Edict Not Allowing Choe Bosun (崔甫淳) to Decline the Offices of Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Assistant Administrator of Government Affairs (參知政事), Grand Academician of the Hall of Assembled Worthies, Joint Compiler of the National History, and Director of the Ministry of Rites崔甫淳讓金紫光祿大夫參知政事集賢殿大學士同修國史判禮部事不允敎書
云云。夫代天理物。貳王行政者。宰相之任也。國以之重輕。民由之肥瘠。以人爲鑑。唐宗保魏徵之明。用汝作舟。商后倚傅說之濟。如非遠量。曷副輿情。卿該通天人。諳練典故。業文而資之虎。體柔而濟以剛。精神折衝。弄敵人於掌上。論議有據。藏國子於胸中。貞松不爲寒暑變其容。良玉不因燥濕渝其性。擧國安危而是託。非卿德望而孰當。是用直越鴻樞。擢登鳳閣。申峻史臣之職。兼崇書殿之資。用玆西省之新榮。雪爾南曹之舊屈。大抵王者之用人也。雖未嘗究閱其爲人。苟僉言之皆允。猶柄用而不疑。況如卿者。在昔納言密邇之時。朕已親試。置斯當軸論思之地。誰復異詞。毋執小謙。更陳牢讓。所請宜不允。云云。
And so forth.
Now to order all things in Heaven's stead and, as second to the sovereign, to carry on government is the charge of the chief minister. By this the state grows weighty or light, and from this the people grow fat or lean. Taking a man for his mirror, Taizong of Tang had the brightness of Wei Zheng (魏徵); and saying that he would use him and make him his boat, the king of Shang leaned upon the crossing that Fu Yue (傅說) gave him. If it be not a far-reaching capacity, how shall it answer to the heart of the many?
You, my lord, run through the affairs of Heaven and of man alike and are versed in the old statutes and in the matters of former times. Taking letters for your calling, you have a firm ability for your ground; your bearing is gentle, yet you cross over by firmness. With your spirit you break the foe and make him play upon your palm; your arguments have ground beneath them, and you keep the learning of the state within your breast. It is as a straight pine does not change its look for cold or heat, and as fine jade does not make its nature other for drought or wet.
The safety or peril of the whole country is committed here; if it be not your virtue and renown, who shall bear it? Therefore I have at once raised you past the Privy Council and chosen you up into the Chancellery, have again exalted your charge in the Historiographical Office and raised with it your grade in the Hall of Assembled Worthies. By this new honour of the Western Department I let you wash away the old bending you suffered in the Southern Bureau.
In general, when a sovereign employs a man, though he may not have looked closely into what manner of man he is, if the words of the many all agree he will still commit authority to him and use him without doubting. How much more with one like you, whom I had already proved in my own person in the days when you attended close by me as Receiver of Words. Having set you in this essential post to deliberate and consider, who shall again say anything else?
Hold not to a small modesty and send up no more a letter of stubborn refusal. What you have asked ought not to be allowed.
And so forth.