Memorial submitted to the Emperor of Jin (金)上大金皇帝表 表
云云。朝天路阻。戀闕情深。感念古今。嗚咽寤寐。恭惟皇帝陛下。乾坤覆燾。日月炤臨。應天順人。宅萬世無疆之地。柔遠能邇。得四方嚮內之心。伏念臣權襲世封。愧叨藩職。自小國之基構。憂在戒隣。及上朝之撫綏。泰然無患。久荷太平之化。切輸樂率之誠。豈圖獷俗之猖狂。反致祌州之遷徙。始而懵若。未詳京邑之攸都。久迺聞焉。又昩道塗之安自。加以寇兵之爲梗。曠修歲信而展儀。況所謂獷俗者。旣已屠殘於庶邦。又將呑噬於弊邑。故豁拋其舊壤。遂入保於瘴鄕。奈緣今日之阨艱。益慕大邦之恩愛。每對賜書之堆積。不堪隕涕之滂沱。因念誠苟有加。事無不濟。行不避險。直凌江海以勉歸。往必有時。非若穹蒼之難到。肆馳賤介。聊達微情。仰賴天扶。儻得通於鳳陛。雖棲地僻。若已覩於龍顔。云云。
The road for going to court before the Son of Heaven is blocked, yet deep is our feeling in longing for the palace. Moved as we consider what was and what is, waking and sleeping our throats close.
I consider that Your Imperial Majesty covers and enfolds as heaven and earth do, and shines down as the sun and moon do. Answering heaven and following men, you sit in a seat without end for ten thousand generations; soothing the far and governing the near well, you have won the heart of the four quarters that turns inward to you.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant has provisionally succeeded to a fief handed down through generations and presumptuously holds a frontier charge. Since the small country laid its foundations our care lay in guarding against our neighbours; but when the Imperial court came to soothe us and set us at peace, we were calm and free of care. Long enjoying the teaching of a time of peace, we earnestly offered up the sincerity of glad obedience.
How should we have thought that a savage host would rage and run mad, so that the Emperor's capital should instead be moved? At first we were in the dark and did not know for certain where the capital had been established, and only in time did we hear of it; and then again we were in the dark as to which road it was convenient to take. Besides, the brigand soldiery barred the way, and the sending of envoys and the setting forth of rites year by year was long left empty.
How much more when the savage host of which we speak has already slain and harmed many countries, and would swallow our district too. Therefore we have left our old land at a stroke and come at last to hold a place sultry and damp. What can be done? Through the distress of this day the kindness and love of the great country are the more longed for. Whenever we face the pile of writings you have sent down, we cannot bear the tears that pour out.
Upon this we consider that if sincerity be added there is nothing that cannot be accomplished, and that if one walks the road without avoiding its hardships one may cross river and sea outright and press forward. For going there is surely a time; it is not a thing hard to reach as heaven is. So we have despatched lowly envoys to report, for what it is worth, our small feeling. If, looking up and receiving heaven's help, they may perhaps get through to the phoenix steps, then, though we dwell in a remote land, it will be as though we had already beheld the dragon countenance.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.