1
卷七十六趙尹韓張兩王傳第四十六
This is Book 76 of the History of the Han: the forty-sixth set of biographies, devoted to Zhao Guanghan, Yin Wengui, Han Yanshou, Zhang Chang, Wang Zun, and Wang Jun.
2
趙廣漢字子都，涿郡蠡吾人也，故屬河間。 少為郡吏、州從事，以廉絜通敏下士為名。 舉茂材，平準令。 察廉為陽翟令。 以治行尤異，遷京輔都尉，守京兆尹。 會昭帝崩，而新豐杜建為京兆掾，護作平陵方上。 建素豪俠，賓客為姦利，廣漢聞之，先風告。 建不改，於是收案致法。 中貴人豪長者為請無不至，終無所聽。 宗族賓客謀欲篡取，廣漢盡知其計議主名起居，使吏告曰：「若計如此，且并滅家。」 令數吏將建棄巿，莫敢近者。 京師稱之。
Zhao Guanghan, styled Zidu, came from Liwu in Zhuo Commandery, in what had once been the kingdom of Hejian. While young he held posts as commandery clerk and provincial aide, earning a reputation for clean hands, sound judgment, and a habit of deferring to capable men beneath him in rank. Recommended on the "outstanding talent" roster, he was named Director of the Office of Equitable Marketing. A "incorrupt and capable" nomination brought him the magistracy of Yangdi. His governance stood out so sharply that he rose to Metropolitan Commandant and served as acting Governor of the capital prefecture. When Emperor Zhao died, Du Jian of Xinfeng—then a clerk in the metropolitan yamen—was put in charge of work on the tumulus at Pingling. Du Jian was a local strongman whose hangers-on ran rackets; Guanghan caught wind of it and tipped him off before taking action. When Du Jian ignored the warning, Guanghan had him seized, prosecuted, and punished under statute. Influential eunuchs and grandees lobbied relentlessly for Du Jian; Guanghan refused every approach. Kin and retainers plotted a rescue, but Guanghan already knew every ringleader; through his officers he sent word: "If you go through with this, your whole clans will be wiped out." Several guards marched Du Jian to the execution ground in the marketplace, and nobody dared interfere. Word of it spread through the capital, and people praised him.
3
是時，昌邑王徵即位，行淫亂，大將軍霍光與群臣共廢王，尊立宣帝。 廣漢以與議定策，賜爵關內侯。
The King of Changyi had just been enthroned and was running wild; Grand General Huo Guang and the court deposed him and set Emperor Xuan on the throne. For his role in fixing the new reign, Guanghan received the noble rank of marquis within the passes.
4
遷潁川太守。 郡大姓原、褚宗族橫恣，賓客犯為盜賊，前二千石莫能禽制。 廣漢既至數月，誅原、褚首惡，郡中震栗。
He was then posted as Governor of Yingchuan. The Yuan and Chu lineages bullied the region; their clients committed theft and violence, and one governor after another had failed to bring them to heel. A few months after he arrived, he executed the chief villains of both houses, and the whole commandery trembled.
5
先是，潁川豪桀大姓相與為婚姻，吏俗朋黨。 廣漢患之，厲使其中可用者受記，出有案問，既得罪名，行法罰之，廣漢故漏泄其語，令相怨咎。 又教吏為缿筩，及得投書，削其主名，而託以為豪桀大姓子弟所言。 其後彊宗大族家家結為仇讎，姦黨散落，風俗大改。 吏民相告訐，廣漢得以為耳目，盜賊以故不發，發又輒得。 壹切治理，威名流聞，及匈奴降者言匈奴中皆聞廣漢。
Earlier, the great houses had married one another into a single bloc, while officials and local habit alike were bound up in cliques. He broke the deadlock by encouraging selected insiders to register complaints, then investigated each lead—but he also leaked the informers' identities so the magnates blamed each other instead of him. He set up sealed post boxes for accusations, then stripped signatures from the letters and circulated them as if they had been penned by rival magnates' younger kin. Soon great families were at each other's throats, criminal networks dissolved, and the moral climate of the commandery shifted overnight. Informants multiplied, so Guanghan always had ears in the streets; crime rarely surfaced, and when it did arrests followed fast. His stern justice became famous even on the steppe: Xiongnu who had come over to the Han reported that his name was known in every camp.
6
本始二年，漢發五將軍擊匈奴，徵廣漢以太守將兵，屬蒲類將軍趙充國。 從軍還，復用守京兆尹，滿歲為真。
In 72 B.C. the court launched five columns against the Xiongnu; Guanghan marched at the head of his commandery contingent under Zhao Chongguo's Pu-lei command. After the campaign he resumed acting duty as Governor of the capital; a year later the post was made permanent.
7
廣漢為二千石，以和顏接士，其尉薦待遇吏，殷勤甚備。 事推功善，歸之於下，曰：「某掾卿所為，非二千石所及。」 行之發於至誠。 吏見者皆輸寫心腹，無所隱匿，咸願為用，僵仆無所避。 廣漢聰明，皆知其能之所宜，盡力與否。 其或負者，輒先聞知，風諭不改，乃收捕之，無所逃，按之罪立具，即時伏辜。
Though he held rank at two thousand piculs, he met subordinates without airs and took unusual care with promotions and day-to-day kindness to his staff. He habitually credited his aides: "That was so-and-so's work, not mine," he would say, even when the achievement was substantial. None of it was theater; his men felt it was heartfelt. Officers who dealt with him laid their plans bare and volunteered for the dirtiest work without flinching. He read people quickly, matched talent to duty, and knew who was slacking. Slackers got a private warning first; if they ignored it he moved in, and his interrogations were so tight that guilt surfaced the same day.
8
廣漢為人彊力，天性精於吏職。 見吏民，或夜不寢至旦。 尤善為鉤距，以得事情。 鉤距者，設欲知馬賈，則先問狗，已問羊，又問牛，然後及馬，參伍其賈，以類相準，則知馬之貴賤不失實矣。 唯廣漢至精能行之，它人效者莫能及也。 郡中盜賊，閭里輕俠，其根株窟穴所在，及吏受取請求銖兩之姦，皆知之。 長安少年數人會窮里空舍謀共劫人，坐語未訖，廣漢使吏捕治具服。 富人蘇回為郎，二人劫之。 有頃，廣漢將吏到家，自立庭下，使長安丞襲奢叩堂戶曉賊，曰：「京兆尹趙君謝兩卿，無得殺質，此宿衛臣也。 釋質，束手，得善相遇，幸逢赦令，或時解脫。」 二人驚愕，又素聞廣漢名，即開戶出，下堂叩頭，廣漢跪謝曰：「幸全活郎，甚厚！」 送獄，敕吏謹遇，給酒肉。 至冬當出死，豫為調棺，給斂葬具，告語之，皆曰：「死無所恨！」
He was physically tough and born to the work of a frontier magistrate. He would interview petitioners through the night until cockcrow. His specialty was the cross-checking method later called "hook and gauge." The idea was to circle the truth: ask about dogs, sheep, and cattle before you ask about horses, compare the numbers, and the real price of the horse emerges from the pattern. Others imitated the trick, but none wielded it with his precision. He could map every thief's den in the capital and trace petty corruption in the yamen to the last coin. A gang of youths was still mid-plot in a slum tenement when his men kicked the door and had full confessions before dawn. Su Hui, a wealthy resident who served as a court gentleman, was taken hostage by two robbers. Guanghan took his place in the courtyard and had Xi She knock at the hall door and call to the kidnappers: "Metropolitan Governor Zhao thanks you both—do not kill the hostage; he is an imperial guardsman on duty." Release the captive, tie your own wrists, and you will be handled fairly—perhaps even freed under a future amnesty. They opened the door, came down, and kowtowed; Guanghan knelt with them and said, "It is a great relief that the gentleman is safe!" He committed them to prison with orders for decent food and drink. When winter came he told them plainly of the coffins he had provided; each answered, "We die without regret!"
9
廣漢嘗記召湖都亭長，湖都亭長西至界上，界上亭長戲曰：「至府，為我多謝問趙君。」 亭長既至，廣漢與語，問事畢，謂曰：「界上亭長寄聲謝我，何以不為致問？」 亭長叩頭服實有之。 廣漢因曰：「還為吾謝界上亭長，勉思職事，有以自效，京兆不忘卿厚意。」 其發姦擿伏如神，皆此類也。
He summoned the Hu post chief, who met a colleague at the border; the man joked, "When you reach the yamen, give Governor Zhao my regards." When the chief arrived, Guanghan finished his business, then said, "The border chief sent his regards through you—why did you not pass them on?" The officer confessed at once. Guanghan added, "On your way back thank the border chief for me: urge him to mind his duties and find ways to prove himself—the metropolitan Governor has not forgotten his courtesy." Stories of that sort were endless; people said he could smell a lie before it was spoken.
10
廣漢奏請，令長安游徼獄吏秩百石，其後百石吏皆差自重，不敢枉法妄繫留人。 京兆政清，吏民稱之不容口。 長老傳以為自漢興以來治京兆者莫能及。 左馮翊、右扶風皆治長安中，犯法者從跡喜過京兆界。 廣漢歎曰：「亂吾治者，常二輔也！ 誠令廣漢得兼治之，直差易耳。」
He won hundred-picul rank for patrolmen and jailers so they would not be bullied into illegal arrests. Under him the capital administration ran clean, and praise ran from mouth to mouth. Old men said no capital governor since Gaozu had matched him. Because the two "assistant" prefects also policed the city, wrongdoers often darted into Guanghan's jurisdiction to dodge them. Guanghan sighed, "What undoes my work is always those two adjunct prefects!" Give me all three offices, he said, and order would be simple.
