1
卷八十宣元六王傳第五十
Volume 80: Biographies of the Six Princes of Emperors Xuan and Yuan (no. 50).
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孝宣皇帝五男
Emperor Xuan had five sons.
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孝宣皇帝五男。 許皇后生孝元帝，張婕妤生淮陽憲王欽，衛婕妤生楚孝王囂，公孫婕妤生東平思王宇，戎婕妤生中山哀王竟。
Emperor Xuan had five sons. Empress Xu gave birth to Emperor Yuan. Lady Zhang the Honored Lady bore Prince Xian of Huaiyang, Qin; Lady Wei the Honored Lady bore Prince Xiao of Chu, Xiao; Lady Gongsun the Honored Lady bore Prince Si of Dongping, Yu; and Lady Rong the Honored Lady bore Prince Ai of Zhongshan, Jing.
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淮陽憲王欽
Prince Xian of Huaiyang, Qin
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淮陽憲王欽，元康三年立，母張婕妤有寵於宣帝。 霍皇后廢後，上欲立張婕妤為后。 久之，懲艾霍氏欲害皇太子，乃更選後宮無子而謹慎者，乃立長陵王婕妤為后，令母養太子。 後無寵，希御見，唯張婕妤最幸。 而憲王壯大，好經書、法律，聰達有材，帝甚愛之。 太子寬仁，喜儒術，上數嗟歎憲王，輔曰：「真我子也！」 常有意欲立張婕妤與憲王，然用太子起於微細，上少依倚許氏，及即位而許后以殺死，太子蚤失母，故弗忍也。 久之，上以故丞相韋賢子玄成陽狂讓侯兄，經明行高，稱於朝廷，乃召拜玄成為淮陽中尉，欲感諭憲王，輔以推讓之臣，由是太子遂安。 宣帝崩，元帝即位，乃遣憲王之國。
Prince Xian of Huaiyang, Qin, was established in the third year of Yuankang (65 BCE). His mother, Lady Zhang the Honored Lady, enjoyed Emperor Xuan’s favor. After Empress Huo was cast aside, the emperor meant to raise Lady Zhang to empress. In time, mindful of how the Huo family had tried to harm the crown prince, he looked elsewhere among his childless, cautious consorts and made Lady Wang of Changling empress, charging her with raising the heir. The new empress soon lost his attention and seldom saw him; Lady Zhang alone remained his favorite. As the Prince of Huaiyang came of age, he took to the classics and law, proved quick and capable, and won the emperor’s deep affection. The crown prince was mild and humane and loved Confucian scholarship; the emperor would sigh over Prince Xian and tell his attendants, “Now that is my son!” He often toyed with making Lady Zhang and the prince his succession, yet the crown prince had come up from nothing: as a young man the emperor had leaned on the Xu clan, and after his accession Empress Xu had been executed, leaving the boy motherless—so he could not bring himself to replace him. Years later he recalled how Wei Xuancheng, son of the former chancellor Wei Xian, had played mad to yield his noble title to an elder brother—learned in the classics and renowned for integrity—and summoned him to serve as commandant in Huaiyang, hoping such an example of deference would steady the ambitious prince and quiet the succession. When Xuan died and Yuan ascended, the new emperor sent Prince Qin to his fief at Huaiyang.
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時，張婕妤已卒，憲王有外祖母，舅張博兄弟三人歲至淮陽見親，輒受王賜。 後王上書，請徙外家張氏於國。 博上書，願留守墳墓，獨不徙。 王恨之。 後博至淮陽，王賜之少。 博言：「負責數百萬，願王為償。」 王不許，博辭去，令弟光恐云王遇大人益解，博欲上書為大人乞骸骨去。 王乃遣人持黃金五十斤送博。 博喜，還書謝，為諂語盛稱譽王，因言：「當今朝廷無賢臣，災變數見，足為寒心。 萬姓咸歸望於大王，大王奈何恬然不求入朝見，輔助主上乎？」 使弟光數說王宜聽博計，令於京師說用事貴人為王求朝。 許不納其言。
By then Lady Zhang was dead. The prince still had kin on his mother’s side: each year his uncles Zhang Bo and his two brothers visited Huaiyang and went home laden with the king’s largesse. Later the prince petitioned to bring his mother’s Zhang relatives to live in his state. Bo memorialized that he wished to stay behind to tend the family graves and not relocate. The prince nursed a grudge against him. When Bo next arrived in Huaiyang, the king’s gifts were stingy. Bo said, “I am several million cash in debt; I need the king to cover it.” The king refused. As Bo left, he told his younger brother Guang to worry the king with word that his lordship was growing cold toward his elders and that Bo meant to memorialize for permission to retire—unless something changed. The prince then dispatched an agent with fifty jin of gold for Bo. Bo was delighted and wrote back in fulsome praise, adding, “The court today is bereft of good men; portents and disasters pile up—it is enough to freeze one’s blood. The people are looking to you, my lord—how can you sit idle and not press for an audience to steady the throne?” He had Guang keep pressing the prince to follow his scheme and let Bo lobby the great men at Chang’an who held the levers of power. The prince would not heed him.
