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Yan Zhu came from Wu in Kuaiji commandery, the son of the scholar Master Yan—or, some say, of another branch of the Yan clan. When the commandery nominated him as worthy and good, he joined more than a hundred men in the palace examination; the emperor singled out his policy essay and raised him alone to the rank of palace grandee. He soon gathered Zhu Maichen, Wuqiu Shouwang, Sima Xiangru, Zhufu Yan, Xu Le, Yan An, Dongfang Shuo, Mei Gao, Jiao Cang, Zhong Jun, Yan Congqi, and the rest in his inner circle. Those were years of constant war on the frontiers, new commanderies carved from barbarian land, armies marching again and again, and sweeping reforms at home. The court was swamped with business and kept summoning men of learning. Gongsun Hong had risen from commoner to chancellor in a few years; he opened the eastern hall to scholars, drew them into counsel, and used each audience to speak plainly of what served the realm. The emperor set Zhu and his fellows to argue policy with the elder statesmen; memorials flew between palace and ministry until the old guard more than once lost the debate. Those he favored most were Dongfang Shuo, Mei Gao, Yan Zhu, Wuqiu Shouwang, and Sima Xiangru. Sima Xiangru habitually pleaded illness to dodge court duty. Shuo and Mei Gao traded in wit rather than weighty argument, so the emperor treated them much like court entertainers. Only Yan Zhu and Wuqiu Shouwang were given real responsibility, Zhu having won his trust earliest.
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In the third year of Jianyuan, Minyue marched against Dong'ou, and Dong'ou sent an urgent plea to the Han court. The emperor was not yet twenty and put the question to Grand Commandant Tian Fen. Fen replied that border Yue feuds were nothing new, that their loyalties shifted with the wind, and that the court had rightly left them outside the realm since Qin days. Yan Zhu turned on him: "You speak as if power and grace were lacking; if they are not lacking, why cast a vassal away? Qin seized Xianyang and still let lands slip—need we speak only of Yue? A small state begs in peril; if the Son of Heaven will not stir, to whom can it cry, and how will the myriad states call him their father?" "The Grand Commandant is not the man for this counsel. I have just taken the throne and do not wish to issue the tiger tally and call out the commanderies." He therefore dispatched Yan Zhu with imperial credentials to raise troops in Kuaiji. The governor of Kuaiji tried to refuse on legal grounds and would not release the troops. Zhu executed a major, proclaimed the emperor's will, and put an army to sea for Dong'ou. Before the fleet arrived, Minyue had already broken off the siege.
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Three years later the king of Minyue once more took up arms against Nanyue. The king of Nanyue held to his treaty with the Han court and would not strike first; he sent a memorial asking for instructions. The emperor praised his restraint and mobilized a major expedition, dispatching two generals at the head of an army to chastise Minyue. Liu An, king of Huainan, presented a long memorial of remonstrance. It read:
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陛下臨天下，布德施惠，緩刑罰，薄賦斂，哀鰥寡，恤孤獨，養耆老，振匱乏，盛德上隆，和澤下洽，近者親附，遠者懷德，天下攝然，人安其生，自以沒身不見兵革。 今聞有司舉兵將以誅越，臣安竊為陛下重之。 越，方外之地，劗髮文身之民也。 不可以冠帶之國法度理也。 自三代之盛，胡越不與受正朔，非強弗能服，威弗能制也，以為不居之地，不牧之民，不足以煩中國也。 故古者封內甸服，封外侯服，侯衛賓服，蠻夷要服，戎狄荒服，遠近勢異也。 自漢初定已來七十二年，吳越人相攻擊者不可勝數，然天子未嘗舉兵而入其地也。
You have faced the realm with mercy—lighter taxes, gentler punishments, grain for the widow and the orphan, care for the old, relief for the hungry. Your virtue has climbed to Heaven and your kindness soaked the earth. Neighbors cling to you; distant peoples cherish your name. The empire has stood at peace; folk expected never to see war in their days. Now I hear that the ministries are marching an army against Yue. Your servant considers the matter grave in the extreme. Yue lies outside the civilized pale; its people crop their hair, ink their skin, and obey other laws than ours. The statutes of a cap-and-girdle kingdom will not rule them. Even at the height of the Three Dynasties the Hu and Yue did not take the imperial calendar—not because armies could not cow them, but because the sages judged their marshes and jungles unworthy of the central plain's trouble. Hence the old concentric scheme: the royal domain within the feudal ring, then the lords' belt, then the guest states, then the cord-wrapped barbarians, then the wild outer tribes—each tier farther from the center and looser in its tie. In the seventy-two years since Gaozu founded the dynasty, Wu and Yue have torn at each other times without number, yet no emperor has marched the imperial host into their hills.
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臣聞越非有城郭邑里也，處溪谷之間，篁竹之中，習於水鬥，便於用舟，地深昧而多水險，中國之人不知其勢阻而入其地，雖百不當其一。 得其地，不可郡縣也； 攻之，不可暴取也。 以地圖察其山川要塞，相去不過寸數，而間獨數百千里，阻險林叢弗能盡著。 視之若易，行之甚難。 天下賴宗廟之靈，方內大寧，戴白之老不見兵革，民得夫婦相守，父子相保，陛下之德也。 越人名為籓臣，貢酎之奉，不輸大內，一卒之用不給上事。 自相攻擊而陛下發兵救之，是反以中國而勞蠻夷也。 且越人愚戇輕薄，負約反覆，其不用天子之法度，非一日之積也。 一不奉詔，舉兵誅之，臣恐後兵革無時得息也。
Yue builds no walled cities; its villages cling to ravines and bamboo seas. Its warriors fight from boats as others fight on foot. The ground is tangled, dark, and cut by lethal currents. Send central-plain soldiers who do not know the terrain, and not a hundred of them will match one Yue boatman. Even if you seized the land, you could not divide it into orderly commanderies and counties; even if you struck at them, you could not swallow them at a stroke. On a map the passes look a thumb's width apart; on the ground they are hundreds of li of cliff and thicket that no chart can capture. The campaign looks easy on paper; in the field it is a nightmare. Thanks to the spirits of the high temples the interior has known deep peace: gray-haired elders who never heard a drum of war, husbands and wives who sleep secure, fathers and sons who look to each other for safety—all this is your gift. The Yue kings wear the title of vassal, yet they pour no revenue into the imperial treasury and spare not a single conscript for the northern passes. They claw at one another, and you would send the Son of Heaven's army to rescue them—turning the heartland into a workhorse for southern tribesmen. Besides, the Yue are stubborn, flighty, and treacherous by long habit; their contempt for Han law did not begin yesterday. The moment one tribe defies an edict you answer with the sword, and there will be no end of campaigns on the southern marches.
