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Short Letter Sent to the Great Seon Master Mun寄文大禪師手簡

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 · 154 Chinese characters · reading time 1.6 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 12 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.

月日。某頓首啓。伏惟法候淸勝修眞。瞻戀萬萬。僕曾聞丈下以本寺爲賊藪。未得歸安。將至上足覺禪師所住雲門寺。於半路逢賊。勢甚窘迫。賊中有兩班子不得已被驅逼者。多方救解放之。然後獲免得歸其寺。喜抃良深。路遠未卽問慰。死罪死罪。予然後知法德之殊勝如此。甚歎甚歎。師歸其寺未幾。予得宰相。恨不令師親見之也。前所諭事。一一祇稟。取後准備。因風奉寄。幸不復慮。爲法自愛。云云。

On such a day of such a month, so-and-so bows his head and reports. Bowing, I consider that your dharma-body is clear and at ease and that you cultivate the true; my longing as I look up to you is without end.

I heard some while ago that the monastery where you had long dwelt became a den of brigands, so that you could not return and dwell there at ease, and that you were on your way to Unmun Monastery (雲門寺), where your foremost disciple (上足), the Seon master Gak, lives, when you met brigands midway and your plight was most pressing; but among the brigands was the son of a gentry house who had been swept in against his will, and only after he had worked in various ways to save and release you were you able to get free and return to that monastery. My joy and gladness ran truly deep. The road being far, I could not inquire after you at once — a capital offense, a capital offense. Only after that did I know how surpassing the virtue of the dharma is in you, and I marvel and marvel greatly.

Not long after you returned to that monastery I became chief minister; and it is my regret that I could not let you see it with your own eyes.

The matter you instructed me in earlier I have respectfully received point by point; I shall see to it later and send it on by whoever is traveling your way, so trouble yourself over it no further. For the sake of the dharma, take care of yourself. And so forth.

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