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後光欲至長安，辭王，復言「願盡力與博共為王求朝。 王即日至長安，可因平陽侯。」 光得王欲求朝語，馳使人語博。 博知王意動，復遺王書曰：「博幸得肺腑，數進愚策，未見省察。 北遊燕、趙，欲循行郡國求幽隱之士，聞齊有駟先生者，善為《司馬兵法》，大將之材也，博得謁見，承間進問五帝、三王究竟要道，卓爾非世俗之所知。 今邊境不安，天下騷動，微此人其莫能安也。 又聞北海之瀕有賢人焉，累世不可逮，然難致也。 得此二人而薦之，功亦不細矣。 博願馳西以此赴助漢急，無財幣以通顯之。 趙王使謁者持牛、酒，黃金三十斤勞博，博不受； 復使人願尚女，聘金二百斤，博未許。 會得光書云大王已遣光西，與博並力求朝。 博自以棄捐，不意大王還意反義，結以硃顏，願殺身報德。 朝事何足言！ 大王誠賜咳唾，使得盡死，湯、禹所以成大功也。 駟先生蓄積道術，書無不有，願知大王所好，請得輒上。」 王得書喜說，報博書曰：「子高乃幸左顧存恤，發心惻隱，顯至誠，納以嘉謀，語以至事，雖亦不敏，敢不諭意！ 今遣有司為子高償責二百萬。」
When Guang later prepared to leave for Chang’an, he again assured the king, “Bo and I will do everything we can to win you a summons. Once you reach the capital, the Marquis of Pingyang can open the door for you.” Guang carried the prince’s agreement to Bo by fast courier. Bo saw the hook take and wrote again: “I have presumed on our kinship and offered counsel again and again, yet you have never truly weighed it. I have ridden through Yan and Zhao seeking hidden worthies and learned of Master Si in Qi, master of the Sima fa—true material for a grand captain. I gained an audience and, when the moment allowed, pressed him on the deepest doctrine of the Five Emperors and Three Kings—insights this world seldom hears. The frontier is unquiet and the empire roiled; without such a man there may be no peace. They say another sage lives by the northern sea, unequalled for generations though nearly impossible to draw out. To present both to the throne would be no small service. I would ride west tomorrow to serve the dynasty in its straits, but I lack the gold to open the right doors. The king of Zhao sent wine, oxen, and thirty jin of gold; Bo declined them; he then offered a daughter in marriage with two hundred jin as bride-price, and Bo still hesitated. Then your letter arrived, my lord, saying you had sent Guang west to join me in pressing for your audience. I thought myself forgotten; I never dreamed you would honor me again and bind me with such kindness. I would lay down my life to repay it. The audience itself is the least of it! If my lord will only breathe a word of consent, I will spend my last breath as Tang and Yu did to build great deeds. Master Si’s library holds every text under heaven; tell me your interests and I will lay the right volumes before you at once.” The prince was delighted and answered: “Zi Gao, you bend down to pity me, speak from the heart, offer wise counsel and weighty truth—dull though I am, how could I fail to grasp your meaning? I have ordered my officers to settle your two-million debt this day.”
