A Record of the Thatched Pavilion of the Marquis of Jingang (晉康侯)晉康侯茅亭記
負鵠嶺腋龍首。扼四方之會。據神京之中。蔥蔥有佳氣可掬者。男山也。麗其麓而家焉者。門千戶萬。若鱗錯櫛比。而特控引形勢。螭起鳳舞者。相國晉康侯之甲第也。其燕息遊觀之所。則有茅亭在焉。銳其顚圓其體。望之若羽蓋而軒翥於半空者是已。夫澄神汰慮。莫若靑山白雲。然所寄遐阻。恒苦其不可跬步到也。豈蟬首龜腰者之所常履也。玆亭也不出城市。超然有雲山之趣。令人心地自然澄汰。俯仰几席。坐撫四方。長橋相望。九逵互湊。乘軒者。跨馬者。行者走者。擔者挈者千態萬狀。無一毫敢逃。凡遐眺遠覽。莫玆亭若也。雖使公輸督墨。般匠揮斤。其制度宏麗。或可髣髴。至於洞朗豁眼。飄飄若登蓬萊望四海。則非稟公之目授頤指。曷若是耶。噫。自始剖判。固有斯境。曠世伏匿。一朝發朗。豈天作地藏。有待於公耶。羅幕高褰。珠翠森列。笙歌蕭笛之聲。隨風嘐亮。或文楸玉子丁丁然響落竹外。想壺天洞府。殆無以過也。有蓮塘鴨沼。每夏六月。荷花盛開。紅衣錦羽之禽。隨波容與。差不減江湖中所見者。或奇葩異卉。佳木珍菓。其經冬不凋。則天不能信其時。後夏乃發則。春不得一其令。或安於盆盎中。雖隔絶地脈。猶得繁秀。或柱立亭上。罅屋而上出者。至若便江南產中夏而忌客於他土者。與夫盤松之輪囷磊砢。廻萬牛而不可移者。一入公之園囿。一被公之顧眄。則猗猗曄曄。莫不暢茂。意者草木之情。猶有知於榮遇耶。將天公地媼有所相耶。且物生於天地。而公能變化移易。與造物者相爲表裏。故物之役於公。而爲公之用者衆矣。非獨物也。其陶冶生人。亦可謂周矣。孰有不願爲公之用者耶。予以凡骨。誤塵淸境。目駭毛豎。不得久留。方局然告退。公遽以記命之。退彌日不得搆思。懼負公命。獲逋慢之罪。敢濡翰而文之。意尙有慊。仍系以頌。其詞曰。
Backing upon Gongnyeong (鵠嶺) and holding Yongsu (龍首) at its side, pressing down the place where the four quarters gather and seated in the midst of the numinous capital, green and green with a beauty of air that one could grasp in the hand — such is Namsan (男山). Those who have made its slopes fair and made their houses there are a thousand gates and ten thousand dwellings, mingled like scales and ranged like the teeth of a comb; and the one that alone draws the lie of the land to itself, as though a serpent rose up and a phoenix danced, is the house of the Chief Minister, the Marquis of Jingang (晉康侯). For his resting at ease and his roaming and viewing there is the Thatched Pavilion (茅亭). Its top is made to a point and its body round, and to look at it is as though a feathered parasol were flying up into mid-air: this is it.
Now for clearing the spirit and washing the thoughts there is nothing like green hills and white clouds. But the places where they are to be found are far off and shut away, and men are always troubled that they cannot get half a pace toward them. How should it be ground that one with a cicada's head and a tortoise's waist can always tread?
This pavilion does not step outside the city and the market, and yet beyond all others it has the savor of cloud and hill, and it makes a man's very mind grow clear and washed of itself. From the armrest and the mat one looks down and looks up and, sitting, strokes the four quarters. The long bridges look across at one another and the nine thoroughfares come together, and of those who ride in carriages and those who bestride horses, those who walk and those who run, those who carry on the shoulder and those who lift, the thousand postures and ten thousand shapes, not a hair's tip dares get away. Now for looking far and seeing far there is nothing like this pavilion.
Though one had Gongshu (公輸) oversee the inked line and the craftsman Ban (般) swing the adze, the greatness and the splendor of its fashioning might perhaps be made something like it. But when it comes to its being broad and bright and opening the eye, so that one seems to have fluttered up to Penglai (蓬萊) and to be looking out over the four seas — if this had not been received from what the Duke's eye gave and his chin pointed out, how should it be like this?
Ah, ever since the first cleaving and parting there was truly such a place here, and after long ages of lying hidden it has come out bright in a single morning. How should it not be that Heaven made it and earth hid it to wait for the Duke?
The brocade curtains are drawn high and the pearls and the kingfisher plumes are ranged in solemn array, and the sound of mouth organ and of song, of flute and of pipe, rings clear upon the wind. At times, upon a figured go board, the jade stones click and the sound falls away beyond the bamboo grove; and I think that the heaven within a jar and the valley of the immortals could hardly have more than this.
There are a lotus pond and a duck pond, and every year in the sixth month of summer the lotus opens wide. Birds in red coats with wings of brocade float at their ease upon the ripples, not a whit less than what one sees out among rivers and lakes.
There are strange flowers and uncommon grasses, fine trees and rare fruits: some pass the winter and do not wither, so that Heaven cannot make its own seasons trusted, and some bloom only after the summer has passed, so that spring cannot keep its command one and the same. Some are set at ease in pots, and though the vein of the earth is cut off from them they can still be luxuriant; and some stand like pillars upon the pavilion, piercing the roof and coming out above. From those born south of the river and grown up in China that shun being strangers in another soil, down to the flat-crowned pine (盤松) that is coiled and bent, balled and tangled, and could not be moved though ten thousand oxen were turned to it — there is not one that, once it has come into the Duke's garden and once received the Duke's regard, does not grow lush and bright and flourish and spread.
I think: do even the feelings of plants and trees know when they are treated with honor? Or is it rather that Father Heaven and Mother Earth have something wherein they help? And things are born of heaven and earth, yet the Duke transforms them and moves and changes them and becomes outside and inside together with the Maker of things, so that there is much which, being employed by the Duke, becomes the Duke's use. And it is not things alone. His molding and rearing of living men as well may be called thorough; who would not wish to become the Duke's use?
I, with my common bones, have wrongly befouled this pure place. My eyes were startled and my hair stood up, and I could not stay long and was just drawing myself in to announce my withdrawal, when the Duke suddenly ordered me to make a record. I withdrew and could not weave a thought together though the day was done. Fearing that I should fail the Duke's command and get the guilt of idleness, I make bold to wet my brush and write. There was still something in my mind unsatisfied, and so I add an encomium (頌) besides. Its words are these.
2Encomium
亭翼然。鳳將騫。誰其營。我侯賢。侯式宴。酒如泉。奉觴酢。客指千。何以酢。壽萬年。山可轉。亭不遷。
The pavilion is as though it spread its wings; the phoenix is about to fly up. Who was it that made this? It is our worthy Marquis. The Marquis opens the feast; the wine is like a spring. We lift up the cup and give thanks; the guests number a thousand. With what shall we repay it? We pray for ten thousand years of life. Though the hill may be rolled away, the pavilion shall not be moved.