Yetgeul › Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) › Book 12 — Dispatches

To Li Hanzhi of Guangzhou — let us go forward together by the Bian road光州李罕之

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) · 1 passages · 266 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 min

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 12 — Dispatches 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.

1If I do not go, where will the other generals go?

報李罕之。成覵有言。彼丈夫也。我丈夫也。然則成功立節。不獨古人。仗順輸忠。正當今日。近奉勑書手詔。無非激勵衆心。兼除王令公充都統。西門軍容充都監。此乃藩鎭功虧。朝廷計盡。遂將大任。專付老儒。雖漫傳聲。必難濟事。此去年齊驅猛銳。將掃頑兇。尋奉絲綸。俾安淮海。詔書云。爲朕全吳越之地。遣朕無東南之憂。遂乃旋師。不敢違命。然則審詳物議。參酌軍期。關中有執斧之徒。閫外無枕戈之志。誰能竭力。實可痛心。吾若不行。衆將焉往。今欲直趨汴路。便入潼關。佇復鳳城。奉迎鑾駕。永使流傳萬代。終能肅靜四方。罕之已處分憂。久爲養勇。必欲揀精練銳。以期伐叛摧兇。今錄勑書手詔白寄往。仰窺聖旨。必勵忠誠。便決征行。共圖富貴。時不可失。吾子勉之。故此告知。速宜飛報。悉之。

Word to Li Hanzhi. Cheng Jian said, "He is a man; I am a man." If so, then to achieve merit and set up one's constancy is not for the men of old alone, and to hold to what is right and offer loyalty belongs to this very day. Lately I received an imperial letter and a rescript in the Emperor's own hand, and there was nothing in them that did not urge on the hearts of the many. Along with this, his lordship Wang was appointed Commander-in-chief and Army Commissioner Ximen was appointed supervisor of the army. This means that the garrisons of the provinces have failed in their merit and the court has come to the end of its plans, and so it has handed a great charge over entirely to an old scholar. Though the word of it is spread far and wide, the business will surely be hard to bring off. Last year this side drove its fierce and keen soldiers side by side and was about to sweep the stubborn and vile away, when an imperial command came and had it keep the Huai and the sea at peace. The edict said, "Keep whole for me the land of Wu and Yue, and leave me without care for the southeast." So the army was turned back, and I did not dare disobey the command. Yet if one looks closely at what is being said and weighs the season of war, within the passes there are men who hold the axe, while outside the gates there is no will to sleep on one's spear. Who will spend all his strength? It is truly enough to pain the heart. If I do not go, where will the other generals go? Now I mean to run straight for the Bian road and enter Tong Pass, and to wait until Fengcheng is recovered and the imperial carriage welcomed back, so that it may be handed down for ten thousand generations and the four quarters be brought to quiet at last. Hanzhi, you already hold a place that shares my cares and have long nourished your courage, so be sure to pick out the best and drill the keenest, looking to strike the rebels and break the vile. I now copy out the imperial letter and the rescript in the Emperor's own hand and send them to you. Look up and see the sacred will: you will surely rouse your loyalty, decide at once on the campaign, and plan with me for wealth and honor. The time must not be lost. Strive at it, my friend. Therefore I tell you this, and send your answer flying at once. Know all of this.

‹ To the officers and men coming back from the autumn defense of the two prefectures of Chu and Shou Contents To Li Zhi of the Huaikou garrison — to the man who cut down his own son and stopped a revolt ›Listen to this piece