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是時，博女婿京房以明《易》陰陽得幸於上，數召見言事。 自謂為石顯、五鹿充宗所排，謀不得用，數為博道之。 博常欲誑耀淮陽王，即具記房諸所說災異及召見密語，持予淮陽王以為信驗，詐言：「已見中書令石君求朝，許以金五百斤。 賢聖制事，蓋慮功而不計費。 昔禹治鴻水，百姓罷勞，成功既立，萬世賴之。 今聞陛下春秋未滿四十，發齒墮落，太子幼弱，佞人用事，陰陽不調，百姓疾疫饑饉死者且半，鴻水之害殆不過此。 大王緒欲救世，將比功德，何可以忽？ 博已與大儒知道者為大王為便宜奏，陳安危，指災異，大王朝見，先口陳其意而後奏之，上必大說。 事成功立，大王即有周、邵之名，邪臣散亡，公卿變節，功德亡比，而梁、趙之寵必歸大王，外家亦將富貴，何復望大王之金錢？」 王喜說，報博書曰：「乃者詔下，止諸侯朝者，寡人憯然不知所出。 子高素有顏、冉之資，臧武之智，子貢之辯，卞莊子之勇，兼此四者，世之所鮮。 既開端緒，願卒成之。 求朝，義事也，奈何行金錢乎！」 博報曰：「已許石君，須以成事。」 王以金五百斤予博。
Bo’s son-in-law Jing Fang had won favor by expounding the Book of Changes and yin–yang theory and was repeatedly called to advise the throne. He complained that Shi Xian and Wulu Chongzong had blocked him and that none of his policies were adopted, and he poured this out to Bo again and again. Bo meant to dazzle the Prince of Huaiyang, so he copied every tale Fang had told of portents and palace secrets and presented them as proof, lying that he had already secured Shi Xian’s promise of an audience for five hundred jin of gold. The sages weighed outcomes, not price tags. When Yu tamed the flood, the people wore themselves to the bone, yet once the work was done, countless ages lived by it. They say you are not yet forty, yet your hair and teeth fail, the heir is a child, favorites run the court, heaven and earth are out of tune, and plague and famine have carried off perhaps half the realm—no less dire than Yu’s deluge. You mean to save the age, my lord—set that deed beside a few hundred jin of gold. I have lined up learned men to draft a memorial on peril and portent; when you face the throne, speak the heart of it aloud, then hand up the text, and the Son of Heaven will be overjoyed. Success would give you the stature of the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao, sweep the sycophants from power, and turn every minister’s coat—while the favor now lavished on Liang and Zhao would fall to you and your wife’s clan. Why haggle over gold?” The prince wrote back gladly: “When the edict lately barred princes from audience, I was at a loss. You have Yan Hui’s and Ran Boniu’s gifts, Zang Wuzhong’s wit, Zigong’s tongue, and Bian Zhuangzi’s nerve—four virtues seldom met in one man. You have opened the way; see it through with me. Seeking an audience is a matter of right—how can we buy it with money!” Bo answered, “I have given Shi my word—we need the gold to finish this.” The prince handed over five hundred jin of gold.
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會房出為郡守，離左右，顯具有此事告之。 房漏洩省中語，博兄弟詿誤諸侯王，誹謗政治，狡猾不道，皆下獄。 有司奏請逮捕欽，上不忍致法，遣諫大夫王駿賜欽璽書曰：「皇帝問淮陽王。 有司奏王，王舅張博數遺王書，非毀政治，謗訕天子，褒舉諸侯，稱引周、湯，以諂惑王，所言尤惡，悖逆無道。 王不舉奏而多與金錢，報以好言，罪至不赦，朕惻焉不忍聞，為王傷之。 推原厥本，不祥自博，惟王之心，匪同於凶。 已詔有司勿治王事，遣諫大夫駿申諭朕意。 《詩》不云乎：『靖恭爾位，正直是與』？ 王其勉之！」
Then Jing Fang was posted away from court, and Shi Xian laid the whole intrigue before the emperor. Fang had divulged palace secrets; Bo and his brothers had led a prince astray and defamed the state—charges of wicked irreverence—and all were clapped in jail. Officials asked to arrest Prince Qin; the emperor relented and sent Grandee Remonstrant Wang Jun with a sealed edict: “The Son of Heaven addresses the King of Huaiyang. They say your uncle Zhang Bo wrote you again and again, attacking policy, mocking the throne, praising other kings, and invoking the ancient sages only to seduce you—language foul enough to count as treason. You never denounced him yet showered him with gold and answered in honeyed words—guilt that admits no pardon. I shrink from hearing it and grieve for you. Trace the evil to its source and it begins with Bo alone; your own heart was never that of a traitor. I have told my officers not to proceed against you and sent Grandee Remonstrant Jun to make my meaning plain. Does not the Classic of Poetry say, “Quiet and reverent in your place; keep company with the upright”? Strive to live by that, my cousin!”