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Year after year the crops have failed; families pawn titles and sell children to scrape together a meal—only your grace has kept them from starving in the ditches. Four bad harvests in a row, then a fifth year of locusts—the common people are still on their knees. To march an army thousands of li, feed and clothe it, cross mountain ranges in sedan chairs, haul boats through rapids, and thread hundreds of li of jungle where vipers and beasts lurk and summer heat breeds dysentery and plague, is to lose half your men before a single blade is drawn. When the king of Nanhai rose in revolt, your late subject, my father, sent General Jian Ji against him; the rebels yielded and were resettled on the Shanggan river. They rebelled again in a season of heat and torrential rain. The marine troops lived at the oar; more than half perished of sickness before a shot was fired. Old parents wept, orphans howled, households were ruined, and kin traveled a thousand li to fetch home boxes of bones. The stench of that grief hung over the land for years; the old men still speak of it. And that was disaster without ever reaching Yue soil.
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臣聞軍旅之後必有凶年，言民之各以其愁苦之氣薄陰陽之和，感天地之精，而災氣為之生也。 陛下德配天地，明象日月，恩至禽獸，澤及草木，一人有饑寒不終其天年而死者，為之淒愴於心。 今方內無狗吠之警，而使陛下甲卒死亡，暴露中原，沾漬山谷，邊境之民為之早閉晏開，□不久夕，臣安竊為陛下重之。
The classics say that war is followed by dearth: the people's grief curdles the balance of yin and yang and breeds Heaven's punishments. Your virtue fills heaven and earth; your light is the sun and moon; your kindness touches beast and blade of grass—yet a single peasant who dies of cold gnaws at your heart. Within the passes there is not so much as a dog's bark of alarm, yet you would leave armored corpses rotting in the valleys and make frontier families bolt their doors from dusk to dawn, never sure they will see the next night. Your servant finds this unbearably grave.
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不習南方地形者，多以越為人眾兵強，能難邊城。 淮南全國之時，多為邊吏，臣竊聞之，與中國異。 限以高山，人跡所絕，車道不通，天地所以隔外內也。 其入中國必下領水，領水之山峭峻，漂石破舟，不可以大船載食糧下也。 越人欲為變，必先田餘干界中，積食糧，乃入伐材治船。 邊城守候誠謹，越人有入伐材者，輒收捕，焚其積聚，雖百越，奈邊城何！ 且越人綿力薄材，不能陸戰，又無車騎弓弩之用，然而不可入者，以保地險，而中國之人不能其水土也。 臣聞越甲卒不下數十萬，所以入之，五倍乃足，挽車奉餉者，不在其中。 南方暑濕，所夏癉熱，暴露水居，蝮蛇□生，疾癘多作，兵未血刃而病死者什二三，雖舉越國而虜之，不足以償所亡。
Men who do not know the south imagine Yue as a host of millions ready to storm the frontier. When Huainan still ran its full kingdom I heard our border officers' reports—the truth is not what northerners imagine. Lofty ranges seal it off; no cart road pierces them—Heaven's wall between inner and outer. To reach the interior they must shoot the gorges—cliffs that hurl boulders and smash hulls so that no heavy grain convoy can run downstream. Should the Yue ever march north, they must first farm the strip below Yugan, stockpile grain, then cut timber and build a fleet. If our garrisons stay alert and seize every logger and burn every hidden cache, a hundred Yue tribes cannot scratch our walls. The Yue are slight of build, useless in open battle, without chariotry or strong bows; they endure only because the terrain shields them and northern constitutions sicken in their climate. They claim hundreds of thousands under arms; to invade you need five times that number—and that does not count the teamsters and supply trains. The south is a steam-bath of fever and snakes; two or three men in ten die of plague before steel is drawn. Conquer every inch of Yue and you still will not balance the ledger of the dead.
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Travelers say the king of Minyue was murdered by his brother Jia, who was then executed, leaving the tribe leaderless. If you would win them, send a high minister with gifts and kind words to invite them inland; they will come dragging children and leaning on elders to embrace your grace. If you do not want them inside the passes, then confirm a new king, let their line survive under your seal, and fold them as a penned flock—they will bow as vassals and send tribute forever. A chop of jade and a silken cord can pacify them without costing a single soldier or dulling a blade—awe and kindness together. March an army in and they will think you mean genocide; they will scatter like birds into the trackless hills. Withdraw and they will swarm together again; garrison the waste and years will exhaust your men and granaries while husbands cannot plow, wives cannot weave, the young march and the old haul convoys—no food at home, no rations on the road. Harried folk will desert in droves; chase and behead them as you will, you will never finish—and rebellion will follow.
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The old men remember how Qin sent Commandant Tu Sui against Yue and Overseer Lu to cut a supply canal. The Yue melted into the jungle where no army could root them out. Qin camps sat on barren ground until the troops were spent; then Yue struck from the green dark. The Qin host was shattered; only transported convicts could hold the line. Empire and frontier convulsed together; farmers were bled white; men marched and never came home. Despair bred banditry, and the great rebellions east of the passes began with that southern war. This is what Laozi called 'where the army stays, brambles grow.' War is ill luck; trouble in one corner pulls the four quarters into flame. Your servant fears that coups and treason will take their start from this very campaign. The Changes says: 'Gaozong campaigned against Guifang, in three years then overcame them.' Guifang was a petty border tribe; Gaozong was a Son of Heaven at the zenith of Yin power. Yet even a peak Son of Heaven needed three years to crush a fly-speck tribe—so heavy is the burden of arms.
