Memorial of Myeon (沔) of the royal house declining the posts of Acting Minister of Education and Marquis of Gwangneung宗室沔。讓守司徒廣陵侯表。
臣某言。云云。駝鈕定封。優授通侯之爵。鵜梁不稱。恐興彼子之譏。誠不敢當。亮非妄飾。切以五等之設。百王所同。盤石旣堅。式振漢家之業。維城克固。永弘周室之基。然無德而驟封。亦有時而或躓。如臣者。智無炙踝。愚甚守株。造次必儒。慙非河憲之嗜學。端恭率禮。竊慕東平之撿身。幸托蔭於先朝。久叨榮於蕃邸。此猶已足。常以爲憂。復遭聖德之天臨。又記親緣之莩薄。賜之泥檢。崇以茅苴。俾兼五禮之權。卓處三台之右。饗鶢鶋而設樂。徒自眩焉。使蚊蝱而負山。非所勝也。撫躬自恧。瀝血求辭。伏望聖上陛下。察臣無絲髮之功。知臣懼甁甖之溢。追還成命。更選宗英。豈無麟趾之賢。克守犬牙之制。臣無任云云。
I, your servant so-and-so, report. And so forth. With a seal knobbed like a camel you have fixed my enfeoffment and amply granted me the rank of a marquis with a fief; but the pelican at the fish weir is unfitting, and I fear the mockery of "that man there" will arise. Truly I dare not bear it, and this is no wild and dressed-up speech.
Earnestly I consider that the setting up of the five grades of enfeoffment is a thing all sovereigns have shared. Because the bedrock was firm the enterprise of Han prospered; because the walls were firm the foundation of Zhou long spread wide. Yet when a man is suddenly enfeoffed without virtue, there are times too when he falls.
One such as your servant has never, in wisdom, laboured till his anklebones were scorched, and in folly is worse than one who keeps watch over a tree stump. Even in a moment's space I would be a scholar, yet I am ashamed that I cannot delight in learning as the Prince Heon of Hagan (河間獻王) did; upright and deferential I follow ceremony, and quietly admire how the Prince of Dongpyeong (東平王) kept himself in check.
Happily, resting on the hidden merit of the former court, I have long presumptuously enjoyed glory in the house of the royal family. By this alone it was already ample, and I always made it my care. Again I have met with your holy virtue coming over me like heaven, and you have remembered besides even a kinship thin as reed-pith. You have sent down a sealed stamp and raised me with a land wrapped in thatch; you have had me hold jointly the authority over the five rites, and set me towering at the right of the Three Dukes.
It is as though a banquet were spread and music set out for a seabird — merely a thing to confuse me of itself; it is as though mosquito and gadfly were made to carry a mountain — no thing to be overcome. Stroking my person I am ashamed before myself, and as though pouring out blood I beg to decline.
Prostrate I hope that Your Sage Majesty will see that your servant has not a thread's or a hair's worth of merit, and know that your servant fears flask and jar will overflow, and withdraw the command already issued and choose instead an outstanding man of the royal house. How should there be no worthy man of unicorn footprint, so that the institution that interlocks like a dog's teeth cannot be kept? Your servant cannot contain, and so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.