Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 11
Preface to a Critical Discussion of Calligraphy — Tanyeon (坦然)東國諸賢書訣評論序 坦然
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 11 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.
皎如明月之撥雲。粲若芙蓉之出池。非謂脆弱兮如美婦人。外若姸媚兮中以筋持。一點一畫。妥帖得宜。非意所造。神者迺施。
For brightness, it is as the bright moon come out through the clouds for beauty, as a lotus risen from the pond I do not mean that it is soft and weak, like a lovely lady without it is comely and fair, but within it is braced with sinew Every dot and every stroke falls right and attains what is fitting It was not made up by intention the spirit itself bestowed it