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駿諭指曰：「禮為諸侯制相朝聘之義，蓋以考禮一德，尊事天子也。 且王不學《詩》乎？ 《詩》云：『俾侯於魯，為周室輔。』 今王舅博數遺王書，所言悖逆。 王幸受詔策，通經術，知諸侯名譽不當出竟。 天子普覆，德佈於朝，而恬有博言，多予金錢，與相報應，不忠莫大焉。 故事，諸侯王獲罪京師，罪惡輕重，縱不伏誅，必蒙遷削貶黜之罪，未有但已者也。 今聖主赦王之罪，又憐王失計忘本，為博所惑，加賜璽書，使諫大夫申諭至意，殷勤之恩，豈有量哉！ 博等所犯惡大，群下之所共攻，王法之所不赦也。 自今以來，王毋復以博等累心，務與眾棄之。 《春秋》之義，大能變改。 《易》曰『借用白茅，無咎』，言臣子之道，改過自新，潔己以承上，然後免於咎也。 王其留意慎戒，惟思所以悔過易行，塞重責，稱厚恩者。 如此，則長有富貴，社稷安矣。」
Wang Jun explained: “Ritual sets how kings attend court—to harmonize conduct with the Way and honor the Son of Heaven. Have you not read the Odes yourself? It says, “They made him marquis in Lu, a pillar for the house of Zhou.” Yet your uncle Bo wrote you repeatedly with treasonous counsel. You have received the imperial charge, you know the classics, and you know a king’s name must not cross his borders. The emperor’s grace covers all; his virtue fills the court—yet you swallowed Bo’s plots, paid him in gold, and wrote back as if in league. Nothing is more disloyal. By precedent a prince who sins at the capital, whether the fault is great or small, faces exile or stripping of rank if not the axe—never a simple shrug. Yet he forgives you, pities you for forgetting who you are under Bo’s spell, and adds this personal edict and an envoy’s voice—measure that kindness if you can. Bo’s crimes are monstrous; every minister condemns them and the law cannot spare them. From this day do not let Bo trouble your thoughts again; join the world in casting him off. The Spring and Autumn Annals teach that even grave fault may be redeemed by change. The Changes speaks of laying white rushes beneath an offering—no blame—meaning a son of the house may cleanse himself, turn anew, and serve his lord without fault. Guard your every step; think how to mend your ways, meet this mercy, and silence heavier blame. Do that, and you keep rank and fortune, and the state altars stand firm.”
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於是淮陽王欽免冠稽首謝曰：「奉籓無狀，過惡暴列，陛下不忍致法，加大恩，遣使者申諭道術守籓之義。 伏念博罪惡尤深，當伏重誅。 臣欽願悉心自新，奉承詔策。 頓首死罪。」
Prince Qin doffed his cap and kowtowed: “I have disgraced my charge as a bulwark; my crimes lie bare. You would not punish me but sent envoys to teach the duty of a vassal. Bo’s guilt is the deeper and deserves death. I, Qin, will devote myself anew to obeying your command. I kowtow for a crime worthy of death.”
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京房及博兄弟三人皆棄市，妻子徙邊。
Jing Fang and Zhang Bo’s brothers were executed in the marketplace; their families were banished to the frontier.
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三十六年薨。 子文王玄嗣，二十六年薨。 子縯嗣，王莽時絕。
He died in the thirty-sixth year of his reign. His son Prince Wen, Xuan, succeeded and died in the twenty-sixth year of his reign. His son Yan inherited the title; the line ended under Wang Mang.
