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

A statement asking that my nephew Qu be raised in office奏請侄男劬轉官狀

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 · 188 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 Hongyue, former magistrate of Shangyuan county

朝散大夫前行閏州上元縣令柱國高弘約

Gao Hongyue, Grand Master for Closing Court, formerly serving as magistrate of Shangyuan county in Runzhou, Pillar of State.

Interlinear notes 1

The source text writes 弘約 in the body and 宏約 in the title. The body's graph is followed, giving Hongyue. — translator

2Gao Ji, Administrative Aide of Yangzhou

右件官。是臣姪男。先具奏請除授揚州司馬。並請改名濟。伏奉勑旨依允者。九天渥澤。萬里塗程。沐恩命於堯階。泛光輝於阮巷。負山旣重。臨谷何安。臣以高濟早列官裳。頗聞吏術。建業字人之政。曾有微功。惟揚典午之資。敢希薄授。始陳丹靑。驟竊殊榮。濟也譽雖讓於王晞。名不慙於程昱。聖君如父。照臨實表於無偏。猶子比兒。訓勵必遵於匪懈。俾申勤效。少贖貪叨。臣限守藩條。不獲稱謝行在。無任感恩激切兢灼之至。謹奉狀陳謝以聞。謹奏。

The officer named above is your servant's nephew. Earlier your servant drew up a report asking that he be appointed Administrative Aide of Yangzhou, and asking as well that his name be changed to Ji. Having received the imperial rescript with respect, your servant finds that you have consented. The rich favor of the ninth heaven has come ten thousand li, so that he bathes in your gracious command upon the stairs of Yao and the light overflows the lane of the Ruan. The mountain he carries is heavy already; how can he be at ease, standing as he does at the edge of a valley? Your servant, because Gao Ji entered the ranks of office early and knows a good deal of a clerk's art, and because he once had small merit in the government of nurturing people at Jianye, dared to hope for the modest grant of the post of Administrative Aide at Yangzhou. Hardly had your servant set out his plea when all at once he stole this rare glory. In repute Ji must yield to Wang Xi, but in name he need not be ashamed before Cheng Yu. The sagely ruler is like a father, and his shining down is truly the mark of one without partiality. A nephew is counted as a son, and your servant's teaching and urging of him will surely follow what never slackens, so that he may set forth the fruits of diligence and redeem a little of his greed and presumption. Your servant is bound by his duties in this frontier command and cannot offer thanks at the traveling court. Your servant cannot bear the fullness of his gratitude for your grace, of his keen feeling, of his awe and burning care. With respect he presents this statement of thanks and reports it. Respectfully submitted.

‹ A statement recommending Sun Duan of the Guishun armyContentsA statement of thanks for changing my nephew Hongyue's name to Ji and appointing him Left Administrative Aide of the Grand Metropolitan Prefecture of Yangzhou ›Listen to this piece