Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 11

Preface to a Critical Discussion of Calligraphy — The Duke of Jinyang (晉陽公)東國諸賢書訣評論序 晉陽公

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 · 52 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 min

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.

朝日排雲兮不足況其明麗。鸞騰鳳翥兮未足比其聯翩。姸莫姸兮中有強。強莫強兮還有姸。氣骨風流。惟公兼焉。天符神契。得乎自然。

The morning sun pushing out through the clouds falls short of its brightness and beauty the luan bird rising and the phoenix soaring fall short of its unbroken fluttering For beauty nothing could be more beautiful, yet within it there is firmness for firmness nothing could be more firm, yet there is beauty in it still Force and frame and elegance the Duke alone has them all together Heaven matched them and the spirit joined them on he got it from that which is so of itself