Sacrificial address offered before the Portrait of Taejo at Giju (基州)基州太祖眞前祭文
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 · 131 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 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.
Fair was Taejo, keen of mind and numinous and holy
The Quelling Star (鎭星) showed forth its auspice, and there was writing upon the mirror
At Gongnyeong (鵠嶺) he rose up like a dragon, and truly it was what heaven had commanded
Silla, longing after righteousness, offered up its sincerity and turned to him of itself
Delighting in that coming to surrender, he set up a district and called it Gyeong (慶)
How is it that their descendants have forgotten the kindness of our former king
Roaming wantonly they revolt and defy, and egg open the gate of calamity
Their guilt cannot be borne with, and so we send forth our Three Armies
Were it not for our holy Taejo, who else would help us
In the old district of Giju (基州) the likeness he left stands vividly present
I send an aide of my staff, who dares to offer up water-chestnut and white mugwort
I pray only that your hidden spirit look upon the thickness of my heart
□ Cut down the chief of the wicked, that they may not multiply further
and let the altars of our state be exalted the higher for ten thousand generations
Not only let heaven's emolument rest upon the descendants to come
but let the sacrifices to the former king be carried on for ever and ever