Memorial of thanks from Vice Chancellor Im (任平章) for the bestowal of Acting Grand Preceptor and Supreme Pillar of State任平章謝守大師上柱國表
云云。愛之欲其生。斯加寵渥。榮也祗爲辱。必速顚隮。傴僂拜承。精爽飛越。伏念臣階緣戚屬。揚歷周行。坐糜祿廩之豐。但知飽暖。久塞論思之地。蔑有功能。此已播於多言。猶恐遭於衆爍。況去歲有遷資拜傳之命。在人臣是踰分過涯之榮。讓固畏違忤之誅。受亦虞曠素之誚。故逡巡而未斷。誠進退之俱難。然與其懼罪而遲廻。夫豈若陳情之懇迫。方乞免前恩之及。尙阻曰兪。遽復蒙後命之加。莫知所措。益難煩聒。輒敢冒居。八柱之名。待有功而迺策。三師之號。苟無人則不充。顧有何能。亦參玆選。此蓋聖上陛下。烈光重葉。情篤外家。兼收無似之軀。驟賁不貲之寵。臣敢不礪修操履。鞭策駑頑。草木之微。雖未謝乾坤之造。汵勺之淺。儻或裨河海之深。臣無任云云。
And so forth. Loving a man, you wish him to live, and so you have added favor this thick; yet glory turns to nothing but disgrace and surely hastens a fall. Bowing my body, I make obeisance and receive it, and my spirit is as though flying away.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant trod the tie of marriage kinship and passed through office after office. Sitting idle I ate into an ample stipend and knew nothing but a full belly and warmth; and blocking long the seat of one who helps the sovereign and deliberates with him, I had nothing that could be called merit. This has already spread abroad in many tongues, and I rather fear being caught in the melting-down the many will make of me.
How much more when last year there came a command raising my rank and bestowing the seat of a preceptor — for a subject, a glory beyond his portion and over the brim. To decline, I feared, would earn the guilt of defiance; to receive it, I was troubled by the reproach of leaving the place empty. And so I hung back and could not resolve: truly both going forward and drawing back were hard.
Yet rather than hang back in fear of guilt, what could match setting forth my circumstances in earnest? I was just then begging to be spared the grace that had come before, and had not yet obtained consent, when suddenly I was visited with the later command added on, and I do not know what to do. Hard put to be troublesome any further, I at once make bold to hold the place.
The name of the Eight Pillars is conferred only after merit has been awaited, and the title of the Three Preceptors (三師) is truly left unfilled where there is no fit man. Looking back, what ability have I that I should be counted in this choosing?
This is because Your Majesty the Holy Sovereign makes bright the generations in their succession and is thick in affection toward his mother's house, and so gathered up even this worthless body along with the rest, and suddenly adorned it with favor beyond measuring.
How should your servant dare not grind and polish his resolve and conduct and whip on this dull and stubborn body? Slight as grass and trees, I am said to be unable to repay the grace that heaven and earth have made for me; yet with even a ladleful of shallow water I would add something to the depth of rivers and the sea. Your servant, unable to contain himself, and so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.