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

Text for the offering rite to the Eleven Luminaries and the Twenty-eight Constellations, held according to the state's divination國卜十一曜二十八宿醮禮文

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 · 119 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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.

星宿騰精而列于天。人所瞻仰。神明應變而通乎物。信可薦羞。輒貢危辭。敢干聰聽。伏念臣以眇沖之質。承重大之權。念至於憂。雖軫臨深之抱。禍生所忽。尙圖杜漸之方。況憑龜兆。以稽疑合。屈鸞驂而徼福。玆循道範。式峙法壇。庶歆苾苾之儀。僉墮高高之眷。則篤斯慶。延景命之無疆。永孚于休。保昌圖於可久。

The stars raise up their essence and lie ranged in the heavens, and so are what men look up to; and the divine powers answer to change and pass through into things, and so are truly worthy to be offered food. Abruptly I send up these words of dread and dare to trespass upon your bright hearing.

Prostrate, I consider that your servant, with a small and young substance, has succeeded to a heavy and great authority. My thoughts come round to care, and I ache with a heart as of one standing at the brink of deep water; and since calamity comes forth out of negligence, I plan the means of blocking the omen. Still more, leaning upon the signs of the tortoise divination, I have examined my doubt and found it met; and so I would have your simurgh car bend hither, and seek blessing.

So, following the rite of the Daoist school, I raise up the altar of the Law. Partake of this fragrant ceremony and send down your regard from the highest of high places. Make thick this happy fortune and lengthen without end the great mandate; and let us trust long in your beauty and keep long a prospering age to come.

‹ Text for the Eleven Luminaries Disaster-Dispelling rite, praying away the portent of the starsContentsText for bowing to the stars, keeping watch through the night, in prayer for favor ›Listen to this piece