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楚孝王囂
Prince Xiao of Chu, Xiao
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初，成帝時又立紆弟景為定陶王。 廣戚侯勳薨，謚曰煬侯，子顯嗣。 平帝崩，無子，王莽立顯子嬰為孺子，奉平帝后。 莽篡位，以嬰為定安公。 漢既誅莽，更始時嬰在長安，平陵方望等頗知天文，以為更始必敗，嬰本統當立者也，共起兵將嬰至臨涇，立為天子。 更始遣丞相李松擊破殺嬰云。
Earlier, under Emperor Cheng, Jing—Yu’s younger brother—had been made king of Dingtao. The marquis of Guangqi, Xun, died with the posthumous title Yang; his son Xian succeeded. When Emperor Ping died childless, Wang Mang set Xian’s son Ying on the throne as the infant heir to carry on Ping’s line. When Mang seized the throne he demoted Ying to duke of Ding’an. After Han destroyed Wang Mang, Ying was still in Chang’an under the Gengshi regime. Fang Wang of Pingling and others, versed in the stars, believed Gengshi would fall and that Ying was the rightful heir; they rose in arms, escorted him to Linjing, and proclaimed him emperor. Gengshi’s chancellor Li Song crushed the rising and killed Ying, or so the record runs.
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東平思王宇
Prince Si of Dongping, Yu
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東平思王宇，甘露二年立。 元帝即位，就國。 壯大，通姦犯法，上以至親貰弗罪，傅相連坐。
Prince Si of Dongping, Yu, was enfeoffed in the second year of Ganlu (52 BCE). When Yuan became emperor, Yu proceeded to his fief. Once grown, he fornicated and broke the law; the emperor spared him as kin, but his tutor and minister paid for it with their posts.
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久之，事太后，內不相得，太后上書言之，求守杜陵園。 上於是遣太中大夫張子蟜奉璽書敕諭之，曰：「皇帝問東平王。 蓋聞親親之恩莫重於孝，尊尊之義莫大於忠，故諸侯在位不驕以致孝道，制節謹度以冀天子，然後富貴不離於身，而社稷可保。 今聞王自修有闕，本朝不和，流言紛紛，謗自內興，朕甚僭焉，為王懼之。 《詩》不雲乎？ 『毋念爾祖，述修厥德，永言配命，自求多福』。 朕惟王之春秋方剛，忽於道德，意有所移，忠言未納，故臨遣太中大夫子蟜諭王朕意。 孔子曰：『過而不改，是謂過矣。』 王其深惟孰思之，無違朕意。」
In time he and the empress dowager fell out; she memorialized the throne and asked leave to retire to tend the Du imperial tombs. The emperor then sent Palace Grandee Zhang Zijiao with a sealed edict: “The Son of Heaven addresses the king of Dongping. They say nothing binds kin like filial piety, nothing honors the throne like loyalty: a prince must curb pride to show filial duty, watch his bounds to await the emperor’s will—only then does fortune stay with him and the state remain secure. Word reaches me that your conduct has slipped, harmony with the court has failed, rumor runs wild, and slander rises under your own roof—I am deeply troubled and afraid for you. Does not the Classic of Poetry say? “Think not only of your forbears; carry forward their virtue; ever match Heaven’s mandate; win blessing by your own deeds.” You are in the prime of life yet careless of virtue; you brush aside good counsel. I send Grandee Zijiao ahead of me to make my mind plain. Confucius said, “A fault uncorrected is a true fault.” Reflect long and hard, my cousin, and do not set yourself against my will.”
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又特以璽書賜王太后，曰：「皇帝使諸吏宦者令承問東平王太后。 朕有聞，王太后少加意焉。 夫福善之門莫美於和睦，患咎之首莫大於內離。 今東平王出襁褓之中而托於南面之位，以年齒方剛，涉學日寡，驁忽臣下，不自它於太后，以是之間，能無失禮義者，其唯聖人乎！ 傳曰：『父為子隱，直在其中矣。』 王太后明察此意，不可不詳。 閨門之內，母子之間，同氣異息，骨肉之恩，豈可忽哉！ 豈可忽哉！ 昔周公戒伯禽曰：『故舊無大故，則不可棄也，毋求備於一人。』 夫以故舊之恩，猶忍小惡，而況此乎！ 已遣使者諭王，王既悔過服罪，太后寬忍以貰之，後宜不敢。 王太后強餐，止思念，慎疾自愛。」
He also sent a personal edict to the king’s mother: “I charge the chief of household attendants to greet the queen mother of Dongping. I have heard certain things; the queen mother should weigh them carefully. Nothing opens the door to blessing like concord at home; nothing breeds disaster like a split between mother and son. The king left the cradle for a throne; he is young, barely schooled, and treats his officers with contempt while slighting his mother—only a sage could thread that needle without fault. The tradition runs, “A father shields a son’s faults, and therein lies justice.” Queen mother, read this meaning clearly and leave no corner unexamined. Within the women’s quarters, between mother and child, one flesh and blood—how can you cast that bond aside? You must not neglect it! The Duke of Zhou warned Bo Qin: “Do not cast off old friends without grave cause; do not ask perfection of any single man.” For old friends’ sake we forgive small slips—how much more between mother and son! I have sent envoys to the king; he admits fault. Forgive him, madam, and he will not dare repeat it. Eat for strength, madam, set worry aside, guard your health, and cherish yourself.”
