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 · 104 Chinese characters · reading time 0.4 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.
Word to General Sun Duan. Ever since you came over and gave yourself up you have long held an idle post, and I imagine you are much downcast. I do not put it out of mind for a moment. But since Duan's rank and grade are high already, the standing of his office must match them, and so this commission has again and again set out a recommendation in full, and the court will give its direction. For now, look to comforting the troops and wait to receive the gracious command. The men of old prized coming through late, and the gentleman warns against quick success. The king's transforming rule is without leaning and without slant, so the writ of favor will surely be wholly good and wholly beautiful. Strive to keep in accord and hold your place, and do not think of seeking it in haste. Autumn is late and the air cool, so take every care of yourself. Give my greetings to all the officers of the ranks. Know all of this.