Yetgeul › Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) › Book 3 — Reports

A statement of thanks for the regular appointment of Qin Yan and the others as prefects謝秦彥等正授刺史狀

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) 桂苑筆耕集 · Choe Chiwon · 886 (Tang, 6th year of the Zhonghe era · Silla, 12th year of King Heongang) · 2 passages · 204 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 3 — Reports A collection Choe Chiwon made by choosing out of the writings of his four years in the headquarters of Gao Pian, military commissioner of Huainan under the Tang, binding them into twenty volumes and presenting them to King Heongang of Silla in 886. It holds 366 pieces — memorials and reports sent up to the emperor, the proclamation denouncing Huang Chao, letters to the several military commissioners, orders and dispatches issued to those under him, Daoist and Buddhist texts for services, funeral offerings, records written for the outer wall of Chengdu and for a painting of Annam, and the reports and poems he sent up to Gao Pian. Here is the first report, which begins "I am a man of Silla," and the proclamation against Huang Chao with its line, "Not only do all the men of the world think to kill you openly; the ghosts under the earth have already discussed cutting you down in secret." The last volume holds the poems he made on the voyage home to the country he had left at twelve. It is the oldest collection by a Korean that survives, and when Hong Seokju and Seo Yugu printed it with movable type in 1834 they called it "the root and the beginning of the writing of our Eastern Country." Their two prefaces are translated with it.

1Qin Yan, prefect of Hezhou, and Xu Qing, prefect of Chuzhou

新授和州刺史秦彦新授滁州刺史許勍

Qin Yan, newly appointed prefect of Hezhou. Xu Qing, newly appointed prefect of Chuzhou.

2Generals who surrendered are made prefects

右件官。臣先奏請各授管內刺史。今月某日。得進奏院狀報。伏奉某月日勑旨允許者。九天降寵。兩地分榮。覩降將之懷恩。喜元戎之獲請。伏以秦彦等。比者爲梟爲獍。維虺維虵。久流螫蠹之災。未有誅鋤之便。臣偶令招諭。旋自歸投。遂假分符。皆能守節。誠宜獎勸。輒具奏論。今者聖澤濡枯。皇風盪垢。纔擲黃巾之飾。許登皁蓋之資。秦彦等旣荷新恩。永除舊惡。必也出榮建隼。入効懸魚。學其守土之規。贖彼滔天之罪。臣限拘藩鎭。不獲稱謝行在。無任抃戴兢灼之至。謹奉狀陳謝以聞。謹奏。

The officers above. Your servant earlier reported and asked that each of them be appointed prefect within his command. On such a day of this month he had a report from the Bureau of Memorials that the rescript of such a month and such a day had been respectfully received and had granted it. Favor came down from the ninth heaven and honor was divided between two regions, and he sees that the generals who surrendered hold this kindness in their hearts, and he rejoices that the commander in chief has had his request. Your servant bows low and considers that Qin Yan and the others were of late owls and jing beasts, adders and snakes, and long poured out the calamity of stinging and gnawing, and there was no ready means of cutting them away. Your servant happened to have them called and instructed, and at once they came over of themselves, and when the tally was lent to them they all proved able to keep their duty. They truly deserve to be encouraged and urged on, and so he set it out in full in his report. Now the sage grace has wetted what was dry and the imperial wind has washed away the filth, and hardly had they thrown off the trappings of the yellow headcloth than they were allowed to mount to the rank of the black canopy. Since Qin Yan and the others have received this new kindness, they will put away their old evil forever, and going out they will surely enjoy the honor of raising the falcon banner, and coming in they will show the proof of the hanging fish, learning the rule of guarding their own ground and redeeming that crime of theirs that reached to heaven. Your servant is bound to his command of the marches and cannot give his thanks at the traveling court. He cannot bear the utmost of his clapping and bearing of this honor, and of his burning awe. He respectfully sends up this statement to set forth his thanks and make it heard. Respectfully submitted.

‹ A statement asking for staff officersContentsA statement of thanks for the added office of director of the chancellery and the grant of a real fief ›Listen to this piece