11
初，大將軍霍光秉政，廣漢事光。 及光薨後，廣漢心知微指，發長安吏自將，與俱至光子博陸侯禹第，直突入其門，廋索私屠酤，椎破盧罌，斧斬其門關而去。 時光女為皇后，聞之，對帝涕泣。 帝心善之，以召問廣漢。 廣漢由是侵犯貴戚大臣。 所居好用世吏子孫新進年少者，專厲彊壯鋒氣，見事風生，無所回避，率多果敢之計，莫為持難。 廣漢終以此敗。
In Huo Guang's years of dominance Guanghan had been his man. When Huo Guang died, Guanghan read the court, led a party straight into Huo Yu's Bolu mansion, hunted for illicit breweries, smashed equipment, and split the gate hasp with an axe—then walked away. Huo's daughter was empress; she wept until the emperor took notice. The sovereign felt for her and called Guanghan in for an explanation. After that he treated even consort kin and senior statesmen as fair game. He filled his staff with aggressive young men from clerkly families, trained them to strike fast and ask questions later, and discouraged second thoughts. That reckoning would destroy him.
12
初，廣漢客私酤酒長安巿，丞相史逐去客。 客疑男子蘇賢言之，以語廣漢。 廣漢使長安丞按賢，尉史禹故劾賢為騎士屯霸上，不詣屯所，乏軍興。 賢父上書訟罪，告廣漢，事下有司覆治。 禹坐要斬，請逮捕廣漢。 有詔即訊，辭服，會赦，貶秩一等。 廣漢疑其邑子榮畜教令，後以它法論殺畜。 人上書言之，事下丞相御史，案驗甚急。 廣漢使所親信長安人為丞相府門卒，令微司丞相門內不法事。 地節三年七月中，丞相傅婢有過，自絞死。 廣漢聞之，疑丞相夫人妒殺之府舍。 而丞相奉齋酎入廟祠，廣漢得此，使中郎趙奉壽風曉丞相，欲以脅之，毋令窮正己事。 丞相不聽，按驗愈急。 廣漢欲告之，先問太史知星氣者，言今年當有戮死大臣，廣漢即上書告丞相罪。 制曰：「下京兆尹治。」 廣漢知事迫切，遂自將吏卒突入丞相府，召其夫人跪庭下受辭，收奴婢十餘人去，責以殺婢事。 丞相魏相上書自陳：「妻實不殺婢。 廣漢數犯罪法不伏辜，以詐巧迫脅臣相，幸臣相寬不奏。 願下明使者治廣漢所驗臣相家事。」 事下廷尉治罪，實丞相自以過譴笞傅婢，出至外弟乃死，不如廣漢言。 司直蕭望之劾奏：「廣漢摧辱大臣，欲以劫持奉公，逆節傷化，不道。」 宣帝惡之，下廣漢廷尉獄，又坐賊殺不辜，鞠獄故不以實，擅斥除騎士乏軍興數罪。 天子可其奏。 吏民守闕號泣者數萬人，或言「臣生無益縣官，願代趙京兆死，使得牧養小民。」 廣漢竟坐要斬。
Long before, a client who brewed bootleg wine in the market had been chased off by the chancellor's office. The client blamed Su Xian and told Guanghan. Guanghan set the Chang'an assistant on Su Xian; a clerk named Yu framed him for absenting himself from cavalry duty at Bashang. Su Xian's father appealed, implicating Guanghan, and the file went back to the regular agencies. Yu drew a capital sentence and demanded Guanghan be seized as well. An imperial order forced a hearing; Guanghan admitted fault, then caught an amnesty that only stripped one rank. He suspected Rong Chu, a townsman, of coaching the suit and later had Chu executed on an unrelated charge. Word reached the chancellor and censor; the scrutiny tightened. He slipped an agent into the chancellor's gate watch to listen for dirt. That summer a foster maid in the Wei household hanged herself after a beating. Guanghan assumed the wife had murdered her out of jealousy. While Wei Xiang was fasting for the imperial sacrifice, Guanghan sent Zhao Fengshou with a veiled threat: drop the probe of Guanghan, or else. Wei Xiang ignored the pressure and doubled the effort to clear his own house. He asked the star readers whether a high minister would die violently that year, then filed capital charges against Wei Xiang. The rescript read: "Send the case down to the metropolitan Governor for trial." He stormed the chancellor's compound, forced Wei's wife to give testimony in the courtyard, and dragged off a dozen slaves as witnesses. Wei Xiang wrote in his own defense, "My wife did not kill the maid." "Guanghan has repeatedly broken the law without paying for it; he twists the statutes and pressures your subject Wei—only Wei's patience has kept this from being reported." "I beg that a clear-sighted envoy be sent to test what Guanghan claims he proved about your subject's household." The commandant of justice found that Wei had whipped the girl, she fled to a brother's house, and died there—nothing like Guanghan's story. Xiao Wang-zhi impeached him for terrorizing a chief minister and subverting public order. The emperor, disgusted, jailed him on multiple counts: judicial fraud, wrongful death, and abuse of military law. The throne accepted the verdict. Tens of thousands mobbed the palace gate, weeping; some cried, "Our lives are useless to the state—we beg to die in Governor Zhao's place so he may go on protecting the little people." He went to the block nonetheless.
13
廣漢雖坐法誅，為京兆尹廉明，威制豪彊，小民得職。 百姓追思，歌之至今。
Even after his execution, memory lingered of a governor who faced down magnates and gave commoners a fair shake. Ballads about him are still sung.
14
尹翁歸字子兄，河東平陽人也，徙杜陵。 翁歸少孤，與季父居。 為獄小吏，曉習文法。 喜擊劍，人莫能當。 是時大將軍霍光秉政，諸霍在平陽，奴客持刀兵入巿鬥變，吏不能禁，及翁歸為巿吏，莫敢犯者。 公廉不受餽，百賈畏之。
Yin Wengui, styled Zixiong, was a native of Pingyang in Hedong who later settled at Duling. Orphaned early, he was raised by an uncle. He began as a petty jail clerk and memorized the code. He loved fencing and had few peers with the blade. While the Huo family swaggered through Pingyang, armed slaves brawled in the market until Yin Wengui took the market office—after which nobody dared make trouble. He took no bribes, and the guilds walked wide of him.
15
後去吏居家。 會田延年為河東太守，行縣至平陽，悉召故吏五六十人，延年親臨見，令有文者東，有武者西。 閱數十人，次到翁歸，獨伏不肯起，對曰：「翁歸文武兼備，唯所施設。」 功曹以為此吏倨敖不遜，延年曰：「何傷？」 遂召上辭問，甚奇其對，除補卒史，便從歸府。 案事發姦，窮竟事情，延年大重之，自以能不及翁歸，徙署督郵。 河東二十八縣，分為兩部，閎孺部汾北，翁歸部汾南。 所舉應法，得其罪辜，屬縣長吏雖中傷，莫有怨者。 舉廉為緱氏尉，歷守郡中，所居治理，遷補都內令，舉廉為弘農都尉。
He resigned and lived privately for a time. When Tian Yannian toured Pingyang as governor of Hedong, he lined up five or six dozen old clerks, civil men to the left, military types to the right. When his turn came, Wengui alone stayed prone and said, "Wengui combines civil and military skills—employ me as you will." Yannian only laughed and asked, "What harm is there?" Yannian called him up, quizzed him, and was so struck by his answers that he named him a clerk-scribe on the spot and took him home to the governor's compound. Wengui broke cases wide open; Yannian rated him above himself and moved him to the inspector's post. The commandery was halved for inspection duty—Hongru rode the north bank of the Fen, Wengui the south. Even magistrates he ruined admitted his charges were fair. He rose from Goushi sheriff through acting county seats to capital granary chief, then to Hongnong as an "incorrupt" nominee.
16
徵拜東海太守，過辭廷尉于定國。 定國家在東海，欲屬託邑子兩人，令坐後堂待見。 定國與翁歸語終日，不敢見其邑子。 既去，定國乃謂邑子曰：「此賢將，汝不任事也，又不可干以私。」
The court named him governor of the Eastern Sea; he stopped to take leave of Yu Dingguo at the commandant's office. Yu Dingguo wanted a favor for two locals from his home county and parked them in the back hall. Yu talked with Wengui until nightfall and never dared introduce the pair. After Wengui left, Dingguo told his townsmen, "That is a worthy governor; you are not fit for office, and private pleas cannot move him."
17
翁歸治東海明察，郡中吏民賢不肖，及姦邪罪名盡知之。 縣縣各有記籍。 自聽其政，有急名則少緩之； 吏民小解，輒披籍。 縣縣收取黠吏豪民，案致其罪，高至於死。 收取人必於秋冬課吏大會中，及出行縣，不以無事時。 其有所取也，以一警百，吏民皆服，恐懼改行自新。 東海大豪郯許仲孫為姦猾，亂吏治，郡中苦之。 二千石欲捕者，輒以力勢變詐自解，終莫能制。 翁歸至，論棄仲孫巿，一郡怖栗，莫敢犯禁。 東海大治。
In the Eastern Sea he knew the moral ledger of every household. Every district had a dossier on its people. Anyone on his hot list found the docket mysteriously quiet until he was ready to move. When clerks and commoners relaxed, he reopened the registers and closed the trap. He swept up corrupt underlings and bullies and prosecuted them to the block when the evidence warranted. Roundups came only at the annual clerk muster or on inspection tours, never as casual harassment. One high-profile arrest taught the whole commandery a lesson. Xu Zhongsun of Tan was the sort of bravo who owned the local yamen. Every previous governor had found him untouchable. Wengui had Xu strung up in the marketplace, and overnight the law meant something again. The Eastern Sea became a model of quiet streets.
