Edict refusing Chae Jeong's (蔡靖) declination of the posts of Deputy Commissioner of the Privy Council, Left Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, and Hallim Academician and Recipient of Edicts蔡靖讓樞密院副使左散騎常侍翰林學士丞旨不允敎書
云云。鴻樞地密。必資愼重之臣。騎省班淸。須待瑰奇之輔。至若學士之任丞旨。爲高唐制。翰林學士六人高年重德者爲丞旨。獨承密命。德宗好文。尤難其選。況以一身而兼任。向之數者。其非有磊落過人之度。殆不堪其職矣。卿王佐之才。皇居之寶。恭謹則石君之書馬。學識則竇攸之辨鼮。累涉重官。動有休績。西土之人。古稱難理。爾之司鑰則靡不革心。北方之俗。性本孔頑。卿之杖鉞則無有干紀。夫忠義之心。臣所守也。卿旣有而無愧。爵賞之柄。君所司也。予何惜而不施。故使總機要之司。帶文章之任。所欲報爾勞者此耳。其不服朕命而讓爲。云云。
And so forth.
The Privy Council is a post of secrets, and must take as its ground a careful and weighty minister; the bureau of the Cavalier Attendants is a rank of purity, and must needs await an aide of choice distinction. As for an academician taking on the office of Recipient of Edicts, it is loftier still. Under the institutions of Tang, the one among the six Hallim academicians who was eldest in years and thickest in virtue was made Recipient of Edicts. He alone received the secret commands, and Dezong (德宗), who loved letters, held the choosing of him the harder for it. How much more when one man holds all the foregoing posts together: without large purpose and a capacity beyond others, he would scarcely bear up under the duties.
You, my lord, are timber for assisting the sovereign and a treasure of the palace. Your deference and care are like Shi Jian's (石建) scrutiny of the character for horse (馬), and your learning is like Dou You's (竇攸) distinguishing of the jeongseo rat (鼮鼠). You have passed through weighty offices many times, and at every move there were fine achievements.
The people of the western land have been called hard to govern from of old, yet when you took charge of that land there was none who did not change his heart; the customs of the northern land are of a nature stubborn in the extreme, yet when you, my lord, leaned upon the axe there was none who broke the law.
Now a heart of loyalty and right is what a subject must keep, and you, my lord, already hold it without shame; the handle by which office and reward are granted is what the sovereign holds in charge, so how should I begrudge the bestowing of it? Therefore I have set you over the bureau of secrets and had you bear the charge of letters. This is all I would render in return for your toil — why then do you decline rather than follow my command?
And so forth.