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臣聞天子之兵有征而無戰，言莫敢校也。 如使越人蒙徼幸以逆執事之顏行，廝輿之卒有一不備而歸者，雖得越王之首，臣猶竊為大漢羞之。 陛下以四海為境，九州為家，八藪為囿，江漢為池，生民之屬皆為臣妾。 人徒之眾足以奉千官之共，租稅之收足以給乘輿之御。 玩心神明，秉執聖道，負黼依，馮玉幾，南面而聽斷，號令天下，四海之內莫不向應。 陛下垂德惠以覆露之，使元元之民安生樂業，則澤被萬世，傳之子孫，施之無窮。 天下之安猶泰山而四維之也，夷狄之地何足以為一日之閒，而煩汗馬之勞乎！ 《詩》云「王猶允塞，徐方既來」，言王道甚大，而遠方懷之也。 臣聞之，農夫勞而君子養焉，愚者言而智者擇焉。 臣安幸得為陛下守籓，以身為障蔽，人臣之任也。 邊境有警，愛身之死而不畢其愚，非忠臣也。 臣安竊恐將吏之以十萬之師為一使之任也！
They say the true Son of Heaven punishes rebels without a contest—because none dare meet him blade to blade. If some Yue raider bloodies your van or a single baggage train comes home incomplete, you may nail up the king of Yue's head and still hide your face for shame before the world. You hold the four seas as your fence, the nine regions as your hall, the great marshes as your park, the Yangzi and Han as your fishponds—every living soul is already your subject. Your laborers can feed the myriad bureaus; your taxes can fill the imperial treasury. Turn your mind to the spirits, hold fast the Way, rest against the patterned screen and the jade armrest, face south, and issue one decree—the four seas answer as one. Let your kindness fall like dew on the common people so they live and labor in peace, and your name will shine ten thousand generations. The realm stands firm as Mount Tai roped by four pillars—why waste a single day and sweat a single horse over barbarian mud? The Odes says, "The king's plans were truly fulfilled; then the lands of Xu came." This means that the kingly Way was so great that distant regions were drawn to it. The peasant plows and the gentleman eats; the fool talks and the wise man listens. Your servant is honored to hold your southern screen; to shield your person is a vassal's duty. When the frontier flares, to hug your life and bite your tongue is not loyalty. I dread lest some general treat a hundred thousand lives as lightly as a courier's errand.
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The Han host had not yet crossed the mountains when Yu Shan, the king of Minyue's brother, murdered his sovereign and surrendered. The expedition was stood down. The emperor praised Huainan's counsel and his soldiers' merit, then sent Yan Zhu south to explain the court's mind to the king of Nanyue. The king of Nanyue kowtowed and cried: "The Son of Heaven has stooped to chastise Minyue for me—I could die a thousand deaths and not repay such grace!" He sent his heir to Chang'an at once to attend the throne with Yan Zhu.
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On his way home Yan Zhu called on Huainan with the emperor's words: "The throne has read the memorial your palace grandee lately presented. I rise before dawn and retire late, yet my light does not reach every shadow; lacking virtue, I have brought plague and famine on the land. This frail body sits above the kings while folk freeze and starve and southern tribes claw at our borders—I am afraid. You have weighed the age and held up the mirror of the sage-kings, where every land that felt a human foot paid homage—I stand humbled before your praise. I honor your counsel without reserve and charge Yan Zhu to lay before you the whole business of Yue."
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助諭意曰：「今者大王以發屯臨越事上書，陛下故遣臣助告王其事。 王居遠，事薄遽，不與王同其計。 朝有闕政，遺王之憂，陛下甚恨之。 夫兵固凶器，明主之所重出也，然自五帝、三王禁暴止亂，非兵，未之聞也。 漢為天下宗，操殺生之柄，以制海內之命，危者望安，亂者卬治。 今閩越王狠戾不仁，殺其骨肉，離其親戚，所為甚多不義，又數舉兵侵陵百越，並兼鄰國，以為暴強，陰計奇策，入燔尋陽樓船，欲招會稽之地，以踐句踐之跡。 今者，邊又言閩王率兩國擊南越。 陛下為萬民安危久遠之計，使人諭告之曰：『天下安寧，各繼世撫民，禁毋敢相並。』 有司疑其以虎狼之心，貪據百越之利，或於逆順，不奉明詔，則會稽、豫章必有長患。 且天子誅而不伐，焉有勞百姓苦士卒乎？ 故遣兩將屯於境上，震威武，揚聲鄉，屯曾未會，天誘其衷，閩王隕命，輒遣使者罷屯，毋後農時。 南越王甚嘉被惠澤，蒙休德，願革心易行，身從使者入謝。 有狗馬之病，不能勝服，故遣太子嬰齊入侍； 病有瘳，願伏北闕，望大廷，以報盛德。 閩王以八月舉兵於冶南，士卒罷倦，三王之眾相與攻之，因其弱弟餘善以成其誅，至今國空虛，遣使者上符節，請所立，不敢自立，以待天子之明詔。 此一舉，不挫一兵之鋒，不用一卒之死，而閩王伏辜，南越被澤，威震暴王，義存危國，此則陛下深計遠慮之所出也。 事效見前，故使臣助來諭王意。」
Yan Zhu continued: "You wrote because troops were massing on your border against Yue; the emperor therefore sent me to explain what followed. You live far from the capital; news reaches you late; the throne did not wait to take your counsel. When policy at court leaves you anxious, the emperor grieves. Weapons are an evil thing that a wise ruler looses only in need—yet since the age of the Five Thearchs no king has stopped violence without steel. Han is the head of the family of states; it holds life and death in one hand. The desperate look to us for peace, the rebellious for judgment. The king of Minyue is savage and faithless—he murdered his kin, betrayed his allies, and raided his neighbors until he grew bold enough to burn the Han fleet at Yangxun and dream of seizing Kuaiji like Goujian of old. The frontier now reports that the king of Minyue is driving two kingdoms against Nanyue. You acted for the people's long-term good, sending heralds to warn them: "The realm is at peace; every prince must govern his own people and never dare swallow his neighbor." The ministers feared they nursed wolfish ambition toward the Yue tribes and might defy your edict—which would leave Kuaiji and Yuzhang in endless peril. The Son of Heaven chastises rebels; he does not grind his people under needless campaigns—why wring sweat from farmer and soldier alike? Two generals camped on the border to overawe them before a blow was struck—and Heaven struck first: the king of Minyue fell dead. Messengers then stood the troops down so the spring plowing would not be lost. The king of Nanyue was overwhelmed by your kindness and vowed to mend his ways; he wished to follow my escort to the capital and apologize in person. Illness keeps him from the journey, so he sends his heir Yingqi to wait on the throne in his stead; should his strength return, he will kneel at the north gate and look upon the great hall to thank you in person. In the eighth month the king of Minyue rose south of Ye, but his troops were spent; the allied kings fell on him and his younger brother Yu Shan finished the deed. The kingdom stands leaderless: envoys have brought the seals and ask you to name a successor—they dare not enthrone themselves without your word. Not a blade was dulled, not a man lost, yet the tyrant of Minyue paid for his crimes, Nanyue bathed in your grace, villains trembled, and a doomed state was spared—this is the fruit of your long foresight. You have seen the outcome with your own eyes; the emperor therefore sent me to lay his answer before you."
