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Text for the Taeil offering rite praying for rain祈雨大一醮禮文

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 · 134 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 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.

食爲之命。一穀不登則飢。神感于誠。五經莫重於祭。以予否德。召厥咎徵。自夏以來。久致乾焦之沴。而民何罪。已懷餓殍之憂。玆軫焦勞。未遑宴逸。至誠不息。曾陳祈叩之儀。小信未孚。尙阻汪洋之澤。間雖滋潤。未至渥優。宜高哀籲之誠。期聞聽卑之耳。斯循祕籙。式展精禋。伏望呼召神龍。驅除旱魃。五風十雨。允孚時若之休。萬廩千廂。終叶年豐之慶。

Food is life, and if one grain does not ripen men go hungry; and the gods are moved by sincerity, so that though there be five cords of the rites, none is weightier than sacrifice.

By my poor virtue I have called down the omen of fault. From summer onward I have summoned a long calamity of drought and scorching; and what is the people's crime, who already bear the care of starving to death? So I ache with their burning toil and have no leisure for easy rest.

I did not rest from utmost sincerity, and long ago set forth the rite of prayer; but my small faith was not trusted, and still the overflowing bounty is blocked. In the meantime there has indeed been a wetting, but it has not come to plenty. It is fitting to raise up the sincerity of a grieving outcry, and I look for it to be heard by the ear that hearkens to what is low. So, following the secret books, I spread out this pure sacrifice.

Prostrate, I pray that you summon the divine dragon and drive out the demon of drought. Let the wind blow once in five days and the rain fall once in ten, so that the beauty of the seasons be truly trusted; and let the ten thousand granaries and the thousand storehouses come at last to accord with the happy fortune of a plentiful year.

‹ Text for the offering rite to JinmuContentsText appointed at Guyodang for the Eleven Luminaries Disaster-Dispelling rite to pray away portents in the heavens, with an offering rite joined to it ›Listen to this piece