Rescript refusing Yu Cho's (劉貂) declination of the posts of Grand Master of the Palace and Director of the Directorate for Palace Buildings劉貂讓中大夫判將作監事不允批答
云云。官扃之務。各有司存。然厥務之或廢。由主者之不良。朕閔之久矣。思得才吏董之。況今之將作。古之繕工。務叢事鉅。其任尤重。若委之非其人。則其何事之有濟耶。汝自彈冠於仕路。嘗游刃於吏能。截劇剸煩。多多益辦。開物成務。綽綽有餘。使乎延譽於東南。公耳忘勞於夙夜。曾貳計司。則籌算若唐之延朗。及居選部。則品裁如晉之山濤。不有異恩。曷償殊績。故除三品之秩。得領九工之司。當體眷懷。毋煩固讓。云云。
And so forth.
The business of the offices each has its own bureau in charge. Yet that such business sometimes falls into ruin comes of the one in charge being unworthy; I have long been troubled by this, and have wished to obtain an able official to oversee it. How much more so now, when the Directorate for Palace Buildings (將作監) is the old Office of Works (繕工), where the work crowds in and is large, so that its charge is weightier still. If it were committed to one who is not the proper man, what work would be accomplished?
Since you set out on the path of office, you have long plied the blade, as it were, with a clerk's talent. You cut through the hard and sliced through the tangled, handling it the better the more there was, and in opening affairs and bringing them to completion you had ample room to spare. Going forth as an envoy, you spread your praise through the southeast; with a public-minded heart you forgot your toil from early morning until night. Once, as second in the Three Offices, your reckoning was like Yan Lang's (延朗) of Tang; and in the Ministry of Personnel, your grading of men was like Shan Tao's (山濤) of Jin (晉).
Without a kindness out of the ordinary, how should outstanding achievement be repaid? Therefore I grant you the third rank and set you over the bureau of the artisans. You ought rightly to weigh my caring heart and not trouble me by insisting on declining.
And so forth.