Edict refusing Yu Gwangsik's (柳光植) declination of the posts of Grand Master of Golden Seal and Purple Ribbon, Administrator of the Chancellery, Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, and Director of the Three Offices柳光植讓金紫光祿大夫知門下省事尙書右僕射判三司事不允敎書
云云。宰相之寄。安危所係。所任惟賢。四方蒙潤。不則民有受其害者。可不愼哉。朕以卿嘗掌喉唇。昵陪左右。故親得其爲人寬和而容衆。有長者之風。嚴毅以臨人。得大臣之體。憂國之心形乎色。愛君之志形于言。朕所寓目而自試者。其尙如玆。人之交口而更揚者。焉知有幾。是之相也。孰曰非之。玆疏越等之榮。擢置經邦之任。俾兼端揆。亦判計司。是豈私於卿歟。將以勵其能者。毋煩牢讓。往宅乃司。所讓宜不允云云。
And so forth.
The chancellor's seat is where the safety or peril of the state is bound up. If the one who holds it is worthy, the four quarters receive his bounty; if not, there are those among the people who suffer harm. Can one then be anything but careful?
Because you, my lord, once held the post through which the sovereign's words pass in and out, and attended close at my left and right, I came to know your character in person. Generous and peaceable, you take in the multitude, and so have the bearing of an elder; stern and firm in meeting men, you have attained the deportment of a great minister. Your care for the state showed in your countenance, and your love for your sovereign showed in your speech.
What I have seen with my own eyes and known through my own experience is as much as this; as for what men with one voice raise up in turn, how could their number be reckoned in full? Who would call it wrong to make such a man chancellor?
Therefore I bestow an honor that leaps over the grades, place you in the charge of governing the state, have you hold the Vice Directorship concurrently, and further commit to you the business of the Three Offices. How should this be a private favor to you, my lord? It is to spur on those who have ability.
Do not trouble me by insisting on declining; go and occupy your post. What you have declined I rightly do not permit.
And so forth.