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 · 156 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 21 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.
Master Yi asked O Deokjeon (吳德全): "In Samhan there have been many from of old whose writing has made their names ring through the world, and yet few of them are known by name to the herdboy and the errand-runner. Yours alone, sir, there is none who does not know, down to the women and the children. How has this come about?"
The master laughed and said: "I once played the part of an old scholar and went about the four quarters pasting my mouth together for a living, so that there was no place I did not reach. That is why many know me. And then I sat the examination of the Ministry of Rites again and again without passing, and everyone would point and say, 'So-and-so has failed again this year too.' It is only by this that I have grown familiar to men's ears and eyes; it is not necessarily because of talent. Besides, to enjoy an empty name without the substance of it is like eating a salary of a thousand jong without merit. It is for this that I am as hard pressed and as destitute as this. What I have shunned all my life is a name."
Such was the way he made himself low. Some say that the gentleman trusts in his talent and is haughty toward others; but this is to know the master very ill indeed.