166Book II
First Year of Reign (1392)
9th Month
1st Day (Kimyo)
The king sent Yi Kŏin, left director of the State Finance Commission, to the
Chinese court and expressed his condolences to the emperor: “Our envoy
Kwŏn Chunghwa and others returned from their trip to the capital [Nanjing],^1
and I learned from them that Your Imperial Majesty was grieving the death
of your beloved son. Though the love and affection between father and son
are limitless, our life-span is already set by Heaven; it is futile to resist what
was predetermined. I sincerely beg you to consider the people of the world
who rely on you and to restrain your sorrows according to the rules of
mourning rites.”
Then the king ordered his envoy to take two white silver ingots (ding),
one hundred bolts of black hemp cloth, and one hundred bolts of ramie cloth
to China and offer sacrifices to the memorial altar of the crown prince.
3rd Day (Sinsa)
Chancellor Pae Kŭngnyŏm, Cho Chun, and others came up to the hot spring
and spoke to the king: “We have observed that those who escort the king
seize the private houses of the people for their own use because the- The capital here is presumed to be Nanjing, because Beijing was established as the
capital of Ming China by the Yongle emperor in 1421.