Memorial of thanks from the Queen to the Queen Dowager after receiving her investiture王后受冊後謝大后表
妾某氏言。伏蒙睿慈差降金紫光祿大夫門下侍郞平章事寶文閣大學士判戶部事太子太保李某。金紫光祿大夫守司徒中書侍郞平章事判刑部事太子小保盧某。押賜竹冊敎書別錄各一道。冊妾爲王妃咸平宮主者。椒宮正位。宜求窈窕之賢。琮璽具儀。誤及賤微之品。省循非稱。愧汗交深。伏念妾幸遘聖辰。濫陪宸極。素乏河睢之德。未符筐燕之祥。虛荷恩憐。訖微報效。敢圖睿眷。不捐箕箒之勞。驟霈洪私。俾受褘褕之寵。爲榮莫大。何德以堪。此蓋伏遇王大后殿下功茂塗山。賢躋大姒。早修婦道。備嘗內職之勤。雖至母臨。尙記中宮之選。肆宣異渥。庸賁孱資。妾敢不念至憂勤。躬自菲薄。恪承慈範。申孝敬於坤闈。動節禮容。免箴規於女史。云云。
Your handmaid, of such-and-such a surname, speaks. By your bright affection, prostrate I have been visited with your sending Yi So-and-so — Grand Master of Gold and Purple Glory, Vice Director of the Chancellery and Joint Manager of Affairs, Grand Academician of the Hall of Treasured Writings, Director of the Ministry of Revenue, Grand Protector of the Crown Prince — and No So-and-so — Grand Master of Gold and Purple Glory, Acting Minister of Education, Vice Director of the Secretariat and Joint Manager of Affairs, Director of the Ministry of Punishments, Junior Protector of the Crown Prince — to come bearing one copy each of the bamboo patent, the letter of instruction and the separate record, and bestow them, and with your investing your handmaid as Queen, Princess of the Hampyeong Palace (咸平宮主).
In setting aright the seat of the Pepper Palace (椒宮) one ought to seek a woman retiring and worthy, yet the jade seal and the full ceremony came wrongly upon a body lowly and mean. Looking back upon myself I do not match it, and shame and sweat run deep together.
Prostrate, I consider that your handmaid happily met a holy age and presumed to attend upon the sovereign's seat. From the first I want the virtue of the ospreys by the water and do not answer to the auspice of the basket and the swallow. In vain was I visited with grace and tender regard, and in the end the merit I repaid was little.
How could I have thought that your bright regard would not cast off the labor of holding winnowing basket and broom, and that pouring out a great grace all at once you would let me be visited with the favor of receiving a queen's robes? No glory is greater than this; by what virtue should I bear it?
This is because, prostrate, I have met with Her Highness the Queen Dowager, whose merit is more luxuriant than that of the lady of Tushan (塗山氏) and whose worth rises to that of Taisi (大姒), who early cultivated the way of a daughter-in-law and went through all the labors of the inner household, and who, though she has come to preside as a mother, still remembers the choosing of a Queen of the Central Palace, and so unfolds an uncommon favor and adorns a frail stuff.
How should your handmaid dare not think to the utmost upon care and diligence and be frugal in her own person? Reverently bearing up your loving example, I shall unfold filial piety and respect toward the Queen's Palace, and shall govern my movements by the forms of ritual so as to escape the admonition of the Lady Historian (女史).
Interlinear notes 3
與人分作。故數目不具。他封冊亦同。
Since it was composed in division with another, the numbers are not supplied. The same holds for the other patents of investiture.
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.
筐燕之祥 — the 河睢 that precedes it is the 「Guanju」 (關雎) of the Book of Songs, but whether 筐燕 draws separately on the basket (筐) and the swallows (燕燕) of the Book of Songs, or is a single source, has not been confirmed. — Translator