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Edict making Pil (佖), Count of Siheung, Duke of Hwanan始興伯佖爲淮安公 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 · 184 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 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。我國之於戚里。設公侯伯三等之爵。蓋殷制也。卿以宗英。夙膺伯爵有年矣。以爾之德望。雖早以公侯處之。不爲不可。但稽違未果耳。今者夷狄之爲患甚矣。顧力不能扼制。則其勢不可不與之講和結好。小緩其心。苟必欲如此。非遣懿親茂族。未知其可。而宗室之中。無若卿之文彩足以夸耀異方。威重足以壓服頑俗。故以爾命焉。則宜大其位。以重其權。亦且寵其行也。是用超躐舊資。優加公爵。以副汝之德望也。汝往諧哉。戡定國難。俾朕無墮聖祖之休命。不曰良哉。云云。

And so forth.

That our country established for the king's kinsmen the three grades of rank — duke, marquis and count — is on the whole the institution of the Shang. You, my lord, are an outstanding man of the royal house, and it is several years since you first received the rank of count. By your virtue and renown there would have been nothing amiss in treating you as duke or marquis long ago; it was only that the matter was put off and never carried out.

Now the trouble from the barbarians is grave. Looking at it, they cannot be held down and controlled by force, and so our situation is such that we cannot but discuss peace with them and conclude friendship, and thus slacken their intent a little. If this is truly to be done, it cannot be done without sending a fair kinsman of a flourishing lineage. Yet in the royal house there is no one but you whose refinement is fit to be displayed before another country and whose authority and weight are fit to press down and subdue that fierce crowd. Therefore I give you this command.

If so, it is right to make his place great, to make his authority weighty, and also to make his journey brilliant. And so, passing over his former rank, I add generously the rank of duke, matching it to your virtue and renown. Go you, and do it well. If you overcome the state's difficulty and settle it, so that I do not let fall the fair command of my holy grandfather, shall that not be called worthy? And so forth.

‹ Patent of appointment making Pil (佖), Count of Siheung, Duke of HwananContentsPatent of appointment making Yi Jeong Deputy Commissioner of the Privy Council and Right Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary ›Listen to this piece