Yetgeul › Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) › Book 4 — Memorials to the Throne

A statement of thanks for appointing my nephew Qiong magistrate of Jiulong county in Pengzhou謝除侄男瓊授彭州九隴縣令狀

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 · 208 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 4 — Memorials to the Throne 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.

1Gao Qiong, former sheriff of Hu county

前守京兆府鄠縣尉高瓊

Gao Qiong, formerly acting sheriff of Hu county in Jingzhao prefecture.

2A nephew raised up without a recommendation

右件官。是臣姪男。今得進奏院狀報。伏蒙勑旨除授彭州九隴縣令。仍賜緋魚袋者。伏以高瓊早乏藝能。忝從祿仕。佐理未閑於吏道。列官已陟於王畿。昨者背秦嶺而脫煙塵。面蜀川而就雲日。雖有心於葵藿。且無托於萍蓬。豈料不由薦論。便賜超擢。纔抛黃綬。遽沾墨綬之榮。始佩銅章。又竊銀章之貴。況乃濛陽屬邑。益部名區。正當巡幸之邦。實謂來蘇之地。豈伊殘劣。能此勝當。臣也必令行愼履冰。坐勤飮水。勉追芳於花縣。無致辱於竹林。臣限守戎藩。不獲稱謝天庭。無任感恩戰懼之至。謹奉狀陳謝以聞。謹奏。

The officer named above is your servant's nephew. Your servant has now received the report of the Memorial Presentation Office, which says that by the imperial rescript he has been appointed magistrate of Jiulong county in Pengzhou, and then granted the scarlet fish-pouch. Your servant humbly considers that Gao Qiong was early on short of skill and ability, and took a salaried office he did not deserve. He is not yet at ease with the way of a clerk in helping to govern, and yet his rank has already risen into the royal domain. Not long ago he turned his back on the Qin ranges and got clear of the smoke and dust, and faced Shu to go toward the clouds and the sun. His heart was that of the sunflower, but he had nothing to lean upon, like duckweed and tumbleweed. How could he have reckoned that without passing through a recommendation he would be given a promotion that leaps over the steps? Hardly had he cast off the yellow ribbon when suddenly he was steeped in the glory of the black ribbon. He had just put on the bronze seal when he stole the honor of the silver seal as well. How much more so when Mengyang is a subordinate town and the Yi region a famed district, lying right in the land of the imperial progress, a place that may truly be called brought back to life. How should one so weak and poor be able to bear it? Your servant will surely make him walk warily in all he does, as though treading on ice, and be diligent even at rest, as though drinking only water, so that he strives to follow the fragrance of the flower county and brings no disgrace upon the bamboo grove. Your servant is bound to the guard of this frontier command and cannot offer thanks at the heavenly court. Your servant cannot bear the fullness of his gratitude for your grace and of his trembling fear. With respect he presents this statement of thanks and reports it. Respectfully submitted.

‹ A statement of thanks for appointing my younger brother Zhu prefect of Mianzhou once moreContentsA statement of thanks for allowing Hongding to be filled into the post of superintendent of monks ›Listen to this piece