A memorial thanking him for an appointment謝職狀
1On being appointed Inspector of the Courier Stations
右某今月二十五日。伏承公牒特賜署充館驛巡官者。恩降台階。光生旅舍。承命而吟魂乍懾。叨榮而病骨能蘇。攀依有心。荷戴無力。伏以某樗生曠野。莠託荒田。豈惟良匠不窺。抑亦農人見棄。風欹弱植。難擧勢於凌雲。塵織纖莖。但懷愁於委地。昨者不慙狷者。輒效狂生。累貢巴詞。仰瀆秦鑑。伏惟司徒相公念以來從異域。遠寓樂郊。俯愛似龍。不嫌非鳳。拔衰英於糞上。搜滯刃於獄中。許廁嘉賓。仍沾厚俸。神仙見顧。稍親郭隗之臺。駑蹇何施。得主鄭莊之驛。況乃念子襟之志業。辱華衮之褒詞。刻畫恩深。已能長價。琢磨志切。終願成功。修身則飮水懷氷。鍊思則吟煙嘯露。唯當勵節。以謂報恩。謹詣衙門。祗候陳謝。下情無任感激彷徨榮懼之至。謹狀。
As to the above: on the twenty-fifth day of this month I respectfully received the official dispatch. You had graciously signed me in and assigned me as Inspector of the Courier Stations. The favor came down from your high steps, and light was born in my traveler's lodging. Receiving the order, my chanting soul shrank for a moment. Accepting so undeserved an honor, my sick bones came back to life. I have the heart to look up and lean on you, but no strength to bear such a weight on my head. I bow and consider: I am a worthless ailanthus grown in an open moor, a weed lodged in a wasted field. Not only does no good carpenter give me a glance, I am cast off even by the farmer. A frail plant leaning in the wind, I can hardly raise the force to rise above the clouds. A thin stalk woven of dust, I have held only the sorrow of being thrown to the ground. Not long ago I felt no shame at being narrow, and rashly copied the wild students. Again and again I offered the songs of Ba, and looked up and sullied the mirror of Qin. His Excellency the Minister over the Masses considered that I had come from a foreign land and lodged far away in this happy country. He stooped to love me as if I were a dragon, and did not mind that I was no phoenix. He plucked a withered blossom from the dung heap, and searched out a buried blade in the prison. He allowed me a place among his honored guests, and let me be steeped in a generous salary. An immortal has looked back at me, and I have come a little nearer the terrace of Guo Wei. What can a dull, lame horse offer? Yet I have been given charge of the posthouses of Zheng Zhuang. Still more, he thought of the aims and studies of a man in a scholar's collar, and shamed me with praise fit for an embroidered robe. The favor of being carved and painted is deep, and can already make my worth last long. My will to be cut and polished is keen, and in the end I wish to make something of myself. To cultivate myself I shall drink water and hold ice in my breast. To temper my thoughts I shall chant of mist and whistle at the dew. I shall only strive in my integrity, and so repay your favor. I go respectfully to the headquarters gate, and wait there to set out my thanks. My humble heart cannot bear the fullness of its gratitude and its pacing, its honor and its dread. Respectfully submitted.