Preface to the Newly Compiled Essentials Gathered by the Royal Physicians (御醫撮要方)新集御醫撮要方序
夫有生之所重者。身與命而已矣。雖死生壽夭皆關乎天。若因節宣失適。爲疾恙所寇。而無良方妙藥以理之。則其間豈無橫失其命者耶。是古聖賢所以著本草，千金，斗門，聖惠諸方。以營救萬生之命者也。然部秩繁浩。難於省閱。其若寢疾彌留。勢可淹延時日。則謁醫可也。搜諸書求其方。亦可也。至如暴得重病。蒼皇危急。則又何暇謁醫搜書之是爲也。不若採菁撮要。以爲備急之具也。國朝有茶房所集藥方一部。文略效神。可濟萬命。以歲久脫漏。幾於廢失矣。今樞密相公崔諱宗峻。見而惜之。思欲摹印以廣其傳。以此聞于上。上遂欣然頷可。公於是分爲二卷。又添附諸方之最要者。使人繕寫。名之曰御醫撮要。承制勑送西京留守官彫印。使流播於人間。是亦聖朝視民如赤子之仁政也。抑又士君子所以汎濟含生之意也。噫。有善不可蓋者。予守也。公又命之爲序。則其可避乎。敢再拜略書梗槩耳。時丙戌四月日。序。
What those who have life hold heavy is the body and the life, and nothing more. Though dying and living, long life and early death all hang upon Heaven, yet if one's regulation of himself loses its fitness and he is raided by sickness, and there is no good prescription and no wondrous drug to set it right, how should there be none in such a case who lose their lives untimely? This is why the sages and worthies of old composed the several books of prescriptions — the Bencao (本草), the Qianjin (千金), the Doumen (斗門), the Shenghui (聖惠) — seeking to save the lives of ten thousand creatures.
But their volumes are many and vast and hard to look through. If one lies sick and it drags on long, so that the case allows the days to be put off, then one may go and call on a physician, and one may rummage through the several books and seek out the prescription. But when one suddenly takes a grave illness and comes in a flurry to the point of danger, what leisure is there then to call on a physician or to rummage through books? Better to pick out the pith and gather the essentials and make of them a thing kept ready against urgency.
In the state there was one set of prescriptions collected by the Tea Chamber (茶房), its wording brief and its efficacy wondrous, fit to rescue ten thousand lives. But the years had been long and it had dropped and leaked away until it was all but lost. Now Choe, whose name is Jongjun (崔諱宗峻), Chief Minister of the Privy Council (樞密相公), saw it and thought it a pity, and considered that he would have it printed to widen its passing on, and reported this to the king. The king then nodded his glad assent. The lord thereupon divided it into two volumes, and added besides the most essential among the several books of prescriptions, and had men make a fair copy, and named it the Eui Chwaryo (御醫撮要). Bearing the royal command, he sent it to the Office of the Western Capital Regent (西京留守官) to be cut and printed, and made it spread abroad in the world of men; and this too is the benevolent government of a sage court, which looks upon the people as upon a newborn child, and it is also a gentleman's purpose of rescuing broadly all that holds life.
Ah, that a good deed cannot be covered over is what I hold to. The lord further commanded me to compose the preface; how then could I avoid it? I only make bold to bow twice and set down the main outline. Written in the fourth month of the Byeongsul year, on such a day.