Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 4
The Bead That Remembers Affairs記事珠
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.
遺事曰。張說爲宰相。有人惠一珠。紺色有光。名曰記事珠。或有闕忘之事。則以手持弄。便覺心神開朗。一無所忘。說秘而寶也。
The Yishi says: When Zhang Yue (張說) became chief minister, a certain man gave him a bead. It was dark red with a luster, and was called the Affair-Remembering Bead (記事珠). If ever he had left something out or forgotten it, he had only to hold it in his hand and rub it, and at once his heart and spirit opened wide and he forgot nothing. Zhang Yue hid it away and treasured it.
燕公遺闕想應無。記事猶憑一紺珠。底事後來居位者。錮聦塗眼故昏愚。
The Duke of Yan (燕公) surely had nothing he left out or forgot, yet for remembering affairs he leaned on one dark red bead. Why is it that those who sat in his seat after him stop their ears and plaster their eyes and are dull and foolish on purpose?