病卒。仍殯于私第。越十一月六日庚寅。葬于鎭江山東麓。禮也。公諱奎報。字春卿。黃驪縣人也。考諱允綏。官至戶部郞中。母金氏。金壤縣人。公之始生。乳嫗一日抱出門。有一老父過曰。此兒。千金之子。宜善護養。嫗走白嚴君。君疑其神人。使人追之不見焉。公幼聰敏穎悟。九歲。能屬文。時號奇童。九經史百子。一覽輒記。以詩捷稱。牛童馬走。無不知名也。己酉。擧司馬試中第一。明年庚戌。擢進士第。俄補全州書記。爲政剛猛。因同寮忌憚被讒。上洛。壬戌。東都叛。朝廷出三軍征之。戎幕以散官及第充修製。歷三人。皆以計避之。公獨曰。爲人臣避國難可乎。遂從軍。丁卯。被儒官所薦。補直翰林院。以文敏累遷。乙亥直除右正言知制誥。己卯。因公事被劾。出爲桂陽都護府副使。不涉一年。以禮部郞中起居注見召。未幾。除寶文閣待制。待制之任。非凡材所當。故時或有缺焉。積官至樞密院副使左散騎常侍翰林學士承旨。嗣子涵爲直翰林。故改爲寶文閣學士。尋拜政堂文學參知政事。公以年耄告老。上不允。丁酉。又表乞退固切。以金紫光祿大夫守大保門下侍郞平章事修文殿大學士監修國史判禮部事翰林院事太子大保致仕。公爲人。寬雅正直大臣也。時人目之曰。人中龍也。不獨窮究經史。至於幽文僻說佛書道帙。無不遍閱。晚年尤信佛法。常誦楞嚴。又嗜讀洗心經。窮大衍之數。公一掌成均。三典禮闈。所得皆當世聞人。玉筍之盛。無若此者。自典誥至于卿相。凡國家王言帝誥高文大冊。皆出一手。雖及懸車。外國交聘表狀徵誥文字。亦公之所製也。由是眷遇益重。每頒月俸。與在官相府同焉。又命有司取公所著前後文集五十三卷。募工彫印傳于世。則名振華夷。寵無前古。哀榮終始。可謂無缺矣。公始諱仁底。將赴司馬試。夢奎星報異瑞。因改焉。果中第一。方未冠時。有吳先生世才者。於人愼許可。一見而奇之曰。子非常人也。必遠到矣。及登第。公嫌其科劣。醉謂賀客曰。科第雖下。豈不是三四度鑄門生者乎。座客大笑。於戲。奎星之報。吳公之知。公之醉語。豈不異哉。解位家居。常以詩酒自娛。及辛丑七月。得微恙。至九月二日。向西着衣。翛然而化。享年七十四。上聞訃震悼。勑有司庀喪事。三日不視朝。贈諡曰文順公。仍命邇臣誄以發之。其詞曰。
On the second day of the ninth month, autumn of the sinchuk year, His Excellency Yi (李公), Acting Grand Protector, Vice Director of the Chancellery and Joint Manager of Affairs, died of illness, and the funeral chamber was then set up at his private house. On the gyeongin day, the sixth of the eleventh month, he was buried on the eastern slope of Mount Jingang (鎭江山), which was done in accordance with the rites.
His Excellency's given name was Gyubo (奎報) and his style name Chungyeong (春卿), and he was a man of Hwangnyeo District (黃驪縣). His father's given name was Yunsu (允綏), whose office reached Bureau Director of the Ministry of Revenue; his mother was Lady Kim, a woman of Geumyang District (金壤縣).
When His Excellency was newly born, his nurse one day carried him out the gate, and an old man passing by said, "This child is a son precious as a thousand pieces of gold; you should look after him and rear him well." The nurse ran and reported it to his father, who suspected the man was a divine being and sent someone to follow after him; but he was not to be seen.
