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P020 on
Chongnam’s Assembled Records (Compendium of Remarks on Poetry)
Entry Text
古今績學之士。靡不以勤致之。我東文章鉅公。多讀書者。亦可歷數。世傳。金乖崖閉門讀書。不窺外下堂見落葉。始知秋天。成虛白。晝讀夜誦。手不釋卷。如廁或至忘返。金馹孫。讀「韓文」千遍。尹潔。讀「孟子」千周。盧蘇齋。讀「論語」「杜詩」二千回。林白湖。讀「中庸」八百遍。崔簡易。讀「漢書」五千周。偏讀項籍傳。至一萬回。車滄洲。讀「周易」五百遍。李東岳。讀「杜詩」數千周。柳於宇。讀「莊子」。「柳文」千回。東溟鄭君平。讀「馬史」數千遍。余性魯鈍。所讀之工。倍他人。若馬漢韓柳。皆抄讀至萬餘遍。而其中最喜伯夷傳。讀至一億一萬三千算。遂名小窩曰。億萬齋。仍作一絶曰。搜羅漢宋唐秦文。口沬讀過一萬番。最嗜伯夷奇恠躰。飄飄逸氣欲凌雲。去庚戌。值歲旱。八路凶歉。翌年大飢疫。都鄙積屍。不知其數。人有謂余者曰。今年死者。與君讀書之數。孰多云。盖戲余之讀也
Both in the past and present, there have been no scholars of great knowledge who accomplished what they did without hard work. I can also enumerate the literary giants of our country who read many books. It has been said that Kim Suon shut the gate of his house and studied without peeking at the outside world. Only when he came out of his room and saw the fallen leaves, did he realize that it was autumn. Sŏng Hyŏn read books during the day and recited them at night. Books never left his hands, which at times made him even forget to return from the outhouse. Kim Ilson read the writings by Han Yu a thousand times. Yun Kyŏl read the Mengzi (Mencius) a thousand rounds. No Susin read the Lunyu (Analects of Confucius) and Du Fu’s poems two thousand times. Im Che read the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean) eight hundred times. Ch’oe Rip read the Han shu 漢書 (Book of Han) five thousand rounds and in particular read the “Biography of Xiang Ji” 項籍傳up to ten thousand times. Ch’a Ch’ŏllo read the Zhou yi 周易 (Book of Changes) five hundred times. Yi Annul read Du Fu’s poems several thousand times. Yu Mongin read the Zhuangzi 莊子 and the writings of Liu Zongyuan a thousand times. Chŏng Tugyŏng read the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Grand Historian) several thousand times. Being dull-witted by nature, I doubled my effort in reading compared to others. For example, I transcribed the Shiji, Han shu, and the writings by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, and read them over ten thousand times. Among them, I liked the “Biography of Boyi” 伯夷傳 the most, so read it a hundred million and thirteen thousand times. Later, I named my little nest A Hundred Million Studio and wrote the following quatrain, 搜羅漢宋唐秦文口沫讀過一萬番最嗜伯夷奇怪體飄飄逸氣欲凌雲 Seeking out the writings of the Han, Song, Tang, and Qin,foaming at the mouth, I read them ten thousand times.Liking the most the unique style of the “Biography of Boyi,”drifting in the hermit’s air, I wish to ride the clouds. In the last kyŏngsul year (1670), there was a year-long drought and all eight provinces had bad harvest. In the following year, great famine and plagues struck. Both in the capital and rural areas, countless corpses piled up. Someone asked me, “Which is more? The number of the dead this year or the number of books you read?” He was poking fun at me for reading too much.
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