A Discussion of the Affair of Ireom (日嚴)論日嚴事
明廟。實三十七年大平之主也。終雖被廢。其明智有不可形容者。臣請粗論之。時南國有浮屠日嚴者。自稱世尊。人皆傳能理人疾病。雖至盲聾風癩。無不立愈。京師聞之。皆欲迎致。上重違衆志。先使內臣驗其實。內臣還奏如所聞。上不得已使使迎之。勑置東城外弘法寺。其始來也。冒綵㲲巾。乘駮馬。以綾扇障其面。徒衆不可勝計。遮擁馬首。有不得正視其顔者。京師士庶。日夜會其寺。無慮萬餘人。皆唱阿彌陀佛。聲聞十里。乃至公卿搢紳及其配耦。幽閨處女。其聚如林。皆以髮布其前。藉日嚴之足。凡日嚴飮食之餘。沐浴之水。苟得之。雖涓滴貴如千金。無不飮服。當此之際。上若迎入大內。痛加禮敬。則一國變爲胡風。以至男女雜處。淫亂必甚矣。上漸驗其實。放遣江南。明廟之智如此。至聖子神孫。反正享祚。焉知不以此耶。但恨當時無一諫官如韓文部諫迎佛骨者耳。後驗其事。則其僧先敎人曰。萬法唯心。汝若勤念佛曰我病已愈。則病隨而愈矣。愼勿言疾之不愈。以是盲者妄言已視。聾者亦言已聞。所以令人易惑。是豈國之妖者歟。嗚呼。幾誤一國矣。
Myeongjong (明宗) was in truth a lord of seven-and-thirty years of great peace. At the last he was indeed put from the throne, yet in his bright wisdom there was that which cannot be told. Your servant begs to discuss it in outline.
At that time there was in the southern country a monk called Ireom (日嚴), who called himself the World-Honored One. All men passed it from mouth to mouth that he could cure men's sicknesses, and that even to the blind and the deaf, those stricken with palsy and those with leprosy, there was none who was not healed on the spot. They heard of this in the capital, and all wished to bring him in. The king, finding it hard to go against the will of the multitude, first had an inner servant look into the truth of it, and the inner servant came back and reported that it was as had been heard. The king, unable to do otherwise, sent a messenger to bring him in and commanded that he be lodged at Hongbeop temple (弘法寺) outside the eastern wall (東城).
When he first came he wore a kerchief of colored wool, rode a dappled horse, and hid his face with a fan of silk. The throng could not be counted at all, and as they screened and blocked the head of his horse there were those who could not look straight upon his face. The officials and the people of the capital gathered at that temple night and day, some ten thousand and more in all. All called upon Amitābha (阿彌陀佛), and the sound was heard for ten li. From the great lords and the officials and their wives down to the maidens of the deep inner chambers, their gathering was like a forest. All spread out their hair before him to hold up Ireom's feet. Whenever a man truly got hold of what Ireom had left from his eating and drinking, or of the water he had bathed in, there was none who did not prize it like a thousand pieces of gold, though it were but a few drops, and drink it.
At that time, had the king brought him within the palace and honored him with the utmost of ceremony, the whole country would have been changed into the manners of the barbarians, men and women would have dwelt mingled together, and it must have come to this, that lewdness grew great. The king looked little by little into the truth of it and drove him out to the land south of the river. Such was the wisdom of Myeongjong. Who is to know but that it was for this very reason that a holy son and a wondrous grandson set the government right again and enjoyed the throne? Only it is to be regretted that in that time there was not one officer of remonstrance such as Han Tuizhi (韓退之), who remonstrated against the bringing in of the Buddha's bone.
Afterward, when the affair was looked into, it appeared that the monk had first taught men, saying: 「The ten thousand dharmas (萬法) are mind only. If you call diligently upon the Buddha and say, 'My sickness is healed already,' then your sickness will be healed accordingly. Take care that you do not say that your sickness is not healed.」 For this cause the blind said rashly that they already saw, and the deaf too said that they already heard; and this is why men were so easily beguiled. How should this not be a portent of evil for the state? Alas, he came within a hair of ruining the whole country.