1
季布，楚人也，為任俠有名。 項籍使將兵，數窘漢王。 項籍滅，高祖購求布千金，敢有舍匿，罪三族。 布匿濮陽周氏，周氏曰：「漢求將軍急，跡且至臣家，能聽臣，臣敢進計； 即否，願先自剄。」 布許之。 乃髡鉗布，衣褐，置廣柳車中，并與其家僮數十人，之魯朱家所賣之。 朱家心知其季布也，買置田舍。 乃之雒陽見汝陰侯滕公，說曰：「季布何罪？ 臣各為其主用，職耳。 項氏臣豈可盡誅邪？ 今上始得天下，而以私怨求一人，何示不廣也！ 且以季布之賢，漢求之急如此，此不北走胡，南走越耳。 夫忌壯士以資敵國，此伍子胥所以鞭荊平之墓也。 君何不從容為上言之？」 滕公心知朱家大俠，意布匿其所，乃許諾。 侍間，果言如朱家指。 上乃赦布。 當是時，諸公皆多布能摧剛為柔，朱家亦以此名聞當世。 布召見，謝，拜郎中。
Ji Bu was a native of Chu who had won renown as a knight-errant. Xiang Yu put him in command of troops, and time and again he cornered the King of Han. After Xiang Yu fell, Gaozu posted a reward of a thousand pounds of gold for Ji Bu, with death for three generations of kin for anyone who dared hide him. Ji Bu took refuge with the Zhou clan of Puyang. They told him, "The Han are hunting you relentlessly; their agents will soon be at my door. If you will trust me, I have a plan to propose; if not, I would rather slit my own throat first." Ji Bu agreed. They shaved his head, clamped him in the convict's collar, dressed him in a laborer's hemp, stowed him in a funeral cart with several dozen household servants, and drove him to Zhu Jia of Lu to be sold off as a slave. Zhu Jia recognized him at once as Ji Bu, bought him, and lodged him on a country estate. Then he traveled to Luoyang to see Xiahou Ying, the Marquis of Ru-yin, and argued, "What wrong has Ji Bu done? Ministers serve their own lords—that is simply what duty requires. Are we to execute every man who once served the house of Xiang? The Son of Heaven has only just won the realm; to hound one man out of personal spite shows a narrowness ill befitting his position. A man of Ji Bu's caliber, pressed this hard, will flee north to the Xiongnu or south to Nanyue. To drive a brave man into the arms of a rival is the sort of blunder that made Wu Zixu flog the grave of King Ping of Chu. Why not find a tactful moment and put this to the emperor yourself?" Xiahou Ying knew Zhu Jia for a famous man of chivalry and guessed Ji Bu lay hidden with him; he agreed to speak. When a suitable occasion came, he repeated Zhu Jia's argument to the throne. The emperor then granted Ji Bu a full pardon. Men of rank admired Ji Bu for bending unyielding pride into survival, and Zhu Jia's name rang through the age for it. Ji Bu was summoned to court, thanked the emperor, and was appointed a gentleman of the palace.
2
孝惠時，為中郎將。 單于嘗為書嫚呂太后，太后怒，召諸將議之。 上將軍樊噲曰：「臣願得十萬眾，橫行匈奴中。」 諸將皆阿呂太后，以噲言為然。 布曰：「樊噲可斬也。 夫以高帝兵三十餘萬，困於平城，噲時亦在其中。 今噲奈何以十萬眾橫行匈奴中，面謾！ 且秦以事胡，陳勝等起。 今瘡痍未瘳，噲又面諛，欲搖動天下。」 是時殿上皆恐，太后罷朝，遂不復議擊匈奴事。
Under Emperor Hui he rose to general of the palace gentlemen. The Chanyu had once sent a letter that insulted Empress Dowager Lü; enraged, she called her generals in council. Fan Kuai, the senior general, declared, "Give me a hundred thousand men and I will sweep through the heart of the Xiongnu steppe." The generals, eager to please the empress dowager, pronounced Fan Kuai right. Ji Bu said, "Fan Kuai deserves execution. Gaozu himself led over three hundred thousand men and was trapped at Pingcheng—and Fan Kuai was in that army. How dare he now boast that a mere hundred thousand could ride roughshod over the Xiongnu? He is lying to your faces! Moreover, the Qin empire crumbled in part because it exhausted itself on the northern frontier, and Chen Sheng rose in rebellion. The realm is still bleeding from those wars, and Fan Kuai flatters you to your face and would unsettle the whole empire again." A chill fell over the hall; the empress dowager adjourned court and never again brought up war on the Xiongnu.