18
以高第入守右扶風，滿歲為真。 選用廉平疾姦吏以為右職，接待以禮，好惡與同之； 其負翁歸，罰亦必行。 治如在東海故跡，姦邪罪名亦縣縣有名籍。 盜賊發其比伍中，翁歸輒召其縣長吏，曉告以姦黠主名，教使用類推跡盜賊所過抵，類常如翁歸言，無有遺託。 緩於小弱，急於豪彊。 豪彊有論罪，輸掌畜官，使斫莝，責以員程，不得取代。 不中程，輒笞督，極者至以鈇自剄而死。 京師畏其威嚴，扶風大治，盜賊課常為三輔最。
He scored highest on the merit list and took acting charge of Right Fufeng; a year later the post was his in full. He picked honest hard-liners for the top desks, treated them with respect, and stood with them on what to punish— Yet anyone who betrayed Yin Wengui paid the price without exception. He ran Fufeng the way he had run the coast, with a file on every crooked deal in every county. If a theft rang the neighborhood alarm, he called the magistrate in, fed him the names of local fences, and told him how to trace the trail—and he was never wrong. The poor got mercy; magnates got the law. Convicted grandees chopped hay under the granary steward at fixed daily quotas, with no stand-ins. Short weight meant the rod; a few killed themselves with the court axe rather than face another round. The metropolis heard his name with respect; crime statistics in his district led the capital region year after year.
19
翁歸為政雖任刑，其在公卿之間清絜自守，語不及私，然溫良嗛退，不以行能驕人，甚得名譽於朝廷。 視事數歲，元康四年病卒。 家無餘財，天子賢之，制詔御史：「朕夙興夜寐，以求賢為右，不異親疏近遠，務在安民而已。 扶風翁歸廉平鄉正，治民異等，早夭不遂，不得終其功業，朕甚憐之。 其賜翁歸子黃金百斤，以奉其祭祠。」
He was a hangman with a scholar's manners: severe on the bench, soft-spoken in the capital, never trading on his talent. He fell ill and died in 62 B.C., only a few years into the Fufeng post. He died poor; the emperor told the censor: "I lose sleep over finding good officials, kin or stranger, if only the people may rest. Yin Wengui of Fufeng was clean, straight, and a singular governor; cut off before his prime, he leaves unfinished business that grieves Us." Give his son a hundred catties of gold for the ancestral rites."
20
翁歸三子皆為郡守。 少子岑歷位九卿，至後將軍。 而閎孺亦至廣陵相，有治名。 由是世稱田延年為知人。
Each of his three boys rose to a commandery governorship. Cen, the youngest, climbed to the Nine Ministers and ended as rear general. His old partner Hongru made chancellor of Guangling with a name for competence. People said Tian Yannian had an eye for talent.
21
韓延壽字長公，燕人也，徙杜陵。 少為郡文學。 父義為燕郎中。 剌王之謀逆也，義諫而死，燕人閔之。 是時昭帝富於春秋，大將軍霍光持政，徵郡國賢良文學，問以得失。 時魏相以文學對策，以為「賞罰所以勸善禁惡，政之本也。 日者燕王為無道，韓義出身彊諫，為王所殺。 義無比干之親而蹈比干之節，宜顯賞其子，以示天下，明為人臣之義。」 光納其言，因擢延壽為諫大夫，遷淮陽太守。 治甚有名，徙潁川。
Han Yanshou, styled Changgong, was a Yan man who settled at Duling. He began as the commandery's literary officer. His father Han Yi held a gentleman post at the Yan court. When the Prince of Guangling turned traitor, Han Yi spoke out and died for it; Yan mourned him. Under the boy emperor, Huo Guang called in local scholars to debate what had gone wrong in the realm. Wei Xiang answered the examination, "Rewards and punishments encourage good and restrain evil—that is the root of government." The Prince of Yan had murdered Han Yi for daring to rebuke treason. Han Yi was no royal uncle, yet he matched Bi Gan's courage; honor his son and the world will see what loyalty costs." Huo Guang agreed and pulled Yanshou up to remonstrant, then sent him to Huaiyang as governor. His reputation there earned him Yingchuan.
22
潁川多豪彊，難治，國家常為選良二千石。 先是，趙廣漢為太守，患其俗多朋黨，故構會吏民，令相告訐，一切以為聰明，潁川由是以為俗，民多怨讎。 延壽欲更改之，教以禮讓，恐百姓不從，乃歷召郡中長老為鄉里所信向者數十人，設酒具食，親與相對，接以禮意，人人問以謠俗，民所疾苦，為陳和睦親愛銷除怨咎之路。 長老皆以為便，可施行，因與議定嫁娶喪祭儀品，略依古禮，不得過法。 延壽於是令文學校官諸生皮弁執俎豆，為吏民行喪嫁娶禮。 百姓遵用其教，賣偶車馬下里偽物者，棄之巿道。 數年，徙為東郡太守，黃霸代延壽居潁川，霸因其跡而大治。
Yingchuan's magnates made it a posting that tested every governor. Zhao Guanghan had broken the cliques by turning neighbor against neighbor; the habit of spying lingered and hatreds piled up. Yanshou meant to replace denunciation with ritual: he feasted the village heads, heard their grievances, and preached reconciliation until they believed him. They drew up wedding, funeral, and sacrifice rules from old texts, kept within the code, and endorsed the plan. He put the schoolboys in caps and gowns to stage public weddings and funerals by the book. Vendors of paper hearses and cheap grave goods cleared their stock from the roads. A few years later he left for the Eastern Commandery; Huang Ba inherited his methods and finished the job in Yingchuan.
23
延壽為吏，上禮義，好古教化，所至必聘其賢士，以禮待用，廣謀議，納諫爭； 舉行喪讓財，表孝弟有行； 修治學官，春秋鄉社，陳鍾鼓管弦，盛升降揖讓，及都試講武，設斧鉞旌旗，習射御之事。 治城郭，收賦租，先明布告其日，以期會為大事，吏民敬畏趨鄉之。 又置正、五長，相率以孝弟，不得舍姦人。 閭里仟佰有非常，吏輒聞知，姦人莫敢入界。 其始若煩，後吏無追捕之苦，民無箠楚之憂，皆便安之。 接待下吏，恩施甚厚而約誓明。 或欺負之者，延壽痛自刻責：「豈其負之，何以至此？」 吏聞者自傷悔，其縣尉至自刺死。 及門下掾自剄，人救不殊，因瘖不能言。 延壽聞之，對掾史涕泣，遣吏毉治視，厚復其家。
Han Yanshou governed as a Confucian reformer: he patronized scholars, welcomed remonstrance, and spread ritual education in every county he touched. He singled out men who yielded property at funerals and sons famous for genuine filial conduct, then paraded them as models. He rebuilt the schoolhouses, held spring and autumn village sacrifices with bells, drums, and pipes, and drilled the militia beneath halberds and banners until the commandery looked like a small army on parade. Tax days were posted in advance and kept sacred; nobody missed a deadline. He tied hamlets together under headmen who vouched for mutual virtue. Any whisper in a ward reached the yamen the same day; crooks stayed out of his commandery. The paperwork looked heavy at first, yet soon there were no manhunts and no beatings in the courtyard. He spoiled his staff with favors but wrote the rules in stone. When a clerk betrayed that trust, Yanshou bitterly blamed himself: "Have I failed them—how did it come to this?" One deputy was so ashamed he opened his own belly. A gate clerk tried suicide and survived mute. Yanshou wept in court, paid a doctor, and pensioned the family.
24
延壽嘗出，臨上車，騎吏一人後至，敕功曹議罰白。 還至府門，門卒當車，願有所言。 延壽止車問之，卒曰：「孝經曰：『資於事父以事君，而敬同，故母取其愛，而君取其敬，兼之者父也。』 今旦明府早駕，久駐未出，騎吏父來至府門，不敢入。 騎吏聞之，趨走出謁，適會明府登車。 以敬父而見罰，得毋虧大化乎？」 延壽舉手輿中曰：「微子，太守不自知過。」 歸舍，召見門卒。 卒本諸生，聞延壽賢，無因自達，故代卒，延壽遂待用之。 其納善聽諫，皆此類也。 在東郡三歲，令行禁止，斷獄大減，為天下最。
One morning a mounted escort was late; Yanshou told the merit clerk to draw up a fine. At the gate a watchman stopped the horses. Yanshou reined in; the watchman said, "The Classic of Filial Piety teaches that the reverence one shows a ruler matches the reverence one shows a father." That morning the governor's carriage had waited long at the gate; the rider's father had come but dared not interrupt. Hearing his name, the son ran out to greet his father just as the governor called for the horses. Would you punish a man for filial haste, and teach the whole commandery to fear honoring a parent?" Yanshou lifted his hand: "Without you I would have blundered." At home he sent for the watchman. The fellow was a scholar who had taken gate duty just to meet him; Yanshou put him on staff. That was how he took advice. Three years in the Eastern Commandery cut the docket to nothing and put him at the top of the empire's scorecard.
