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

Text for the offering rite to Jinmu眞武醮禮文

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 · 102 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.

水位秀氣。金闕眞尊。雲騎神鋒。耀明威於六合。靈符寶誥。贊妙化於九天。越惟眇末之資。佇荷保持之力。篤披精懇。嘗切瞻依。況靑陽褉水之辰。是白日升仙之旦。爰循祕訣。特展明禋。敢期不息之誠。儻格至玄之鑑。佑沖人之未逮。俾躬處休。保景業於彌長。維命不已。

You received your surpassing air from the station of water, True Lord of the Golden Palace. Your cloud-borne soldiers and divine blade-points make your bright majesty shine through all heaven and earth, and your divine talismans and precious teachings aid your wondrous transforming through the nine heavens.

Looking back, with a worthless substance I wait to receive the power of your protection, and spreading out a thick sincerity, I have long been earnest in looking up and leaning upon you.

Still more, the time of washing away misfortune by the waters on a spring day is the very morning on which you mounted as an immortal in broad daylight. So, following your secret teaching, I spread out a specially bright sacrifice. I dare to look for this unresting sincerity to reach your utterly hidden discerning gaze.

Aid what a young man falls short of, that this body may abide in beauty; and keep the great work yet longer, that the mandate of Heaven may not cease.

‹ Text for the Yeongbo rite held at Singyeok Hall to pray away portents in the heavens, with an offering rite joined to itContentsText for the Taeil offering rite praying for rain ›Listen to this piece