From childhood His Excellency was bright, quick and clever. At nine he could compose writing, and the people of that time called him a wondrous boy. The nine classics, the histories and the writings of the various masters he would remember at a single reading; and he was spoken of for the speed of his verse, so that even the boys who herded oxen and the servants who drove horses — there was none who did not know his name.
In the giyu year he sat the Sama examination and passed first, and the next year, the gyeongsul, he was chosen licentiate. Before long he was appointed Clerk of Jeonju; but as he conducted affairs with a hard and fierce hand, his colleagues disliked and envied him, and he was slandered and came up to the capital.
In the imsul year Gyeongju revolted, and the court sent out the three armies to strike it. Wishing to pick for the camp someone who had passed the examination from among the officers on the unassigned list, and so fill the post of drafting documents, they went through three men, all of whom contrived to avoid it. His Excellency alone said, "Is it right for a man who is a subject to avoid his country's hardship?" And at length he went with the troops.
In the jeongmyo year, on the recommendation of the Confucian officials, he was appointed Auxiliary Academician of the Hallim Academy, and for the speed of his writing he was moved several times. In the eulhae year he was appointed straight to Right Rectifier of Speech and Drafter of Royal Edicts; and in the gimyo year he was impeached over a matter of official business and went out as Deputy Prefect of the Protectorate Prefecture of Gyeyang. Before a year was out he was called in as Bureau Director of the Ministry of Rites and Diarist, and not long after was appointed Academician-in-Waiting of the Bomun Pavilion. The charge of Academician-in-Waiting is not one that ordinary talent can bear, and so it was a post that was at times left empty.
His offices accumulated until he reached Vice Commissioner of the Privy Council, Left Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, Hallim Academician and Recipient of Edicts. As his eldest son Ham (涵) had become Auxiliary Academician of the Hallim, this was changed to Academician of the Bomun Pavilion, and he was then appointed Hall Scholar and Assistant Executive in Chancellery Affairs. His Excellency, on the ground of his years, asked leave to retire, but the sovereign did not assent. In the jeongyu year he submitted a memorial again, begging firmly and earnestly to retire; and so he withdrew from office as Grand Master of Golden Purple Glory and Emolument, Acting Grand Protector, Vice Director of the Chancellery and Joint Manager of Affairs, Grand Academician of the Sumun Hall, Supervisor of the National History, Superintendent of the Ministry of Rites, Director of the Hallim Academy and Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent.
His Excellency's character was generous and dignified, and he was an upright great minister. The people of that time pointed to him as "a dragon among men." Not only did he probe the classics and the histories deeply, but there was nothing he had not read through, down to recondite writings and out-of-the-way tales and the books of the Buddha and of the Daoists. In his later years he believed the Buddha's dharma the more, and constantly recited the Surangama Sutra; he also loved to read the Sesim Scripture, and probed the number of the Great Expansion (大衍).
His Excellency once took charge of the Seonggyun examination and three times of the examination of the Ministry of Rites, and those he obtained were all the famous men of their age; never was there a time when the ranks of talent stood so splendidly thick as bamboo shoots. From the time he took charge of drafting edicts until he became chief minister, all the sovereign's words and edicts and the lofty writings and great documents of the state came from one hand. Even after he had laid down office and withdrawn, the memorials and dispatches that went to and from other states, and the texts of edicts of summons, were also composed by His Excellency. By this the regard shown him grew the heavier, and when the monthly stipend was given out it was made the same as for the ministers' offices who were in post. The sovereign further commanded the officials in charge to take the fifty-three volumes of His Excellency's first and later collections, gather craftsmen, and cut and print them to be handed down to the world. His name shook both China and the barbarian lands, and such favor was without precedent from of old; so his mourning and his glory may be said to have had, from first to last, no flaw in them.
