Encomium Inscribed on the Portrait of the Late Minister of Revenue, the Lay Devotee Hoegok (檜谷居士), Lord Bak Inseok (仁碩) — with a preface故戶部尙書檜谷居士朴公仁碩眞贊幷序

Heaven gave him gall and spirit and so brought forth an uncommon man: this was Lord Bak of Gyerim (鷄林). He had early the ambition to save the age, and admired the characters of Zhuge Kongming and Wang Jinglüe (王景略). He was especially fond of the study of history, and when he spoke of affairs from the Han and the Tang onward it flowed on as though he had seen it yesterday. When he wrote, he caught the manner of Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan; and he had so well mastered the principles of things that, down to matters of eating and drinking, of dress and of taking medicine, there was nothing in which he was not exact and subtle. He was skilled besides in archery and in polo, so that not even a military officer (材官) or a seasoned general could match him. Yet this too was only what the lord did not grudge and let show outwardly; how much he kept hidden within, one does not know. He once fled the troubles and travelled south, and at last settled at Hoegok (檜谷) in Jukju (竹州), calling himself the Lay Devotee Hoegok; this was for more than thirty years in all. It happened that the Duke of Jingang took charge of the state, and hearing the lord's name summoned him to come to the capital, meaning to employ him greatly. He had already set the brush in his cap, and he was winnowed up besides, so that in less than ten years he soared and rose to the Eight Seats (八座). The world still thought it a pity that he did not become chief minister. The lord's name was Inseok and his style-name Susan (壽山); he was the heir of the famed chief minister of middle antiquity (中古) whose name was Yukhwa (育和). It is long since the lord departed the world; and at the house of his son Seo (犀), the Embroidered-Robe Lord (繡衣君), I saw the portrait of him painted by his friend Yi Gi (李杞), and as I thought of our old affection the tears fell before I knew it. Making bold to bow twice, I compose an encomium and write it at the head of the scroll. Its words are these.

When Heaven and Earth are dark, he draws in his scales and sinks into a muddy pool; when the age is clear and the Way is open, he smooths his wings and comes to dance. Is he a dragon? Is he a phoenix? His hiding and his showing depend upon the time alone. Looking once at the portrait he has left, the very model of a man is here. On his head a black gauze cap is pushed back, and on his body he wears a crane-feather robe. Though the painter, prizing the uncommon, made him this Daoist dress and this look of a man of the fields, the frame of his bones cannot be hidden: is it not, for all that, the look of one who would save his time and order the age? People revere his outward show but cannot tell which of the two is the true one. With this I make an encomium and draw out the essence of him. And who is it that made this encomium? A lay devotee, whose surname is Yi.