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

Edict making the Duke of Hwanan Acting Grand Preceptor and Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs, with a separate proclamation on hemp paper淮安公爲守大師尙書令。余如故別宣麻敎書官誥。 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 · 142 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。夫尙書令。百官之長也。地峻位極。故無其人則闕焉。時或以懿親置之。然非有重望元功。亦不可妄授。故雖宗室之中。得閱斯任者。無有幾人矣。卿方國家艱棘之時。赴戎狄縱橫之地。鎭之以威重。和之以語言。果令醜種頑戎。北首班師。則可謂奇偉蓋世之功也。噫。當此時微卿。幾無今日矣。且功豐則賞宜醲。器大者位必緊。肆擢置論思之地。欲益資經濟之庸。云云。

And so forth.

The Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs is the head of all the officials. Because the place is high and the position utmost, it is left vacant when there is no fit man. At times a close royal kinsman is placed in that seat, yet it cannot be given carelessly either, unless he has generous renown and the foremost merit. For this reason, even among the royal kin, only a few men have passed through this charge.

You, my lord, met the time when the state was hard pressed and thorny, and went forward into a land where barbarians galloped this way and that. Pressing them down with authority and weight and making peace with words, you brought it about at last that a fierce crowd and dull barbarians turned their heads northward and withdrew their troops; it may be called outstanding merit, enough to cover the age. Ah, had there been no you at that time, today would hardly have been.

Furthermore, when merit is generous the reward must be generous, and one whose vessel is large must have a place that is weighty. And so he is chosen and raised and placed in the seat where matters are deliberated and considered, so that he may be the more a foundation for the work of governing the age.

And so forth.

‹ Patent of appointment making the Duke of Hwanan Acting Grand Preceptor and Director of the Chancellery for State Affairs, with a separate proclamation on hemp paperContentsPatent of appointment making Pil (佖), Count of Siheung, Duke of Hwanan ›Listen to this piece