25
入守左馮翊，滿歲稱職為真。 歲餘，不肯出行縣。 丞掾數白：「宜循行郡中，覽觀民俗，考長吏治跡。」 延壽曰：「縣皆有賢令長，督郵分明善惡於外，行縣恐無所益，重為煩擾。」 丞掾皆以為方春月，可壹出勸耕桑。 延壽不得已，行縣至高陵，民有昆弟相與訟田自言，延壽大傷之，曰：「幸得備位，為郡表率，不能宣明教化，至令民有骨肉爭訟，既傷風化，重使賢長吏、嗇夫、三老、孝弟受其恥，咎在馮翊，當先退。」 是日移病不聽事，因入臥傳舍，閉閤思過。 一縣莫知所為，令丞、嗇夫、三老亦皆自繫待罪。 於是訟者宗族傳相責讓，此兩昆弟深自悔，皆自髡肉袒謝，願以田相移，終死不敢復爭。 延壽大喜，開閤延見，內酒肉與相對飲食，厲勉以意告鄉部，有以表勸悔過從善之民。 延壽乃起聽事，勞謝令丞以下，引見尉薦。 郡中歙然，莫不傳相敕厲，不敢犯。 延壽恩信周遍二十四縣，莫復以辭訟自言者。 推其至誠，吏民不忍欺紿。
He moved to acting Left Pingyi and won confirmation after a year. For over a year he would not ride circuit. His deputies begged him to inspect the counties and judge the magistrates. Yanshou replied, "Each county already has a worthy magistrate; the surveillance inspector sorts good from evil beyond the walls—a grand tour would bring no gain and would only vex the people." They pressed him to bless the spring planting. At Gaoling he found two brothers suing each other over land and said in anguish, "I hold this post as the commandery's model, yet I have failed to spread moral teaching until flesh and blood sue in open court—this shames custom and makes worthy magistrates, village chiefs, elders, and exemplars of filial piety bear disgrace; the fault lies with the Governor of Pingyi, who should withdraw first." He shut the yamen, took to the inn sickbed, and fasted in self-reproach. The county officers tied their own hands and waited for the axe. The clans shamed the brothers until they shaved their heads, stripped to the waist, and deeded the land back and forth in tears. Yanshou opened his doors, feasted them, and told every hamlet to copy the story. He went back to work, thanked his staff, and held promotions court. Word of the scene ran through every district; nobody wanted to be the next headline. Within a season his twenty-four counties stopped filing petty suits. Sincerity that deep left no room for lies.
26
延壽代蕭望之為左馮翊，而望之遷御史大夫。 侍謁者福為望之道延壽在東郡時放散官錢千餘萬。 望之與丞相丙吉議，吉以為更大赦，不須考。 會御史當問事東郡，望之因令并問之。 延壽聞知，即部吏案校望之在馮翊時廩犧官錢放散百餘萬。 廩犧吏掠治急，自引與望之為姦。 延壽劾奏，移殿門禁止望之。 望之自奏「職在總領天下，聞事不敢不問，而為延壽所拘持。」 上由是不直延壽，各令窮竟所考。 望之卒無事實，而望之遣御史案東郡，具得其事。 延壽在東郡時，試騎士，治飾兵車，畫龍虎朱爵。 延壽衣黃紈方領，駕四馬，傅總，建幢棨，植羽葆，鼓車歌車。 功曹引車，皆駕四馬，載棨戟。 五騎為伍，分左右部，軍假司馬、千人持幢旁轂。 歌者先居射室，望見延壽車，噭咷楚歌。 延壽坐射室，騎吏持戟夾陛列立，騎士從者帶弓鞬羅後。 令騎士兵車四面營陳，被甲鞮鞪居馬上，抱弩負籣。 又使騎士戲車弄馬盜驂。 延壽又取官銅物，候月蝕鑄作刀劍鉤鐔，放效尚方事。 及取官錢帛，私假繇使吏。 及治飾車甲三百萬以上。
When Xiao Wang-zhi rose to imperial counsellor, Yanshou took his old seat at Left Pingyi. A tipster told Wang-zhi that Yanshou had embezzled millions in the Eastern Commandery. Wang-zhi asked Bing Ji, who said amnesties had wiped the slate. Wang-zhi told the touring censor to add embezzlement to his brief. Yanshou struck back by auditing Wang-zhi's own grain-fund accounts at Pingyi. Under the rod the accountants confessed to splitting the loot with Wang-zhi. He filed charges and had guards stop Wang-zhi at the Dadian gate. Wang-zhi answered, "My duty is to oversee the empire; hearing of a matter I dare not fail to inquire—yet Yanshou has seized and constrained me." The throne lost patience with Yanshou and told both camps to finish their probes. Wang-zhi's own case collapsed, but his censor in the Eastern Commandery dug up the dirt Yanshou had buried. In the Eastern Commandery he staged a full dress review: chariots emblazoned with dragons, tigers, and vermilion finches. He rode in yellow silk, four-in-hand, with royal-style banners, feather parasols, and a traveling band. Even his chief clerk's chariot ran four horses and carried a rack of halberds. Cavalry formed fives, split into wings, with temporary majors and chiliarchs flanking the axles with pennants. Chorus girls in the butts wailed Chu airs as his train approached. He presided from the gallery while guards bracketed the stairs and escorts bristled with bows. Armored riders circled the field on horseback, crossbows loaded. The show included circus riding—vaulting, swapping mounts mid-gallop. He melted government bronze on eclipse nights to forge blades aping the palace armory. He diverted treasury coin and cloth to pay unofficial labor. Ornamenting the chariots and armor ran past three million cash.
27
於是望之劾奏延壽上僭不道，又自陳：「前為延壽所奏，今復舉延壽罪，眾庶皆以臣懷不正之心，侵冤延壽。 願下丞相、中二千石、博士議其罪。」 事下公卿，皆以延壽前既無狀，後復誣愬典法大臣，欲以解罪，狡猾不道。 天子惡之，延壽竟坐棄市。 吏民數千人送至渭城，老小扶持車轂，爭奏酒炙。 延壽不忍距逆，人人為飲，計飲酒石餘。 使掾史分謝送者：「遠苦吏民，延壽死無所恨。」 百姓莫不流涕。
Wang-zhi impeached Yanshou for usurping ritual and lacking the Way, then added, "Earlier Yanshou impeached me; now I bring his crimes—the crowd will think I nurse an unjust mind and wrong Yanshou." "I beg that the matter be sent to the chancellor, ministers at two thousand piculs, and erudites to debate his guilt." The consensus: Yanshou had flouted rank for years, then framed a chief minister to save himself. The emperor approved; Yanshou went to the block. Thousands walked him to Weicheng, clutching his axles and pressing cups and skewers on him. He drank with everyone until he had taken more than ten stone of liquor. Through his clerks he thanked the escort: "You have troubled yourselves, clerks and people—Yanshou dies without regret." The road was wet with tears.
28
延壽三子皆為郎吏。 且死，屬其子勿為吏，以己為戒。 子皆以父言去官不仕。 至孫威，乃復為吏至將軍。 威亦多恩信，能拊眾，得士死力。 威又坐奢僭誅，延壽之風類也。
Each of his three boys served as a court gentleman. On the scaffold he made them swear off government service. They quit their posts at once. Only the grandson Han Wei returned to the rolls—and reached general's rank. Wei inherited the family's gift for winning hearts on the frontier. He too died for the same flash and overreach that had killed his grandfather.
29
張敞字子高，本河東平陽人也。 祖父孺為上谷太守，徙茂陵。 敞父福事孝武帝，官至光祿大夫。 敞後隨宣帝徙杜陵。 敞本以鄉有秩補太守卒史，察廉為甘泉倉長，稍遷太僕丞，杜延年甚奇之。 會昌邑王徵即位，動作不由法度，敞上書諫曰：「孝昭皇帝蚤崩無嗣，大臣憂懼，選賢聖承宗廟，東迎之日，唯恐屬車之行遲。 今天子以盛年初即位，天下莫不拭目傾耳，觀化聽風。 國輔大臣未褒，而昌邑小輦先遷，此過之大者也。」 後十餘日王賀廢，敞以切諫顯名，擢為豫州刺史。 以數上事有忠言，宣帝徵敞為太中大夫，與于定國並平尚書事。 以正違忤大將軍霍光，而使主兵車出軍省減用度，復出為函谷關都尉。 宣帝初即位，廢王賀在昌邑，上心憚之，徙敞為山陽太守。
Zhang Chang, styled Zigao, came from Pingyang in Hedong. His grandfather Zhang Ru governed Shanggu before resettling at Maoling. His father Zhang Fu rose to chamberlain for the palace attendants under Emperor Wu. Zhang Chang followed Emperor Xuan to the new mausoleum town at Duling. He worked up from village head to governor's chief clerk, then granary chief at Ganquan, then aide to the chamberlain for the imperial stud—Du Yannian marked him early. When the King of Changyi took the throne and flouted the law, Zhang Chang wrote, "Emperor Zhao died young without an heir; the great ministers were frantic and chose a worthy sage to continue the temple line; on the day of the eastern welcome they feared only that the rear carriages would be slow." The realm now watched a young emperor to learn whether his court would steady the age or squander it. State ministers go unrewarded while Changyi's petty favorites leap ahead—that is the gravest error." Within two weeks the prince was thrown out; Zhang Chang's memorial made his name and won him Yuzhou. Emperor Xuan called him to court as grandee of the palace to screen palace memorials beside Yu Dingguo. His bluntness crossed Huo Guang, who shunted him to logistics and then to the Hangu Pass garrison. The emperor still feared the deposed Prince He at Changyi, so he parked Zhang Chang in Shanyang as governor.
30
久之，勃海、膠東盜賊並起，敞上書自請治之，曰：「臣聞忠孝之道，退家則盡心於親，進宦則竭力於君。 夫小國中君猶有奮不顧身之臣，況於明天子乎！ 今陛下遊意於太平，勞精於政事，亹亹不舍晝夜。 群臣有司宜各竭力致身。 山陽郡戶九萬三千，口五十萬以上，訖計盜賊未得者七十七人，它課諸事亦略如此。 臣敞愚駑，既無以佐思慮，久處閒郡，身逸樂而忘國事，非忠孝之節也。 伏聞膠東、勃海左右郡歲數不登，盜賊並起，至攻官寺，篡囚徒，搜市朝，劫列侯。 吏失綱紀，姦軌不禁。 臣敞不敢愛身避死，唯明詔之所處，願盡力摧挫其暴虐，存撫其孤弱。 事即有業，所至郡條奏其所由廢及所以興之狀。」 書奏，天子徵敞，拜膠東相，賜黃金三十斤。 敞辭之官，自請治劇郡非賞罰無以勸善懲惡，吏追捕有功效者，願得壹切比三輔尤異。 天子許之。
When revolt broke out in Bohai and Jiaodong, Zhang Chang volunteered, "I have heard that the way of loyalty and filial piety is, at home, to exhaust one's heart for one's parents, and in office, to exhaust one's strength for one's ruler." Even a petty state can breed ministers who die for their lord; how much more should the Han, under a sage Son of Heaven, demand the same. Your Majesty toils day and night toward the age of peace. Every minister should spend body and soul in reply. Shanyang counts ninety-three thousand households and half a million mouths, yet seventy-seven named bandits still roam free—other quotas look the same. I have warmed a quiet seat while bandits multiply—that is neither loyal nor filial. I hear the eastern coast has failed several harvests; mobs sack offices, free convicts, loot the markets, and even rob marquises. Local government has lost its grip. Send me where you will—I will break the gangs and shelter the helpless. If I succeed, I will report from each county how rot set in and how I set it right." The emperor named him chancellor of Jiaodong and weighed out thirty pounds of gold. On departure he asked for the emergency powers the capital prefects enjoyed—bounties, summary justice, and promotions for good arrests. The throne agreed.
