Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 39

Text for the preaching of the scripture at the Palgwan festival at Beopwangsa法王寺八關說經文

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 · 126 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 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.

三舟一月。雖諸法之同歸。五水千甁。獨八關之淨戒。自先祖而深信。著甲令之不刊。言念後侗。式遵前典。當仲冬之令月。張盛禮於廣庭。顧鍾鼓之畢陳。非以自樂。欲人天之同悅。因啓太平。玆卽香城。寔嚴梵事。邀鷲峯之開士。演龍柱之靈文。伏願承佛力之加持。亘民心而康豫。致庶邦之丕享。無遠不懷。保萬世之慶基。垂裕罔極。

Seen from three boats the moon is still one, and thither all the laws alike return; but the dividing of five waters into a thousand vessels is the pure discipline of the Palgwan, the Eight Prohibitions, alone. From the time of our forebears it has been deeply believed and written into statutes that cannot be altered.

I consider that I, a foolish one born later, follow the statutes of those before me, and meeting the fine month of the winter solstice I spread a full ceremony in the broad court. Looking back: that the bells and the drums are all set out is not that I may take pleasure myself, but that men and heaven may rejoice together and open an age of great peace.

So I go to the city of incense and strictly furnish the business of the Buddha. Welcoming the bodhisattvas of Mount Yeongchwi, I have them unroll the divine writing held in the scripture store of the dragon palace.

Prostrate, I pray that, receiving the upholding of the Buddha's power, you may make every heart among the people at ease and glad. Let the many realms greatly enjoy their portion, so that there is nowhere so far off as not to be embraced; and keep the auspicious foundation of ten thousand generations, that the plenty it lets down may be without end.

Interlinear notes 1

龍藏 — The base text has 龍柱, but it is taken as an error for 龍藏 (the scripture store of the dragon palace). — Translator

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