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Sending the Consort Away送妃子

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 · 216 Chinese characters · reading time 2 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.

明皇遺錄曰。漁陽叛書聞。六軍不進。力士奏曰。軍中皆言禍胎尙在行宮。侯元吉前奏願斬貴妃首。懸之太白旗以令諸中。帝叱曰。妃子。後宮之貴人。投鼠尙忌器。何必懸首而軍中方知也。力士奏曰。願陛下面賜妃子死。以慰軍心。貴妃泣曰。上帝之尊。勢豈不庇能一婦人使之生乎。一門俱族。而延及臣妾。得無甚乎。帝曰。萬口一辭。牢不可破。國忠等雖死。軍猶不發。妃子一死。以塞天下之謗。妃子曰。願得帝送妾數步。妾死無憾。左右引妃子去。帝起立目送之。妃子十步九反顧。帝泣下交頤。

The Minghuang yilu says: When word of the rebellion at Yuyang (漁陽) came, the six armies would not advance. Gao Lishi reported, "In the camp they all say that the seed of the calamity is still in the traveling palace. Hou Yuanji (侯元吉) reported earlier that he wished the Honored Consort's head cut off and hung upon the Taibai banner (太白旗), and an order given to the camp by it." The Emperor rebuked him, saying, "The Consort is a noble lady of the inner palace. Even one who would throw something at a rat spares the vessel; why must her head be hung up before the camp will understand?" Lishi reported, "I beg Your Majesty to grant the Consort death with your own hand, and so comfort the heart of the army." The Honored Consort wept and said, "With the Emperor's high estate, how should there be no power to shield one woman and let her live? A whole household has been wiped out root and branch, and now it reaches even to me — is this not too much?" The Emperor said, "Ten thousand mouths speak as one word, and it is set hard and cannot be broken. Guozhong (國忠) and the rest are dead, and still the soldiers will not go. Let the Consort alone die, and so stop the slander of all the world." The Consort said, "If the Emperor will see me off a few steps, I shall die without regret." Those about her led the Consort away, and the Emperor stood up and followed her with his eyes. The Consort looked back nine times in ten steps, and the Emperor's tears ran twisting down to his chin.

軍情洶洶固難違。忍遣紅顔正掩暉。豈以大唐天子貴。勢窮莫庇一宮妃。

The heart of the army was in an uproar and truly hard to cross, and he brought himself to let a red face be dimmed at the height of its light. How was it that even with the high estate of the Son of Heaven of Tang, when his power was spent he could not shield one palace consort?

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