Edict Granting the Third Request of Deputy Privy Councillor Bak Hyeongyu (朴玄珪) to Withdraw from Office樞密副使朴玄珪乞退三度依允敎書
云云。古者大臣有乞骸之請。則不可拘以春秋而輕許可之。其若身衰病篤。告之以不任趨事。則亦不可強其所不堪而傷其性也。卿早中巍科。歷更要職。身無擇行。飾禮義爲羽儀。事不辭難。蹈艱梗如氈毯。處諫垣而彈糾百辟。則權豪莫不落膽。參密地而毗翼萬機。則人民庶幾息肩。是眞古大臣。而朕所不忍去左右也。然以厚於利物而薄於攝身。急於醫國而緩於養性。肆嬰多病。屢乞退安。言固出於成衷。理已難於牽迫。降玆兪制。副爾高懷。夫養老乞言。政之本也。朕不以卿爲已解機務。而如有疑議。輒咨決焉。卿亦毋謂不居朕前。一日不爲國計也。云云。
And so forth.
In old times, when a great official asked that his person be let go, it could not be lightly allowed on the ground of his years. Yet if he reports that his body is worn and his illness deep so that he cannot go forward to business, then neither can one force upon him what he cannot bear and so injure his life.
You, my lord, early rose in the high examinations and passed through essential offices all round. In your person there was no conduct to pick at, so that you adorned the rites and became a pattern; in affairs you did not decline hardship, but trod perilous places as one treads a rug. Being in the seat of a remonstrance official you impeached the whole body of officers, so that there was none among the powerful whose liver and gall did not fall within him; and taking part in the secret councils you aided every kind of government, so that the people came near to resting their shoulders. This is truly a great official of the old sort, one whom I cannot bear to send away from my left and right.
Yet you were thick in profiting others and thin in regarding yourself, urgent in mending the state and slow in nourishing your own person. Thereupon illness bound you about greatly, and several times you have begged to withdraw into ease. Your words have truly come out of a sincere heart, and in reason it is hard to hold you by force. Therefore I send down the command of consent and meet your lofty purpose.
Now to nourish the aged and to seek their words is the root of government. I shall not hold you at a distance because you have already laid down the business of state, but whenever there is a doubtful argument shall at once ask you and so decide it. And do you also not suppose that, because you are not before me, you may for a single day leave off making plans for the state.
And so forth.