Letter in Reply to the Officer Salitai答沙打官人書
右啓。忽奉鈞旨。伏審台候萬福。欣慰倍切。前者。大國以國王不出交。大官人出來爲諭。小國如前書所載。雖畏懼大國。入處于此。以勤仰之心。有加無已。故不敢違忤嚴命。已遣大官人某詣幕下。方候寵答。而復以國王不出交。崔令公出來事及之。所諭踵至如此。弊邑將若之何。伏望幕下諒窮迫之情。小示以寬。以副傾企之望。幸甚。其所輸皇帝處國信。則雖竭力盡誠。勤於準備。方小國之移徙也。唯與不多人民。倉卒入於水內。所轉財物。亦爲欠少。故以微薄土物。聊欲表誠耳。今蒙鈞旨。諭及更罄所有。小添前數奉進。慙恐慙恐。趙兵馬宋立章發遣事。叔璋自上國廻來次。不幸値心腹之疾。至今猶未安較。故未卽發遣。所謂宋上章者。我國之遷移。莫不因其言。而其後我國兩𤳖使優。自上國還來。言立章所言。本非上國之意。不可謂的實。於是朝廷僉議以爲此人非特以浮說妄言動搖衆心。亦使萬人逃閃。至令一國大遷于此地。罪不可赦。遂捕送深窵海島久矣。今依來命。已遣人卽其所。將收拿發來者。伏惟炤悉。無任祈恩望惠激切之至。云云。
I report. All at once I received your honored will and respectfully learned that your esteemed person is in every happiness, so that my joy and comfort are doubly keen.
On a former occasion the great state said that, since the king would not come out, then at least a great official should come out. As was set down in our earlier letter, this small country, while standing in awe of the great state, is dwelling here within; yet the mind that diligently looks up to you only grows and never ceases. Therefore, not daring to disobey your stern command, we already sent the great official So-and-so to your headquarters and were just awaiting your gracious reply. And then you spoke again of the matter that, since the king would not come out, then at least Lord Choe (崔令公) should come out. Your words coming one upon another thus, what is our district to do? Prostrate, I beg that your headquarters will weigh our straitened and pressing circumstances and show us a little leniency, and so meet what we bend ourselves in hoping for. It would be fortunate indeed.
As for the state's gifts offered to the Emperor, we have exhausted our strength and our sincerity and been diligent in making them up. When this small country removed, we came into the waters all of a sudden together with our people, who are not many, and the goods we moved were few. For that reason we can only seek to show our sincerity with such poor native products as we have. Now, since your honored will has told us to turn out all we possess, we add a little to the former number and present it. We are ashamed and afraid.
The matter of sending Jo (趙), the military commissioner, and Song Ipjang (宋立章). Sukjang (叔璋), on his way back from the great state, unhappily took an illness of the belly and has not recovered to this day, so we could not send him at once. As for the man called Song Ipjang, our country's removal was all on account of his words. Afterward our country's envoys came back twice from the great state and said that what Song Ipjang had told us was never the will of the great state and could not be called true. Thereupon the court all deliberated and said that this man had not only shaken the hearts of the multitude with floating rumor and idle talk, but had made ten thousand men flee and the whole country remove in a great migration to this land, and that his guilt could not be forgiven. In the end he was seized and sent to a deep and distant island, and that was long ago. Now, in accordance with the command you sent, we have already dispatched men to that place to seize him and bring him back. I beg you respectfully to look into it. My heart that prays and hopes for your grace is earnest beyond measure.
Interlinear notes 1
壬辰十一月
It is the eleventh month of the year imjin.