Tomb Inscription for the Man Who Retired as Acting Grand Protector, Grand Master of Golden Purple Glory and Emolument, 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, and Was Granted the Posthumous Title Duke Munsun守大保金紫光祿大夫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。贈諡文順公墓誌銘。
公姓李。諱奎報。字春卿。黃驪縣人也。皇考諱允綏。戶部郞中。母金氏。金壤縣人也。以公故封金蘭郡君。蔚珍縣尉諱施政之女也。公九歲。能屬文。至十五六。洽聞強記。凡著述。不倣古人陳語。平生不自名唐白。時人指之曰。走筆李唐白。歲己酉。於名宰相柳公權座下。中司馬試第一。明年。赴禮部試。於三場試日。貢擧員重其名。令飮宣醞數四杯。稍酣。下筆未精。其科稍劣。欲辭之更擧。以嚴君切責。亦無舊例。辭不得。謂賀客曰。科第雖下。豈不是三四度鑄門生者乎。丁巳。冢宰趙公永仁等文儒四相。聯名上箚子。薦公於闕下。箚子。爲不平者所竊遂寢。登第之十年。出補全州管記。屢抑通判不法。因被訴解職。後館翰等儒官薦人。每以公爲之首。故於丁卯。權補翰林院。明年。卽眞。壬申正月。除千牛衛錄事參軍事出院。六月。以兼直復院。十二月。不踐七品。爲司宰丞。仍兼直院。乙亥。直拜右正言。歷左右司諫。己卯。出爲桂陽府副使。一年。以禮部郞中起居注見召。自後歷大僕少卿寶文閣待制將作國子監祭酒翰林侍講學士判衛尉事。於九年之間。其遷轉如此。庚寅。以無妄流于猬島。其時以同罪被流者三人。皆正直敢言之達官也。辛卯。蒙宥還京師。時達旦來侵。公以散官。凡講和文字。皆任之。壬辰四月。起爲正議大夫判祕書省事寶文閣學士慶成府詹事。自入參至於是職。除補外一年。皆兼典誥。癸巳六月。拜銀靑光祿大夫樞密院副使右散騎常侍寶文閣學士。十二月。入相爲金紫光祿大夫知門下省事戶部尙書集賢殿大學士判禮部事。乙未十二月。爲參知政事修文殿大學士判戶部事太子大保。冬十月。上表乞退。上遣近臣敦諭令復起。公不得已起視事。又乞退固切。上重違其志。以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。嘗一典成均。三闢禮闈。所選多韻士。自解位來。以詩酒自娛。尙讀楞嚴。頌在九卷。亦國有大冊異朝書表等事。無所不爲。越辛丑七月。得微恙。時之當國大臣。連遣名醫問診。取公所著文集。命工彫刻。欲令公眼見。事巨未畢。至九月初二日。卒于私第。享年七十四。上哀悼。勑有司令百官會葬。贈諡曰文順公。噫。公之官爵次序。旣列於前。其瑞應行事之跡。敢闕于後。公之生數月。惡瘡滿身。面目皆爛。乳嫗出置門外。有一老父過視之曰。此兒不啻萬金。宜善護養。嫗走報家君。君疑其神人。數路追之不得。此神物護公於襁褓中也。公之欲赴司馬試。夢見着碪鍊緇布衣人群飮堂上。傍人曰。此二十八宿也。公驚悚再拜。問今年試席捷否。有一人指一人曰。彼乃奎星。宜就問之。公就問。未聞其言而窹。俄復夢。其人來報子必占魁頭。此天機。但勿洩耳。前名仁底。因改今名。赴試果中第一。此靈曜之攝公於名敎中也。壬戌。東京叛。遣三軍討之。軍幕欲以散官及第充修制員。戰者危事。皆以計避之。公獨慨然曰。予雖儒怯。避國難非人也。遂從軍。此公之勇於義也。戊寅。於八關會侍御宴。禮數未半。有一宰相促罷之。公曰。君賜也。不可取次處分。雖因此被流。此公之執法不撓也。所謂達旦者。頑如禽獸。奏之以鈞天廣樂。而不足以開其胸。投之以隋珠和璧。而▣▣▣▣顔。及聞公之文字事意。惻然有感。所諭皆從。此公之至諴能動無情者也。娶大府卿晉昇第二女。生四男二女。長曰灌。先公沒。曰涵。今爲知洪州事副使。曰澄。慶仙店錄事。曰濟。西大悲院錄事。女長適入內侍掖庭內謁者監李惟信。次適內侍慶禧宮錄事高伯梴。於戲。墓銘之作尙矣。其功名顯顯爲世所尙。然後爲之。蓋將使後之人知曠世之上。有雄偉不常者矣。雖其人雄偉不常。而銘不得其人。則不若無之之爲愈也。予拙於爲文。公於平日從容之際。每稱吾之沒也。子其銘乎。其嗣子涵述公之意。書來請銘。不得已銘之曰。
His Excellency's surname was Yi, his given name Gyubo (奎報) and his style name Chungyeong (春卿), and he was a man of Hwangnyeo District (黃驪縣). His late father's given name was Yunsu (允綏), who was Bureau Director of the Ministry of Revenue. His mother was Lady Kim, a woman of Geumyang District (金壤縣), who on His Excellency's account was enfeoffed District Lady of Geumnan; she was the daughter of Sijeong (施政), Defender of Uljin District.
At nine His Excellency could compose writing, and by fifteen or sixteen his hearing was ample and his memory firm. Whenever he composed, he did not copy the stale words of the ancients. In all his life he never called himself Dangbaek (唐白), and yet the people of that time pointed to him as "Yi Dangbaek, who gallops the brush."