3
布為河東守。 孝文時，人有言其賢，召欲以為御史大夫。 人又言其勇，使酒難近。 至，留邸一月，見罷。 布進曰：「臣待罪河東，陛下無故召臣，此人必有以臣欺陛下者。 今臣至，無所受事，罷去，此人必有毀臣者。 夫陛下以一人譽召臣，一人毀去臣，臣恐天下有識者聞之，有以窺陛下。」 上默然，慚曰：「河東吾股肱郡，故特召君耳。」 布之官。
Ji Bu was appointed governor of Hedong. Under Emperor Wen, word of his talent reached the throne; he was summoned with a view to making him grandee secretary. Others countered that he was a brawler when drunk and impossible to work with. He reached the capital, was kept a month in the official hostel, then sent away without appointment. Ji Bu stepped forward and said, "I stand under sentence of fault at Hedong; Your Majesty summoned me without cause—someone must have oversold me to you. Now that I am here, I am given no charge and dismissed—someone has blackened me behind my back. If one man's praise brings me to court and one man's slander sends me packing, thoughtful men everywhere will draw their own conclusions about Your Majesty's judgment." The emperor fell silent, then said with embarrassment, "Hedong is one of my vital provinces; I merely wished to see you in person." Ji Bu returned to his post.
4
辯士曹丘生數招權顧金錢，事貴人趙談等，與竇長君善。 布聞，寄書諫長君曰：「吾聞曹丘生非長者，勿與通。」 及曹丘生歸，欲得書請布。 竇長君曰：「季將軍不說足下，足下無往。」 固請書，遂行。 使人先發書，布果大怒，待曹丘。 曹丘至，則揖布曰：「楚人諺曰『得黃金百，不如得季布諾』，足下何以得此聲梁楚之間哉？ 且僕與足下俱楚人，使僕游揚足下名於天下，顧不美乎？ 何足下距僕之深也！」 布乃大說。 引入，留數月，為上客，厚送之。 布名所以益聞者，曹丘揚之也。
The rhetorician Cao Qiusheng traded on influence for gold, curried favor with men such as the favorite Zhao Tan, and was close to Dou Zhang, the empress's brother. When Ji Bu heard of it, he wrote to Dou Zhang warning him, "Cao Qiusheng is no man of substance; have nothing to do with him." When Cao Qiusheng came home, he wanted a letter of introduction to Ji Bu. Dou Zhang said, "General Ji dislikes you; you had better not go." Cao pressed until Dou yielded a letter, then set out. He had his letter sent ahead; Ji Bu flew into a rage and waited for Cao Qiusheng. When Cao arrived, he bowed to Ji Bu and said, "Chu has a saying: 'A hundred pounds of gold cannot buy Ji Bu's word'—how did you earn such fame across Liang and Chu? We are both men of Chu; if I spread your name through the realm, would that not serve you well? Why do you shut me out so coldly!" Ji Bu was delighted. He brought him inside, kept him for months as an honored guest, and sent him away with rich gifts. It was Cao Qiusheng's praise that made Ji Bu's name ring louder still.
5
布弟季心氣蓋關中，遇人恭謹，為任俠，方數千里，士爭為死。 嘗殺人，亡吳，從爰絲匿，長事爰絲，弟畜灌夫、籍福之屬。 嘗為中司馬，中尉郅都不敢加。 少年多時時竊借其名以行。 當是時，季心以勇，布以諾，聞關中。
Ji Bu's younger brother Ji Xin overshadowed all Guanzhong in sheer force of character; in person he was courteous and restrained, yet as a knight-errant his reputation ran for a thousand miles, and fighting men vied to die for him. After killing a man he fled to Wu and hid with Yuan Ang, whom he treated as an elder while treating Guan Fu, Ji Fu, and their like as younger brothers. He served as a marshal of the center; even Commandant Zhi Du would not touch him. Young ruffians often invoked his name without permission. In those days Guanzhong knew Ji Xin for his courage and Ji Bu for keeping his word.
6
布母弟丁公，為項羽將，逐窘高祖彭城西。 短兵接，漢王急，顧謂丁公曰：「兩賢豈相厄哉！」 丁公引兵而還。 及項王滅，丁公謁見高祖，以丁公徇軍中，曰：「丁公為項王臣不忠，使項王失天下者也。」 遂斬之，曰：「使後為人臣無傚丁公也！」
Ji Bu's maternal uncle Ding Gong, a general under Xiang Yu, had pressed Gaozu hard west of Pengcheng. In close combat the King of Han was desperate; turning to Ding Gong he cried, "Must two able men try to destroy each other?" Ding Gong withdrew his troops. After Xiang Yu fell, Ding Gong came to pay his respects; Gaozu had him paraded before the host and declared, "Ding Gong was a faithless servant to his king; he helped cost Xiang Yu the empire." He had him executed, saying, "Let no future minister take Ding Gong as his model!"
