Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 32

Report presented to the Surveillance Commissioner on behalf of Jin Gongdo (晉公度), Magistrate of Suan爲遂安縣令晉公度上按察使狀

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 99 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 32 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.

光奉鷃綸。夙振風馳之令。叨紆墨綬。先傾山仰之心。恭惟某官。皮備陽秋。器恢天地。自鳳池之婉娩。乍輟英遊。持龍節之光華。實勞巡問。春廻恩顧。凍合威行。伏念某。符竹佩腰。錦刀傷手。昔年禁署。濫陪玉樹之光。今日江天。又屬陽春之煦。其爲榮幸。曷可剖宣。

Resplendently receiving the sovereign's edict, you early set forth commands that run like the wind. I, so-and-so, presumptuously wear an ink-black seal-cord, and am first to incline a heart that looks up to you as to a mountain.

I humbly consider that Your Excellency of such-and-such office shows nothing outwardly yet inwardly sifts right from wrong, and that your capacity is wide as heaven and earth. In the lovely seat of the Phoenix Pool you have for a while halted your excellent roaming, and grasping the shining radiance of the dragon tally you truly take on the toil of touring and inquiring. Where your gracious care reaches, spring returns; where your authority goes, the ice freezes fast.

Prostrate, I consider that I, so-and-so, though I wear a magistrate's tally at my waist, am like one who cuts silk without skill and wounds his own hand. Last year, in a palace office, I presumptuously attended upon the luster of the jade tree; today, under the sky by the river, I again cling to the warmth of the spring sun. How could I set out that glory and good fortune piece by piece in full?

‹ Report, on behalf of the magistrate of such-and-such district, congratulating the Prefect of the superior department on taking up officeContentsReport presented, on behalf of the same man, to the Branch Censorate (分臺) ›Listen to this piece