Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
A Golden Tablet to Make Him Give Up Wine金牌斷酒
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.
遺事云。安祿山眷寵旣深。人多嫉之。帝恐遇毒。賜祿山以金牌斷酒。每王公勸飮則示云。准勑斷酒云。
The Yishi says: As An Lushan came to enjoy deep favor, many men envied him. Fearing that he might meet with poison, the Emperor bestowed a golden tablet (金牌) on Lushan so that he might give up wine. Whenever princes and nobles pressed drink upon him he would show it and say, "By imperial command I have given up wine."
開元天子計何踈。准勑扶持孕禍軀。正是護成銛觜日。朝臣爭肯害胡雛。
How loose were the plans of the Son of Heaven of Kaiyuan! By imperial command he propped up a body that harbored the seed of calamity. That was the very day he nursed the sharp beak to its growth — how should the courtiers have sought to harm the barbarian boy?