7
欒布，梁人也。 彭越為家人時，嘗與布游，窮困，賣庸於齊，為酒家保。 數歲別去，而布為人所略，賣為奴於燕。 為其主家報仇，燕將臧荼舉以為都尉。 荼為燕王，布為將。 及荼反，漢擊燕，虜布。 梁王彭越聞之，乃言上，請贖布為梁大夫。 使於齊，未反，漢召彭越責以謀反，夷三族，梟首雒陽，下詔有收視者輒捕之。 布還，奏事彭越頭下，祠而哭之。 吏捕以聞。 上召布罵曰：「若與彭越反邪？ 吾禁人勿收，若獨祠而哭之，與反明矣。 趣亨之。」 方提趨湯，顧曰：「願一言而死。」 上曰：「何言？」 布曰：「方上之困彭城，敗滎陽、成皋間，項王所以不能遂西，徒以彭王居梁地，與漢合從苦楚也。 當是之時，彭王壹顧，與楚則漢破，與漢則楚破。 且垓下之會，微彭王，項氏不亡。 天下已定，彭王剖符受封，亦欲傳之萬世。 今漢壹徵兵於梁，彭王病不行，而疑以為反。 反形未見，以苛細誅之，臣恐功臣人人自危也。 今彭王已死，臣生不如死，請就亨。」 上乃釋布，拜為都尉。
Luan Bu came from Liang. When Peng Yue was still a commoner, he and Luan Bu had been companions; broke, they hired out as laborers in Qi and Luan tended a tavern. They parted for some years; then Luan Bu was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Yan. He avenged his master's family on their enemies; the Yan general Zang Tu, impressed, appointed him a commandant. When Zang Tu became king of Yan, Luan Bu served as his general. When Zang Tu rebelled, the Han attacked Yan and took Luan Bu prisoner. King Peng Yue of Liang heard of it and petitioned the emperor to ransom him and appoint him a grandee of Liang. Luan Bu was on embassy to Qi when, before he could return, the court summoned Peng Yue on a charge of treason, wiped out three generations of his kin, exposed his head in Luoyang, and decreed arrest for anyone who dared mourn or look upon him. Luan Bu returned, laid his report beneath Peng Yue's severed head, and offered sacrifice and tears. The officials seized him and reported to the throne. The emperor summoned Luan Bu and shouted, "Were you in league with Peng Yue? I forbade anyone to claim his body or mourn him; you alone offered sacrifice and wept—your guilt is as plain as open rebellion. Boil him at once." As they dragged him toward the cauldron, he turned and said, "Let me speak one sentence before I die." The emperor asked, "What is it?" Luan Bu said, "When you were besieged at Pengcheng and driven from Xingyang to Chenggao, the only reason Xiang Yu could not push west was that King Peng held Liang and kept Han and Chu locked in a stalemate that wore Chu down. At that moment a single shift of Peng Yue's weight—if he had thrown in with Chu, Han would have shattered; if with Han, Chu would have shattered. And at Gaixia, without King Peng, the house of Xiang would never have fallen. After peace was won, King Peng received his bronze tally like any other vassal king and hoped to pass his line down for ages. Now a single levy of troops from Liang, and because King Peng was too ill to march, you suspect him of treason. No sign of revolt appeared; to kill him on petty pretexts will make every man who helped you win the throne look over his shoulder. King Peng is dead; I would rather join him in the cauldron than live on—throw me in." The emperor spared him and appointed him a commandant.
8
孝文時，為燕相，至將軍。 布稱曰：「窮困不能辱身，非人也； 富貴不能快意，非賢也。」 於是嘗有德，厚報之； 有怨，必以法滅之。 吳楚反時，以功封為鄃侯，復為燕相。 燕齊之間皆為立社，號曰欒公社。
Under Emperor Wen he served as chancellor of Yan and rose to general. Luan Bu used to say, "A man who will not endure indignity in poverty is no man at all; a worthy man who cannot have his way when fortune smiles is no worthy man." Those who had done him kindness he repaid with generosity; those who had wronged him he destroyed to the letter of the law. During the rebellion of Wu and Chu he won a marquisate at Ju for his service and returned as chancellor of Yan. Between Yan and Qi the people set up shrines to him and called them the altars of Duke Luan.