31
敞到膠東，明設購賞，開群盜令相捕斬除罪。 吏追捕有功，上名尚書調補縣令者數十人。 由是盜賊解散，傳相捕斬。 吏民歙然，國中遂平。
He posted bounties and offered amnesty to any gang that delivered another gang's heads. Successful officers went to the capital personnel office and dozens jumped straight to magistrate. The gangs turned on one another for the price on their heads. The realm went quiet; the rebellion melted.
32
居頃之，王太后數出游獵，敞奏書諫曰：「臣聞秦王好淫聲，葉陽后為不聽鄭衛之樂； 楚嚴好田獵，樊姬為之不食鳥獸之肉。 口非惡旨甘，耳非憎絲竹也，所以抑心意，絕耆欲者，將以率二君而全宗祀也。 禮，君母出門則乘輜軿，下堂則從傅母，進退則鳴玉佩，內飾則結綢繆。 此言尊貴所以自斂制，不從恣之義也。 今太后資質淑美，慈愛寬仁，諸侯莫不聞，而少以田獵縱欲為名，於以上聞，亦未宜也。 唯觀覽於往古，全行乎來今，令后姬得有所法則，下臣有所稱誦，臣敞幸甚！」 書奏，太后止不復出。
When the dowager of Jiaodong took to the hunt, Zhang Chang wrote, "I have heard that the King of Qin loved dissolute music and Queen Yeyang therefore refused to listen to Zheng and Wei airs." Lady Fan Ji of Chu gave up fowl and flesh until her king abandoned his obsession with the hunt. They starved the senses to steer their lords back toward the altars. Ritual says a queen mother rides veiled, walks behind a nurse, jingles with each step, and dresses with every ribbon in place. That is how dignity disciplines appetite. Your mother is praised for grace; a name for pleasure hunts would ill become the court's ear. Look backward to the sages, forward to a flawless example for the harem and a story officials can tell with pride." She never hunted again.
33
是時潁川太守黃霸以治行第一入守京兆尹。 霸視事數月，不稱，罷歸潁川。 於是制詔御史：「其以膠東相敞守京兆尹。」 自趙廣漢誅後，比更守尹，如霸等數人，皆不稱職。 京師寖廢，長安市偷盜尤多，百賈苦之。 上以問敞，敞以為可禁。 敞既視事，求問長安父老，偷盜酋長數人，居皆溫厚，出從童騎，閭里以為長者。 敞皆召見責問，因貰其罪，把其宿負，令致諸偷以自贖。 偷長曰：「今一旦召詣府，恐諸偷驚駭，願一切受署。」 敞皆以為吏，遣歸休。 置酒，小偷悉來賀，且飲醉，偷長以赭汙其衣裾。 吏坐里閭閱出者，汙赭輒收縛之，一日捕得數百人。 窮治所犯，或一人百餘發，盡行法罰。 由是枹鼓稀鳴，市無偷盜，天子嘉之。
Huang Ba of Yingchuan, first on the merit list, took acting charge of the capital. Within months he washed out and went home to Yingchuan. An edict ordered the imperial secretary: "Let Chancellor Zhang Chang of Jiaodong act as metropolitan Governor." After Zhao Guanghan's death a string of appointees, Huang Ba among them, had failed the capital. Chang'an markets slid toward anarchy; the guilds begged for relief. The emperor turned to Zhang Chang, who said he could fix it. He found the fence bosses: respectable neighbors who rode out with child pages and looked like grandfathers. He called them in, forgave past sins, and traded amnesty for every pickpocket they could deliver. The thief chief said, "If we are summoned to the yamen at once, the other thieves will panic; we beg to receive commissions first." Zhang Chang made them deputies and sent them home. He threw a banquet; when the small fry were drunk, their leader dabbed ochre on every coat tail. Guards at every alley mouth grabbed anyone with a rust-colored hem—hundreds in a day. Follow-up trials showed career criminals with a hundred counts each. The night-watch drums fell silent; the emperor applauded.
34
敞為人敏疾，賞罰分明，見惡輒取，時時越法縱舍，有足大者。 其治京兆，略循趙廣漢之跡。 方略耳目，發伏禁姦，不如廣漢，然敞本治春秋，以經術自輔，其政頗雜儒雅，往往表賢顯善，不醇用誅罰，以此能自全，竟免於刑戮。
Zhang Chang was brilliant and decisive, sometimes too quick with mercy or the rod. He ran the capital much as Zhao Guanghan had. He lacked Zhao's spy web but leavened police work with Confucian praise and blame—and lived to tell the tale.
35
京兆典京師，長安中浩穰，於三輔尤為劇。 郡國二千石以高弟入守，及為真，久者不過二三年，近者數月一歲，輒毀傷失名，以罪過罷。 唯廣漢及敞為久任職。 敞為京兆，朝廷每有大議，引古今，處便宜，公卿皆服，天子數從之。 然敞無威儀，時罷朝會，過走馬章臺街，使御吏驅，自以便面拊馬。 又為婦畫眉，長安中傳張京兆眉憮。 有司以奏敞。 上問之，對曰：「臣聞閨房之內，夫婦之私，有過於畫眉者。」 上愛其能，弗備責也。 然終不得大位。
The capital prefecture is the empire's cockpit; Chang'an is the hardest post of the three. Most governors lasted a year or two, some only months, before scandal ended them. Only Zhao Guanghan and Zhang Chang endured. In great council he quoted classics and carried the day so often the emperor habitually took his side. Off duty he raced down Zhangtai Street fanning his ponies like a boy racer. He sketched his wife's eyebrows; the capital mocked "Governor Zhang's bedroom calligraphy." The censorate reported him. Before the emperor he replied, "I have heard that within the women's quarters, between husband and wife, there are private acts more intimate than painting eyebrows." Emperor Xuan laughed off the charge. He still never rose to the summit.
36
敞與蕭望之、于定國相善。 始敞與定國俱以諫昌邑王超遷。 定國為大夫平尚書事，敞出為刺史，時望之為大行丞。 後望之先至御史大夫，定國後至丞相，敞終不過郡守。 為京兆九歲，坐與光祿勳楊惲厚善，後惲坐大逆誅，公卿奏惲黨友，不宜處位，等比皆免，而敞奏獨寢不下。 敞使卒捕掾絮舜有所案驗。 舜以敞劾奏當免，不肯為敞竟事，私歸其家。 人或諫舜，舜曰：「吾為是公盡力多矣，今五日京兆耳，安能復案事？」 敞聞舜語，即部吏收舜繫獄。 是時冬月未盡數日，案事吏晝夜驗治舜，竟致其死事。 舜當出死，敞使主簿持教告舜曰：「五日京兆竟何如？ 冬月已盡，延命乎？」 乃棄舜市。 會立春，行冤獄使者出，舜家載尸，并編敞教，自言使者。 使者奏敞賊殺不辜。 天子薄其罪，欲令敞得自便利，即先下敞前坐楊惲不宜處位奏，免為庶人。 敞免奏既下，詣闕上印綬，便從闕下亡命。
He was friends with Xiao Wang-zhi and Yu Dingguo. He and Yu Dingguo had vaulted the ranks together on the Changyi memorials. Yu stayed at court on documents; Zhang went to the provinces while Xiao was still a foreign-affairs aide. Xiao became censor-in-chief, Yu became chancellor; Zhang never left the commandery level. Nine years in the capital ended when his friend Yang Yun fell for lese-majeste; the court cashiered Yun's whole circle, but Zhang Chang's dismissal slip somehow never left the desk. He ordered bailiffs to seize his investigator Xu Shun. Xu assumed Zhang was finished and walked off the job. When scolded, Xu sneered that Zhang was a "five-day governor" with no time left to settle dockets. Zhang Chang had him dragged to jail at once. In the last days of winter his jailers worked Xu Shun round the clock until they had a hanging charge. On the eve of execution Zhang sent his registrar with a note: "Still think I'm a five-day governor?" He asked whether the turn of the month had bought Xu Shun a stay of execution. He had Xu Shun cut down in public. Spring audits began; Xu's kin hauled the body and Zhang's taunting note to the touring inspector. The inspector reported deliberate murder. The emperor went easy: he rubber-stamped the old Yang Yun guilt first so Zhang could slip to commoner status instead of the block. Zhang handed in his seals and vanished from the capital the same hour.
