Memorial of thanks from Jo Chung (趙冲), the Libationer (祭酒), for the granting of three characters more趙祭酒冲謝三字表
云云。任重代言。本屬該通之學。恩容承乏。過推庸鎖之資。省己自兢。靦顔何措。竊以詞翰之職。詔誥爲難。華而小實則不足以遐暢聖謨。朴而無文則亦難以究宣主意。惟其有游刃之妙。殆不貽血指之慙。如臣者。涉獵未至於醇儒。篆刻僅類於童子。自侍書東禁。顧嘗奉於淸光。及正位北宸。尙不離於嚴陛。勞無可採。職有不供。果喧群議之沸騰。尋被有司之彈理。凡骨難淹於帝所。怳若夢驚。丹心猶戀於君軒。潸然涕下。豈意雲霄之邃。尙矜簪履之微。斷自一心。別加三字。纔擯內廷之密侍。復參法從之邇聯。叨榮則多。較舊何損。此蓋聖上陛下至仁含垢。大度包荒。至收屛斥之軀。遽玷淸華之選。臣敢不激昂宿志。鑽味古書。鉛槧不停。少補右文之化。粉糜爲誓。益堅報上之心。云云。
And so forth. The weighty charge of speaking in the sovereign's stead belongs properly to one whose learning runs through all things, yet you graciously allowed me to fill the vacancy and pushed forward far too far a stuff mean and petty. Looking back upon myself I am afraid; where shall I put this shamed face?
Quietly I consider that among the charges of composition the rescript and the patent of investiture are the hard ones. Florid but thin of kernel, they are not ample enough to carry the sovereign's will far; plain and without ornament, they are again hard put to make his will wholly clear. Only where there is the marvel of plying the blade freely does one leave behind no shame of drawing blood from one's own finger.
One such as your servant has read widely and yet has not reached the pure scholar, and his skill at carving letters is scarcely more than a child's. Looking back from the time when I attended upon letters in the Eastern Palace, I early bore up the clear light; and when the sovereign came to take his seat aright, still I did not leave the side of the stern steps. Having nothing that could be called labor, and having failed in part to serve my charge, I did indeed set the many tongues boiling and clamoring, and thereupon suffered the impeachment of the officials in charge.
With common bones it is hard to stay long where the sovereign dwells, and so it was as though I had started awake out of a dream; yet my crimson heart still longed for the sovereign's carriage, and the tears ran streaming down.
How could I have thought that one deep and high as heaven would yet take pity on a thing as slight as a hairpin or a shoe, and resolving it with a single mind, grant besides three characters more? Scarcely cast out from a post of close attendance in the inner court, I was taken again into the near rank of those who follow the sovereign. The glory I presume upon is much; set beside former days, what have I lost?
This is because Your Majesty the Holy Sovereign, being of utmost benevolence, holds filth in his mouth and with a great measure embraces even what is coarse, and so gathered up a body that had been driven out and cast away, and suddenly let it sully a clear and shining selection.
How should your servant dare not rouse up his long-held purpose and dig into and savor the old writings? Not laying down brush and tablet, I shall add what little I may to the teaching by which you exalt letters; and swearing to be ground to powder, I shall make firmer still the heart that would repay the sovereign. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.