In the giyu year he passed the Sama examination first, under the seat of the famous chief minister Yu Gonggwon (柳公權). The next year he sat the examination of the Ministry of Rites; and on the day of the three sessions, those in charge of the examination, holding his name in weight, had him drink three or four cups of the wine the sovereign had bestowed. Being tipsy, he set his brush down less than exactly, and his class was somewhat low. He wished to decline it and sit the examination again, but his father rebuked him earnestly and there was besides no old precedent for it, so he could not decline. He said 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?"
In the jeongsa year four chief ministers who were men of letters, headed by Jo Yeongin (趙永仁), foremost of the chief ministers, set their names one after another to a memorandum (箚子) recommending His Excellency to the palace; but someone who was discontented with that memorandum stole it away, and in the end it was buried. Ten years after he passed the examination he went out and was appointed Clerk of Jeonju; there he several times held down the Administrative Aide's unlawful doings, and for this he was accused and released from his post. Afterward, whenever the Confucian officials of the Institute pavilions and of the Hallim recommended men, they always put His Excellency at the head. And so in the jeongmyo year he was provisionally appointed to the Hallim Academy, and the next year it became a regular office.
In the first month of the imsin year he was appointed Recorder and Adjutant of the Cheonu Guard and left the Hallim Academy, but in the sixth month he entered it again as a concurrent post. In the twelfth month, without treading the seventh grade, he became Aide of the Office of Provisions, keeping his concurrent post in the Hallim Academy as before. In the eulhae year he was appointed straight to Right Rectifier of Speech, and passed through Left Remonstrance Counselor and Right Remonstrance Counselor. In the gimyo year he went out as Deputy Prefect of Gyeyang Prefecture, and after a year was called in as Bureau Director of the Ministry of Rites and Diarist. After that he passed through Vice Minister of the Court of Equipage, Academician-in-Waiting of the Bomun Pavilion, Director of the Directorate of Construction, Libationer of the National Academy, Hallim Academician Reader-in-Waiting, and Superintendent of the Court of Ceremonial Arms; such was his moving about in the space of nine years.
In the gyeongin year he was banished to Wido (猬島) over a groundless matter. At that time three men were banished for the same offense, and all were high officials, upright and straight and bold to speak. In the sinmyo year he received pardon and returned to the capital. Just then the Dadan (達旦) invaded, and His Excellency, as a man on the unassigned list, took charge of every document that discussed making peace.
