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 · 91 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 Minghuang zalu says: When the Emperor went to Shu, he had just entered Xiegu (斜谷) when the long rains fell for more than ten days. On the plank road he heard the sound of bells. The Emperor was then grieving for the Honored Consort, and so he took that sound and made the tune "Yulinling (雨霖鈴)" to lodge his regret in it. At that time, among the disciples of the Pear Garden (梨園), Zhang Yehu (張野狐) alone was skilled at the reed pipe (觱篥), and so he had him play it, and in the end it was handed down to the world.
棧道崎嶇雨潦俱。此時猶念玉妃姝。殷勤自製霖鈴曲。觱篥時憑張野狐。
The plank road was steep, and the waters of the long rains came on top of it,
and even at such an hour he still thought of the consort like jade.
Earnestly he made the tune "Yulinling" himself,
and from time to time he leaned upon Zhang Yehu's reed pipe.