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

Jiao Rite Petition to the Old Man Star (老人星)老人星醮禮文

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 · 112 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.

白藏紀候。適當晷漏之均程。黃大騰輝。可卜壽齡之益算。敢傾卑懇。仰叩聦聞。伏念臣以寡昧之資。據崇高之勢。深思遠慮。雖勤制御之謀。久視長生。須荷照臨之助。載占旦見。彌罄心齋。肅陳酌彼之儀。佇枉冷然之馭。伏望靈光不顯。寶𰦀遄加。俾予冲人永延洪於慶曆。燕及兆姓。咸漱吮於大和。

Autumn has marked the season, and we have come just to the time when sundial shadow and water clock stand even; the great yellow star lifts its light, and one may divine from it an increase in the years of life. I dare incline my lowly earnestness and knock, looking up, at your bright hearing.

Prostrate, I consider that I, your servant, with a dim and deficient endowment, occupy a high seat. Thinking deeply and reckoning far, I have indeed been diligent in the arts of governing; but to live long and endure, I must receive the help of your shining presence.

Divining your appearance at dawn, I give still fuller measure to the fast of the heart. Solemnly I set out the rite of drawing and offering that water, and wait for your cool chariot to bend down and come.

Prostrate, I pray that you reveal your numinous light greatly and swiftly add to my precious tally sticks. Let this young person stretch out long and wide the years of blessing, and let ease reach even to the myriad people, so that all may hold and drink in the great harmonious air.

Interlinear notes 1

秋旦行

Performed at dawn in autumn.

‹ Invocation Announcing the Full Moon at the Grand Shrine (大廟) and Offering the New GrainContentsJiao Rite Petition to the Three Pure Ones (三淸), Praying Away the Portent of the Stars — Preliminary Invocation ›Listen to this piece