Letter to Vice Minister Yi Su與李侍郞需書
月日。某頓首李君足下。昨蒙所貺集序。奉戴欣感。夫所謂集序者。一集之先驅也。引而伸之。導作者之蘊。爲之標的者也。古之人所以有集而不可無序者。蓋亦以此耳。兒子涵旣收拾予詩文。緝成全集。因問之曰。集已成。宜有以序。而冠之者誰當之。予以夫子應之曰。知吾心知吾詩者。獨李君某耳。捨玆誰可。涵方以此微逮。而尋蒙落玉唾珠。已光于編首矣。觀其文彩曄然。辭旨精緻。足以潤色我文字。飛揚我名聲。侈乎非淺薄所敢當也。昔李陽氷。是李白之從叔也。李漢。乃韓愈之子壻也。其於集序。皆不得無嫌者也。然李白韓愈。天下之雄才也。則雖抗白以千載獨步。躋韓以周情孔思。世不爲嫌。而猶以爲歉也。吾子之於僕。無嫌者也。若以公而敍之。則如僕之詩文。宜抑而不可抗。宜斥而不可躋者也。然爲人作序。而反抑且斥。萬無此理。則爲子計者。第言集之所作因由本末。亦足矣。胡奈以溢美之辭。抗之躋之。畫無鹽飾嫫母。欲使僕齊驅於太白退之之駕。則得不爲大濫乎。人不得無疑矣。噫。陽氷李漢。以親也而竟不落世之嫌者。以能公於親故也。吾子以疏也。而似未免乎人之疑者。以其私於疏故爾。僕之厚累吾子如此。尙何言哉。雖然。萬一吾詩文。以序故傳之不朽。亦榮也。敢不深銘。自得序。緣久痾。不以時奉謝。惶恐。再拜謹白。
On such a day of such a month, so-and-so bows his head and presents this to Master Yi.
Yesterday I received the preface to my collected works which you bestowed on me, and I held it up in joy and gratitude. Now what is called the preface to a collection is the guide to that whole collection. It draws out and unfolds what the author has accumulated, and so becomes the mark of it; and this, roughly, is the only reason the ancients said that where there is a collection there cannot but be a preface.
My son Ham (涵) gathered up my poems and prose, compiled the whole collection, and then asked, "The collection is already made; who, then, should be the one to write a preface and set it in front?" I named you in reply, saying, "The one who knows my mind and knows my poems is Master Yi alone; who else would be right but he?" Ham then hinted at it in this way, and before long you let fall jade and pearls of words, and have already lent luster to the head of the book.
Seeing the brightness of its coloring and the exactness and closeness of its wording, it is ample to give luster to my writing and to make my name known; but it is too grand, and not what one as shallow and thin as I dare bear.
In old times Li Yangbing (李陽氷) was the paternal uncle of Li Bai (李白), and Li Han (李漢) was the son-in-law of Han Yu (韓愈). In writing prefaces to their collections, neither of them could be wholly free of suspicion. Yet Li Bai and Han Yu were the great talents of the world; so though Li Bai was raised up as one who walked alone in a thousand years, and Han Yu was lifted up as one who entered into the sincerity of the Duke of Zhou and the thought of Confucius, the world did not count it suspicious, and even said it fell short.
You and I are men between whom there is no cause for suspicion. Had you set it forth impartially, the poems and prose of one like me ought to have been pressed down, not raised up; ought to have been put aside, not lifted up. Yet there is not one case in ten thousand of writing a preface for another and then pressing him down and putting him aside; so as a plan for you, it would have been ample merely to tell the beginning and end of how the collection came to be made. Why then do you raise and lift me with words of excessive praise, painting Wuyan (無鹽) and adorning Mumu (嫫母), and seek to make me run abreast with the carriages of Taibai and Tuizhi? Does this not become a great excess? People cannot but doubt it.
Ah — Li Yangbing and Li Han were close kin, and yet in the end did not fall under the world's suspicion, because they were able to be impartial toward those close to them; you are a distant connection, and yet seem unable to escape others' doubt, because you were partial toward one distant from you. That I burden you so heavily as this — what more can I say?
Even so, if by one chance in ten thousand my poems and prose are handed down unrotted thanks to the preface, that too is glory. Dare I not engrave it deeply? Since receiving the preface I have not been able, because of long illness, to offer my thanks in due time, and I am afraid. Bowing twice, I respectfully report.