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Text for the Dragon-Summoning rite held to drive away epidemic疾疫祈禳召龍道場文

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 · 136 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 39 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。如來攝疫之門。應病投藥。仁主恤人之政。若已納隍。苟尊閣以奉行。卽靈承於護蔭。念循涼薄。叨襲重艱。常以百姓而爲心。庶無一物之失所。年其饑嗛。猶恐鄒民之轉溝。暑或敲蒸。尙期周后之扇暍。況復有罹於疾病。可能忍視於須臾。期託等慈。仰祈善救。俾暢眞詮之最勝。庶令靈府以同歡。伏願扇以大和。掃里閭之沈頓。篤于純嘏。致家國之寧安。

And so forth.

The Tathagata's gate for gathering up epidemic gives medicine according to the illness, and the benevolent ruler's government of caring for his people counts it as though he himself had pushed them into the ditch. If in truth one upholds and performs it on high, one divinely receives the shade of your protection.

I consider that with a thin and meager substance I have presumptuously succeeded to this heavy and difficult seat. Always I make the people my heart and wish that not one of them may lose his place. When the year brings a bad harvest I fear they may roll in the ditch like the people of Chu (鄒); when the heat is stifling I wish for what the king of Ju (周) did, fanning those stricken by the heat. How much less could I bear merely to look on, even for a moment, at those who have now fallen sick?

Entrusting myself to your unvarying compassion, I look up and pray that you may rescue them well. I have the most surpassing true teaching unfolded, that the divine places may rejoice together.

Prostrate, I pray that you may fan the great harmonious air and sweep away the sickness settled in the villages, and that you may make thick our unmixed blessing and bring about the peace of house and state.

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