9
布薨，子賁嗣侯，孝武時坐為太常犧牲不如令，國除。
When Luan Bu died, his son Ben inherited the title; under Emperor Wu the fief was stripped after Ben, as Grand Master of Ceremonies, supplied defective sacrificial beasts.
10
田叔，趙陘城人也。 其先，齊田氏也。 叔好劍，學黃老術於樂鉅公。 為人廉直，喜任俠。 游諸公，趙人舉之趙相趙午，言之趙王張敖，以為郎中。 數歲，趙王賢之，未及遷。
Tian Shu was a native of Xingcheng in Zhao. His clan was the old royal Tian house of Qi. Tian Shu loved fencing and studied Huang–Lao doctrine under Master Yue Ju. He was scrupulous, blunt-spoken, and drawn to the chivalrous life. He moved among the great houses until men of Zhao recommended him to Chancellor Zhao Wu, who brought him to King Zhang Ao of Zhao and had him appointed a gentleman of the palace. For several years the king admired him but had not yet promoted him.
11
會趙午、貫高等謀弒上，事發覺，漢下詔捕趙王及群臣反者。 趙有敢隨王，罪三族。 唯田叔、孟舒等十餘人赭衣自髡鉗，隨王至長安。 趙王敖事白，得出，廢王為宣平侯，乃進言叔等十人。 上召見，與語，漢廷臣無能出其右者。 上說，盡拜為郡守、諸侯相。 叔為漢中守十餘年。
Then Zhao Wu, Guan Gao, and their circle plotted regicide; when the plot was uncovered, the Han court ordered the arrest of King Zhang and every minister implicated. In Zhao, anyone who dared follow the king would die with three generations of his kin. Only Tian Shu, Meng Shu, and a dozen others shaved their heads, donned the convict's collar and crimson robes, and followed their king to Chang'an. When King Zhang Ao's case was cleared he was released, stripped of his kingship, and ennobled as Marquis of Xuanping; he then recommended Tian Shu and the other nine men. The emperor received them in audience and spoke with them; not a single minister at the Han court could match their caliber. Pleased, the emperor appointed them all as commandery governors or chancellors to feudal kings. Tian Shu governed Hanzhong for over a decade.
12
孝文帝初立，召叔問曰：「公知天下長者乎？」 對曰：「臣何足以知之！」 上曰：「公長者，宜知之。」 叔頓首曰：「故雲中守孟舒，長者也。」 是時孟舒坐虜大入雲中免。 上曰：「先帝置孟舒雲中十餘年矣，虜常一入，孟舒不能堅守，無故士卒戰死者數百人。 長者固殺人乎？」 叔叩頭曰：「夫貫高等謀反，天子下明詔，趙有敢隨張王者罪三族，然孟舒自髡鉗，隨張王，以身死之，豈自知為雲中守哉！ 漢與楚相距，士卒罷敝，而匈奴冒頓新服北夷，來為邊寇，孟舒知士卒罷敝，不忍出言，士爭臨城死敵，如子為父，以故死者數百人，孟舒豈敺之哉！ 是乃孟舒所以為長者。」 於是上曰：「賢哉孟舒！」 復召以為雲中守。
Soon after Emperor Wen took the throne, he summoned Tian Shu and asked, "Sir, can you name the worthiest men in the realm?" He replied, "I am hardly fit to judge such matters." The emperor said, "You are a man of weight yourself; you must have an opinion." Tian Shu kowtowed and said, "The former governor of Yunzhong, Meng Shu, is such a man." Meng Shu had just been dismissed because the Xiongnu had overrun Yunzhong in force. The emperor said, "The late emperor kept Meng Shu at Yunzhong for more than ten years, yet when the raiders broke in he failed to hold the line, and hundreds of soldiers died for no good reason. Is that the conduct of a 'worthy elder'?" Tian Shu kowtowed and said, "When Guan Gao and his fellow plotters rose against the throne, the Son of Heaven decreed death for three generations of any Zhao official who followed King Zhang—yet Meng Shu shaved his head, took the collar, and followed his lord to the grave. How could he have dreamed he would one day govern Yunzhong? Han and Chu were deadlocked and the army was on its last legs, while Modun had just bent the northern tribes to his will and unleashed them on the frontier. Meng Shu knew his men were too spent to bear another order to battle—yet they stormed the walls like sons defending a father, and hundreds died. That was not Meng Shu driving them to their deaths. That is precisely the mark of a true elder statesman." The emperor exclaimed, "Meng Shu is a remarkable man!" He was summoned back and reappointed governor of Yunzhong.
