Son Sun Buries His Child — Reign of King Heungdeok孫順埋兒 興德王代
1A Child Can Be Had Again, but Not a Mother
孫順埋児興徳王代孫順者〔古今作孫舜.〕牟梁里人,父鶴山.父没,與妻同但傳人家得米穀飬老孃.孃名運烏.順有小児,每奪孃食.順難之謂其妻曰,“児可得母難再求,而奪其食母飢何甚.且埋此児以啚母腹之盈.”乃負児敀醉山〔山在牟梁西北.〕北郊堀地,忽得石鐘甚竒.夫婦驚恠,乍懸林木上試擊之,㫪容可愛.妻曰,“得異物殆児之福不可埋也.”夫亦以爲然,乃負児與鍾而還家懸鐘於梁扣之,聲聞于闕.
Son Sun buries his child — reign of King Heungdeok.
Son Sun (孫順)〔In old records it is written Son Sun (孫舜).〕 was a man of Moryangni, and his father was Haksan (鶴山).
After his father died, he and his wife hired themselves out to other houses to get rice and grain to support his old mother. His mother's name was Uno (運烏).
Son Sun had a small child who always snatched his mother's food and ate it.
Son Sun was troubled by this and said to his wife:
"A child can be had again, but a mother cannot be found a second time. Yet he snatches her food. How great my mother's hunger must be! Let us bury this child and see that my mother's belly is filled."
So he carried the child on his back to the northern fields of Chwisan〔The mountain is northwest of Moryangni.〕 and dug the ground, when suddenly he found a stone bell, very strange.
The couple were startled and puzzled. They hung it for a moment on a tree in the woods and tried striking it, and its sound was soft and lovely.
The wife said, "Finding this strange thing must be the child's good fortune. We must not bury him."
The husband thought so too, so they carried the child and the bell home, hung the bell from a beam, and struck it, and the sound reached the palace.
Interlinear notes 2
古今作孫舜.
In old records it is written Son Sun (孫舜).
山在牟梁西北.
The mountain is northwest of Moryangni.
2Heaven and Earth Alike Saw the Earlier Piety and the Later
興徳王聞之謂左右曰,“西郊有異鍾聲,清逺下類速檢之.”王人来檢其家,具事奏王,王曰,“昔郭巨瘞子天賜金釡,今孫順埋児地湧石鍾.前孝後孝覆載同鑑.”乃賜屋一區,嵗給粳五十碩以尚純孝焉.順捨舊居爲寺,號弘孝寺安置石鍾.真聖王代百濟横賊入其里,鍾亡寺存.其得鍾之地名完乎坪,今訛云枝良坪.
King Heungdeok heard it and said to those around him, "In the western fields there is a strange bell, whose sound is clear and carries far, and nothing can match it. Go quickly and look into it."
The king's men came, looked into the house, and reported the matter in full to the king.
The king said:
"Long ago, when Guo Ju (郭巨) was about to bury his son, Heaven sent down a golden cauldron. Now, when Son Sun was about to bury his child, the earth sent up a stone bell.
Heaven and earth alike have seen the earlier piety and the later."
So he gave him a house and fifty seok of polished rice each year to honor his pure filial piety.
Son Sun gave up his old house to be a temple, named it Honghyosa (弘孝寺), and enshrined the stone bell there.
In the reign of Queen Jinseong, savage bandits of Baekje entered that village, and the bell was lost, but the temple remained.
The place where the bell was found is named Wanhopyeong (完乎坪), now wrongly called Jiryangpyeong.