Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 37

Text for welcoming the spirit at the garden shrine of the Lord of Jingang and bringing it into the Grand Shrine晉康公園寢。迎神入大廟文。

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 · 168 Chinese characters · reading time 1.8 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 37 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。惟靈應期命世。鎭國安民。事君之節則雖一於累朝。定策之烈則獨高於前代。復辟明后。旣無愧伊尹相太甲之功。殷薦先王。宜可襲魏徵配文皇之禮。洪惟聖主追錄舊勞。籩豆備儀。將合食於宗祏。絲綸降命。俾升侑於前寧。實千孫永賴之休。亦萬世美談之始。曰予遺體。蕞爾庸資。藉積善之基。致此位高而身貴。聞與享之慶。無奈喜極而涕零。方仙寢之迎神。修信祀而注懇。庶歆潦薦。速枉飆遊。陪先君九廟之中。佑後嗣百世之下。

And so forth.

Your bright spirit answered the times and made your name resound in the world, and you held the state firm and brought the people peace. Your devotion in serving your rulers was one and the same through several reigns, and your merit in settling the great design stood alone above former ages. You set up a bright ruler anew, so that you need not blush before Yi Yin's (伊尹) merit in aiding Tai Jia (太甲); and this ample offering made before the former king may well follow the rite of enshrining Wei Zheng (魏徵) with Emperor Wen (文皇).

Thinking greatly upon it, our sage ruler has set down your old labors, late though it be, and would have the sacrificial vessels prepared so that you may partake together in the ancestral shrine. He has issued a decree that you be raised and enshrined in the shrine of the preceding king. This is truly a beauty upon which a thousand generations of descendants will long lean, and also the beginning of what will be told as fair for ten thousand ages.

I, the body you left behind, am of poor and mean stuff, yet leaning upon the ground of the goodness you heaped up, I have come to a place this high and a person this honored. Hearing of the happy event of your partaking together, my joy is utter, and I cannot help the falling of my tears.

Now we welcome the spirit at the garden shrine and, preparing a faithful sacrifice, pour out our devotion. Partake of these poor offerings and come quickly, we beg, like the wind. You are enshrined among the nine shrines of our former rulers; help the descendants who follow after, down to the hundredth generation.

Interlinear notes 1

嗣子相國行

Written on behalf of the son who succeeded him, the chancellor.

‹ Sacrificial address offered to my cousin, the general Contents Sacrificial address offered to King Gangjong ›Listen to this piece