Rescript Not Allowing Kim Byeon (金弁) to Decline the Office of Drafter in the Chancellery金弁讓中書舍人不允批答
云云。內史之司。舍人爲重。故得五花判事之美。至有一佛出世之稱。苟非其人。曷稱斯任。汝文章博贍。志節軒昂。凡歷位於淸華。輒揚聲於顯赫。臺綱所振。朝列皆稱。糾彈蔑私。不寒而慄。議論無滯。其決如流。況乃者以一介之身。掉三寸之舌。往諭強虜。如弄孩兒。非汝之膽大於身者。孰捐性命於鴻毛。自試死生於虎吻哉。功其卓爾。賞未副焉。如或循次而官之。何有與人而異者。故擢從烏府之下列。而超授鸞臺之峻聯。猶有歉心。又何多讓。云云。
And so forth.
In the offices of the Inner Secretariat it is the Drafter who is weighty. Therefore it won the fair name of the Judge of the Five Flowers, and there was even the saying that a Buddha had come forth into the world; truly, if a man be not fitting, how shall he answer to this charge?
Your composition is broad and ample, and your purpose and constancy lofty and upright. Whenever you passed through a pure and splendid post, you at once made your name shine and sound abroad. Shaking out the headrope of the Censorate, the ranks of the court all praised you; in impeaching you had nothing private, so that men trembled though it was not cold; and in argument you were never blocked, so that your deciding ran like flowing water.
How much more when of late, with your single body, you plied a tongue three inches long and went to admonish the strong barbarians as one plays with a little child. If it be not one whose gall is bigger than his body, as yours is, who would throw away his life as a goose's feather and prove in his own person life and death within the tiger's jaws?
Your merit stands out, yet the reward does not yet match it. If office were given you by following the order of turn, what would there be to set you apart from others? Therefore I choose you out of the lower ranks of the Censorate and give you, leaping over, a high seat in the Secretariat-Chancellery. I have still a heart that counts it too little; why then do you repeat your refusal?
And so forth.