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Text of the Lotus (法華) Assembly at Hwangji Cloister (黃池院)黃池院法華會文

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 · 108 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 38 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。甘蔗氏之大慈。沿機現化。妙蓮經之正法。趣實自權。顧因違命之民。謬管興師之律。恐彼蔕根之漸固。雖有是行。如令玉石以俱焚。本非吾意。庶仗仁麻之善護。坐看賊種之自消。玆敞熏筵。載揚寶典。伏願先聲纔及。舊染惟新。肉袒素車。乞降於麾下。壺漿簟食。爭犒於軍前。云云。

And so forth.

The great compassion of Ganja (甘蔗氏), that is, the Buddha, shows forth its body according to the capacities (根機) of living beings, and the true Law of the wondrous Lotus scripture goes forward from expedient means to what is real.

Looking back, it is because of a people that has defied the command that I have wrongly been charged with the raising of troops. Fearing that those roots may by degrees grow firm, I have made this march; but to let jade and stone burn together was never my own intent.

I pray that, leaning upon your benevolent care, I may sitting still see the seed of the brigands waste away of itself. Hereupon I open a seat for the burning of incense and set the precious scripture ringing out.

Prostrate I pray that even a report arriving ahead and barely reaching them may make their old defilement new again; that stripping to the waist and riding in white carts they may beg to surrender beneath our banners, and that with drink in jars and rice in bamboo baskets they may vie to offer food before the army. And so forth.

‹ Sacrificial address offered to the Dragon King at Hwangji Cloister (黃池院)ContentsText of the Chorye rite (醮禮) offered to the Great Emperor of Heaven (天皇大帝) ›Listen to this piece