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Liu An bowed and said: "Tang's war on Jie and King Wen's strike at Chong were no finer than this. I spoke rashly from a fool's heart, yet you spared my life and sent a herald to teach me what I had failed to see—such mercy leaves me speechless with gratitude!' Yan Zhu left on terms of friendship with the king of Huainan. The emperor was delighted.
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At a leisurely banquet the emperor asked Yan Zhu about his youth. He answered: "I was poor and lived as a dependent son-in-law; a wealthy host treated me with contempt." When asked what reward he wanted, he begged for the governorship of Kuaiji. The appointment was granted at once. Years passed without word from the capital. A rescript reached him: "You grew weary of the Chenming waiting lodge and the round of court attendance, and longed for home—so we sent you out to govern your commandery. Kuaiji touches the sea on the east, the Yue tribes on the south, and the great river on the north. We have heard nothing from you for an age—send a memorial worthy of the Spring and Autumn Annals, not the empty zigzag of Su Qin.' Yan Zhu answered in terror: "The Annals record how the Zhou king withdrew to Zheng because he failed his mother—and was cast off for it. A minister owes his prince what a son owes his parents; I deserve death for my silence. If you will not take my life, let me at least forward the triennial accounts in person." The emperor relented and kept him at court as palace attendant. Whenever omens appeared he was set to draft edicts; he also wrote dozens of rhapsodies and hymns.
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Later, when the king of Huainan visited the capital, he loaded Yan Zhu with gifts and drew him into secret talk. When Huainan rose in revolt, Zhu was implicated; the emperor would have let him off lightly. Zhang Tang, commandant of justice, protested: Yan Zhu passed freely through the inner palace as your confidant, yet trafficked with feudal princes—spare him and no law will ever hold. Yan Zhu was executed in the public market after all.
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Zhu Maichen, courtesy name Wengzi, came from Wu. He was poor but bookish, kept no farm, cut firewood for coin, and chanted the classics aloud on the road under a load of faggots. His wife trudged beside him, begging him to stop bawling his lessons like a madman in the dust. He only sang louder; shamed beyond bearing, she demanded a divorce. He laughed: "At fifty I shall win rank and honor—I am barely past forty. You have borne poverty with me; when fortune comes I will repay your kindness.' She snapped: "Men like you end in a ditch—what wealth or honor is there in you?" He could not hold her and let her go. Afterward he walked alone among the graves, chanting with firewood on his back. His ex-wife and her new husband were sweeping a grave when they saw him cold and hungry; they called him over and shared their meal.
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Some years later he rode to Chang'an as a conscript teamster on the annual accounting caravan, presented a memorial at the palace gate, and heard nothing for months. While waiting at the public carriage office his food ran out; the rotating clerks had to beg scraps for him. His townsman Yan Zhu, then in favor at court, recommended him. He discoursed on the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Songs of Chu; the emperor was charmed, named him palace grandee, and paired him with Yan Zhu as palace attendant. While Shuofang fort was rising, Gongsun Hong argued that the work would beggar the interior. The emperor set Zhu Maichen to demolish Hong's argument—the exchange is recorded in Hong's biography. Later he lost office over a charge, then after a long interval was recalled to await edict.
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Eastern Yue had rebelled again. Zhu Maichen told the throne: "Their old king held Quan Mountain, where one defender could block a thousand climbers. They have now shifted five hundred li south into open marsh—far from that fortress. Send a fleet straight to Quan Mountain, land in force, and sweep south—you can crush them at a blow.' The emperor named him governor of Kuaiji. He teased him: "They say brocade is wasted on a night walk unless you show it at home—what of you now?" Zhu Maichen kowtowed in thanks. He was ordered, on reaching Kuaiji, to fit out war junks and stores and hold his fleet ready until the imperial command to sail.