13
後數歲，叔坐法失官。 梁孝王使人殺漢議臣爰盎，景帝召叔案梁，具得其事。 還報，上曰：「梁有之乎？」 對曰：「有之。」 「事安在？」 叔曰：「上無以梁事為問也。 今梁王不伏誅，是廢漢法也； 如其伏誅，太后食不甘味，臥不安席，此憂在陛下。」 於是上大賢之，以為魯相。
Some years later Tian Shu lost his post for a legal infraction. When King Xiao of Liang had the Han adviser Yuan Ang murdered, Emperor Jing sent Tian Shu to investigate the kingdom of Liang; he uncovered the full truth. On his return he was asked, "Did Liang do it?" He answered, "Yes." "Where is the proof?" Tian Shu said, "Your Majesty should not press the matter of Liang. If the king of Liang goes unpunished, the law of the Han is void; if he is executed, the empress dowager will eat without relish and sleep without rest—and that grief will be yours to bear." The emperor admired his judgment and appointed him chancellor to the king of Lu.
14
相初至官，民以王取其財物自言者百餘人。 叔取其渠率二千人笞，怒之曰：「王非汝主邪？ 何敢自言主！」 魯王聞之，大慚，發中府錢，使相償之。 相曰：「王自使人償之，不爾，是王為惡而相為善也。」
Soon after the new chancellor took office, more than a hundred people came forward claiming the king had seized their property. Tian Shu seized their ringleaders and had two thousand men flogged, shouting, "Is the king not your sovereign? How dare you lodge complaints against your own lord!" The king of Lu was mortified; he drew funds from the inner treasury and told the chancellor to make restitution. The chancellor replied, "Let Your Majesty's own agents pay them back; otherwise it will look as though the king did wrong and the minister claimed the credit."
15
魯王好獵，相常從入苑中，王輒休相就館。 相常暴坐苑外，終不休，曰：「吾王暴露，獨何為舍？」 王以故不大出遊。
The king of Lu loved the chase; the chancellor always accompanied him into the royal park, whereupon the king would send him off to the lodge to rest. The chancellor would sit in the open outside the park and refuse to leave, saying, "While my king endures wind and weather, why should I seek shelter?" After that the king rarely went out on long hunting trips.
16
數年以官卒，魯以百金祠，少子仁不受，曰：「義不傷先人名。」
He died in office some years later. Lu offered his youngest son, Ren, a hundred catties of gold for the funeral, but Ren refused, saying, "Duty forbids my tarnishing my father's reputation."
17
仁以壯勇為衛將軍舍人，數從擊匈奴。 衛將軍進言仁為郎中，至二千石、丞相長史，失官。 後使刺三河，還，奏事稱意，拜為京輔都尉。 月餘，遷司直。 數歲，戾太子舉兵，仁部閉城門，令太子得亡，坐縱反者族。
Ren, known for his courage, became a retainer of the General of the Guards and repeatedly campaigned against the Xiongnu. The general recommended him for a gentleman of the palace; he rose to two-thousand-bushel rank as chief clerk to the chancellor, then lost his post. Later he was dispatched as inspector over the Three He region; his report pleased the throne, and he was named metropolitan commandant of the capital districts. Within a month he was promoted to superintendent of trials. Some years later, when Crown Prince Li mutinied, Tian Ren, who commanded the gate guard, failed to seal the capital in time and allowed the prince to break out; he was convicted of abetting a traitor, and his entire clan perished with him.
18
贊曰：以項羽之氣，而季布以勇顯名楚，身履軍搴旗者數矣，可謂壯士。 及至困厄奴僇，苟活而不變，何也？ 彼自負其材，受辱不羞，欲有所用其未足也，故終為漢名將。 賢者誠重其死。 夫婢妾賤人，感概而自殺，非能勇也，其畫無俚之至耳。 欒布哭彭越，田叔隨張敖，赴死如歸，彼誠知所處，雖古烈士，何以加哉！
The historian's verdict: In an age dominated by Xiang Yu's fury, Ji Bu won fame in Chu for raw courage; he repeatedly charged into battle and tore enemy banners from their poles—a true fighting man. Yet when he was broken, enslaved, and humiliated, he clung to life without yielding his purpose—why was that? He trusted his own abilities; shame did not break him because he still meant to put his gifts to use. In the end he became one of the Han's celebrated generals. A worthy man weighs his death with utmost care. Maids and common folk who work themselves into a passion and take their own lives show no courage—only the shallowest recklessness. Luan Bu mourned Peng Yue at the risk of his life; Tian Shu followed Zhang Ao into chains as if going home. They knew exactly where they stood; the steadfast heroes of old could scarcely have surpassed them.