Reply to the Brief from the Office of Special Advisers弘文舘箚子回。啓

Among the matters discussed in the brief from the Office of Special Advisers, the one point asking that the chief envoy (正使) be kept in the capital has already been reported and a decision requested.

As for the rest, what was said, that "the capital is the root of the eight quarters, and the ancestral shrines and the altars of the land are here, and the officials and the people are here; how should it be abandoned and left again and again?" is the more earnest and urgent for a plan to save the times. Long ago, when Bianjing (汴京), the capital of Song, had fallen to the enemy's lair and barbarian horsemen filled all four sides, Zong Ze (宗澤) cried out three times to cross the river, and Zhang Jun (張浚) asked that the court go and stay at Jiankang (建康) south of the river, to hold fast the hopes of the people of the Central Plain. What the loyal officials and righteous men of old planned for their states went no further than this. Truly it is because the array of the world, if it does not advance, retreats, and because the hearts of the three armies and the ten thousand people hang looking up at the advance or the retreat of one man. If it is reckoned that the root is not to be held, where shall the branches and the leaves find their shade? As for the words about moving the state and planning to survive, they came from the suddenness of a moment and are not to be followed and made a precedent.

What the officials of the Office of Special Advisers have reported deeply grasps the intent with which men of old offered their loyalty. If from above Your Majesty will again take it to heart in person, and whip up and spur on the various officials so as to rouse the hearts of the four quarters and raise the work of restoration, that would be most fortunate of all.