20
字慚俱，因使者頓首謝死罪，願灑心自改。 詔書又敕傅相曰：「夫人之性皆有五常，及其少長，耳目牽於耆欲，故五常銷而邪心作，情亂其性，利勝其義，而不失厥家者，未之有也。 今王富於春秋，氣力勇武，獲師傅之教淺，加以少所聞見，自今以來，非《五經》之正術，敢以遊獵非禮道王者，輒以名聞。」
Yu was stricken with shame and fear; through the envoy he kowtowed for a capital crime and vowed to cleanse his heart and mend his ways. Another edict told tutor and minister: “Every man is born with the five constant virtues, yet age and appetite pull him off course until desire corrupts nature and gain drowns duty—none who so drift keep their house intact. The king is young, strong, and lightly taught, with narrow experience. Henceforth, if anyone leads him hunting or down unorthodox paths outside the Five Classics, report that man’s name at once.”
21
宇立二十年，元帝崩。 宇謂中謁者信等曰：「漢大臣議天子少弱，未能治天下，以為我知文法，建欲使我輔佐天子。 我見尚書晨夜極苦，使我為之，不能也。 今暑熱，縣官年少，持服恐無處所，我危得之！」 比至下，宇凡三哭，飲酒食肉，妻妾不離側。 又姬朐臑故親幸，後疏遠，數歎息呼天。 宇聞，斥朐臑為家人子，掃除永巷，數笞擊之。 朐臑私疏宇過失，數令家告之。 宇覺知，絞殺朐臑。 有司奏請逮捕，有詔削樊、亢父二縣。 後三歲，天子詔有司曰：「蓋聞仁以親親，古之道也。 前東平王有闕，有司請廢，朕不忍。 又請削，朕不敢專。 惟王之至親，未嘗忘於心。 今聞王改行自新，尊修經術，親近仁人，非法之求，不以奸吏，朕甚嘉焉。 傳不雲乎？ 朝過夕改，君子與之。 其復前所削縣如故。」
Twenty years after Yu took the throne, Yuan died. Yu told the usher Xin and others, “The great ministers think the boy emperor too weak to rule and, because I know the statutes, mean to set me at his elbow. I have watched the masters of writing toil day and night—I could never bear that office. The weather is stifling, the throne is young, and when the court goes into mourning it may have no pillar—I could step into the breach!” When the death edict arrived, Yu wept three times for show, then feasted with wine and meat while his women never left his couch. A former favorite, the concubine Qu Nai, had been cast aside; she sighed to heaven again and again. Yu heard it, reduced her to menial rank, put her to sweeping the palace lane, and beat her repeatedly. She drafted a secret catalogue of his misdeeds and had kin report them upstream. When Yu found out, he strangled her. Officials asked for his arrest; the emperor instead stripped two counties—Fan and Kangfu—from his fief. Three years later the emperor told his officers: “Kindness begins with kin—that was the way of the ancients. When Dongping erred before, some urged me to depose him; I could not. Others asked to shave his domain; I would not act unilaterally. Yet you are bone of my bone—I have not forgotten you. Word comes that you have mended your ways, take the classics seriously, keep company with good men, and no longer let sharp clerks peddle illicit favors—I applaud that. Does not the tradition say? Wrong at dawn and right by dusk wins the gentleman’s praise. Restore the counties I once took away.”