In the fourth month of the imjin year he rose to be Grand Master of Rectified Counsel, Superintendent of the Palace Library, Academician of the Bomun Pavilion and Assistant Administrator of Gyeongseong Prefecture. From his first entry into office until he reached this post, apart from the one year he was out in the provinces, he held the charge of drafting edicts concurrently throughout. In the sixth month of the gyesa year he was appointed Grand Master of Silver-Blue Glory and Emolument, Vice Commissioner of the Privy Council, Right Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary and Academician of the Bomun Pavilion; and in the twelfth month he entered as chief minister, becoming Grand Master of Golden Purple Glory and Emolument, Administrator of the Chancellery, Minister of Revenue, Grand Academician of the Jiphyeon Hall and Superintendent of the Ministry of Rites. In the twelfth month of the eulmi year he became Assistant Executive in Chancellery Affairs, Grand Academician of the Sumun Hall, Superintendent of the Ministry of Revenue and Grand Protector of the Heir Apparent.
In the tenth month of winter he submitted a memorial begging leave to retire, but the sovereign sent a close attendant to urge him warmly and make him take office again, and His Excellency, having no choice, rose and attended to affairs. Again he begged firmly and earnestly to retire, and the sovereign, finding it hard to go against his wish, let him withdraw from office as 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.
He once took charge of the Seonggyun examination and three times opened the examination of the Ministry of Rites, and among those he chose were many scholars of elegance. After laying down office he took his pleasure in poetry and wine, and still read the Surangama Sutra; the gatha verses on it are in the ninth volume. And whenever the state had a great document to draw up, or writings and memorials to send to other countries, there was nothing of it he did not do.
In the seventh month of the sinchuk year he took a light illness. At that time the great ministers who held charge of the state sent famous physicians one after another to inquire after and examine the illness. They took the collection His Excellency had composed and ordered craftsmen to cut it, meaning to let His Excellency see it with his own eyes; but the work was great and they could not finish it. On the second day of the ninth month he passed away at his private house, the years he had enjoyed being seventy-four. The sovereign grieved, and commanded the officials in charge to gather all the officials and conduct the funeral, and bestowed the posthumous title Duke Munsun (文順公).
Ah. The order of His Excellency's offices and grades has already been set out above; how then should I dare leave out, after it, the omens that answered him and the traces of his deeds?
A few months after His Excellency was born, a cruel rash spread over his whole body, and his face and eyes were all raw with sores. His nurse set him outside the gate, and an old man passing by saw him and said, "This child is more precious than ten thousand pieces of gold; you should look after him and rear him well." The nurse ran and told his father, who suspected he was a divine being and pursued him by several roads, but could not find him. This was a numinous power guarding His Excellency in his swaddling clothes.
When His Excellency was about to sit the Sama examination, he dreamed that he saw men in black hempen robes, pressed smooth with the beetle, drinking in a company upon a hall floor. A man beside him said, "These are the twenty-eight constellations." His Excellency, startled and afraid, bowed twice and asked whether he would pass at this year's examination. One of them pointed to another and said, "That one is the star Gyu; you should go forward and ask him." His Excellency went forward and asked, but he awoke without hearing the answer. Before long he dreamed again, and that man came and told him, "You will surely take the topmost place. This is a secret of Heaven, so only see that it does not leak out." His earlier name had been Injeo (仁底), and on account of this he changed it to his present name; and when he sat the examination he did indeed pass first. This was a numinous star leading His Excellency onto the road of the Confucians.
In the imsul year Gyeongju revolted and the three armies were sent to strike it, and the camp wished to pick someone who had passed the examination from among the officers on the unassigned list, to fill the post of drafting documents. War being a perilous business, everyone contrived to avoid it. His Excellency alone said, with spirit, "Scholar though I am, and full of fear, to avoid my country's hardship is not to be a man." And at length he went with the troops. This was His Excellency's courage in righteousness.
At the Palgwan assembly of the muin year he attended the sovereign's banquet; and before the rite was half through, a chief minister urged that it be broken up. His Excellency said, "It is the sovereign's own bestowal, and cannot be disposed of at will." Though it was on this account that he was banished, this was His Excellency's holding to the law and not bending.
