Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 2 passages · 88 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 4 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.
The Yishi (遺事) says: Minghuang, in the side hall, longed greatly to discuss the affairs of the day with Yao Yuanchong (姚元崇). On the fifteenth of the seventh month a bitter rain would not stop and the mire filled every footprint. The Emperor had his attendants carry a hand-borne palanquin (步輦) and fetch the Academician. Yuanchong was then a Hanlin Academician (翰林學士), and within the court and without it was held an honor. From of old there has never been such urgency in seeking a worthy man.
步輦迎來玉帝家。從敎秋雨瀉如河。六街泥濘知多少。未汚花甎學士靴。
Borne in a palanquin he was welcomed to the house of the Jade Emperor,
and the autumn rain, pouring like a river, was let be.
One may guess how deep the mire lay in the six avenues,
yet it did not soil the Academician's boots that trod the flowered brick.