23
初，買臣免，待詔，常從會稽守邸者寄居飯食。 拜為太守，買臣衣故衣，懷其印綬，步歸郡邸。 直上計時，會稽吏方相與群飲，不視買臣。 買臣入室中，守邸與共食，食且飽，少見其綬，守邸怪之，前引其綬，視其印，會稽太守章也。 守邸驚，出語上計掾吏。 皆醉，大呼曰：「妄誕耳！」 守邸曰：「試來視之。」 其故人素輕買臣者入內視之，還走，疾呼曰：「實然！」 坐中驚駭，白守丞，相推排陳列中庭拜謁。 買臣徐出戶。 有頃，長安廄吏乘駟馬車來迎，買臣遂乘傳去。 會稽聞太守且至，發民除道，縣長吏並送迎，車百餘乘。 入吳界，見其故妻、妻夫治道。 買臣駐車，呼令後車載其夫妻，到太守舍，置園中，給食之。 居一月，妻自經死，買臣乞其夫錢，令葬。 悉召見故人與飲食諸嘗有恩者，皆報復焉。
While dismissed and awaiting summons in Chang'an he roomed at the Kuaiji hostel and ate on credit. On his appointment he walked into the hostel in rags, the governor's seal hidden in his sleeve. The county clerks were carousing at accounting season and ignored the beggar in their midst. He went inside and shared their meal; as they finished he let slip a corner of silk—the keeper tugged at it, found the jade seal of the governor of Kuaiji, and froze. The keeper ran out to the drunk clerks. Drunk, they shouted, "Nonsense!" The keeper said, "Come see for yourselves." A man who had always sneered at Zhu Maichen went in, ran back, and cried, "It is true!" Panic sobered them; they jostled into the courtyard and kowtowed in ranks. Zhu Maichen strolled out at leisure. Presently a four-horse carriage from the capital stable arrived; he mounted the post relay and rode away. Kuaiji swept the roads and sent more than a hundred chariots to meet him. At the border of Wu he found his ex-wife and her husband conscripted to mend the highway. He halted his train, loaded the pair into a baggage cart, housed them in his garden, and fed them. Within a month she hanged herself; Zhu gave her husband coin enough for a decent burial. He feasted every old friend and repaid every kindness he had ever received.
24
25
Some years later he lost office for a legal fault, then served as chief clerk to the chancellor. Zhang Tang held the seal of imperial counselor. Once Zhu and Yan Zhu had stood high at court while Zhang Tang was a runner who scurried at their heels. When Zhang Tang as commandant of justice tried the Huainan case he destroyed Yan Zhu; Zhu Maichen never forgave him. After Zhu became chief clerk, Zhang—often acting for the chancellor—knew how high Zhu had once stood and snubbed him at every turn. When Zhu called, Zhang lounged on his couch and refused courtesy. Zhu nursed a murderous grudge. He struck back with a secret denunciation; Zhang Tang fell on his sword, and the emperor had Zhu executed as well. His son Shanfu rose to governor of Youfufeng commandery.
26
27
Wuqiu Shouwang, courtesy name Zigong, was a native of Zhao. In youth he won fame at the board game Wuge and was summoned to await imperial orders. An edict set him to study the Spring and Autumn Annals under Dong Zhongshu; he proved brilliant and quick. He rose to gentleman-of-the-household in attendance, then lost his post for a legal offense. He begged to work off his guilt as a stable hand in the Yellow Gate office; the emperor refused. He next volunteered for frontier garrison duty and was refused again. Long afterward he offered a plan to strike the Xiongnu; the court questioned him, liked his answers, and restored him as gentleman.
28
He rose step by step until banditry flared in Dong commandery and he was named its chief commandant. Because he held that military post, no civil governor was appointed over him. Years of bad harvests and constant levies had filled the roads with outlaws. A sealed rescript rebuked him: "At our side your counsel seemed unique under heaven—scarcely a second man in the seas. Yet you hold a dozen cities and a four-thousand-bushel salary while bandits run wild—nothing like the man we knew. Why?' Shouwang kowtowed and explained his difficulties.
29
He was later recalled to court as grandee of the palace and palace attendant. Chancellor Gongsun Hong proposed: "Let the common people be forbidden to bear bows and crossbows. Ten men with bows at full draw can hold a hundred officers at bay; thieves often walk free while profit is great and risk small—that is why they multiply. Disarm the honest and thieves will carry knives; knife fights go to the bigger pack—hardly a cure. Pit a pack of constables against a handful of thieves and you will run them to ground. Crime pays nothing and costs everything; men will shun the law, and the scourge may rest unused. In my humble view, forbidding the people to carry bows and crossbows would be expedient." The court took the matter under debate. Shouwang answered:
30
臣聞古者作五兵，非以相害，以禁暴討邪也。 安居則以制猛獸而備非常，有事則以設守衛而施行陣。 及至周室衰微，上無明王，諸侯力政，強侵弱，眾暴寡，海內□敝，巧詐並生。 是以知者陷愚，勇者威怯，苟以得勝為務，不顧義理。 故機變械飾，所以相賊害之具不可勝數。 於是秦兼天下，廢王道，立私議，滅《詩》、《書》而首法令，去仁恩而任刑戮，墮名城，殺豪桀，銷甲兵，折鋒刃。 其後，民以□鋤□梃相撻擊，犯法滋眾，盜賊不勝，至於赭衣塞路，群盜滿山，卒以亂亡。 故聖王務教化而省禁防，知其不足恃也。
The ancients forged the five arms not to turn them on each other but to check violence and punish evil. In peace they checked wild beasts and stood ready for the unexpected; in crisis they manned walls and drew up battle lines. When the Zhou house waned and no true king sat above, the lords tore at one another—strong swallowing weak until the realm was bled white and fraud flourished. Clever men were trapped by fools, the timid were cowed by bullies, and victory alone was prized—never right or reason. Then came engines of war and trickery beyond counting—each side straining to outdo the other in mutual slaughter. Then Qin united the realm, cast away kingly teaching for private doctrine, burned the classics to exalt statutes, chose the lash over mercy, razed great cities, butchered heroes, and melted every blade. Afterward peasants fought with hoe and cudgel, the jails overflowed, and brigands choked the hills until red-gowned convicts blocked every road and the dynasty fell in ruin. Sage kings therefore put their trust in moral instruction, not in a net of petty bans—knowing that prohibitions alone never saved a state.
