Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 28

Letter submitted to the Emperor of Jin (金) — note accompanying the gifts上大金皇帝表 物狀

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 48 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 28 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.

云云。芹暄之賤。非所奉於至尊。山海之寬。亦兼容於微薄。前件物等。殘邦薄產。遠道輕齎。不堪赬面之慙。祇表丹心之懇。云云。

Things as trifling as parsley and sunshine are not what should be offered up to the Most High; but a generosity like the hills and the sea receives even the paltry along with the rest. The foregoing articles are the poor produce of a worn-out country, carried lightly over a long road. I cannot bear the shame that reddens my face, yet I only show forth the earnestness of a crimson heart.