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

Patent of appointment granted to Dohaeng, Chief Seat of the Vinaya school律業首座都行官誥

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 · 209 Chinese characters · reading time 2.1 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。儒以禮而約敕人倫。如帛之邊幅。釋用律而維持佛敎。猶水之隄防。有得究毗尼而守焉。斯可謂苾芻之高者。宜加厥號。以寵若人。某官某戒行熟圓。機限猛利。痛慕東林之遺迹。敻追南岳之高風。謂縱披三善之衣。得參釋子。如不假四分之藏。曷蹈聖門。遂窮經論而深造乎微。旁貫誥訓而增潤其識。登壇度衆。付餘膏於幾人。傳法利生。霑甘露者累紀。弘益多矣。褒優歉然。想爾謙卑。雖不欲卓居於人上。以師德望。其無奈合處於席端。玆徇僉言。特加高品。嗚戲。斯五部之文則知之若易。其一字之義則行也甚難。無怠爾修。永光于道。云云。

And so forth.

The Confucians bind up the duties of man with propriety, and it is like the selvage of a silk; the Buddhists hold up and keep the Buddha's teaching with the precepts, and it is like the embankment of a water. If there is one who searches the precepts to the end and keeps them, he may be called an eminent man among monks. It is right to add to his title and so bring his person into light.

So-and-so of such-and-such office is ripe and full in his practice of keeping the precepts, and sharp and keen in his inborn stuff. He deeply admired the traces left by Donglin (東林) and followed from afar the lofty bearing of Nanyue (南岳). He said: though one wear the three good robes and be counted among the Buddha's disciples, if one does not borrow from the storehouse of the Fourfold Vinaya (四分律), how shall one tread the gate of the sages?

At last he searched out the sutras and the treatises and went deep even into their subtleties, and on the side he penetrated the old teachings and made his knowledge the more fertile. Ascending the platform, he ferried the multitude across and poured out for many the oil he had left over; transmitting the Dharma, he benefited their lives, and those moistened by the sweet dew followed one after another over many years. His wide benefiting was great, while the honor paid him fell short.

I think that you, being modest and self-lowering, will not wish to stand out above others. Yet what is to be done, when by the master's virtue and renown it is fitting that he sit at the very head of the seats? And so, following the words of many, I specially add to him a high rank.

Ah, the writings of the five divisions seem easy to understand, yet the meaning of a single character in them is very hard to practice. Do not grow idle in your cultivation, and let the Way shine forever. And so forth.

‹ Edict making Choe Jeonghwa Grand Master of the Silver and Blue Imperial Favor, Commissioner of the Privy Council and Minister of Taxation, and letting him retire from office Contents Great patent of appointment granted to Dohaeng, Monastic Director of the Hwaeom school ›Listen to this piece