31
今陛下昭明德，建太平，舉俊才，興學官，三公有司或由窮巷，起白屋，裂地而封，宇內日化，方外鄉風，然而盜賊猶有者，郡國二千石之罪，非挾弓弩之過也。 《禮》曰男子生，桑弧蓬矢以舉之，明示有事也。 孔子曰：「吾何執，執射乎？」 大射之禮，自天子降及庶人，三代之道也。 《詩》云「大侯既抗，弓矢斯張，射夫既同，獻爾發功」，言貴中也。 愚聞聖王合射以明教矣，未聞弓矢之為禁也。 且所為禁者，為盜賊之以攻奪也。 攻奪之罪死，然而不止者，大奸之於重誅固不避也。 臣恐邪人挾之而吏不能止，良民以自備而抵法禁，是擅賊威而奪民救也。 竊以為無益於禁奸，而廢先王之典，使學者不得習行其禮，大不便。
Today Your Majesty displays bright virtue, establishes great peace, raises outstanding talent, and revives the schools. Among the three dukes and the offices, men have risen from poor lanes and white-roofed houses to receive divided lands and enfeoffment; within the realm transformation advances daily, and beyond it people turn toward your influence. If robbers still remain, the fault lies with the two-thousand-bushel officials of the commanderies and kingdoms, not with men who carry bows and crossbows. The Book of Rites says that at a boy's birth we raise mulberry bow and reed arrows to shoot toward heaven—announcing that he is born for duty as well as peace. Confucius said: "What shall I hold to? Shall I hold to archery?" The great archery ritual ran from the throne to the common hut—that was the Way of the three ancient dynasties. The Odes sings of the target raised, bows bent, archers ranked, each showing his skill—it praises the steady hand that finds the mark." I have heard that sage-kings taught the realm through the rites of archery—I have never heard that they disarmed the people. Any ban should aim at robbers who shoot to kill—not at farmers who keep a bow for rabbits. Robbery is a hanging crime, yet men still risk it—hardened villains do not fear the noose. Villains will still hide crossbows while constables cannot stop them; honest folk who arm to save their skins will break your law—arming the wicked and disarming the victim. It will not check crime, yet it tears up the rites of the kings and leaves scholars no way to practice the archery that taught duty—no gain and great loss.
32
When the memorial reached him, the emperor threw it in Gongsun Hong's teeth. Hong conceded defeat.
33
及汾陰得寶鼎，武帝嘉之，薦見宗廟，臧於甘泉宮。 群臣皆上壽賀曰：「陛下得周鼎。」 壽王獨曰非周鼎。 上聞之，召而問之，曰：「今朕得周鼎，群臣皆以為然，壽王獨以為非，何也？ 有說則可，無說則死。」 壽王對曰：「臣安敢無說！ 臣聞周德始乎後稷，長於公劉，大於大王，成於文、武，顯於周公，德澤上昭，天下漏泉，無所不通。 上天報應，鼎為周出，故名曰周鼎。 今漢自高祖繼周，亦昭德顯行，布恩施惠，六合和同。 至於陛下，恢廓祖業，功德愈盛，天瑞並至，珍祥畢見。 昔秦始皇親出鼎於彭城而不能得，天祚有德而寶鼎自出，此天之所以與漢，乃漢寶，非周寶也。」 上曰：「善。」 群臣皆稱萬歲。 是日，賜壽王黃金十斤。 後坐事誅。
When the sacred tripod came to light at Fenyin, Emperor Wu displayed it at the shrines and lodged it in Sweet Springs Palace. The assembled ministers all raised longevity congratulations, saying: 'Your Majesty obtained Zhou's tripod.' Wuqiu Shouwang alone said it was not the tripod of Zhou. The emperor called him in and demanded, "The court calls this the Zhou tripod; you alone deny it—why? Convince me or die." Shouwang bowed: "How should I dare come without an argument! The virtue of Zhou began with Hou Ji, swelled through Duke Liu and the Great King, ripened under Wen and Wu, and shone through the Duke of Zhou until grace soaked the realm like water from a spring. Heaven answered that merit and sent forth the cauldron—hence men called it the tripod of Zhou. Han, inheriting Zhou from Gaozu onward, has shown the same virtue, spread the same kindness, and brought the six quarters into harmony. Under your hand the ancestral work has broadened, merit towers higher, and omens and prodigies crowd upon the age. The First Emperor hunted that cauldron at Pengcheng in vain; Heaven gives the bronze only to the throne that owns true virtue. This vessel belongs to Han, not to the long-dead house of Zhou." Well said,' answered the emperor. The court shouted ten thousand years. That day Shouwang received ten catties of gold. Later he died on a criminal charge.
34
Zhufu Yan came from Linzi in Qi. He trained in the persuasive arts of coalition politics—the "short and long" and "vertical and horizontal" schools. Only later did he turn to the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Annals, and the hundred schools. He moved among Qi's princely households, but the Ru scholars banded against him and Qi would not keep him. Poor at home and unable to borrow his way forward, he went north through Yan, Zhao, and Zhongshan, but no court would shelter him generously and he lived in bitter want. Finding no prince worth his service, in the first year of Yuanguang he entered the capital to seek out General Wei Qing. Wei Qing spoke for him again and again, but the emperor paid no heed. Money ran out, his stay dragged on, and fellow clients grew tired of him; at last he sent up a memorial at the palace gate. He presented it in the morning and was summoned that evening. Nine proposals followed: eight became statutes, and one warned against war on the Xiongnu. It read:
35
臣聞明主不惡切諫以博觀，忠臣不避重誅以直諫，是故事無遺策而功流萬世。 今臣不敢隱忠避死，以效愚計，願陛下幸赦而少察之。
A wise ruler welcomes blunt counsel to widen his sight; a loyal minister risks the axe to speak truth—then no policy is half-formed and fame lasts ten thousand years. I dare not choose safety over loyalty; I lay a rough plan before you and beg you to weigh it with care.
36
《司馬法》曰：「國雖大，好戰必亡； 天下雖平，忘戰必危。」 天下既平，天子大愷，春搜秋獮，諸侯春振旅，秋治兵，所以不忘戰也。 且怒者逆德也，兵者凶器也，爭者末節也。 古之人君一怒必伏屍流血，故聖王重行之。 夫務戰勝，窮武事，未有不悔者也。
The Sima Fa says: 'Though the state is large, fondness for war necessarily destroys it; though all under Heaven is level, forgetting war necessarily brings peril.' When peace is won, the Son of Heaven still holds the spring hunt and autumn chase; vassals still drill in spring and review arms in autumn—so the realm never forgets the cost of war. Anger offends virtue; arms are ill tools; brawling is the small end of politics. In antiquity one royal tantrum meant corpses in the dust—so the sages moved to war only with the gravest fear. Those who chase glory on the frontier and drain the state in war have all lived to regret it.
