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Prayer for the fast on the Yingtian Festival應天節齋詞

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 · 250 Chinese characters · reading time 1.0 min

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 15 — Prayer Texts 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.

1Setting out the immortals' fast for the sage ruler's birthday

道士某乙言。伏以聖人降生。王者嘉應。包天地之大德。啓日月之殊祥。是以。電繞虹流。克符龍質。握乾披震。允叶龜書。伏惟聖神聰睿仁哲明孝皇帝。紫府眞宗。丹陵寶命。孝理而勤修一德。化成而胥悅萬方。偶以犬吠堯威。熊驚漢御。猶軫泣辜之念。暫勞展義之行。今者風振南薰。方在長嬴之節。星瞻北極。乃當誕慶之辰。莫不山靈供萬歲之歡聲。河伯獻千年之瑞色。仰資聖壽。敢設仙齋。廣成子之微言旣傳衆妙。華封人之善祝實繫群誠。伏願德乃日新。禍當天悔。暫興時雨。遍洗妖氛。高整鸞旗。早廻鳳輦。然後搜濟汾之詠。撰封岱之儀。傳芳於玉葉金枝。積慶於天長地久。使蠻戎率服。蠢植咸蘇。仰沐華胥之風。齊登仁壽之域。普天率土。永賀昇平。

The Daoist so-and-so speaks. I bow and consider that the birth of a sage is the fair response of a true king. It wraps in the great virtue of heaven and earth, and it opens the rare good omen of the sun and the moon. So lightning wound about and a rainbow flowed, matching well the substance of a dragon. He grasped heaven and opened Zhen (震), truly in accord with the tortoise writing. I bow and think of the Sagely and Divine, Keen and Wise, Benevolent and Discerning, Bright and Filial Emperor, true heir of the Purple Bureau, holder of the precious mandate of Danling. He governs by filial duty and works hard at a single virtue. His teaching is complete, and all quarters rejoice together. But by chance a dog has barked at the majesty of Yao, and a bear has startled the carriage of Han. Still he grieves with the thought of weeping over the guilty, and for a time he takes the trouble of a journey to make right conduct plain. Now the wind shakes out the southern fragrance, and we stand in the season of long growth. The stars look up to the north pole, and the day of the birth and its rejoicing is at hand. There is no mountain spirit that does not offer glad cries of ten thousand years, and no Earl of the River that does not present the auspicious color of a thousand years. Looking up to aid the sage ruler's long life, we dare to set out the immortals' fast. The subtle words of Guangchengzi have already handed down the host of mysteries, and the good wishes of the border guard of Hua hang truly upon the sincerity of the many. I humbly wish that his virtue be new each day, and that heaven repent of disaster. Let timely rain rise for a time and wash the baleful vapors away everywhere. Let the luan banners be set high in order, and let the phoenix carriage return soon. After that, seek out the song of crossing the Fen and draw up the rite of the sacrifice on Mount Dai. Let fragrance be handed down through jade leaves and golden boughs, and let blessing be heaped up while heaven lasts and earth endures. Let the tribes of the south and the west submit as one, and let all that crawls and all that grows come back to life. Let them bathe in the wind of Huaxu, and climb together into the land of benevolence and long life. Under all heaven and across all the land, let there be lasting joy at the peace that rises.

‹ Prayer for the fast on the Yingtian Festival, the second Contents Dispatch for the Haotian Abbey of the capital ›Listen to this piece