Memorial of His Excellency Im Yu (任濡) declining the posts of Deputy Privy Councillor and Minister of Personnel任相公濡。讓樞密副使吏部尙書表。
臣某言。云云。雨露無私。本不嗇汪洋之澤。甁甖有扃。恐自貽傾覆之虞。敢瀝危悰。期還成命。伏念臣。早緣科第。誤玷官班。學不熟精。無竇攸對鼮之辨。性惟質直。慕石立書馬之謙。幸沐厚恩。驟登重位。謬掌喉脣之任。略無輪翮之能。十年批鳳於唐麻。榮踰涯分。一日放鶯於王谷。望極生平。皆非由錐穎之才。第自託葭莩之幸。敢圖異奬。又集孱驅。俾綴樞司之峻資。復兼選部之重柄。若又冒處。必將疾顚。昔者庾亮受中書。乃拜章而牢讓。羊祜遷開府。亦抗表而固辭。此皆外戚之羽儀。群臣之領袖。非不任股肱之寄。猶恐生肺腑之嫌。況臣無德可稱。無勞可記。直以恩親而暴進。遽蒙官職之過崇。雖天意之至公。懼物議之喧沸。無補於國。有疑於人。伏望聖上陛下。貞日月之明。廓乾坤之度。追寢殊尤之寵。更推英偉之人。無令具臣。獨集群謗。云云。
I, your servant so-and-so, report. And so forth. Rain and dew have no partiality and do not from the first grudge their broad and great bounty; but flask and jar are limited in what they can hold, and I fear I shall of myself bring on the trouble of overturning. I dare to pour out my fearful feeling and hope that the command already issued may be withdrawn.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant, by way of the examinations, wrongly sullied an official seat. My learning is neither ripe nor fine, so that I have not the discernment with which Du Yu (竇攸) distinguished and reported the names of rodents; my nature is only plain and straight, so that I admire the modesty with which Seok Geon (石建) took care in writing the character for horse (馬).
Happily receiving a generous kindness, I rose suddenly to a weighty seat. I was wrongly charged with a duty like the throat and the lips, though I have not the least ability of wheel or of feather. For ten years I was in the post of polishing Your Majesty's rescripts, and the glory exceeded my station; in one morning I was chosen as an oriole flies up out of the valley, and my hopes for a lifetime were fulfilled. None of it came of any talent sharp as an awl's point; it rested only on the luck of an affinity thin as reed-pith.
How should I have dared to think that a rare encouragement would gather again upon this frail body? You have bound me to a high seat in the Privy Council and made me hold besides the weighty authority of the bureau charged with selecting officials. If I brave it out and stay yet again, I shall surely be overturned the sooner.
In olden days Yu Ryang (庾亮), on receiving office in the Secretariat, submitted a writing and firmly declined; and Yang Ho (羊祜), on being moved to the rank of one who may open his own office, likewise submitted a memorial and firmly declined. These were both exemplars among the imperial affines and chief among the body of officials. It was not that they could not take up a charge as of limbs to the body; yet they feared that the suspicion of being near kin would arise. How much more your servant, who has no virtue worth naming and no merit worth recording. Only by favour and by kinship have I suddenly advanced and all at once received an office excessively high; and though Your Majesty's heaven-like intent is utterly public, I fear the words of the multitude will seethe noisily. There is no benefit to the state, and there is doubt among men.
Prostrate I hope that Your Sage Majesty will make straight the brightness of sun and moon and broaden the magnanimity of heaven and earth, and withdraw and stop this special favour, and push forward instead an outstanding man. Do not let a servant who merely fills a seat gather all the slander upon himself alone. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 2
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.
石立 — the base text has 石立, but it is taken to be an error for 石建. The subject of the old story of taking care in writing the character for horse is Seok Geon. — Translator