A Discussion of the History of the Tang's Not Establishing a Life of Choe Chiwon唐書不立崔致遠列傳議
按唐書藝文志。載崔致遠四六一卷又桂苑筆耕二十卷。自注云。高麗人。賓貢及第。爲高騈淮南從事。予讀之。未嘗不嘉其中國之曠蕩無外。不以外國人爲之輕重。而旣令文集行於世。又載史如此者。然於文藝列傳。不爲致遠特立其傳。予未知其意也。若以爲其行事不足以立傳。則崔孤雲年十二。渡海入中華游學。一擧甲科及第。遂爲高騈從事。檄黃巢。巢頗沮氣。後官至都統巡官侍御史。及將還本國。同年顧雲贈儒仙歌。其略曰。十二乘船過海來。文章感動中華國。其迹章章如此。以之立傳。則固與文藝所載沈佺期，柳幷，崔元翰，李頻輩之半紙列傳有間矣。若以外國人。則已見于志矣。又於藩鎭虎勇。則李正己，黑齒常之等。皆高麗人也。各列其傳。書其事備矣。奈何於文藝。獨不爲孤雲立其傳耶。予以私意揣之。古之人於文章。不得不相嫌忌。況致遠以外國孤生入中朝。躪躒時之名輩。是近於中國之嫌者也。若立傳直其筆。恐涉其嫌。故略之歟。是予所未知者也。
Looking at the Treatise on Literature (藝文志) in the History of the Tang, I find entered there Choe Chiwon's Four and Six (四六) in one volume, and his Gyewon Pilgyeong (桂苑筆耕) in twenty volumes, with a note of its own saying, 「A man of Goryeo. He passed the examination for foreign candidates (賓貢科) and became an aide of the Huainan command (淮南從事) under Gao Pian (高騈).」 Reading this, I never failed to think it fine that the breadth and greatness of China keeps nothing outside itself, and that, making a man neither light nor weighty for being of a foreign country, it had already let his collected works go about in the world and had set him down in its history in this way.
Yet in the Lives of the Literary Men they did not set up a separate life for Choe Chiwon, and I do not understand what was meant by it. If they held that his deeds were not enough for a life to be set up — Choe Goun crossed the sea at the age of twelve and entered China to study, and passed in the first class at a single attempt, and in the end became Gao Pian's aide. He sent a proclamation to Huang Chao (黃巢), and Huang Chao's spirit was no little broken by it. Later his office came to Inspecting Officer of the Commander-in-Chief and Attending Censor (都統巡官侍御史). When he was about to return to his own country, Gu Yun (顧雲), a graduate of his own year, made him the 「Song of the Confucian Immortal」 (儒仙歌), the substance of which was, 「At twelve he took ship and crossed the sea, and his writing moved the land of the Middle Flower.」 So plain are the traces of him.
If a life were set up on this ground, it would truly be a different thing from the half-page lives of the likes of Shen Quanqi, Liu Bing (柳幷), Cui Yuanhan (崔元翰) and Li Pin (李頻) that are entered among the Literary Men. And if it is because he was a man of a foreign country, he appears in the Treatise already. Besides, among the brave men of the frontier commands (藩鎭), Yi Jeonggi (李正己) and Heukchi Sangji (黑齒常之) and the rest were all men of Goryeo, and a life was ranged out for each of them and their doings recorded in full. Why then, among the Literary Men alone, was no life set up for Goun?
Reckoning it by my own private notion: the men of old could not but shun and envy one another where writing was concerned. How much more when Choe Chiwon, a lone student from a foreign country, went into the Middle Court and trod down the famous men of that day; this comes near to what China shuns. Was it that, if they set up a life and made their brush upright in it, they feared to fall foul of that shunning, and so left it out? This is what I do not understand.