37
昔秦皇帝任戰勝之威，蠶食天下，併吞戰國，海內為一，功齊三代。 務勝不休，欲攻匈奴，李斯諫曰：「不可。 夫匈奴無城郭之居，委積之守，遷徙鳥舉，難得而制。 輕兵深入，糧食必絕； 運糧以行，重不及事。 得其地，不足以為利； 得其民，不可調而守也。 勝必棄之，非民父母，靡敝中國，甘心匈奴，非完計也。」 秦皇帝不聽，遂使蒙恬將兵而攻胡，卻地千里，以河為境。 地固澤鹵，不生五穀，然後發天下丁男以守北河。 暴兵露師十有餘年，死者不可勝數，終不能逾河而北。 是豈人眾之不足，兵革之不備哉？ 其不可也。 又使天下飛芻挽粟，起於黃、腄、琅邪負海之郡，轉輸北河，率三十鐘而致一石。 男子疾耕不足於糧餉，女子紡績不足於帷幕。 百姓靡敝，孤寡老弱不能相養，道死者相望，蓋天下始叛也。
The First Emperor rode his victories until he swallowed every warring state and rivaled the three sage dynasties in fame. Still unsated, he turned on the Xiongnu; Li Si warned him: "This cannot be done. They build no cities, hoard no grain, scatter like birds—impossible to pin down. Light columns that drive deep will outrun their supplies; Convoys that crawl behind cannot reach the army in time. Their steppe is no profit to you; Even if their people were obtained, they could not be governed and held. Hold the land and you cannot hold the people; beggar China to feed a grudge against the steppe is no strategy at all.' The emperor refused to hear; he sent Meng Tian north, drove the line a thousand li, and planted the frontier on the Yellow River. That belt was alkali and sand where no grain grows, yet every able man was dragooned to guard the northern bend. For more than ten years armies rotted on the line beyond counting, yet never crossed the river in strength. Was it for want of men or of arms? The enterprise was impossible. They drove the empire to haul fodder and grain from the coastal commanderies of Huang, Chui, and Langye to the northern bend—thirty cartloads spent to land one stone on the frontier. Men could not plow fast enough to feed the convoys; women could not weave fast enough to roof the camps. The people were flayed white; the weak starved in ditches; corpses lined the roads—and the empire began to turn against Qin.
38
When Gaozu had pacified the realm he surveyed the north, heard the Xiongnu massing beyond Dai, and meant to strike. Censor Cheng warned: "Do not march. They herd like beasts and scatter like birds; chasing them is like wrestling a shadow. Even your majesty's might cannot safely bite that bait.' Gaozu would not listen; he reached Dai and walked into the siege at Pingcheng. He rued the day, sent Liu Jing to seal a marriage alliance, and the realm knew peace again.
39
The canon says: "A hundred thousand men in the field devour a thousand in gold each day." Qin hurled hundreds of thousands north; even when it shattered hosts, slew generals, and dragged the chanyu in chains, the gain was a deeper grudge, never worth the price in blood and treasure. Raiding is how the Xiongnu live—it is their nature. From Shun through Zhou no sage tried to govern them like Chinese farmers—they were herded as the wild creatures beyond the pale. Ignore the mirror of antiquity and repeat Qin's blunder—that is what I dread, and what the people cannot endure. Prolonged war breeds mutiny; exhausted people change masters. When border folk are broken and generals sell secrets across the line, men like Zhao Tuo of the south and Zhang Han of Qin seize their chance—central command frays while power splits between traitors. That is the lesson of gain and loss. The Zhou Documents says: "Order makes safety or peril; men make survival or ruin." Weigh these words, sire, with the utmost care.
40
About the same time Xu Le and Yan An also filed memorials on state affairs. When the three memorials arrived, the emperor received them together and cried: "Where have you men been hiding? Why am I meeting you only now!" He named Zhufu Yan, Xu Le, and Yan An gentlemen-of-the-household on the spot. Zhufu Yan poured in further memorials and rose through ye-shi and gentleman-of-the-household to palace grandee. He jumped four grades in a single year.
41
Zhufu Yan urged the throne: "In antiquity no fief passed a hundred li across—strong and weak were easy to balance. Today some kings hold dozens of cities and a thousand li of ground. Leave them idle and they turn proud and dissolute; squeeze them and they league their strength and turn against the imperial capital. Cut them by naked law and they revolt—Chao Cuo proved that only yesterday. A king may have ten sons, yet only the heir inherits; the rest, though bone of his bone, get not an inch of soil—so kindness and filial duty wither. Command every prince to divide his domain among sons and brothers and enfeoff them as marquises. Each child wins a title while you seem only generous—in truth you slice their kingdoms thin. In a generation they will dwindle of themselves.' The emperor adopted the policy that history calls the extended grace edict. He next urged removal of the rich and overmighty to the new tomb town at Maoling—strengthening the capital while draining the provinces of troublemakers without a headsman's axe.' The throne agreed again.
42
He had a hand in raising Empress Wei and in unmasking the crimes of Liu Dingguo, king of Yan. High ministers bought his silence with bribes that ran to a thousand pounds of gold. A friend warned him: "You are far too brazen!" Yan answered: "For forty years, since I bound up my hair to study, I have never had my way. My parents disowned me, my brothers shut their doors, my friends turned their backs—I have been at the bottom a long time. A man of spirit must dine from the five sacrificial tripods in life—or be cooked in them when he dies! The sun is setting on my years; small wonder I walk backward through the rules.'
43
He pressed the case for Shuofang: "fat soil shielded by the Yellow River, Meng Tian's old rampart against the Xiongnu, shorter supply lines, and a broader heartland—the true lever for breaking the steppe." The emperor circulated his plan; the high ministers voted it down. Gongsun Hong objected: "Qin once threw three hundred thousand lives at the northern river works and gave up when the ditch would not hold." Zhu Maichen demolished Hong in debate, and Shuofang was founded on Yan's design after all.
