Memorial from the Court Music Bureau Congratulating the Sovereign on the Palgwan Assembly敎坊賀八關表
云云。率祖攸行。講八關之嘉會。與民同樂。均萬國之懽心。喜洽神祗。慶騰朝野。恭惟聖上陛下。神道設敎。大平持盈。拱手垂衣。我無爲而人自化。安土樂業。帝有力而民何知。爰屬仲冬。大開盛禮。休祥沓至。鼇戴山而龜負圖。廣樂畢張。龍吹篪而虎鼓瑟。妾等身棲紫府。迹簉彤庭。聞九奏聲。似入鈞天之夢。奉萬歲壽。切期嵩岳之呼。云云。
And so forth. Following what the ancestors practiced, you have held the fair assembly of the Palgwan (八關), and rejoicing together with the people you have made even the gladness of the whole land; so that joy contents the spirits of heaven and earth, and festivity overflows court and countryside.
Reverently I consider that Your Majesty the Sovereign spreads instruction by a divine Way and keeps the fullness of great concord; you fold your hands and let your robes hang down, so that you do nothing and yet people are transformed of themselves; they dwell at ease upon the land and delight in their callings, so that though the sovereign has his strength, how would the people know of it?
Now, at the coming of deep winter, you open a rite of great splendor; fair auspices arrive one upon another, the great turtle bearing a mountain and the tortoise carrying a chart; and the grand music of heaven is set out in full, the dragon blowing the flute and the tiger plucking the lute.
We, your handmaids, have our bodies lodged in the palace and our footsteps mingled in the vermilion courtyard; hearing the sound of the nine airs resound, it is as though we had entered the dream of Juntian (鈞天); and in offering up the wish for a myriad years, we earnestly look for that very sound by which a myriad years were cried on Mount Song. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
嵩岳之呼 — This is the old story that when Emperor Wu of the Han climbed Mount Song, a cry of "Ten thousand years!" was heard from the mountain. — translator