Patent of appointment 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崔正華爲銀靑光祿大夫樞密使戶部尙書致仕敎書官誥各一道 官誥
云云。龜德元臣。非重官則莫符群望。鴻樞繄列。作單使者能有幾人。汰而授焉。受亦榮矣。某官某。生由慶閥。夙涉要津。備更中外器使之官。動適方圓幹局之用。嘗掌天臺則百揆允敍。再司廷尉則五聽無淹。鎬邑臨民。褰賈裳而宣化。參墟按吏。攬苑轡以馳威。頃復以虜兵之寇邊。迺出知戎政而却敵。況爾之外祖某。規模宏大。斟酌詳當。特因赴塞之戌軍不堪暴露。肇立寓屯之公館以備帡幪。積善所鐘。有孫唯肖。擬欲置宰衡之切。先擢升機密之司。朕旣用之不疑。仰成滋㘦。卿以老而爲解。乞退甚勤。如不獲已而頷之。期有以寵其情耳。肆卽本官而增秩。俾成逸境之頤神。於戲。上之厚下也。不以遠近移恩。臣之忠國也。不以進退易調。祗膺予命。益勉後圖。云云。
And so forth.
A foremost subject who holds the virtue that makes an example does not answer to the hopes of the multitude unless his office is weighty. In the ranks of the Privy Council, how many are there fit to be Commissioner alone? Since it is given by careful selection, the one who receives it is glorious as well.
So-and-so, holder of such-and-such office, was born into a house of blessing and early on trod the essential path. Within and without he passed through the offices in which he was used according to his vessel, and when he stirred he brought talent and capacity to bear, matching himself to the square and the round. Once he took charge of the Chancellery for State Affairs, and the hundred tasks of government were set forth in order; twice he took charge of the penal office, and in the five kinds of examination there was nothing he could not get through. When he governed the people in the capital district, he rolled up the carriage curtain like Jia Cong (賈琮) and spread his instruction; when he inspected the clerks in the district of the old capital, he took up the reins and galloped his authority. Some time ago, when barbarian soldiers plundered the frontier, he went out once more, took charge of military affairs and drove the enemy back.
Still more, your maternal grandfather So-and-so was large and broad in his designs and careful and fitting in his reckoning. Pitying the garrison soldiers going to the frontier, who were exposed to wind and rain and could not bear it, he first built lodging quarters for them to stay the night, providing a place to cover and shelter them. It is the gathering of goodness heaped up, and the grandson alone resembles him.
My heart was set upon placing him in a minister's seat, and so I first chose him and raised him to the seat of the Privy Council. I had already used him without doubting, and my heart grew the more earnest in looking up to him for accomplishment. Yet you, my lord, pleaded your age and sought to be released, and begged very diligently to withdraw. That I nod unwillingly is only to bring your will into light. And so, keeping his office as it was, I add to his rank and have him nourish his spirit in a leisured post.
Ah, that one above is generous to those below does not shift its kindness by far or near; that a subject is loyal to the state does not change its constancy by advancing or withdrawing. Reverently uphold my command, and strive the more at what is still to come. And so forth.