Text of the Chorye rite (醮禮) offered to the Great Emperor of Heaven (天皇大帝)天皇醮禮文
云云。有所感則通。是曰天尊之妙道。不得已而用。實惟王者之義兵。嗟彼陪京。蠢然頑俗。如虎而翼。寢成擇肉之貪。盛血于囊。漸作射天之計。然我克寬之后。不欲輕用其刑。尙稽大辟之加。只示温言之諭。祗益稔罪。略不思悛。故命將以是懲。豈佳兵之所致。今者日輪見恠。星度失行。未知天意之何如。尋仰靈庥而斯籲。致令災萌遄息。賊氣自摧。如李晟之東屯。功能存社。若馬豐之西伐。師不延時。尋馳露布之書。坐致大安之慶。云云。
And so forth.
Where there is feeling there is a getting through, and this is called the wondrous way of the Heavenly Venerable; to use arms only because one cannot do otherwise, this is truly the righteous army of one who plays the sovereign.
Alas, that secondary capital is a writhing and obdurate custom. As though a tiger had sprouted wings, it has made full its greed to pick out flesh and eat it; and filling its pouch with blood, it has by degrees framed the design of shooting at heaven.
Yet our sovereign, who is able to be generous, would not use his punishments lightly: he put off still the handing down of the penalty of beheading, and only admonished them with warm words. Even so they did but practice their guilt the more, and knew not the least repentance. Therefore he commanded his generals to punish them with this; how should it be a thing arrived at out of a love for arms?
Now a strangeness is seen in the sun, and the degrees of the stars have lost their courses. Not knowing what heaven's will may be, we look up and cry out to your numinous shade.
Let the sprout of calamity quickly cease and the spirit of the brigands break of itself. As Li Sheng (李晟) encamped to the east, let our merit preserve the altars of the state; as Ma Feng (馬豐) struck at the west, let the army not drag out the season. Then let the writing of victory be sent on at a gallop, and let us, sitting still, accomplish the felicity of a great peace. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
陪京 — the secondary capital, that is, Seogyeong (Pyeongyang). — Translator