22
後年來朝，上疏求諸子及《太史公書》，上以問大將軍王鳳，對曰：「臣聞諸侯朝聘，考文章，正法度，非禮不言。 今東平王幸得來朝，不思制節謹度，以防危失，而求諸書，非朝聘之義也。 諸子書或反經術，非聖人； 或明鬼神，信物怪； 《太史公書》有戰國縱橫權譎之謀，漢興之初謀臣奇策，天官災異，地形厄塞：皆不宜在諸侯王。 不可予。 不許之辭宜曰：『《五經》聖人所制，萬事靡不畢載。 王審樂道，傅相皆儒者，旦夕講誦，足以正身虞意。 夫小辯破義，小道不通，致遠恐泥，皆不足以留意。 諸益於經術者，不愛於王。』」 對奏，天子如鳳言，遂不與。
The following year he attended court and asked for the “masters” compendia and Sima Qian’s history. The emperor consulted Wang Feng, who answered, “When kings come to audience they are to polish their style and law, not to chatter outside ritual. Dongping should be tightening his belt, not courting danger by begging for books—that is not what a court visit is for. Some of those miscellanies subvert the classics and fall short of the sages; others retail ghosts, omens, and the uncanny; The Grand Scribe’s Records holds Warring States intrigue, founding conspiracies, astrology, disaster lore, and maps of strategic ground—none of it fit for a feudal king’s library. They must not be granted. Your refusal should read: “The Five Classics, fashioned by the sages, hold everything worth knowing. If my cousin loves the Way, his tutors are Ru scholars who can drill him dawn to dusk until mind and conduct are straight. Small cleverness breaks the great pattern; side paths lead nowhere—fixing on them only mires the traveler. Whatever serves the classics, I do not withhold from you.” The emperor accepted Feng’s memorial and denied the books.
23
立三十三年薨，子煬王雲嗣。 哀帝時，無鹽危山土自起覆草，如馳道狀，又瓠山石轉立。 雲及後謁自之石所祭，治石像瓠山立石，束倍草，並祠之。 建平三年，息夫躬、孫寵等共因幸臣董賢告之。 是時，哀帝被疾，多所惡，事下有司，逮王、後謁下獄驗治，言使巫傅恭、婢合歡等祠祭詛祝上，為雲求為天子。 雲又與知災異者高尚等指星宿，言上疾必不愈，雲當得天下。 石立，宣帝起之表也。 有司請誅王，有詔廢徙房陵。 雲自殺，謁棄市。 立十七年，國除。
He reigned thirty-three years and died; his son Yun, posthumously Yang, succeeded. In Emperor Ai’s reign soil at Wuyan’s Danger Mountain heaved up over the turf in the shape of an imperial causeway, and a boulder at Gourd Mountain rolled upright. Yun and Queen Ye visited the omens, set up a stone like the one at Gourd Mountain, bound paired stalks of grass, and offered joint sacrifice. In Jianping 3, Xi Fu Gong, Sun Chong, and others denounced them through the favorite Dong Xian. Ai was ill and ill-tempered; officers jailed king and queen and proved they had set shamans Fu Gong and the slave girl Hehuan cursing the throne so Yun might become Son of Heaven. Yun and omen-readers such as Gao Shang traced the stars, swearing the emperor would not recover and the mandate would fall to Yun. The standing stone had been the omen of Emperor Xuan’s ascent. Some demanded the king’s death; the edict spared his life but deposed him and banished him to Fangling. Yun committed suicide; Ye was executed in the marketplace. Seventeen years into his reign the kingdom was abolished.
24
元始元年，王莽欲反哀帝政，白太皇太后，立雲太子開明為東平王，又立思王孫成都為中山王。 開明立三年，薨，無子。 復立開明兄嚴鄉侯信子匡為東平王，奉開明後。 王莽居攝，東郡太守翟義與嚴鄉侯信謀舉兵誅莽，立信為天子。 兵敗，皆為莽所滅。
In Yuanshi 1, Wang Mang, undoing Ai’s policies, persuaded the grand empress dowager to make Yun’s heir Kai Ming king of Dongping and to enfeoff Chengdu, grandson of the Prince of Dongping, as king of Zhongshan. Kai Ming reigned three years and died without issue. The court then set Kuang, son of Marquis Yanxiang Xin, on the Dongping throne to continue Kai Ming’s line. Under Mang’s regency the eastern governor Zhai Yi conspired with Marquis Xin to march against Mang and proclaimed Xin emperor. Their forces were crushed and Mang wiped them out.
