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Edict Not Allowing Gwon Jun (權濬) to Decline the Office of Deputy Privy Councillor權濬讓樞密副使不允敎書

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 · 161 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 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。職親紫禁。是曰中樞。禮抗黃扉。故稱內府。爲任旣重。得人愈難卿。器局泓深。風神峻秀。早遘通嘉之會。累更權要之司。振風霜於憲府也。糾彈肅嚴。提水鏡於選曹也。銓敍平允。出司戎律。克耀軍容。載惟積累之功。宜有甄升之命。而況爾祖以文章而感動中國。芳躅猶存。乃父辭爵祿而逍遙古園。高風可尙。其後必大。非爾孰當。秩雖重於南曹。班稍疏於內署。故擢登於機密。將以示其眷恩。卿將遜辭。誰復稱副。云云。

And so forth.

Because the charge is near the palace it is called the Central Pivot, and because its rites match those of a chief minister it is named the Inner Department. The charge being already weighty, it is the harder to get a man for it.

You, my lord, are deep and broad of vessel, and lofty and outstanding in bearing and spirit. Early you met a good time and passed several times through offices of power and consequence. Shaking out a frost-wind in the Censorate, your impeachments were solemn; lifting a water mirror in the Ministry of Personnel, your reckoning of men was fair. Going out and taking charge of military discipline, you made the army's dignity shine. Thinking upon merit heaped on merit, there ought surely to be a command that chooses you out and raises you.

How much more when your grandfather moved China by his composition, so that the beautiful traces of it still remain, and your father declined office and stipend and roamed in his old garden, so that his lofty bearing may be held in honour. Their posterity must needs become great; if it be not you, who shall bear it?

Your grade was weighty in the Department of State Affairs, yet your place in the ranks was somewhat far from the sovereign's side. Therefore I would choose you up into the seat of the secret councils and so show you my regarding favour. If you would decline it, who shall again be called fit for this seat?

And so forth.

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