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

Jiao Rite Petition for Subduing the Fire God壓火神醮禮文

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 · 92 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.

妖異之興。各因過擧。壓勝之術。唯在宗祈。顧人所資。惟火可畏。順時行令。雖防濫發之萌。失性爲灾。尙慮不虞之變。况觀玄象之乖度。殆有赤精之作威。祗陳菲薄之儀。佇畀保持之力。致令自諸宮宇。永無濡褐之勞。及爾里閭。不見焦頭之救。

The rising of eerie and strange events arises in each case from conduct that has gone too far, and the art of subduing them lies only in praying at the source.

Looking back, among the things on which people depend, it is fire alone that is to be feared. Following the seasons we issue commands and so block the sprouts of reckless outbreak; yet when fire loses its own nature it becomes disaster, and so we still worry over unlooked-for calamity. How much more, seeing the face of Heaven depart from its measures, does it seem that the red essence is wielding its power.

Reverently I set out this meager rite and wait for you to send down your protecting power. From the many palaces and houses, let there be no toil of soaking our clothes ever again; and as far as the villages, let us not see people scorching their heads to put out flames.