A Letter Sent to a Certain Secretary (書記)與某書記書
月日。某頓首。先生足下。昨因辭訣。枉騶騎于蓬蓽之中。酒薄日暮。敍別未厚。愧悔莫已。想素諳吾窮。不至深訝也。承辱問乃理郡孰爲最急者。僕笑之曰。傳不云乎。敗軍之將。難以語勇。僕是理邑未終者。其措顔何所。而敢論政之緩急耶。雖然。吾子不謂僕愚惷寡識。過貶損不自賢。以所疑咨逮。而僕若不以實告之。則烏在其答人親款之意耶。敢略以一言告之。曰凡理邑。要不過寬猛得中耳。曩僕之理全也。頗多苛名聞於時者。而反以此告。固非僕之所以理之之狀也。然政非一揆。必先觀民性。然後商酌緩急。莫斯爲最。全古百濟。其性大悍。不可以寬政理。故勉強用刑耳。非本心也。然不知者。猶以酷名之矣。若地之不似全者。一於猛則民殘以携。一於寬則民狎以緩。惟其寬猛迭用。然後畏之如神明。愛之如父毋。未有民之若爾而不理者也。此亦非吾子之所不能商酌者。但以僕之所自蓄於心者告之耳。然言之非難。行之惟艱。此言雖易。若欲行之於政。則莫有難於此者。子毋輕焉。兼取僕在完山所著表牋。緣當時不收拾貯蓄。故不得錄寄。幸寬之。但用所要白鍊紙一封。良箭四十隻。姑塞贐行耳。惶恐再拜。
On a certain day of a certain month, So-and-so bows his head to the ground. Sir, Your Honor. Yesterday, on your way to take your leave, you bent your carriage and horses and came within my gate of mugwort. The wine was thin and the day was late, so that I could not unfold the feeling of parting thickly, and my shame and regret do not cease. You have long known my poverty, and so I think you will not wonder at me greatly.
You asked me what is most urgent in governing a district. I laughed and said: 「Is it not said in the records that it is hard to speak of courage with a general who has lost his battle? I am a man who did not carry the governing of a district through to its end. Where should I put my face, and dare discuss what is slow and what is urgent in government?」
Even so, you did not think me foolish and of little knowledge, but lowered yourself to excess and, without calling yourself worthy, came to ask me about your doubts. If I were not to tell you the truth, where would the way of answering another's thick-hearted intent be? I dare speak to you in outline in a word.
Now in governing a district, in sum, there is nothing beyond getting the right measure of leniency and severity. In former days, when I governed Jeonju, the name of harshness was heard in the world about me in good measure, and yet I speak to you thus; it is truly not the manner in which I governed.
But government is not of a single rule. One must first look at the nature of the people and then weigh what to slacken and what to tighten; there is nothing better than this. Jeonju is the old land of Baekje, and the nature of its people is exceedingly fierce, so that they could not be governed by a lenient government. And so I used punishments by force; it was not my own heart. Yet those who did not know this gave me the name of cruelty all the same.
In a land not like Jeonju, if one is only severe the people are hurt and scatter, and if one is only lenient the people grow unruly and slack. Only when leniency and severity are used by turns do they fear him as a god and love him as a parent. Where the people are so, there has never been a case of their not being governed.
This too is not beyond your weighing. I only tell you what I have stored up in my heart. Yet it is not hard to say and hard to do. These words are easy, but when one would carry them out in government there is nothing harder. Do not hold them lightly.
You also asked for the memorials (表) and reports (牋) I composed while I was at Wansan (完山), but I did not gather and keep them at the time, and so I cannot copy them out and send them. Pray look on me indulgently. I send only one packet of the white burnished paper you asked for and forty good arrows, to serve for now in place of a parting gift for your journey. I am afraid. I bow twice.
Interlinear notes 1
Wansan (完山) — the old name of Jeonju (全州); it is the same district as the 「Jeonju」 named earlier in this letter. ― translator