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 · 130 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 20 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 White Cloud Hermit is a style the master made for himself. He hid his name and showed forth his style. The intent with which he made the style for himself is fully set down in the master's "Recorded Sayings of the White Cloud." Though the house was often empty and the lighting of the fire and the cooking of rice could not be kept up, the Hermit was glad and glad in himself. His nature was unrestrained and open and under no curb, and he called the six directions narrow and heaven and earth cramped. He would let the day go down upon him with wine, and if anyone invited him he gladly went at once and came home drunk straightway. How should he not be of the company of Tao Yuanming of old? He played the geomungo and drank wine and comforted himself by these. This is the record of him. The Hermit, being drunk, chanted, and made his own life and made his own encomium.
2Encomium
贊曰。志固在六合之外。天地所不囿。將與氣母遊於無何有乎。
The encomium says: his intent is truly beyond the six directions, so that not even heaven and earth can shut him in — does he mean, then, to roam with the Mother of Breath (氣母) in the place where there is nothing at all?