Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 38

Sacrificial address offered to the Western Peak of the Eastern Capital (東京)東京西岳祭文

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 · 206 Chinese characters · reading time 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。昨者東京元惡義庇之受戮。實亦大王之賜也。何者。賊之逃遁。非無他所。然義庇入匿西岳。爲我所擒。是豈大王之使然耶。予昔剖竹東都。嘗事大王。及捕孝心之黨。又嘗受大王之賜。今復統軍。自受命離家之日。心語口曰。西岳大王顯有靈德。况復有舊於予。是行也必蒙大賜。克成元功。及入東都。躬造祠堂。以祈陰助。果承力援。獲此元凶。嗚呼。大王之於予。可謂不負矣。敢遣信使。肅展精禋。是薄禮也。不足容歆。若復放神通之力。使草賊巨魁勃优。受誅於我軍。則當以琴瑟鍾皷歌舞倡優之樂。以報洪恩。言不可食。神其鑒之云云。

And so forth. That Uibi (義庇), the chief of the wicked at the Eastern Capital (東京), was cut down the other day was truly a thing the Great King granted as well. Why so? It was not that the brigand had nowhere else to flee and hide, and yet Uibi went into the Western Peak (西岳) and hid there and was taken by us; how should this not be the Great King's own doing?

When I held office in the Eastern Capital (東都) long ago I served the Great King; and when we took Hyosim (孝心) and his crowd I likewise received the Great King's granting. Now that I lead troops once more, from the day I received the command and left my house I said in my heart and with my mouth: 「The Great King of the Western Peak shows forth his numinous virtue, and moreover he has an old bond with me; on this march I shall surely be granted a great gift and accomplish the foremost merit.」 And on entering the Eastern Capital I went in person to the shrine and prayed for unseen help; and sure enough I received the help of your strength and got this chief of the vicious.

Ah, it may be said that the Great King has not failed me. I dare to send a trusted envoy and respectfully spread a pure sacrifice. This is a poor rite and not ample enough for your savoring. If you should loose your numinous power again, so that the one called Baru (勃优), the great chief of the brigand band, is cut down by our soldiers, I shall fitly repay your great kindness with zither and lute, with bell and drum, with song and dance and the play of entertainers. I shall not go back upon these words; let the god look into this. And so forth.

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