Edict of Investiture Enfeoffing the Marquis of Jinyang晉陽侯封冊敎書
云云。朕觀自古異姓而侯者。非若宗室之例封也。必命世傑出。功豐望重者。然後冊之也。是故。世亦希有矣。然則有國已來。其豐功重望之如卿者。能復有幾人。而朕獨不使卿得享茅土之封耶。故嘗有疏封之命。以卿確讓遂寢不行。然一國非可戶曉。安知不有人以予爲刓印者乎。不唯朕意之未安。殆必衆情之猶鬱。且卿之所以擁立予一人。定策佐命。是則朕之帶礪不忘之功也。當獷俗之往來也。料敵制變。知幾如神。尋率民遷都。完保我社稷。至於翦滅叛逆。復振朝綱。是則三韓之功也。天下所同若者。達旦統軍撒里打也。由卿奇算所及。斃於一箭。使萬國同悅。是則天下之功也。噫。於朕於三韓於天下。有此奇偉不常之功烈。求之古今。無有儔匹。而朕若重違卿志。持而不斷。則非特三韓也。天下其謂朕何。況早襲父爵。於理大可然。讓而不受。廉也。及己之所自樹立。充滿物意。然後受之。則以德不以世。與夫斟酌取捨。無不允迪。流爲千載美談。不曰嘉哉。賞難久稽。時不可失。宜講登崇之典。少孚中外之心。今遣使金紫光祿大夫守大尉中書侍郞平章事工部尙書崔宗峻。副使銀靑光祿大夫知樞密院事兵部尙書上將軍金叔龍等。持節備禮。冊爾爲晉陽侯。鋪張德業而粲載筠編。增華家藏。署置員寮。而盛開蓮府。連耀賓簪。兼所頒物段。具如別錄。至可領也。冬寒云云。
And so forth.
As I see it, from of old those of another surname who became marquises were not as members of the royal house, who are enfeoffed as a matter of course. They were invested only when, being outstanding men renowned in their age, their merit was thick and their renown weighty; and so they were rare in the world as well. Then since the founding of the state, how many again are there whose merit is thick and renown weighty as yours? And shall I let you alone, my lord, not enjoy the enfeoffment of a fief?
Therefore there was a command of enfeoffment before this, but you refused stubbornly and in the end it was stayed and not carried out. Yet it cannot be made known to every house in the whole country, and how am I to know there is none who holds that I do nothing but finger the seal? Not only is my heart uneasy; the heart of the many too must be stifled.
Moreover, that you bore up and set in place my single person and settled the plan and aided the mandate of Heaven is a merit I cannot forget, having sworn it upon the girdle and the whetstone. In the days when savage bands came and went, you reckoned the foe and held down the upheaval, and your knowing of what was coming was as a spirit's; and thereafter you led the people and moved the capital and kept our altars of state whole. And when you came to cut off and destroy the rebellious band and to shake out anew the headrope of the court, that is a merit to the Three Han. He whom all the world suffered under alike was Salita (撒里打), Commander-in-Chief of the Tatars; and your marvellous scheme reached him so that he died by a single arrow and all the countries rejoiced together — that is a merit to the world.
Ah, toward me, toward the Three Han, and toward the world you have achievements so marvellous, so outstanding, so far from common that, seeking in old times and in the present, there is none to match you. And if I, finding it hard to go against your purpose again, were to hold back and not decide, then not the Three Han only but the whole world — what would it say of me?
How much more, when to succeed early to your father's office was greatly proper in reason, yet you declined it and did not receive it: that is honesty. You receive it only after the merit you yourself set up has filled the purpose of the many; this is to receive it by virtue and not by inheritance. Your weighing of what to take and what to leave has been proper in all, and will become a fair tale to run a thousand years; shall it not be called beautiful?
Reward is hard to put off long, and the time cannot be let slip. It is right to set forth the law that exalts a man on high and so meet, if only a little, the heart of those within and without. Now I send Choe Jongjun (崔宗峻), envoy, Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Acting Defender-in-Chief, Vice Director of the Chancellery and Administrator of Chancellery Affairs, and Minister of Works, and Kim Sungnyong (金叔龍), deputy envoy, Grand Master of Silver and Blue and Glorious Emolument, Director of the Privy Council, Minister of War, and Senior General, and the rest, to bear the tally and furnish the rites and invest you as Marquis of Jinyang.
Your virtuous deeds are set out in writing and brightly borne upon tablets of bamboo, that your house's keeping of them may shine the brighter; and officers and staff are set up and your princely establishment amply opened, that the hat-strings of your guests may shine one after another. The goods bestowed along with this are all as set down apart; receive them when they come.
Take care of yourself in the winter cold. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 2
以宰相奉勅述
Composed as chief minister, bearing the sovereign's command.
The base text has 「天下所同若者」. If 「若」 be kept as it stands it becomes 'whom all followed together', which goes against the passage before and after, where Salita is written of as an enemy; taking it therefore as an error for 「苦」, it has been read as corrected. — Translator