[Sim Heui-su studied as a young man at the feet of No Su-sin, who was
sent as an exile to a distant island in the sea. Thither he followed
his master and worked at the Sacred Books. He matriculated in 1570
and graduated in 1572. In 1589 he remonstrated with King Son-jo over
the disorders of his reign, and was the means of quelling a great
national disturbance; but he made a faux pas one day when he said
laughingly to a friend--
"These sea-gull waves ride so high,
Who can tame them?"
Those who heard caught at this, and it became a source of unpopularity,
as it indicated an unfavourable opinion of the Court.
In 1592, when the King made his escape to Eui-ju, before the invading
Japanese army, he was the State's Chief Secretary, and after the
return of the King he became Chief Justice. He resigned office, but the
King refused to accept his resignation, saying, "I cannot do without
you." He became chief of the literati and Special Adviser. Afterwards
he became Minister of the Right, then of the Left, at which time
he wrote out ten suggestions for His Majesty to follow. He saw the
wrongs done around the King, and resigned office again and again,
but was constantly recalled.
In 1608 Im Suk-yong, a young candidate writing for his matriculation,
wrote an essay exposing the wrongs of the Court. Sim heard of this, and
took the young man under his protection. The King, reading the essay,
was furiously angry, and ordered the degradation of Im, but Sim said,
"He is with me; I am behind what he wrote and approve; degrade me and
not him," and so the King withdrew his displeasure. He was faithful
of the faithful.
When he was old he went and lived in Tun-san in a little tumble-down
hut, like the poorest of the literati. He called himself "Water-thunder
Muddy-man," a name derived from the Book of Changes.
He died in 1622 at the age of seventy-four, and is recorded as one
of Korea's great patriots.]