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 · 1 passages · 140 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 13 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.
To angle for fish is to count their flesh a gain;
what gain is there in angling for a name?
A name is the guest of substance (實);
where there is a host, the guest comes of itself.
If with no substance one enjoys an empty name,
one ends by being bound to that name.
Longbo (龍伯) angled up six turtles —
that angling was grand indeed.
Taigong angled up King Wen,
and his angling had no bait at all.
Angling for a name is not like these;
it is a moment's luck and no more.
It is like a woman with no mirror
who paints and adorns herself and is lovely for a while,
but when the powder falls and her true face shows,
those who see her gag and turn away.
If angling for a name could make a man virtuous,
what age would lack its Yan Hui?
If angling for a name could make a conscientious officer (循吏),
what district would not have its Gong Sui (龔遂)?
Mean was Gongsun Hong,
who became chief minister and still slept under hemp;
petty was the magistrate of Huchang (虎昌),
who threw down his coins and drank the water of the well.
He feared that others might learn of his purity —
Yang Zhen (楊震), he was the true gentleman.
I have made this "Angling for a Name"
to satirize the scholars who love a name.