A Letter of Thanks Submitted to the Marquis of Jingang (晉康侯) on Entering the Hallim上晉康侯謝直翰林啓
云云。紅綃禁署。素號仙官。白屋孤生。謬承寵典。竊思榮幸。蓋自甄鎔。伏念某。地寒門微。性介資褊。早年力學。蓋欲沭芳而彈冠。末路身窮。其如蒙垢而晦彩。已分泥蟠之困。絶圖水擊之心。豈無知音。列在顯位。自天水公凡閱三相。始將提奬而未終。登禮部試無慮十年。其處奇屯者寢久。時之否也。世孰哀之。及賢侯汰國之初。補劇邑掌書之寄。緣愚暗未更於世狀。常抗直不屈於長官。果被巧讒。幾不自雪。不有仁明鏡察之智。孰分誣搆錦萋之辭。俾齒平人。勿加重責。其不嬰罪罟也大幸。又安望爵級之斯躋。故屛迹而退藏。方杜門而自省。豈意令公閣下恢弘大度。洗滌舊瑕。諒予孤拙而無他。意欲刮磨而試可。收驚魄於流涎之鰐口。霑滋澤於在轍之鮒鱗。過收無用之才。擢置代言之地。積年之屈。一旦方信。天地生我而未澤其身。父母卵我而未傳以翼。凡曰吾之喘息。一皆公所生成。噫。閣下所以用僕者。期有以文章小技。展微效於朝家者也。某敢不理塞心之茅。修汲古之綆。研精礪業。粗潤色於皇謨。洗手奉公。免忝塵於明鑑。區區之蘊。吶吶難窮云云。
And so forth. The palace office of Red Silk (紅綃) has from of old been called an immortal's post. A lone student of a thatched hut of white has wrongly received the statute of your favor. When I consider quietly, this honor and good fortune came, in sum, from your having shaped and nurtured me.
I prostrate myself and consider that I am of cold stuff and of a slight house, stiff in nature and narrow in vessel. What I studied with effort in my youth was, in sum, to be steeped in the fragrance of it, shake the dust from my cap, and go forward. In my later years my person was poor; I was covered with stains and hid my light. I had already taken as my own portion the hardship of coiling in the mud, and had cut off any thought of beating the water and flying up.
How should there have been none who knew my note? Among those in manifest posts I passed through three chief ministers in all, beginning with the Duke of Cheonsu (天水公); but each at first meant to draw me up and praise me, and did not bring it to its end. It was about ten years since I had risen in the examination of the Board of Rites, and my standing in a rough and blocked place grew ever longer. The time was blocked — who in the world would pity me?
When the worthy Marquis came to the beginning of his cleansing and ordering of the state, I was appointed to the post of Keeper of the Records (掌書記) in a district of much business. Being foolish and dark and having passed through none of the ways of the world, I forever stood straight against my superior and would not bend to him. And in truth I suffered an artful slander and all but could not clear myself. Had there not been the wisdom of your worthy and enlightened discernment, clear as a mirror, who would have sifted out those false and entangling words like figured brocade? You let me take a place among the ordinary run of men and did not add a heavy punishment. It was great good fortune enough not to be caught in the net of blame — and how should I then have hoped that my rank of office would rise so? And so I hid my traces and withdrew into concealment, and was just then keeping my gate shut and examining myself.
How should I have thought that His Excellency the Duke would widen his large capacity, wash away my old flaw, weigh that I am only solitary and clumsy and have no other intent, and mean to grind and polish me and try me in use? You gathered up my startled spirit from the mouth of the drooling crocodile, and moistened with increasing favor the scales of the carp in the wheel-rut. You gathered up to excess a useless talent and chose it for the seat that speaks in place of His Majesty's words. What had been bent for many years was for the first time unfolded in a single morning.
Heaven and earth gave me birth, but could not moisten this body; my parents brooded me as an egg, but could not pass wings on to me. All that I breathe is in every part what Your Lordship has begotten and brought to completion.
Ah, the reason Your Excellency has employed me is that you pledged me to unfold, with the small talent of composition, some slight result for the court. How should I not dare to clear away the thatch of my blocked heart and mend the well-rope that draws up what is old; to grind at precision and cultivate my work, and so smooth, however roughly, His Majesty's counsels; and to wash my hands and serve in my office, that I may not soil your bright discernment? My trifling inward heart stumbles and can hardly be unfolded in full. And so forth.