Parallel sentences of the emperor

Statue of Emperor Le Thanh Tong 
at the Temple of Litterature
(photo source: kienthuc.net.vn)

Emperor Le Thanh Tong (1) left his imperial palace to survey the situation of people and country at Tet (2). Encountering a house without parallel sentences, the Emperor stopped and asked the master about the reason. The house's master said that his job consisted assembling the excrements and vending its, and that he was so poor to buy the parallel sentences. The Emperor told his escorts to prepare papers and wrote two parallel sentences for the house's master as the following:

          Dressing a coat to shoulder the world's affairs

          Holding a sword to collect the people's bosoms (3).

Annotation:

(1) Le Thanh Tong: fifth Emperor of the Later Le dynasty, named Le Tu Thanh or Le Hao, ruled from 1460 to 1497.

(2) Tet: New Year of Vietnam.

(3) In sino-vietnamese:

          Ỷ nhất nhung y năng đảm thế gian nan sự

          Trì tam xích kiếm tận thu thiên hạ nhân tâm.
In chinese:
          倚 一 戎 衣 能 擔 世 間 難 事
          持 三 尺 劍 儘 收 天 下 人 心。