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Another text praying for rain to the city god又祈雨城隍文

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 · 237 Chinese characters · reading time 2.3 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。亢旱滋深。天惟不雨。召此者旱母。太守自謂也。何者。自予到郡。上無以承流宣化。下無以興利除害。所至無隨車之雨。動輒有爍石之旱。此非旱母而誰歟。於前月某日。責非悔過。敢禱于大王。因擲筊詰其緩速則曰。不出三日。必有甘澤。僕承之。日夜望雲漢卜陰晴。翹首延佇。至五六日而後方得小雨。神豈誑我耶。草木憔悴。水泉枯涸。此誠民之生死存亡之時也。若三日不雨。則稻穀不登。六日七日不雨。則五穀不登。過是而不雨。則百穀皆不登矣。百穀皆不登。神將何食。民將何生。吏將何仰而充國賦耶。大王之食玆土久矣。其恬然不恤。則安所託命耶。若導宣天澤。小加霶潤。是神之職也。吏之幸也。民之命也。

And so forth.

The severe drought grows deeper and deeper, and Heaven sends down no rain. What called it on is the drought demon, which is to say the prefect, myself. Why so? Since I came to this district I have not received my ruler's will above and spread his teaching, nor have I raised up profit and done away with harm below. Wherever I went there was no rain to follow my carriage; whenever I moved there was at once a drought that melts stones. Who is the drought demon, if not this?

On such-and-such a day of last month I rebuked what was wrong and repented of my faults and dared to pray to the Great King. Then I cast the divining sticks and asked whether it would be slow or quick, and the answer was, "Not more than three days will pass before there will surely be a sweet rain." I took up that word and watched the Milky Way night and day, divining cloud and clearing, and raised my head and stretched my neck and waited. Only after five days and six had passed did I get a little rain at last. Surely the god would not deceive me?

The grass and the trees have withered and the waters and the springs have dried up, and this is truly the time when it is decided whether the people live or die, are or are not. If rain does not come for three days the rice does not ripen; if it does not come for six days or seven the five grains do not ripen; and if it does not come for longer than that, not one of the hundred grains ripens. If not one of the hundred grains ripens, what will the god eat, and by what will the people live, and to what will the official look up in order to fill out the state's taxes?

It is long since the Great King began to partake in this land. If you look on calmly and do not care for us, to what shall we entrust our lives? If you lead down and spread the bounty of Heaven and soak us, if only a little, this is the god's duty, the official's good fortune, and the people's life.

Interlinear notes 1

無韻

It has no rhyme.

‹ Another Prayer for Rain to the Great King, the State Preceptor (國師大王)ContentsText praying for rain to the city god, at Gyeyang ›Listen to this piece