Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 34

Edict Making Yi Yeonsu Acting Defender-in-Chief, Vice Director of the Chancellery, Joint Administrator of Affairs of the Secretariat-Chancellery, and Director of the Ministry of Personnel; Kim Uiwon Vice Director of the Secretariat, Administrator of Chancellery Affairs, and Director of the Ministry of War; Choe U Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Assistant Administrator of Government Affairs, Minister of Personnel and of War, and Director of the Censorate; and Sa Honggi Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Director of the Chancellery, Minister of Personnel, and Director of the Ministry of Works李延壽爲守大尉門下侍郞同中書門下平章事判吏部事。金義元爲中書侍郞平章事判兵部事。崔瑀爲金紫光祿大夫參知政事吏兵部尙書判御史臺事。史洪紀爲金紫光祿大夫知門下省事吏部尙書判工部事敎書麻制各一道。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 · 151 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 34 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。夫宰相者。人主之所仰成。百官之所取平。而天下之理亂。未嘗不係於宰相。宰相維其賢則人主逸百官正。夫然後天下不足理也。古之人君。孰不欲任賢使能。垂拱無爲。以享大平極理之休哉。其所以未爾者。蓋得人之難。得而用之之難。用而致之宰輔。以賴匡濟之力。斯亦尤難故爾。今朕得卿之賢。猶恐用之之遲。而卓授經綸之寄。責以來效。則家國之理安。儻可佇而俟矣。今授卿。云云。

And so forth.

Now the chief minister is one to whom the sovereign looks up in getting things done, and the one whom the whole body of officials takes for its pattern and is thereby made even. The world's being well governed or thrown into confusion has never not hung upon the chief minister. If the chief minister be worthy, the sovereign is at ease and the officials are made upright; and only then is it no hard thing to govern the world.

Among the sovereigns of old, which of them did not wish to commit things to the worthy and employ the able, and, folding his arms and never toiling, to enjoy the beauty of a great peace and an utmost government? That it did not come about was in the main because it is hard to get the man, hard to use him when got, and harder still to use him, raise him to the seat of chief minister, and lean upon his strength to set things right and bring them through.

Now that I have got the worth of you, my lords, I fear rather that I shall be late in using you; and so I commit to you at a stroke the charge of governing and weaving the state, and hold you answerable for the fruit of it hereafter. The bringing of house and state into order and ease may then be awaited standing.

Now I bestow this upon you, my lords. And so forth.

‹ Hemp-Paper Patent Making Yi Yeonsu Acting Defender-in-Chief, Vice Director of the Chancellery, Joint Administrator of Affairs of the Secretariat-Chancellery, and Director of the Ministry of Personnel; Kim Uiwon Vice Director of the Secretariat, Administrator of Chancellery Affairs, and Director of the Ministry of War; Choe U Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Assistant Administrator of Government Affairs, Minister of Personnel and of War, and Director of the Censorate; and Sa Honggi Grand Master of Golden Purple and Glorious Emolument, Director of the Chancellery, Minister of Personnel, and Director of the Ministry of Works Contents Edict Bestowed upon the Crown Prince on the Third Day after the Birth of the Eldest Grandson ›Listen to this piece