- The Il-ggoon’s Mind
- 1 “As il-ggoon, you should maintain both strength and gentleness. Never lose the balance.
- 2 The great virtue of heaven and earth requires both the benevolence of giving birth in the spring and the sternness of bringing death in the autumn.
- 3 A pool of water becomes a river that sustains the people of the world.”
- Employing the Mind
- 4 Sahng-jeh-nim recited a passage from the last chapter of The Book of History to Hyung-yul and said, “Remember it well.”
- 如有一介臣 斷斷? 無他技
其心 休休焉 其如有容
- 5 If a minister does not possess any particular talent, but is unfailing in devotion
- 6 and has a good and beautiful mind, he could embrace others.
- 人之有技 若己有之
人之彦聖 其心好之 不昧如自其口出 是能容之
以保我子孫黎民 亦職有利哉
- 7 A minister truly embraces others if he regards their talents as his own
- 8 and genuinely admires the excellence and sagacity of others, from deep within his heart and not merely with words.
- 9 Such a minister will preserve my descendants and the people, and he will be a great asset.
- 人之有技 冒疾而惡之
人之彦聖 而違之 礪不達 是不能容
以不能保我子孫黎民 亦曰殆哉
- 10 A minister does not embrace others if he regards their talents with bitterness and suppresses their excellence and sagacity to block their advancement.
- 11 Such a minister will not be able to preserve my descendants and the people, and he may be pronounced a threat.
- 12 Sahng-jeh-nim then said, “A nation rises or falls depending on these two different minds.
- 13 These two minds determine whether a minister remains loyal or commits treason
- 14 and whether the work under heaven succeeds or fails.”
- (JSD Dojeon 8,37)
