A memorial congratulating him on the rout of the rebels at Huaikou賀破淮口賊狀
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 · 163 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 min
Gyewon Pilgyeongjip (A Plowing of the Brush in the Cassia Garden) Book 18 — Letters and Reports 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.
1The report that the Xuzhou rebels were killed to the last man
As to the above: yesterday I quietly heard the report from the garrison at Huaikou. On the eighth day of this month the several armies joined their strength, and the mad rebels were slaughtered to the last man. I bow and consider: the rebel band of Xuzhou happened to gather at a shout, and dared to make their uproar as they pleased. But owls that share one nest cannot last long. Nits and lice that mourn one another, how much life can they have? Still they held to the heart that would block a cart wheel, and had no mind to turn their shafts around. I bow and rely on His Excellency the Grand Commandant. His mighty name resounds far off, and his subtle strategies are set in motion unseen. He plans the peace of the four quarters, and decides the victory a thousand li away. So he has made the happy borders of the Huai hills receive forever the majesty of tiger and leopard, and the lonely fortress on the Si River escape becoming bait for the whales. The merit shows in a brief labor that brings a long rest. The plan drew on this, that the enemy was spent while our own strength was full. The small brigands are swept away at once, and a restoration may be hoped for. The courage of the three armies is roused at last, and the startled souls of the people come back to life. All look up to his kindness and his majesty, and all the more they clap their hands and leap. I respectfully wait here to set out my congratulations. Respectfully submitted.