37
數月，京師吏民解弛，枹鼓數起，而冀州部中有大賊。 天子思敞功效，使使者即家在所召敞。 敞身被重劾，及使者至，妻子家室皆泣惶懼，而敞獨笑曰：「吾身亡命為民，郡吏當就捕，今使者來，此天子欲用我也。」 即裝隨使者詣公書上車曰：「臣前幸得備位列卿，待罪京兆，坐殺賊捕掾絮舜。 舜本臣敞素所厚吏，數蒙恩貸，以臣有章劾當免，受記考事，便歸臥家，謂臣『五日京兆』，背恩忘義，傷化薄俗。 臣竊以舜無狀，枉法以誅之。 臣敞賊殺無辜，鞠獄故不直，雖伏明法，死無所恨。」 天子引見敞，拜為冀州刺史。 敞起亡命，復奉使典州。 既到部，而廣川王國群輩不道，賊連發，不得。 敞以耳目發起賊主名區處，誅其渠帥。 廣川王姬昆弟及王同族宗室劉調等通行為之囊橐，吏逐捕窮窘，蹤跡皆入王宮。 敞自將郡國吏，車數百兩，圍守王宮，搜索調等，果得之殿屋重轑中。 敞傅吏皆捕格斷頭，縣其頭王宮門外。 因劾奏廣川王。 天子不忍致法，削其戶。 敞居部歲餘，冀州盜賊禁止。 守太原太守，滿歲為真，太原郡清。
Within months the capital slid back toward chaos and Jizhou boiled with outlaw armies. The emperor sent recruiters to Zhang's hideout. His household wept in terror, but Zhang Chang alone laughed and said, "I am a fugitive commoner—commandery officers should come to arrest me; now an imperial agent has arrived, which means the Son of Heaven means to employ me again." He packed, followed the agent, and on the road submitted a memorial: "Your subject formerly stood among the ministers, awaiting judgment as metropolitan Governor, for killing the thief-catching clerk Xu Shun." Xu had been a favored clerk who abandoned an assigned inquest, sneered that Zhang was only a "five-day governor," and threw away every kindness his patron had shown him. Zhang admits he stretched the statutes to kill him. He pleads guilty to judicial murder and accepts whatever sentence follows." The emperor received him and named him inspector of Jizhou. From outlaw to provincial governor in one edict. Guangchuan's royal clique ran wild and eluded every net. Zhang's ears named the ringleaders; he beheaded them. Princesses' brothers and Liu Tiao laundered the loot until the trail dead-ended inside the palace walls. Zhang ringed the palace with hundreds of wagons, tore up the rafters, and dragged Liu Tiao out of the roof. His men killed them in the fight and nailed the heads to the palace gate. He then indicted the king. The emperor spared execution but slashed the fief. A year later Jizhou was quiet. He moved to Taiyuan as acting governor, won confirmation, and left the commandery spotless.
38
頃之，宣帝崩。 元帝初即位，待詔鄭朋薦敞先帝名臣，宜傅輔皇太子。 上以問前將軍蕭望之，望之以為敞能吏，任治煩亂，材輕非師傅之器。 天子使使者徵敞，欲以為左馮翊。 會病卒。 敞所誅殺太原吏吏家怨敞，隨至杜陵刺殺敞中子璜。 敞三子官皆至都尉。
Emperor Xuan died soon after. Emperor Yuan's courtier Zheng Peng urged Zhang Chang to tutor the heir. Xiao Wang-zhi called him a brawler, not a teacher. The throne still meant to give him Left Pingyi. He died of illness before the chariot arrived. Taiyuan families he had ruined trailed him to Duling and murdered his second son. Each of his three boys who served rose to chief commandant.
39
初，敞為京兆尹，而敞弟武拜為梁相。 是時梁王驕貴，民多豪彊，號為難治。 敞問武：「欲何以治梁？」 武敬憚兄，謙不肯言。 敞使吏送至關，戒吏自問武。 武應曰：「馭黠馬者利其銜策，梁國大都，吏民凋敝，且當以柱後惠文彈治之耳。」 秦時獄法吏冠柱後惠文，武意欲以刑法治梁。 吏還道之，敞笑曰：「審如掾言，武必辨治梁矣。」 武既到官，其治有跡，亦能吏也。
While Zhang Chang ran the capital, his brother Zhang Wu became chancellor of Liang. Liang's king was a spoiled cousin; magnates filled the fields—it was a notorious posting. Zhang Chang asked, "By what means do you intend to govern Liang?" Zhang Wu would not say. Zhang sent a clerk to the border to worm the answer out of him. "Treat Liang like a rank stallion," Wu said—"bit, whip, and the black cap of a Qin jailer." He meant hard-line criminal justice, the way Qin clerks had run trials. Zhang laughed: "Then my brother will handle Liang." Zhang Wu proved a strong governor in his own right.
40
敞孫竦，王莽時至郡守，封侯，博學文雅過於敞，然政事不及也。 竦死，敞無後。
His grandson Zhang Song, under Wang Mang, rose higher in scholarship but never matched him as an executive. Song's line ended Zhang Chang's descendants.
41
王尊字子贛，涿郡高陽人也。 少孤，歸諸父，使牧羊澤中。 尊竊學問，能史書。 年十三，求為獄小吏。 數歲，給事太守府，問詔書行事，尊無不對。 太守奇之，除補書佐，署守屬監獄。 久之，尊稱病去，事師郡文學官，治尚書、論語，略通大義。 復召署守屬治獄，為郡決曹史。 數歲，以令舉幽州刺史從事。 而太守察尊廉，補遼西鹽官長。 數上書言便宜事，事下丞相御史。
Wang Zun, styled Zigong, came from Gaoyang in Zhuo. His uncles put him to minding sheep on the marsh. He stole lessons and learned clerical hand. At thirteen he begged for a jailer's stool. In the governor's yamen he could quote any edict from memory. The governor made him a writing clerk and acting jail overseer. He quit to study the Documents and Analects under the commandery scholar. He returned as capital-case clerk for the commandery. Statute carried him to a staff post under the inspector of Youzhou. The governor named him head of the Liao salt monopoly for incorruptibility. He peppered the capital with policy memos that reached the chancellor's desk.
42
初元中，舉直言，遷虢令，轉守槐里，兼行美陽令事。 春正月，美陽女子告假子不孝，曰：「兒常以我為妻，妒笞我。」 尊聞之，遣吏收捕驗問，辭服。 尊曰：「律無妻母之法，聖人所不忍書，此經所謂造獄者也。」 尊於是出坐廷上，取不孝子縣磔著樹，使騎吏五人張弓射殺之，吏民驚駭。
On a "blunt counsel" nomination he became magistrate of Guo, then acting Huaili with Meiyang added. A woman of Meiyang reported her foster son, saying, "The boy treats me as his wife, is jealous, and beats me." Wang Zun arrested him; he confessed. Wang Zun said, "The statutes have no crime called 'wife-mother'—the sages could not bear to write it; this is what the classics mean by manufacturing a case where none should exist." He dragged the man into the courtyard, tied him to a tree, and had five archers shoot him apart while the crowd watched in horror.
43
後上行幸雍，過虢，尊供張如法而辦。 以高弟擢為安定太守。 到官，出教告屬縣曰：「令長丞尉奉法守城，為民父母，抑彊扶弱，宣恩廣澤，甚勞苦矣。 太守以今日至府，願諸君卿勉力正身以率下。 故行貪鄙，能變更者與為治。 明慎所職，毋以身試法。」 又出教敕掾功曹「各自底厲，助太守為治。 其不中用，趣自避退，毋久妨賢。 夫羽翮不修，則不可以致千里； 闑內不理，無以整外。 府丞悉署吏行能，分別白之。 賢為上，毋以富。 賈人百萬，不足與計事。 昔孔子治魯，七日誅少正卯，今太守視事已一月矣，五官掾張輔懷虎狼之心，貪汙不軌，一郡之錢盡入輔家，然適足以葬矣。 今將輔送獄，直符史詣閤下，從太守受其事。 丞戒之戒之！ 相隨入獄矣！」 輔繫獄數日死，盡得其狡猾不道，百萬姦臧。 威震郡中，盜賊分散，入傍郡界。 豪彊多誅傷伏辜者。 坐殘賊免。
When the emperor passed through Guo, Wang Zun's reception train was flawless. Top marks won him Anding. On taking office he issued instructions to the counties: "Magistrates, chiefs, and captains who uphold the law and guard the walls, acting as fathers and mothers to the people, checking the mighty and aiding the weak, spreading grace and broad moisture, labor bitterly." "The governor enters the mansion today; I hope you gentlemen will straighten yourselves and lead those below." "Those who were greedy and base in the past—whoever can reform may share in good order." "Be bright and careful in your duties; do not test the law with your bodies." He also charged his senior staff: "Each of you must spur himself on and help the governor govern." "Those who are not fit should withdraw at once and not long block worthier men." As the proverb says, a bird with broken feathers cannot fly a thousand li. When the inner offices fall into chaos, no amount of zeal on the frontier can restore order. The deputy shall rank every clerk by talent. Merit before money. A millionaire merchant is no partner in policy. Confucius killed Shao Zhengmao in seven days; Wang Zun had been governor a month while Zhang Fu embezzled the treasury dry—enough loot to fill his grave. Fu goes to jail now; the tally clerk will take him from my hand. "Assistant governor—mark this warning!" "Or you will follow Zhang Fu into the same cell!" Zhang Fu died in custody; the audit found a million in dirty coin. The commandery froze; bandits fled across the line. Magnates fell in waves to the headsman's bill. He lost the post for excessive harshness.
44
起家，復為護羌將軍轉校尉，護送軍糧委輸。 而羌人反，絕轉道，兵數萬圍尊。 尊以千餘騎奔突羌賊。 功未列上，坐擅離部署，會赦，免歸家。
Recalled from private life, he escorted grain as acting colonel under the Qiang campaign. The Qiang cut his road and surrounded him with tens of thousands. He punched through with a thousand riders. Before his dispatch could be filed he was cashiered for abandoning his column—then amnestied home.