44
During Yuanshuo he denounced the king of Qi for incest and depravity; the emperor named him chancellor of Qi to deal with it. In Qi he called in kinsmen and hangers-on, flung five hundred pounds of gold on the table, and snarled: "When I starved, you gave me neither bread nor roof; you would not even let me past your gates. Now that I wear the seal of Qi, you ride a thousand li to smile in my face. The bond is cut. Never darken my threshold again!' He then leaked word of the king's incest with his own half-sister to break his nerve. The king saw no way out, dreaded the block like the late king of Yan, and opened his own veins.
45
Zhufu Yan had once begged his bread in Yan and Zhao; once risen, he repaid Yan by exposing its secrets. The king of Zhao meant to memorialize his crimes but dared not move while Yan held the emperor's ear. The moment Yan left for Qi, Zhao's agents accused him of taking bribes from princes to push their sons' titles. News of the suicide enraged the emperor; he believed Yan had hounded the king to death and threw him to the jailers. Yan admitted the bribes but swore he never drove the king to suicide. The emperor would have spared him, but Hong insisted: "Qi is now a commandery without an heir because of Yan. He is the author of the crime; spare him and you cannot face the realm." The whole Zhufu clan went to the sword.
46
48
臣聞天下之患，在於土崩，不在瓦解，古今一也。 何謂土崩？ 秦之末世是也。 陳涉無千乘之尊、疆土之地，身非王公大人名族之後，無鄉曲之譽，非有孔、曾、墨子之賢，陶朱、猗頓之富也。 然起窮巷，奮棘矜，偏袒大呼，天下從風，此其故何也？ 由民困而主不恤，下怨而上不知，俗已亂而政不修，此三者陳涉之所以為資也。 此之謂土崩。 故曰天下之患在乎土崩。 何謂瓦解？ 吳、楚、齊、趙之兵是也。 七國謀為大逆，號皆稱萬乘之君，帶甲數十萬，威足以嚴其境內，財足以勸其士民，然不能西攘尺寸之地，而身為禽於中原者，此其故何也？ 非權輕於匹夫而兵弱於陳涉也。 當是之時，先帝之德未衰，而安土樂俗之民眾，故諸侯無竟外之助。 此之謂瓦解。 故曰天下之患不在瓦解。
I have heard that the true peril of the realm is a landslide from below, not a crack in the roof tiles—the law holds for every age. What do I mean by a landslide from below? The fall of Qin is the model. Chen She owned no kingdom, no famous name, no village cheering him on—he was no sage and no millionaire. Yet he rose from a ditch with a hoe handle in his fist, bared a shoulder, gave one cry, and the empire answered like wind—why? Because the people were desperate and the ruler felt nothing, because anger seethed below while the court slept, because order had rotted before the laws were mended—those three truths were Chen She's opening. That is what I call a landslide from below. So the deadliest danger is always that landslide from below. What do I mean by a crack in the tiles? The revolt of Wu, Chu, Qi, and Zhao is the model. Seven kings called themselves equals of the Son of Heaven, mustered hundreds of thousands in mail, had treasure to buy loyalty—yet they never won an inch west of their borders and died in chains in the heartland. Why? Not because they were weaker than Chen She. Gaozu's grace still lived in memory, and the common folk clung to home and hearth, so the rebels found no echo in the villages. That is what I call a crack in the roof tiles—a revolt of the mighty that the throne can mend. The lesser danger is that sort of tile-crack rebellion.
49
由此觀之，天下誠有土崩之勢，雖布衣窮處之士或首難而危海內，陳涉是也，況三晉之君或存乎？ 天下雖未治也，誠能無土崩之勢，雖有強國勁兵，不得還踵而身為禽，吳、楚是也，況群臣、百姓，能為亂乎？ 此二體者，安危之明要，賢主之所留意而深察也。
If the soil is loose, a beggar in a lane can shake the realm, as Chen She proved—how much quicker would true princes rise if any remained? But if the people stand firm, even Wu and Chu's hosts could not wheel about before they were taken—how much less could clerks and peasants overturn you? These two patterns are the pivot of order and ruin; a wise king studies them without rest.
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間者，關東五穀數不登，年歲未復，民多窮困，重之以邊境之事，推數循理而觀之，民宜有不安其處者矣。 不安故易動，易動者，土崩之勢也。 故賢主獨觀萬化之原，明於安危之機，修之廟堂之上，而銷未形之患也。 其要，期使天下無土崩之勢而已矣。 故雖有強國勁兵，陛下逐走獸，射飛鳥，弘游燕之囿，淫從恣之觀，極馳騁之樂，自若。 金石絲竹之聲不絕於耳，帷幄之私、俳優侏儒之笑不乏於前，而天下無宿憂。 名何必夏、子，俗何必成、康！ 雖然，臣竊以陛下天然之質，寬仁之資，而誠以天下為務，則不難侔，而成、康之俗未必不復興也。 此二體者立，然後處尊安之實，揚廣譽於當世，親天下而服四夷，余恩遺德為數世隆，南面背依攝袂而揖王公，此陛下之所服也。 臣聞圖王不成，其敝足以安。 安則陛下何求而不得，何威而不成，奚征而不服哉？
Lately the east has seen repeated crop failure; the people are still on their knees, and the frontier levies press them harder. By every reckoning, many no longer feel at home in their own fields. Restless men are quick to rise—that is the landslide from below. The wise king reads the root of change, senses where safety turns to peril, and heals the wound in council before blood flows in the lanes. His whole aim is to keep that soil from shifting—nothing more. Then, though rival kingdoms arm to the teeth, you may hunt, feast, and race your chariots across the imperial parks and still sleep sound. Music may ring without end, jesters caper in your curtains—yet the realm will carry no smoldering overnight grudge. You need not yet rival Yu and Tang in fame, nor Cheng and Kang in the purity of your age. Yet given your natural breadth of mind, if you make the people's peace your daily work, you may yet rival the sage founders, and the age of Cheng and Kang may rise again. Set those two safeguards in place and you sit in true majesty, win the age's praise, fold the four quarters beneath you, and leave your sons a fortune of kindness—facing south with your back to the embroidered screen, you may gather your sleeves and nod to kings and dukes as your vassals. That is the robe that fits you. They say: Aim at kingcraft and fall short—you still win stability. With stability, whatever you seek is yours, whatever awe you raise is obeyed—what foe would refuse to bend?