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 younger brother Zhu prefect of Mianzhou once more謝弟柷再除綿州刺史狀

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 · 243 Chinese characters · reading time 1.0 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 Zhu, prefect of Mianzhou

綿州刺史高柷

Gao Zhu, prefect of Mianzhou.

2The people held him back, and he became prefect again

右件官。是臣堂弟。今得進奏院狀報。奉某月日恩制。除授金吾將軍。被軍州官衆狀擧留。續准勑旨。依前授綿州刺史者。恩資鳳扆。喜集鴒原。形影光輝。精魂震越。伏以高柷早從裾履。免墜箕裘。旣懸報主之誠。得習牧人之術。昨者忝膺寵寄。粗擧政條。銀水金山。曾無自潤。帶牛佩犢或有可觀。振家聲廉愼之名。致郡俗擧留之請。況乃秩假帝之喉舌。官登王之爪牙。仕宦旣榮。分憂又重。柷也必遵勗勵。更愼撫綏。不辜署劍之恩。以謝擁轅之衆。臣亦申敎誨。俾贖貪叨。俱在朝之盛儀。雖慙前哲。各爲郡之淸譽。可畏後生。共資綽綽之詩。冀播優優之政。臣限拘藩鎭。不獲稱謝行在。無任感恩抃躍之至。謹奉狀陳謝。謹奏。

The officer named above is your servant's cousin. Your servant has now received the report of the Memorial Presentation Office. It says that on a certain day of a certain month he received a gracious decree appointing him General of the Golden Guard, but that the officers and people of the commandery asked by a statement that he be held back, and that by the imperial rescript which followed he was appointed prefect of Mianzhou as before. The grace comes from the phoenix screen, and the joy gathers on the wagtail slope. Body and shadow shine, and spirit and soul leap in wonder. Your servant humbly considers that Gao Zhu early followed the skirts and the shoes of his elders and did not let the family craft fall, and that having hung up a sincere will to repay his lord, he was able to learn the art of shepherding the people. Not long ago he undertook a charge he did not deserve and in rough outline raised up the articles of government. At Silver Water and Gold Mountain he never once enriched himself, and it was worth the seeing that men had traded their swords for oxen and their knives for calves. The name of purity and care that made his house resound brought about the commandery's request that he be held back. How much more so now that his grade borrows the voice by which the Emperor speaks, and his office has climbed to make him the King's own strong right arm. His service is glorious already, and the cares he shares are heavy as well. Zhu will surely follow your charge to exert himself, and will be still more careful in soothing the people, so that he does not fail the grace of the sword he was given and may thank the crowd that clung to his carriage shafts. Your servant too will set forth instruction to him, so that he may redeem his greed and presumption. As for the splendid ceremony of standing together at court, we are shamed before the worthies of old; but as for the pure repute each has earned for his commandery, the young who come after may well be feared. Together we rest upon the ode of what is ample and free, and hope to spread a generous rule. Your servant is bound to this frontier command and cannot offer thanks at the traveling court. Your servant cannot bear the fullness of his gratitude for your grace and of his clapping and leaping. With respect he presents this statement of thanks. Respectfully submitted.

‹ A statement of thanks for changing my nephew Hongyue's name to Ji and appointing him Left Administrative Aide of the Grand Metropolitan Prefecture of YangzhouContentsA statement of thanks for appointing my nephew Qiong magistrate of Jiulong county in Pengzhou ›Listen to this piece