Preface序
《懲毖錄》者何？記亂後事也。其在亂前者，徃徃亦記，所以本其始也。鳴呼！壬辰之禍，慘矣！浹旬之間，三都失守，八方瓦解，乘輿播越，其得有今日，天也。亦由祖宗，仁厚之澤，固結於民，而思漢之心未已，聖上事大之誠，感動皇極，而存邢之師屢出。不然則殆矣。《詩》曰：「予其懲，而毖後患。」此《懲毖錄》所以作也。若余者以無似，受國重任於流離板蕩之際，危不持，㒹不扶，罪死無赦。尙視息田畝間，苟延性命，豈非寬典。憂悸稍定，每念前日事，未嘗不惶愧靡容。乃於閑中，粗述其耳目所逮者，自壬辰至戊戌，總若于言，因以狀啓疏文移及雜錄，附其後。雖無可觀者，亦皆當日事迹，故不能去，旣以寓畎畝惓惓願忠之意，又以著愚臣報國無狀之罪云。
What is the Jingbirok? It is a record of matters after the war. Things that lay before the war are also set down here and there, so as to show where it began.
Alas, the calamity of the Imjin year was cruel indeed. Within little more than ten days the three capitals were lost, the eight quarters crumbled, and the royal carriage left the capital and fled; that we nonetheless have this day is the will of Heaven. It is also because the benevolent and generous grace of our ancestors was firmly knit into the people, so that hearts which did not forget their country, as men longed for Han (漢), never gave out, and because our sovereign's devotion in serving the great state moved the emperor, so that relief armies came forth again and again, as in the old affair of restoring the state of Xing (邢). Had it not been so, we would have been in peril. The Book of Songs says, "I take warning from what has passed, and guard against the troubles to come." This is why the Jingbirok was written.
One such as I, unworthy, received a heavy charge of state in a time when the country was adrift and shaken, and yet could not hold up what tottered nor steady what fell; were I to die, my guilt could not be pardoned. And still I draw breath among the fields and furrows of the countryside and eke out my life — how is this not a generous clemency? After my fear and alarm had somewhat settled, whenever I thought of the days gone by I was overcome with awe and shame and had nowhere to put myself. So in my idleness I have roughly set down what my ears and eyes reached, from the Imjin year to the Musul year, some number of words in all; and after it I have appended the dispatches (狀啓), the memorials, the documents exchanged, and miscellaneous notes. There is nothing in them worth seeing, yet they too are all traces of those days and could not be thrown away. By this I would attach the earnest loyalty I wished to offer even after withdrawing to the furrows, and would also make plain the guilt of a foolish subject who did not repay his country.
Interlinear notes 2
Si Han zhi xin (思漢之心) — an allusion to the old account that even after the Han fell, its former people longed for the Han. — translator
Cun Xing zhi shi (存邢之師) — an affair of the Spring and Autumn period, when Duke Huan of Qi (齊) restored the state of Xing (邢), which had nearly been destroyed by the barbarians. Here it refers to the Ming relief army. — translator