Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 40

Text for the rite at the turning of the year, with an offering rite joined to it年交道場兼醮文

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 · 108 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 40 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.

窈冥莫測。道無古而無今。消息不停。年有終而有始。念臣微薄。襲位艱難。夙夜憂勤。猶未安於一日。陰陽推代。况欲及於三元。宜憑佑下之私。用集履端之慶。玆沿仙籙。聿峙法壇。邀羽服之高流。諷琳編之秘蘊。仰惟靈鑒。遄畀眞庥。頓消未兆之災。若氷將泮。丕擁惟新之福。如日方昇。

Hidden and dark beyond measuring, the Way has neither of old nor of now; and since waning and waxing do not cease, the year has its ending and its beginning.

I consider that your servant is worthless and thin, and yet has succeeded to this difficult seat. From early morning until night I am full of care and strive, and still there is not one day of ease. The yin and the yang push on and take their turns; how much more when I would reach the Three Primes (三元)? It is fitting that I lean upon the grace by which you help what is below, and so I would gather the happy fortune of the new year's head.

So, following the books of the immortals, I raise high the altar of the offering rite, and welcoming the exalted company in feathered robes, I have them chant the secret contents of the jade-like books.

Looking up, I pray that by your divine discerning gaze you swiftly send down your true shade. Let calamity that has not yet so much as an omen vanish at a stroke, as ice about to melt; and let the renewing blessing be greatly embraced, as the sun just now rising.

‹ Text for the offering rite praying for peace after the repair of the Hall of the Great Emperor of Heaven at SuncheongwanContentsText for the Taeil offering rite — third libation, the blue text ›Listen to this piece