45
涿郡太守徐明薦尊不宜久在閭巷，上以尊為郿令，遷益州刺史。 先是，琅邪王陽為益州刺史，行部至邛郲九折阪，歎曰：「奉先人遺體，柰何數乘此險！」 後以病去。 及尊為刺史，至其阪，問吏曰：「此非王陽所畏道邪？」 吏對曰：「是。」 尊叱其馭曰：「驅之！ 王陽為孝子，王尊為忠臣。」 尊居部二歲，懷來徼外，蠻夷歸附其威信。 博士鄭寬中使行風俗，舉奏尊治狀，遷為東平相。
Xu Ming of Zhuo said waste of such talent was a crime; the court made him Mei county magistrate, then inspector of Yi. At the nine bends of Qionglai, Wang Yang had sighed, "I carry my parents' leftover body—how can I risk this road again and again!" He quit on health grounds. Wang Zun asked his escort: "Is this Wang Yang's coward's hill?" They said yes. Zun shouted at his driver, "Drive on!" He shouted to his driver: "Wang Yang turned back like a filial son; Wang Zun rides through like a loyal minister." Two years in Yi won back the tribes beyond the passes. Zheng Kuanzhong's inspection tour praised him up to chancellor of Dongping.
46
是時，東平王以至親驕奢不奉法度，傅相連坐。 及尊視事，奉璽書至庭中，王未及出受詔，尊持璽書歸舍，食已乃還。 致詔後，謁見王，太傅在前說相鼠之詩。 尊曰：「毋持布鼓過雷門！」 王怒，起入後宮。 尊亦直趨出就舍。 先是王數私出入，驅馳國中，與后姬家交通。 尊到官，召敕廄長：「大王當從官屬，鳴和鸞乃出，自今有令駕小車，叩頭爭之，言相教不得。」 後尊朝王，王復延請登堂。 尊謂王曰：「尊來為相，人皆弔尊也，以尊不容朝廷，故見使相王耳。 天下皆言王勇，顧但負貴，安能勇？ 如尊乃勇耳。」 王變色視尊，意欲格殺之，即好謂尊曰：「願觀相君佩刀。」 尊舉掖，顧謂傍侍郎：「前引佩刀視王，王欲誣相拔刀向王邪？」 王情得，又雅聞尊高名，大為尊屈，酌酒具食，相對極驩。 太后徵史奏尊「為相倨慢不臣，王血氣未定，不能忍。 愚誠恐母子俱死。 今妾不得使王復見尊。 陛下不留意，妾願先自殺，不忍見王之失義也。」 尊竟坐免為庶人。 大將軍王鳳奏請尊補軍中司馬，擢為司隸校尉。
Dongping's king was another pampered kinsman who broke the law and burned through chancellors. Wang Zun stalked into the courtyard with the sealed edict, walked away before the king appeared, ate lunch, then came back. At the levee the grand tutor lectured him with the "Big Rat" poem from the Odes. Wang Zun cut him short: "Do not bang a rag drum at Thunder Gate!" The king stormed off to the harem. Wang Zun marched straight out to his own lodging. The king of Dongping had been sneaking out to carouse with his in-laws' households. Wang Zun ordered the stable master to block any unofficial joyride—the king rode only with full escort and harmonized bells. On a later levee the king invited him upstairs again. Wang Zun told the king, "Zun has come as chancellor; everyone offers me condolences, for I was not tolerated at court and was therefore sent to serve as your chancellor." "All under heaven call your lordship brave—yet you merely rely on noble rank; how can that be courage?" "Men like Zun alone are brave." The king changed color and stared as if he would strike, then said pleasantly, "I should like to see the chancellor's belt knife." Zun raised his sleeve and told the attendant gentleman at his side, "Step forward and show the king your belt knife—is the king accusing the chancellor of drawing steel on him?" Caught out, the king remembered Wang Zun's reputation, poured wine, and made peace. The queen mother had the chronicler memorialize that Zun, as chancellor, was arrogant and not a proper minister, and that "the king's blood and qi are not yet settled and cannot bear such insult." "In sincerity I fear mother and son may both die." "Now your handmaid cannot allow the king to see Zun again." "If Your Majesty pays no heed, your handmaid begs to kill herself first—I cannot bear to watch the king abandon righteousness." Wang Zun lost his post and rank. Wang Feng pulled him back as colonel on staff, then as metropolitan governor.
47
會南山群盜傰宗等數百人為吏民害，拜故弘農太守傅剛為校尉，將跡射士千人逐捕，歲餘不能禽。 或說大將軍鳳：「賊數百人在轂下，發軍擊之不能得，難以視四夷。 獨選賢京兆尹乃可。」 於是鳳薦尊，徵為諫大夫，守京輔都尉，行京兆尹事。 旬月間盜賊清。 遷光祿大夫，守京兆尹，後為真，凡三歲。 坐遇使者無禮。 司隸遣假佐放奉詔書白尊發吏捕人，放謂尊：「詔書所捕宜密。」 尊曰：「治所公正，京兆善漏泄人事。」 放曰：「所捕宜今發吏。」 尊又曰：「詔書無京兆文，不當發吏。」 及長安繫者三月間千人以上。 尊出行縣，男子郭賜自言尊：「
South Mountain outlaws defied a year-long dragnet led by Fu Gang's thousand archers. Someone urged Grand General Wang Feng, "Several hundred bandits sit beneath the chariot hubs; raising troops yet failing to take them shames the Han before the four barbarians." "You must choose a worthy metropolitan Governor." Wang Feng nominated Wang Zun: remonstrant, capital commandant, acting governor. The hills were quiet within a month. He rose to chamberlain, then full metropolitan Governor for three years. He fell for disrespecting an imperial messenger. A clerk named Fang said the roundup must be secret. Zun answered, "In administering what is just, the metropolitan yamen is expert at leaking human affairs." Fang said, "Those to be arrested should be taken now with officers you dispatch." Zun replied again, "The edict bears no metropolitan wording; officers should not be dispatched." Meanwhile Chang'an's jails swelled past a thousand inmates in three months. While touring the counties he met a man named Guo Ci, who addressed him: "
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許仲家十餘人共殺賜兄賞，公歸舍。」 吏不敢捕。 尊行縣還，上奏曰：「彊不陵弱，各得其所，寬大之政行，和平之氣通。」 御史大夫中奏尊暴虐不改，外為大言，倨嫚姍嫌，威信日廢，不宜備位九卿。 尊坐先，吏民多稱惜之。
More than ten members of Xu Zhong's household jointly killed my elder brother Shang; they have gone home in the open." No constable would touch them. On his return he memorialized, "The strong do not oppress the weak; each has his proper place; the policy of magnanimity prevails and the air of peace runs free."—pure sarcasm. The censor-in-chief impeached him for brutality, bluster, and loss of moral authority. The verdict came down first; the capital mourned.
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湖三老公乘興等上書訟尊治京兆功效日著。 「往者南山盜賊阻山橫行，剽劫良民，殺奉法吏，道路不通，城門至以警戒。 步兵校尉使逐捕，暴師露眾，曠日煩費，不能禽制。 二卿坐黜，群盜寖強，吏氣傷沮，流聞四方，為國家憂。 當此之時，有能捕斬，不愛金爵重賞。 關內侯寬中使問所徵故司隸校尉王尊捕群盜方略，拜為諫大夫，守京輔都尉，行京兆尹事。 尊盡節勞心，夙夜思職，卑體下士，厲奔北之吏，起沮傷之氣，二旬之間，大黨震壞，渠率效首。 賊亂蠲除，民反農業，拊循貧弱，鉏耘豪彊。 長安宿豪大猾東市賈萬、城西萬章、翦張禁、酒趙放、杜陵楊章等皆通邪結黨，挾養姦軌，上干王法，下亂吏治，并兼役使，侵漁小民，為百姓豺狼。 更數二千石，二十年莫能禽討，尊以正法案誅，皆伏其辜。 姦邪銷釋，吏民說服。 尊撥劇整亂，誅暴禁邪，皆前所稀有，名將所不及。 雖拜為真，未有殊絕褒賞加於尊身。 今御史大夫奏尊『傷害陰陽，為國家憂，無承用詔書之意，靖言庸違，象龔滔天。』 原其所以，出御史丞楊輔，故為尊書佐，素行陰賊，惡口不信，好以刀筆陷人於法。 輔常醉過尊大奴利家，利家捽搏其頰，兄子閎拔刀欲剄之。 輔以故深怨疾毒，欲傷害尊。 疑輔內懷怨恨，外依公事，建畫為此議，傅致奏文，浸潤加誣，以復私怨。 昔白起為秦將，東破韓、魏，南拔郢都，應侯譖之，賜死杜郵； 吳起為魏守西河，而秦、韓不敢犯，讒人間焉，斥逐奔楚。 秦聽浸潤以誅良將，魏信讒言以逐賢守，此皆偏聽不聰，失人之患也。 臣等竊痛傷尊修身絜己，砥節首公，刺譏不憚將相，誅惡不避豪彊，誅不制之賊，解國家之憂，功岩職修，威信不廢，誠國家爪牙之吏，折衝之臣，今一旦無辜制於仇人之手，傷於詆欺之文，上不得以功除罪，下不得蒙棘木之聽，獨掩怨讎之偏奏，被共工之大惡，無所陳怨愬罪。 尊以京師廢亂，群盜並興，選賢徵用，起家為卿，賊亂既除，豪猾伏辜，即以佞巧廢黜。 一尊之身，三期之間，乍賢乍佞，豈不甚哉！ 孔子曰：『愛之欲其生，惡之欲其死，是惑也。』 『浸潤之譖不行焉，可謂明矣。』 願下公卿大夫博士議郎，定尊素行。 夫人臣而傷害陰陽，死誅之罪也； 靖言庸違，放殛之刑也。 審如御史章，尊乃當伏觀闕之誅，放於無人之域，不得苟免。 及任舉尊者，當獲選舉之辜，不可但已。 即不如章，飾文深詆以愬無罪，亦宜有誅，以懲讒賊之口，絕詐欺之俗。 唯明主參詳，使白黑分別。」 書奏，天子復以尊為徐州刺史，遷東郡太守。
Three Hu district elders petitioned in Wang Zun's defense. The elders wrote that southern-mountain bandits had blocked the roads, plundered the people, and slain law-abiding officers. The infantry colonel's campaign had exposed the army to weather and emptied the treasury without catching a single chief. Two ministers fell in disgrace, the gangs grew bolder, and officer morale collapsed while rumor of Han weakness spread in every direction. The court would have paid any price in gold or noble rank for a man who could break the deadlock. At last the emperor recalled Wang Zun from private life, gave him the old brief as grandee and acting metropolitan governor, and turned him loose on the hills. Wang Zun broke the great clique in twenty days and sent in the chieftains' heads. Farmers went back to the plough; he coddled the poor and cut the magnates down. He listed the capital's fence bosses—Jia Wan, Wan Zhang, and the rest—who had terrorized the markets for twenty years— For twenty years successive governors had failed; Wang Zun prosecuted those bravos to the full letter of the law and made the verdicts stick. Evil withered; the people cheered. They said his feat outdid any general's campaign. Yet the court never gave him a special bonus. Now the imperial counsellor writes that Zun "injures yin and yang, brings worry on the state, shows no mind to receive and use edicts, speaks peace while acting perversity, and conspires with Gong to flood heaven." The true author of the impeachment, they said, was the assistant imperial counsellor Yang Fu, once Wang Zun's clerk, a man who nursed a petty grudge. Yang Fu had once staggered past Wang Zun's head slave and been beaten; a nephew had nearly knifed him— From that day Yang Fu nursed a poison grudge and framed the memorial that struck at Wang Zun. The elders called it a smear job built from office paper. They compared him to Bai Qi, Qin's greatest general, destroyed at Du Post by Lord Ying's whisper campaign. They compared him to Wu Qi, who guarded western He until slander drove him from Wei into Chu. Qin had listened to dripping slander and killed a loyal general; Wei had believed lies and expelled a faithful guardian—both realms lost their best men. The petition insisted that Wang Zun had crushed uncontrollable bandits and lifted a national crisis while slanderers quoted scripture to ruin him. The court had plucked him from commoner obscurity to save the capital, then cashiered him as a flatterer the moment quiet returned. For one man's career to swing from paragon to parasite within three seasons was intolerable caprice. They quoted Confucius: to love a man and wish him life, then hate him and wish him death, is the very definition of confusion. They quoted him again: a ruler who ignores seeping slander may truly be called clear-sighted." They asked a full bench to judge Wang Zun's whole career. If Wang Zun had truly unbalanced yin and yang, let him die beneath the palace watchtower. If he had smooth-talked the throne while acting perversely, let him suffer banishment and the axe. If the charges did not hold, let the slanderers themselves face the law at the palace gate. Anyone who recommended him should share the blame. If the memorial was false, punish the authors and choke off lying. They begged the emperor to sort truth from lies." The emperor restored him to Xuzhou inspector, then governor of the Eastern Commandery.
