Record of the Yugadang of Minister Bak of the Privy Council朴樞府有嘉堂記
距斗城數百許步。有地之控形勝吸秀氣。勢成金盞者。於焉有洞曰萬石。父老相傳云。蓋以多石而名之也。予曰。非也。此洞當有俸八萬石之慶而云耳。非必以石之多也。其後果有士大夫多來家焉。今又本兵樞府相國朴公來卜其居。方新其宅也。邀予及賓友落之。且令閱其所營制度何似。予觀之曰。美矣盡矣。無以復加矣。大抵世之富貴者之搆屋也。多以回萬牛之材。豐其棟宏其柱。壯則壯矣。侈云侈矣。然未有蕭洒出塵之意。今公所搆。有異於是。大小得中。不□〔⿰扌刳〕不隘。其華靡則可謂臻其極。而然中有洒落物外之想。吾不知其所以然而然。此豈公之心匠眼匠所致然耶。凡作堂三間。用二間爲廳事。其上皆以承塵塡之。凡十二井。悉文以丹雘藻繢。光彩煥發。奪人目睛。求名於予。遂名之曰有嘉。蓋取此宅當有嘉慶之意。亦取詩所謂我有嘉賓。以是堂爲迎迓賓客之所故也。隔一間爲佛室。作齋心之所。乃至佛儀。無所不備。入處可以淸心。因名曰靜慮。蓋取禪那。此云靜慮者也。其傍邊左右地。淨如湔洗削平。人不敢唾焉。繞宅環廻。皆植以黃花。花凡十八種。繁艶異常。時已侵冬。黃白交開。爛熳紛糅。其相對正賞外。或有隈墻隱映。如嬌饒美婦人半出帷房。作佯羞態度者。此尤可賞。有竹無慮四十餘本。蔥籠蒙密。僅類江南所見。然江南所產。雖其大可圍。其高干雲。其賤如蓬。此直地性使然耳。非所可貴也。夫豈若此竹之整齊行伍。如人削出束立。迫不至侵。離不爲迂。凡皆如意者乎。其餘花草之奇。非止此耳。遲春迺見耳。此不得敍。夫以淸淨心。居淸淨地。是卽神仙也。何必玉京十二樓之要處耶。吾嘗言男兒於世。得宰相難。得而得至致政又難。今公以樞府帶左揆。先期得謝。優遊於此。日與親舊作揮金之樂。是亦人所難得者。噫。可謂明哲保身。樂性君子者歟。僕也蒙見囑以記。敍萬一以備後之標識而已。非好事爲也。時某年某月日。謹記。
Some hundreds of paces from Duseong (斗城) there is a place where the ground draws in a fine situation and sucks up an outstanding force, and the lie of it takes the shape of a golden cup. There is a valley there called Manseok (萬石). The elders hand it down among themselves that 「it was so named because there are many stones.」 I say: 「No. This valley was so called because there was to be the blessing of receiving eighty thousand seok of stipend here; it is not necessarily because there are many stones.」
Afterward, sure enough, many officials came and built houses there; and now Minister Bak (朴公) of the Privy Council, who holds the military authority, has come, chosen his place to live, and newly built his house. He called me and his guests and friends to the completing of it, and had us see besides what manner of fashioning had been done. I looked and said: 「It is beautiful and complete. There is nothing to add.」
As a rule, when the rich and noble of this world build houses, they haul in timber that would take ten thousand oxen to drag, thicken the ridgepoles and make the pillars great; and stately it is indeed, and lavish it is indeed. But there is in it no sense of being clear and cool and free of the dust of the world. What the Duke has built now is otherwise. Great and small are fitly matched, so that it is neither □ nor cramped; for splendor it may be said to have gone to the very end, and yet within it there is a clear and cool intent that thinks beyond the world. I do not know how it comes to be so, and yet so it is; how should this not be the making of the Duke's craft of heart and craft of eye?
In all, he built a hall of three bays and used two of them for the receiving of guests. Above, it is all closed in with a ceiling, and the panels shaped like the character for a well (井) are twelve in number, every one of them patterned with red pigment and fine coloring, so that the hues open out brightly and take away a man's eyes. He asked me for a name, and in the end I named it Yuga (有嘉). This was taken, in the main, from the sense that there was to be a fair blessing in this house; and also from the words in the Classic of Poetry (詩), 「I have welcome guests」, since this hall was made the place for the receiving of guests.
One bay he partitioned off for a Buddha hall and made it a place for the collecting of the mind; down to the furnishings for the serving of the Buddha, there is nothing it does not have. Being within it one can make the heart clear, and so it was named Jeongnyeo (靜慮). This was taken, in the main, from dhyana (禪那), which in the speech here means to think in stillness.
The ground to the left and the right beside it is clean as if washed, as if pared, so that no one dares spit upon it. All around the house, going round and round, chrysanthemums are planted, the flowers eighteen kinds in all, and their lush profusion and beauty are unlike the common sort. The season has already turned toward winter, yet yellow and white bloom mingled and melt together in ripeness. Besides enjoying them face to face and outright, there are some that flicker and show at the corner of the wall, as though a lovely lady had come half out of her room and were making a show of bashfulness; and this is the more to be enjoyed.
The bamboos are, at a rough count, something over forty, green and thick and close-set, barely like what I saw in Jiangnan. But what grows in Jiangnan is a full armspan around, its height reaches the clouds, and it is as common as mugwort stalks; this is only what the nature of the soil has made it, and not a thing to be held dear. How should it match these bamboos, drawn up in even rows as though a man had pared them and bound them and set them standing, close together yet not trespassing upon one another, apart yet not shying away, all of them in every way as one would wish? The strange flowers and plants besides are not these alone, but they will only be seen when spring is waited for, and so they are not set down here.
To live with a clear and clean heart upon clear and clean ground — this is to be an immortal. Why must it be a place of consequence among the twelve towers of the Jade Capital (玉京)? I have said before: it is hard for a man in this world to become a chief minister, and having become one, it is harder still to come to the laying down of office. Now the Duke, holding the Privy Council and bearing the title of Left Councilor (左揆), has yet got leave to withdraw before his time and roams at ease here, making day by day with his old friends the pleasure of scattering coins; and this too is a thing men find hard to get. Ah, he may be called a gentleman of clear wisdom, who keeps his own person and takes joy in his inborn nature.
Having been entrusted with the record, I set down one part in ten thousand, only that it may serve as a mark for days to come; it is not that I am fond of making a business of things. On a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, respectfully set down.