Text of the Prayer of Sovereign and Ministers at the Carving of the Blocks of the Great Canon大藏刻板君臣祈告文
國王諱。謹與太子公侯伯宰樞文虎百寮等。熏沐齋戒。祈告于盡虛空界十方無量諸佛菩薩及天帝釋爲首三十三天一切護法靈官。甚矣達旦之爲患也。其殘忍凶暴之性。已不可勝言矣。至於癡暗昏昧也。又甚於禽獸。則夫豈知天下之所敬有所謂佛法者哉。由是凡所經由。無佛像梵書。悉焚滅之。於是符仁寺之所藏大藏經板本。亦掃之無遺矣。嗚呼。積年之功。一旦成灰。國之大寶喪矣。雖在諸佛多天大慈之心。是可忍而孰不可忍耶。因竊自念。弟子等智昏識淺。不早自爲防戎之計。力不能完護佛乘。故致此大寶喪失之災。實弟子等無狀所然。悔可追哉。然金口玉說。本無成毀。其所寓者。器耳。器之成毀。自然之數也。毀則改作。亦其所也。況有國有家。崇奉佛法。固不可因循姑息。無此大寶。則豈敢以役鉅事殷爲慮。而憚其改作耶。今與宰執文虎百僚等。同發洪願。已署置句當官司。俾之經始。因考厥初草創之端。則昔顯宗二年。契丹主大擧兵來征。顯祖南行避難。丹兵猶屯松岳城不退。於是乃與群臣。發無上大願。誓刻成大藏經板本。然後丹兵自退。然則大藏。一也。先後雕鏤。一也。君臣同願。亦一也。何獨於彼時丹兵自退。而今達旦不爾耶。但在諸佛多天鑑之之何如耳。苟至誠所發。無愧前朝。則伏願諸佛聖賢三十三天。諒懇迫之祈。借神通之力。使頑戎醜俗。斂蹤遠遁。無復蹈我封疆。干戈載戢。中外晏如。母后儲君。享壽無疆。三韓國祚。永永萬世。則弟子等當更努力。益護法門。粗報佛恩之萬一耳。弟子等無任懇禱之至。伏惟炤鑑云云。
The King of the country, so-and-so, reverently, together with the Heir Apparent and the dukes and marquises and earls, with the chancellors and privy councillors and all the officials civil and military, having perfumed himself with incense and bathed and fasted, prays and declares it to all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas beyond reckoning in the ten directions of the whole realm of space, and to all the numinous officers (靈官) who guard the Law in the Thirty-three Heavens, with Indra at their head.
The Dadan (達旦) have become a grievous trouble. Of their cruel and savage nature there is no telling to the end. As for their foolishness and darkness and blindness, it is worse again than that of birds and beasts: how should they know that there is what the world upholds and calls the Buddha's Law? For this reason, wherever they have passed, they have burned and destroyed every Buddha-image and every scripture without distinction. And so the blocks of the Great Canon kept at Burin Temple (符仁寺) too have been swept away with nothing left. Ah — the merit heaped up through many years became ash in a single morning, and the country has lost its great treasure. However great the heart of love in all the Buddhas and all the Heavens, if they bear this, what will they not bear?
At this we quietly think within ourselves. We, your disciples, being dark in wisdom and shallow in knowledge, did not set up in time a device to hold off the barbarians, and our strength did not wholly guard the Buddha's vehicle, and so we have come to this calamity of losing the great treasure. It is truly because we your disciples are unworthy; and though we repent, can it be turned back?
Yet the golden mouth and the words of jade are from the first without making and without breaking. What they were lodged in was only a vessel. The making and the breaking of a vessel is of itself the way of things, so that when it is broken, to make it again is likewise the proper place. How much more, having a country and having a house and serving the Buddha's Law, we cannot put it off and let it be. With this great treasure gone, how should we fear that the labor is great and the work much, and so grudge the making of it again?
Now, together with the chancellors and ministers and all the officials civil and military, we have brought forth a great vow, and have already set up an office in charge to begin the work. Looking at the thread of how it was first begun: in the second year of the former King Hyeonjong, when the Khitan ruler raised great armies and invaded, Hyeonjong went south to escape the disorder, and still the Khitan army camped at Songak fortress and would not withdraw. Thereupon he at once brought forth, together with his many ministers, the great vow above which there is nothing, and swore to carve and complete the blocks of the Great Canon; and after that the Khitan army withdrew of itself.
If it is so, then the Great Canon is one, and the carving of it then and now is one, and the vowing of it together by sovereign and ministers is one. How should the Khitan army have withdrawn of itself at that time only, and the Dadan not do so now? It rests only upon how all the Buddhas and all the Heavens look upon it.
If what has come forth from our utmost sincerity is truly not shameful before the former age, then we reverently pray that all the Buddhas and the sages and the Thirty-three Heavens will weigh this earnest and urgent prayer and lend us their spiritual power. Make the stubborn barbarians, that filthy host, draw in their traces and flee far off and never again set foot in our land; make shield and spear be put away and within and without be at peace; make the Queen Mother and the Heir Apparent enjoy a life without end, and the fortune of the state of the Three Han reach on and on to ten thousand generations. Then we your disciples shall surely strive again and guard the gate of the Law the more, and repay, however roughly, a ten-thousandth part of the Buddha's kindness. We your disciples cannot bear the utmost of our earnest prayer. Reverently look upon it clearly. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
丁酉年行
Performed in the Jeongyu year.