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久之，河水盛溢，泛浸瓠子金隄，老弱奔走，恐水大決為害。 尊躬率吏民，投沈白馬，祀水神河伯。 尊親執圭璧，使巫策祝，請以身填金隄，因止宿，廬居隄上。 吏民數千萬人爭叩頭救止尊，尊終不肯去。 及水盛隄壞，吏民皆奔走，唯一主簿泣在尊旁，立不動。 而水波稍卻迴還。 吏民嘉壯尊之勇節，白馬三老朱英等奏其狀。 下有司考，皆如言。 於是制詔御史：「東郡河水盛長，毀壞金隄，未決三尺，百姓惶恐奔走。 太守身當水衝，履咫尺之難，不避危殆，以安眾心，吏民復還就作，水不為災，朕甚嘉之。 秩尊中二千石，加賜黃金二十斤。」
Years later the Yellow River threatened the Huzi levee; villagers fled the coming breach. Wang Zun led the sacrifice—a white horse to the River Earl. He swore to plug the gap with his own corpse and slept on the embankment. Tens of thousands begged him to come down; he refused. When the wall gave way everyone ran; one chief clerk stayed weeping at his side. The flood then eased and rolled back. The white-horse district elders reported his stand to the throne. Investigators confirmed every word. An edict ordered the imperial secretary: "In the Eastern Commandery the Yellow River rose high, ruined the golden dike, came within three feet of breaking, and the people fled in panic." "The governor personally blocked the flood's rush, trod danger inch by inch, and did not flee death or peril, thereby steadying every heart; clerks and people returned to the levee and the water did not become disaster—We greatly approve." "Raise his rank to the full two thousand piculs and grant twenty jin of gold besides."
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數歲，卒官，吏民紀之。 尊子伯亦為京兆尹，坐耎弱不勝任免。
He died in harness; the commandery wrote his name into local lore. His son Wang Bo later held the same post but was sacked for softness.
52
王章字仲卿，泰山鉅平人也。 少以文學為官，稍遷至諫大夫，在朝廷名敢直言。 元帝初，擢為左曹中郎將，與御史中丞陳咸相善，共毀中書令石顯，為顯所陷，咸減死髡，章免官。 成帝立，徵章為諫大夫，遷司隸校尉，大臣貴戚敬憚之。 王尊免後，代者不稱職，章以選為京兆尹。 時帝舅大將軍王鳳輔政，章雖為鳳所舉，非鳳專權，不親附鳳。 會日有蝕之，章奏封事，召見，言鳳不可任用，宜更選忠賢。 上初納受章言，後不忍退鳳。 章由是見疑，遂為鳳所陷，罪至大逆。 語在元后傳。
Wang Zhang, styled Zhongqing, was from Juping in Taishan. He rose through the literary track to grandee remonstrant and a reputation for plain speech. Under Yuan he joined Chen Xian against the eunuch Shi Xian; Shi Xian won—Chen nearly died, Wang was cashiered. Chengdi recalled him to metropolitan governor; the mighty walked wide of him. When Wang Zun fell, Wang Zhang was picked to replace him. Wang Feng had sponsored him, but Wang Zhang would not join the clan machine. A solar eclipse brought a sealed memorial urging Chengdi to sack Wang Feng. The emperor wavered and kept his uncle. Wang Feng struck back with a treason charge. (His end is told in the annals of Empress Yuan.)
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初，章為諸生學長安，獨與妻居。 章疾病，無被，臥牛衣中，與妻決，涕泣。 其妻呵怒之曰：「仲卿！ 京師尊貴在朝廷人誰踰仲卿者？ 今疾病困厄，不自激卬，乃反涕泣，何鄙也！」
As a student in Chang'an he lived alone with his wife. Once, feverish under a cowhide mat, he wept farewell to her. She snapped: "Zhongqing! Who in this court outranks you in promise? A little fever and you whimper like a child!"
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後章仕宦歷位，及為京兆，欲上封事，妻又止之曰：「人當知足，獨不念牛衣中涕泣時耶？」 章曰：「非女子所知也。」 書遂上，果下廷尉獄，妻子皆收繫。 章小女年可十二，夜起號哭曰：「平生獄上呼囚，素常至九，今八而止。 我君數剛，先死者必君。」 明日問之，章果死。 妻子皆徙合浦。
When he prepared another sealed memorial, his wife stopped him again: "People ought to know contentment—have you forgotten weeping under the cattle mat?" Zhang answered, "That is not something a woman understands." He filed anyway and landed in prison with his whole family. His younger daughter, about twelve, rose at night and wailed, "When prisoners are called up the roll always reaches nine; tonight it stopped at eight." "My father is stubborn by nature—the ninth name will surely be his." By morning the guards found Wang Zhang dead in his cell. The court banished his wife and children to Hepu on the Gulf of Tonkin.
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大將軍鳳薨後，弟成都侯商復為大將軍輔政，白上還章妻子故郡。 其家屬皆完具，采珠致產數百萬，時蕭育為泰山太守，皆令贖還故田宅。
Wang Shang succeeded his brother Wang Feng and won permission to bring Wang Zhang's family home. They had grown rich diving for pearls until Xiao Yu, as governor of Taishan, helped them repurchase their old lands.
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章為京兆二歲，死不以其罪，眾庶冤紀之，號為三王。 王駿自有傳，駿即王陽子也。
He had ruled the capital two years and died for a crime he did not commit; the people mourned him as one of the "Three Wangs." Wang Jun—Wang Yang's son—has a separate biography in this history.
57
贊曰：自孝武置左馮翊、右扶風、京兆尹，而吏民為之語曰：「前有趙、張，後有三王。」 然劉向獨序趙廣漢、尹翁歸、韓延壽，馮商傳王尊，揚雄亦如之。 廣漢聰明，下不能欺，延壽厲善，所居移風，然皆訐上不信，以失身墮功。 翁歸抱公絜己，為近世表。 張敞衎衎，履忠進言，緣飾儒雅，刑罰必行，縱赦有度，條教可觀，然被輕惰之名。 王尊文武自將，所在必發，譎詭不經，好為大言。 王章剛直守節，不量輕重，以陷刑戮，妻子流遷，哀哉！
The eulogy recalls the proverb of Emperor Wu's three capital prefectures: first Zhao Guanghan and Zhang Chang, then the three governors surnamed Wang. Liu Xiang anthologized only Zhao, Yin, and Han; Feng Shang and Yang Xiong gave Wang Zun his own scroll. Zhao Guanghan's wit left no clerk a liar; Han Yanshou's moral zeal remolded every commandery—yet each turned on his masters and threw away his fame. Yin Wengui wrapped the law in personal integrity and set the standard for his day. Zhang Chang walked the tightrope between Ru learning and relentless punishment—history still pins on him the label of a rake. Wang Zun mixed bravado with battlefield nerve and never met a crisis he could not dramatize. Wang Zhang chose principle over survival; his kin paid the price of exile—how bitter the end.