A Letter Submitted to the Duke of Jingang (晉康公)上晉康公書
月日。右司諫知制誥李某。謹擇日齋戒。奉書于令公邸下。方面詰之際。局縮然不能辨列是非。退且有言。則眞若追而飾之者。決未蒙採納矣。然性之孤直。與夫口之不給者之不得自申於大人尊貴之前。固其理也。顧可代脣舌而得以明其義者。惟是不腆之文耳。以是略宣鄙蘊。伏惟察之。乃者事有邸下所曾論斷。而省中殊不知若此。有橫出異議而大與邸下之意相戾者。邸下不得不怒召椽吏。詰其議之所自出。當此時。吏於雷威之下。股戰汗出。不知所言。及厲聲呵叱。強之使言。則雖怳然自失之中。亦思平日有憾於其心者。乃以僕對之。蓋僕嘗以事切訶此掾故也。由是歸罪於僕。至令寢職停官。其亦有日于玆矣。僕誠震駭憂悸。幾死而方蘇矣。且議若出於僕者。此特公事耳。且復居得言之地。則其可與否。在邸下斷之而已。凡立議創端。乃省郞之職也。省中多置員寮者。欲令甲所未創於心者。乙乃創之而唱之。乙所未爾者。甲亦發而唱之。迭相創始。商酌衆議。然後國論行矣。若皆環顧相持。怯於首發。則國家之議論。何自而生焉。百官之違慝。孰先焉而彈理之耶。此實地職之當然。而非甚以爲罪者也。況議有所自出。而未始出於僕者。則僕非不能斥言其人。蓋不欲傷同寮之友。故不甚明白。吶吶而退。且罪有大於此者。寧我代受而已。義不欲移之人矣。此直公事之麽細者。而非關國之利害。又非果敢自斷者。雖得罪。想不至大。僕豈敢要自逃逭。而指斥其人之名姓耶。僕嘗聞得喪升沈。莫不關乎天命。以僕觀之。今之遭此誣枉。其不能以自明者。徒以性之孤直。口之不給。與夫固執不傷寮友之意故耳。若一斥言則免矣。何必關天哉。昔有二人同行。一人善走。一人跛行。前有貴人來者。善走者罵之。未及其擡眼而疾走避之。貴人擬其跛者之所罵。乃收捕繫縛。大加捧捶而後已。僕無奈類是。而以性直口吶。坐人之所當坐耶。但念此議若大有益於時。爲邸下所奬。當蒙顯賞。則彼豈默而令僕代受耶。是僕之所以雖不斥言其人。亦不甘於代受其罪者也。然事當久而自明。以邸下之鑑。更復詳味。收威怒爲陽春。則僕之暫廢。譬若木之未盡枯者。何詎不得復活耶。何以知其然也。始閣下欲觀掾吏之有以操心者。使之言之。然後尋斥其吏。因謂之曰。諫署之吏。當以愼密不洩爲職。吾雖怒。非必置死罪者。而此吏斥言議之所出。理所不當。故斥之也。朝廷搢紳聞之。皆高邸下之義。莫不頌詠。由是度之。僕之罪。亦不終至於大廢審矣。姑且待之亦可也。然月俸不繼。若擧家飢死。則一國之人。不可戶曉。烏知僕之不有大過而致此然耶。是僕之所以不得已而哀號者也。伏望邸下察掾吏之緣私憾。欲中傷省郞之意。諒僕之代人受譴。不甚明白之義。亦憐性直口吶。不得自申明之情。以鏡察之明。辨其曲直。洗雪誣枉。而無使僕如跛者之枉受棒捶也。身櫬糞士。俯伏俟命。繄僕之行裝是卜。正在今日矣。無任惶悚喘息之至。干觸嚴威。不宣。某再拜。
On a certain day of a certain month, So-and-so, Right Remonstrator and Drafter of Edicts, having chosen the day and purified himself, respectfully submits a letter to His Excellency the Duke at his residence.
When you questioned me face to face, my body shrank and I could not set out in order what was right and what was wrong. To speak after withdrawing seems truly like a contrivance made up after the fact, and you will surely not accept it. Yet that a man of a single-minded, stiff nature, whose words are not ample, cannot unfold himself before a lord high and honored — this has a reason of its own. Looking about me, the only thing that can stand in place of my mouth and tongue and make my meaning plain is this poor piece of writing. With it I set forth in outline my foolish inward heart, and I prostrate myself and beg you to look into it.
Some time ago Your Excellency had already deliberated and decided a certain matter, but within the Chancellery no one knew of it at all. And so a quite different opinion came out, and there was a matter greatly at odds with Your Excellency's will. Your Excellency could not but be angry, and called in the clerk and questioned him as to where that opinion had come from.