25
中山哀王竟
Prince Ai of Zhongshan, Jing
26
中山哀王竟，初元二年立為清河王。 三年，徙中山，以幼少未之國。 建昭四年，薨邸，葬杜陵，無子，絕。 太后歸居外家戎氏。
Prince Ai of Zhongshan, Jing, was made king of Qinghe in Chuyuan 2. The next year he was transferred to Zhongshan but, still a child, did not take up the fief. He died at the princely residence in Jianzhao 4 and was buried at Du; without an heir the line ended. His mother the queen dowager went back to live with her Rong kin.
27
孝元皇帝三男
Emperor Yuan had three sons
28
孝元皇帝三男。 王皇后生孝成帝，傅昭儀生定陶共王康，馮昭儀生中山孝王興。
Emperor Yuan had three sons. Empress Wang gave birth to Emperor Cheng. Lady Fu the Brilliant Companion bore Prince Gong of Dingtao, Kang; Lady Feng the Brilliant Companion bore Prince Xiao of Zhongshan, Xing.
29
定陶共王康
Prince Gong of Dingtao, Kang
30
定陶共王康，永光三年立為濟陽王。 八年，徙為山陽王。 八年，徙定陶。 王少而愛，長多材藝，習知音聲，上奇器之。 母昭儀又幸，幾代皇后太子。 語在《元后》及《史丹傳》。
Prince Gong of Dingtao, Kang, was enfeoffed as king of Jiyang in the third year of Yongguang. In the eighth year he was transferred to Shanyang. He was then transferred to Dingtao. The emperor doted on him from boyhood; grown, he was versatile and musical, and the throne marked him as exceptional. His mother the brilliant companion was also favored and several times nearly unseated empress and crown prince. The story is told in the biographies of Empress Yuan and Shi Dan.
31
中山孝王興
Prince Xiao of Zhongshan, Xing
32
中山孝王興，建昭二年立為信都王。 十四年，徙中山。 成帝之議立太子也，御史大夫孔光以為《尚書》有殷及王，兄終弟及，中山王元帝之子，宜為後。 成帝以中山王不材，又兄弟，不得相入廟。 外家王氏與趙昭儀皆欲用哀帝為太子，故遂立焉。 上乃封孝王舅馮參為宜鄉侯，而益封孝王萬戶，以尉其意。 三十年，薨，子衎嗣。 七年，哀帝崩，無子，征中山王衎入即位，是為平帝。 太皇太后以帝為成帝後，故立東平思王孫桃鄉頃侯子成都為中山王，奉孝王後。 王莽時絕。
Prince Xiao of Zhongshan, Xing, was made king of Xindu in Jianzhao 2. In the fourteenth year he was transferred to Zhongshan. When Cheng debated the succession, Imperial Counselor Kong Guang cited the Documents on Yin brother-to-brother transmission and argued that Xing, Yuan’s son and king of Zhongshan, should follow. Cheng judged Xing unfit and held that brothers could not share one temple line. The Wangs at court and Lady Zhao the brilliant companion both wanted Ai as heir, so he was chosen. The emperor then made Xing’s uncle Feng Can marquis of Yixiang and added ten thousand households to Xing’s fief to soothe him. He died in the thirtieth year of his reign; his son Kan inherited. In the seventh year of Kan’s reign Ai died childless; Kan was summoned to the capital as Emperor Ping. The grand empress dowager, treating Ping as Cheng’s heir, enfeoffed Chengdu—son of the Marquis of Taoxiang and great-grandson of Prince Si of Dongping—as king of Zhongshan to carry on Xing’s line. The line ended under Wang Mang.
33
贊曰：孝元之後，遍有天下，然而世絕於孫，豈非天哉！ 淮陽憲王於時諸侯為聰察矣，張博誘之，幾陷無道。 《詩》云「貪人敗類」，古今一也。
The summation runs: from Emperor Yuan onward they held all under heaven, yet the line died with the grandson—can we call it anything but fate? Prince Xian of Huaiyang was the sharpest of the kings of his day; Zhang Bo led him to the brink of treason. The Poetry says, “The grasping man ruins his own”—so it has ever been.