Letter of thanks for being shown the stele with the record of the Yanhe Pavilion謝示延和閣記碑狀
1Receiving a rubbing of the stele the Grand Commandant wrote with his own hand
某啓。昨日觀察衙推邵宗奉傳處分。賜及延和閣記碑本一軸者。跪展眞蹤。仰窺臣節。對銀鉤而手舞足蹈。望玉輦而魂飛膽揚。伏以太尉力贍補天。心勤捧日。遂啓遷都之議。佇聆徙蹕之期。恭候宸遊。儼成壯觀。但以尋章摘句。素非吳王之心。進牘抽毫。唯在陳王之命。爰令幕客。謹撰碑詞。支使侍御。丘門顏回。融帳盧植。能揮直筆。妙寫尊襟。敍三年望幸之丹誠。則鼓傳衆聽。述一片勤王之忠節。則鏡照群迷。實乃酣飫德馨。備陳事實。永使奇功祕略。皆令陋古榮今。太尉相公志切迎鑾。喜勝覽檄。旣贊美於凌雲百尺。將掩能於入木八分。遂乃親染綵毫。俾鐫翠琰。隨手而龍蛇旋活。迎鋒而劍戟交橫。畫玉點珠。豈可比蘭亭醉本。撇雲挑霧。只宜示蓬島眞仙。誰料末儒。亦叨殊貺。輒敢覬覦將顧。是知誘諭孱庸。何則。名題桂官。跡肄蓮府。雖忝一時之有遇。實無萬代之可稱。今者支使侍御。以好善心。得稽古力。騁眞才子之藻思。辱大丞相之筆蹤。推爲賓席殊榮。別是儒家盛事。則彼郭隗受黃金厚禮。虞卿沾白璧深恩。強欲比方。却成浼瀆。然則四方舐墨含筆之士也。莫不競效顰眉之態。潛希唾口之恩。仰脩脩然。勤慥慥爾。如某者。學海至海。雖云有心。執柯伐柯。猶恐傷手。持弊帚而徒增健羨。遇神錐而便欲投降。唯願讀五千卷之書。庶幾入室。把十九年之刃。無愧發硎。每覩仙書。更敦壯志。稍希異闕黨童子。何敢望儒林丈人。其所賜碑。唯愼捧持。敢矜披閱。待過天池之外。遍誇日域之中。想彼驪龍頷下之珠。永當減價。巨鼇頭上之客。必欲偸看。下情無任寶玩師仰之至。
I submit this. Yesterday Shao Zong, judicial officer of the surveillance office, conveyed your order and bestowed on me one scroll of the rubbing of the stele with the record of the Yanhe Pavilion. I knelt and spread out the true traces, and looked up to glimpse the loyalty of a subject. Facing the silver hooks I waved my hands and stamped my feet. Looking toward the jade carriage my soul flew and my gall leapt. I humbly consider that the Grand Commandant has strength enough to patch the sky and a heart diligent to hold up the sun. So he opened the discussion of moving the capital and waits to hear the date when the imperial progress will be shifted. He waits respectfully for the sovereign's journey, and has made a grand sight in due form. Only, to search out chapters and pick phrases was never the heart of the King of Wu. To send in tablets and draw out the brush lay only in the command of the King of Chen. So he ordered a guest of his tent to compose the words of the stele with care. The adjutant and attending censor is the Yan Hui of the gate of Confucius, the Lu Zhi of the curtain of Ma Rong. He can wield an upright brush and copy out his lordship's breast with skill. When he sets forth the red sincerity of three years' longing for the imperial visit, a drum carries it to the ears of the crowd. When he relates the single piece of loyalty that serves the king, a mirror lights up the many who are lost. Truly he has drunk his fill of the fragrance of virtue and set out the facts in full, so that rare merit and secret plans will belittle the past forever and glorify the present. His lordship the Grand Commandant is keen in his will to welcome the imperial bells, and his joy is greater than at reading a dispatch. He had already praised it at the hundred feet that rise above the clouds, and he would outdo its skill at the eight tenths that sink into the wood. So he himself dipped the colored brush and had it cut into green jade. Under his hand dragons and snakes turned and came alive. Meeting the point of his brush, swords and halberds crossed. He drew jade and dotted pearls. How could it be matched with the drunken copy of the Orchid Pavilion? He brushed the clouds aside and lifted the mist. It is fit only to be shown to the true immortals of the isle of Penglai. Who would have reckoned that a scholar of the meanest sort would unworthily receive so rare a gift? That I dare at once to hope for his regard, I know, is only his coaxing of a weak and common man. Why so? My name is written among the cassia officials, and my steps are practiced in a lotus tent. Though I have unworthily met with favor for a time, there is truly nothing in me to be named for ten thousand ages. Now the adjutant and attending censor, with a heart that loves goodness, has gained the strength that comes of studying the past. He gallops the ornate thought of a true man of talent, and he has made the great chancellor's own brush stoop to the work. This is set down as a rare honor for the guest seats, and it is besides a great event for the house of scholars. Guo Wei receiving the rich gift of yellow gold, and Yu Qing wetted by the deep kindness of white jade, would only become a defilement if one forced the comparison. That being so, among the scholars of the four quarters who lick ink and hold the brush in their mouths there is none who does not vie in copying the look of a knitted brow and secretly hope for the favor of his spittle. They look up in all earnestness and are diligent and sincere. As for one like me: to make learning a sea that reaches the sea, though I may say I have the heart for it; to hold an axe handle and cut an axe handle, I still fear I would hurt my hand. Holding a worn broom I only add to my keen envy. Meeting a divine awl I would surrender at once. I wish only to read five thousand scrolls of books, so that I may perhaps enter the inner room, and to grasp the blade of nineteen years, and not be ashamed before one fresh from the whetstone. Whenever I look on immortal writing, I make my great resolve firmer. I hope only to be a little different from the boy of Que village. How should I dare to look toward an elder of the forest of scholars? The stele you bestowed I hold up and keep with care alone. How should I dare to take pride in unrolling and reading it? I shall wait until I have passed beyond the pool of heaven to boast of it everywhere in the land of the sun. I think that the pearl under the chin of the black dragon must lose its price forever, and that the guest on the head of the giant turtle will surely wish to steal a look at it. My humble heart cannot bear the fullness of my treasuring it and looking up to it as to a master.