At this the clerk, beneath a majesty like thunder, had trembling legs and broke into sweat and did not know what to say. When you raised your voice in rebuke and forced him to speak, then, bewildered and out of his wits as he was, he called to mind one against whom he harbored a private grudge, and named me in his answer. This was because I had once sternly rebuked this clerk over a piece of business. By reason of it the blame was turned upon me; my duties were taken from me and my office suspended, and it is already some days since. I was so startled and afraid that my heart pounded and I all but died, and only now have I revived.
Moreover, even if that opinion had come from me, it was no more than public business. And since I hold a seat in which one may speak, whether it was right or wrong is for Your Excellency alone to decide. Now to set up an opinion and open the thread of it is the duty of a Chancellery gentleman. Officials are set in the Chancellery in numbers so that what one man cannot bring out of his heart another may bring out and raise, and what that one cannot do the first may again bring out and raise. Only when they open the thread by turns, and the many opinions are weighed and fitted together, does the counsel of the state go forward. If all look about them and hold back from one another, afraid to be the first to speak, from where will the counsel of the state arise? Who will come forward first to question and set right the crooked and perverse doings of the hundred offices? This is truly a thing proper to the duty of the post, and not to be made greatly into a crime.
Still less when the opinion came from elsewhere and did not in the beginning come from me. It is not that I was unable to name the man and speak. It is only that I did not wish to injure a colleague and friend, and so I did not make it clear, but mumbled and withdrew. And even were there a crime greater than this, I would rather take it upon myself in his stead; in right and duty I do not wish to shift it onto another.
This is no more than a trifling matter among public affairs; it touches neither the profit nor the harm of the state, nor was it boldly decided on my own authority. Even though blame be laid on me, I think it should not come to much. How should I dare, to clear myself, point to that man's surname and name?
I have heard it said that gaining and losing, rising and sinking, are nothing that does not hang upon the decree of Heaven. Yet as I see it, that I now suffer this false charge and cannot clear myself is only because my nature is single-mindedly stiff, my words are not ample, and I hold fast to the intent of not injuring a colleague. If I were to point once and speak, I should be clear of it — why must it be a thing hanging upon Heaven?
In old days two men went along a road together; one was a good runner and one was lame. A man of rank came toward them, and the good runner abused him and then, before he could lift his eyes, ran off swiftly and escaped. The man of rank took it that the lame one had abused him, and had him seized and bound and beaten with cudgels to the full before he stopped. I too cannot help being like this: is it not that, because my nature is stiff and my speech stumbles, I take the punishment another ought to receive?
Only I consider this: if that opinion had been greatly advantageous to the time, and had won Your Excellency's praise and brought a manifest reward, how would that man have kept silent and let me receive it in his place? This is why, though I do not point to the man and speak, I do not take it as sweet to receive his blame in his stead.
Yet a matter, when it has grown old, will of itself come to light. If with Your Excellency's clear discernment you will weigh it again in detail, and withdraw your majesty and anger and be as the spring sunshine, then my being cast aside for a while is like a tree not yet wholly withered — how should it not come to life again?
How do I know that it is so? Thus. At first Your Excellency, to see whether the clerk held anything in his heart, made him speak, and thereafter straightway dismissed that clerk, saying: 「The clerk of an office of remonstrance ought to make it his duty to be careful and secret, so that nothing leaks out. Though I was angry, I did not mean to put him to a crime deserving death. Yet this clerk pointed to the source of the opinion and spoke of it, which is not proper by reason. Therefore I have dismissed him.」 The officials of the court, hearing this, all held Your Excellency's righteousness high, and there was none who did not praise and chant it. Reasoning from this, it is clear that my blame too will not in the end come so far as my being greatly cast away. It would be well to wait a while.
Yet the monthly stipend does not continue, and if my whole household should starve to death, it is not a thing that can be announced house by house to the people of the whole land. How should the people of the whole land know that it came about though I had no great fault? This is why I cannot help crying out in sorrow.
I prostrate myself and beg that Your Excellency look into the clerk's intent in seeking, out of a private grudge, to harm a Chancellery gentleman, and weigh my intent in taking another's reproof upon me without making it plain. And pity the feeling of one who, stiff by nature and stumbling in speech, cannot unfold and clear himself; and with the brightness of your discernment, clear as a mirror, distinguish the crooked from the straight and wash away the false charge. So let me not, like the lame man, be beaten with cudgels in my wronged innocence.
Bearing my coffin on my back, I lie prostrate upon the dung-heap and await your command. Whether I pack my baggage or not hangs upon this very day. I cannot master my fearful and breathless heart. I have trespassed upon your stern majesty. Here I break off. So-and-so bows twice.