Book I 1499th Day (Muo)
The king ordered the Court of Royal Sacrifices to make the spirit tablets
(sinju) of his ancestors of four generations preceding him.Ch’oe Yŏngji, assistant grand councilor of the Chancellery, is dispatched to
pacify the Northwest Region.11th Day (Kyŏngsin)
The king held the morning audience while sitting on the throne. Since
ascending the throne, he had presided over the meeting while standing, to
show his humility. However, on this day, his ministers prostrated them-
selves on the ground and beseeched the king to hold the morning audience
while sitting on the throne, and he finally did.Cho Pak, minister of rites, and others submitted a memorial to the king:
“Respectfully surveying the ritual worship throughout history, it has
been performed at the Royal Ancestral Shrine, the plot of land for the ruler’s
ceremonial cultivation (chŏkchŏn), the altars of gods of earth and grain and
of mountains and rivers, the shrines of village guardian deities, and the
shrines of Confucius so that they are finally established for the state. Now,
since we organized and recorded them as below in a way similar to the pro-
ceedings of government in each month (wŏllyŏng), we request that you order
the responsible office to carry this out at the appropriate time.
“The ritual sacrifice called wŏn’gu^133 should be abolished because it is
supposed to be performed only by the Son of Heaven [Chinese emperor].
Those among the shrines of various spirits and altars of guardian deities
across the land in which sacrifices have been carried out by the state should
carry signs that say, ‘Guardian Deity of So-and-So County of the So-and-So
Province,’ and the magistrate of the district should sacrifice to the spirits
every spring and autumn. As to the rites related to sacrificial food, vessels,
and wine, they should emulate the ways of the Chinese court. The Hundred
Seat Dharma Assembly (paekkochwa)^134 held in spring and autumn, the
- A ritual performed annually by the Chinese emperor on the day of the winter
solstice. - Literally, “a hundred high seats,” paekkochwa refers to the large Dharma assembly, to
which were invited as many as a hundred of the most eminent monks. It was held to ward off
calamities and continued over a hundred days. According to the History of Three Kingdoms,