Those called the Dadan are as obdurate as birds and beasts. Let them be given the grand music of heaven to hear and it is not enough to open their breasts; throw them the pearl of the Marquis of Sui and the jade of Mr. He and their faces were ▣▣▣▣. Yet on hearing the meaning of His Excellency's writings and dispatches, their hearts were moved and they felt something, and they followed everything they were urged to. This was His Excellency's utmost sincerity moving even what has no feeling.
He married the second daughter of Jin Seung (晉昇), Chief Minister of the Great Storehouse, and had four sons and two daughters. The eldest was Gwan (灌), who died before His Excellency; Ham (涵) is now Deputy Prefect and Administrator of Hongju; Jing (澄) is Recorder of the Gyeongseon Store; and Je (濟) is Recorder of the West Hall of Great Mercy. The eldest daughter married Yi Yusin (李惟信), Palace Attendant-in-Waiting and Director of Inner Ushers of the Aekjeong Office, and the next married Go Baekcheon (高伯梴), Palace Attendant and Recorder of Gyeonghui Palace.
Ah. The making of tomb inscriptions is an old practice. One is made only after a man's merit and name are plain and the world holds him high, and this is in the main to let later men know that above the dim ages there was one who was grand and out of the ordinary. Yet even if the man is grand and out of the ordinary, if no one is found to compose the inscription, it would be better to have none. I am clumsy at writing. And yet His Excellency, whenever he was quiet in ordinary times, always said, "When I die, you are to compose the inscription." His eldest son Ham conveyed His Excellency's wish and asked in writing for the inscription; so, having no choice, I have composed an inscription, which says:
Interlinear notes 3
幷序○侍郞李需述
With the preface. Composed by Vice Minister Yi Su (李需).
The source text has 管記, which is taken as the same post as Clerk (書記).
Dadan (達旦) refers to the Mongols. They are the same people as the "Mongol" of this writing. — translator
江左汾陽。海東孔子。溫良恭儉。哀榮終始。七十已前。與世爲賢。玉樓作記。於公細事。斡旋元氣。是公之位。七十已後。爲天所有。人望未厭。天取不廉。天奪其眞。地得厥身。焉得爲二。在天在地。其人茫茫。所留文章。亦恐六丁。雷電取將。鳩集工徒。勒之金石。一鏡云亡。天子憫惻。爰命有司。宅名山側。原野畇畇。峯巒翼翼。山旣靈兮。子孫萬億。
The Fenyang of Jiangzuo, the Confucius of Haedong. Warm, benevolent, respectful and frugal, his mourning and his glory were complete from first to last. Before his seventieth year he was, together with the world, its benevolence; and composing a record for the Jade Tower would have been a trifling thing for him. To turn the primal breath about was his very place. After his seventieth year he became what Heaven possessed. Men's longing was not yet sated, yet Heaven's taking him was shameless. Heaven snatched away his truth and earth obtained his body; how can he be made two? He is in heaven and he is in earth. The man himself is far away, and what remains is his writing. And fearing besides that the Six Jeong (六丁) might carry it off in thunder and lightning, they called craftsmen together and cut it into metal and stone. When word came that one mirror was gone, the Son of Heaven took pity, and thereupon commanded the officials in charge to settle him beside a famous mountain. The fields lie flat and even, and the peaks are as wings spread out. The mountain being numinous already, his descendants will flourish by myriads and hundreds of millions.
Interlinear notes 4
江左汾陽 — Jiangzuo (江左) is the land south of the river, and Fenyang (汾陽) means Guo Ziyi (郭子儀), the Tang Prince of Fenyang. — translator
玉樓作記 — The old story that when Li He (李賀) of the Tang was dying, he was summoned to come and compose a record because the White Jade Tower (白玉樓) in heaven had been completed. — translator
六丁 — In Daoism, the six spirits in charge of fire, who are said to take away the writings of heaven. — translator
一鏡云亡 — This says that one man who was clear as a mirror has left the world. — translator