Yetgeul › Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) › Book 17 — Reports to the Throne

A memorial reporting after the army marched out出師後告辭狀

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) · 1 passages · 201 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 17 — Reports 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.

1I regret that I have no wings and cannot beat them and fly

右某伏念來從異域。託在德門。昔曾名列桂科。未知稱意。今忝職居蓮府。始覺榮身。恩旣厚於稻粱。跡能安於萍梗。日增學殖。月贍書糧。豈期市駿之金傍沾駑蹇。唯愧封侯之印未效禎祥。今者屬以大憝逋誅。中朝多難。頃煩豹略。佇滅豺聲。伏惟太尉相公身耀福星。均臨庶類。手傾霖雨。遍洗妖氛。遠命舟師。重興國祚。華夷則望風競抃。蠢植則剋日當蘇。若某者。空有肺腸。方重禱祝。恨無羽翼。一遂奮飛。望龍節以魂銷。窺虎威而股慄。雖則熊羆之力共喜安人。其如犬馬之心常增戀主。下情無任攀依激切涕泣之至。謹狀。

As to the above: I bow and consider that I came from a foreign land and took shelter at a gate of virtue. Long ago my name was once set in the ranks of the cassia examination, yet I did not know what it was to be content. Now I undeservedly hold a post in a lotus tent, and only now do I feel my body honored. The favor is already richer than rice and millet, and my traces can rest at ease though I am but duckweed and a broken stem. Day by day my learning is better planted, and month by month my allowance for books is fuller. How could a dull, lame horse have expected that the gold which buys fine steeds would spill over onto him? My one shame is that the seal of a marquis has yet to show any auspicious sign in me. Now the great villains have fled their punishment, and the central court has many troubles. Lately your arts of war were put to work, and all wait for the howling of the jackals to be silenced. I bow and consider that His Excellency the Grand Commandant makes his person shine like a star of good fortune, and looks upon all his multitudes alike. He tips out a season of rain from his hand and washes the baleful vapors clean away. He has sent orders far off to the naval forces, and has raised up the fortune of the state once more. Chinese and barbarian alike gaze toward the wind and clap their hands in rivalry. Insects and plants set the day when they will come back to life. As for one like me, I have lungs and bowels and nothing more, and I only redouble my prayers. I regret that I have no wings and cannot beat them once and fly. I look toward your dragon tallies and my soul melts away. I glimpse your tiger majesty and my legs shake. I rejoice that the strength of valiant warriors together brings peace to the people. Yet what can I do about a dog-and-horse heart that grows ever more longing for its master? My humble heart cannot bear the fullness of its leaning and looking up, its keen feeling, and its weeping. Respectfully submitted.

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