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A Piece Conferring a Courtesy Name upon Chae Songnyeon of the Privy Council蔡樞密松年字序

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 · 210 Chinese characters · reading time 2.1 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.

樞密相國蔡公思所以代其諱者。請字於予。予字之曰天老。其意何哉。傳有之。受命於天。唯松柏獨也靑靑。又曰。歲寒然後知松柏之後凋也。則凡物之中。能貞固守節。莫松柏若也。非獨守其節。亦能享其天年。有至千百年。不改柯易葉者。此天之所使老之者也。天不使老焉。則月花朝槿。亦能久生。何貴乎松柏哉。公嘗以此自名久矣。果能以落落凌霄之姿。抗節玉立。爲天一柱。又必以陰功隱德。享壽無疆。爲國元老無疑矣。然則其不曰天之使然乎。由是觀之。公之自名之意。於此已效。而予以天老字之。庸詎不與之符會吻合者耶。月日。某謹序。

Minister Chae (蔡公) of the Privy Council, thinking of something to stand in the place of his given name, asked me for a courtesy name. I made him the courtesy name Cheonno (天老). What is the meaning of it?

In the commentaries (傳) there are these words: 「Having received their charge from Heaven, the pine and the nut pine alone are green and green.」 And again it is said, 「Only after the days have turned cold does one know that the pine and the nut pine are the last to wither.」 So then, among all things, for holding to one's integrity straight and firm there is nothing like the pine and the nut pine. Not only do they hold to that integrity alone; they also enjoy the full span of years that is theirs by birth, and there are those among them that for a thousand years, a hundred years, do not change a branch nor renew a leaf. This is Heaven's making them old. Were it not Heaven that makes them old, then the flower that falls within a month and the rose of Sharon that opens at morning and drops at evening could live long as well; and with what would we hold the pine and the nut pine dear?

Long since the Duke took this for his own name. And indeed, with the bearing of one that towers up and pierces the sky, he has set up his integrity and stands straight as jade, having become a pillar of heaven; and surely, by merit none knows of and virtue kept hidden, he will enjoy years without end and become an elder statesman of the realm — of this there is no doubt. If that is so, shall we not say that Heaven ordered it thus? Seen in this light, the intent with which the Duke named himself is already made plain here; and how should the courtesy name Cheonno that I have made for him not fall in exactly with it?

On a certain day of a certain month, So-and-so respectfully writes.

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