Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 33

Edict Granting the Third Request of Minister of Works and Left Vice Director Mun Hyosik (文孝軾) to Retire from Office司空左僕射文孝軾三度乞致仕依允敎書

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 · 134 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 33 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.

云云。賢固罕逢。意則眷憐之無斁。章凡三上。言誠迫切而難違。卿生縉紳之門。得宰相之禮。久淹南省。未入中書。玆特繫於親嫌。姑俟時未晚也。何遽稱於齒耋。其求去尙勤哉。考之仕籍。則猶未滿期。閱爾來言則曰當告老。此必厭繁機圖早退之辭耳。決非實也。然拂衣高謝。蓋將矯世以激貪。若挽袖苛留。無奈傷廉而害義。勉從乃請。非出予懷。云云。

And so forth.

A worthy man is truly rare to meet with, and my purpose is never sated with regarding and cherishing him. Yet your letter has come up three times in all, and your words are truly urgent and hard to go against.

You, my lord, were born into a house of officials and obtained the rites of a chief minister. Long you stayed in the Southern Department and did not enter the Chancellery; yet this was only through being bound by the suspicion that attaches to kinship, and it would not have been too late to bide the time for a while. Why do you suddenly speak of your old age and seek so diligently to depart?

Looking into the office records, your term is not yet full; yet looking at the words you have sent, they say that you must report your age. This must be the talk of one who is weary of troublesome business of state and plans to withdraw early, and surely not the truth.

Yet to shake out one's robe and withdraw on high is in the main to set the age right and wash away the covetous heart. If I were to catch at your sleeve and keep you here harshly, would it not injure your honesty and harm your righteousness? With an effort I follow your request, yet it has not come out of my own heart.

And so forth.

‹ Rescript Not Allowing Sin Seonju (申宣胄) to Decline the Office of Acting Great General of the Thousand Oxen GuardContentsRescript Not Allowing Song Chwi (宋就), Bureau Director in the Ministry of Rites, to Decline the Command to Return to Office while in Mourning ›Listen to this piece