His Excellency's first given name was Injeo (仁底); but when he was about to sit the Sama examination, the star Gyu (奎星) made known a wondrous omen to him in a dream, so he changed his name, and he did indeed pass first. Before he had taken the cap there was a man, the teacher O Seje (吳世才), who was sparing in his recognition of men; yet at one sight he thought him remarkable and said, "You are no ordinary man. You will surely go far." When he passed the examination, His Excellency was displeased at the lowness of his class, and said in his cups to the guests who came to congratulate him, "My class in the examination may be low, but am I not a man who will three or four times rear up disciples of his own?" The guests present laughed aloud. Ah — the omen the star Gyu made known, the recognition His Excellency O gave, and the words His Excellency spoke in his cups: how are these not wondrous?
Having loosed his office and stayed at home, he always took his pleasure in poetry and wine. By the seventh month of the sinchuk year he had taken a light illness, and on the second day of the ninth month he put on his clothes facing the west and left the world unburdened. The years he had enjoyed were seventy-four. The sovereign, hearing the news, grieved deeply; he commanded the officials in charge to furnish the funeral, held no court for three days, and bestowed the posthumous title Duke Munsun (文順公). He then commanded a close attendant to compose a dirge (誄) and set forth his virtue. Its words are these:
Interlinear notes 2
右司諫鄭芝奉宣述。
Composed by Jeong Ji (鄭芝), Right Remonstrance Counselor, on the sovereign's command.
The source text has Dongdo (東都) and the tomb inscription has Donggyeong (東京); both are today's Gyeongju. Since "Donggyeong" sounds like present-day Tokyo, it has been written as "Gyeongju." — translator
英英我公。一代儒宗。賦形殊特。曰人中龍。神人報英。奎宿標祥。稟靈毓粹。不類於常。幼而力學。時號奇童。三敎奧旨。無不該通。首登上板。一中賢科。詩名籍籍。聞于中華。出佩州符。政績無倫。驟登翰苑。雄筆如神。諫垣叫闔。誥院演綸。藥言醫國。繡句驚人。修書敍事。信服強戎。潭潭相府。穆穆淸風。一掌成均。鸞鵠繽紛。三典禮闈。桃李芳芬。如何一旦。天喪斯文。縉紳庶士。涕泣瀾潸。鳳翼何附。龍鱗何攀。泰山其頹。士林凄然。上心悲悼。寵葬無前。命臣作誄。光于九泉。嗚呼哀哉。
Outstanding was our lord, the foremost Confucian of his age. The form he was born with was beyond other men's, and they called him a dragon among men. A divine being made known his excellence, and the star Gyu showed forth its omen. He received the numinous and nurtured the pure, and was not like ordinary men. In childhood he studied hard, and in those days was called a wondrous boy. The deep meanings of the three teachings — there was none he did not pierce through entire. He first rose to the topmost place, and at one try passed the licentiate examination. His fame in poetry was on every tongue, and was heard as far as China. Going out, he wore the tally of a district magistrate, and the traces of his government were beyond compare. All at once he rose to the Hallim Academy, where his vigorous brush was like a spirit's. In the Remonstrance Office he cried out toward the palace, and in the edict bureau he unfolded the sovereign's words. With words like medicine he mended the state, and with embroidered lines he startled men. He polished his writing and so unfolded affairs, and even the stubborn barbarians trusted and followed. In the deep, deep offices of the chief ministers there blew a concordant and clear wind. Once he took charge of the Seonggyun examination, and luan birds and swans gathered thick; three times he took charge of the examination of the Ministry of Rites, and peach and plum came into fragrant flower. Why then, in a single morning, did Heaven take away the Way of the Confucians? Officials and the host of scholars let their tears run down. Where shall we cling to the phoenix's wings, and where take hold of the dragon's scales? Mount Tai has fallen, and the company of scholars is desolate. The sovereign's heart has grieved, and the favor shown at the burial was without precedent. He has commanded his servant to compose a dirge; may it shine even to the ninefold heaven. Ah, how sad.