1
卷一百上敘傳第七十上
Hanshu, volume 100a: the afterword and family history, first installment.
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The Ban lineage traced its kinship to the house of Chu and claimed descent from the chief minister known as Ziwen. Newborn Ziwen was abandoned in the wilderness, where a tigress nursed him and spared his life. In Chu speech a mother's milk was "gu" and a tiger was "yutu"; from those words came his personal name, and he received the courtesy name Ziwen. Chu folk also called a tiger "ban," and his posterity adopted that syllable as their surname. After Qin conquered Chu, the family was resettled along the Jin–Dai frontier and took "Ban" as their hereditary name.
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Near the close of the Qin First Emperor's reign, Ban Yi escaped unrest by settling in Loufan, where he built up herds counted in the thousands. It happened when Han had only just been settled and there were no restraints on the people. During the reigns of Emperor Xiaohui and Empress Gao, he dominated the frontier by his wealth; when he went out hawking and hunting, he used banners, flags, drums, and pipes. He lived more than a hundred years and died of old age, so many northerners used the character "Yi" in their names.
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Ban Yi was the father of Ban Ru. Ban Ru lived the life of a roaming knight-errant, and songs of his deeds spread through the provinces. Ru's son Chang attained the post of governor of Shanggu. Chang's son Hui entered office as magistrate of Changzi on a nomination for outstanding talent. Hui's son Kuang began as a gentleman-attendant after a filial-and-incorrupt recommendation, then climbed by steady service to Capital Agriculture commandant at Shanghe; year after year the Minister of Finance ranked his performance at the top, and he was brought to the capital as colonel of the Yueqi cavalry on the left. Early in Cheng's reign Kuang's daughter entered the harem as an honored lady; he resigned and went home, amassed wealth reckoned in thousands of gold, and was relocated to the new Changling site. When the Changling mausoleum town was scrapped, leading families of the court all took out household registration in Chang'an.
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Ban Kuang fathered three sons named Bo, You, and Zhi. Ban Bo studied the Odes under Shi Dan while he was still young. Wang Feng urged the throne to employ Ban Bo as a scholar who could inspire study; summoned to the private audience hall, Ban Bo cut a striking figure and lectured with crisp order, and the emperor named him Palace Attendant. Cheng was bent on scholarship, so Zheng Kuanzhong and Zhang Yu lectured each day on the Documents and the Analects in the Jinhua Palace while Ban Bo was told to join the class. Once he had the larger outlines, he argued fine points with Xu Shang and was promoted to Privy Coachman. When the Jinhua tutorials stopped, Ban Bo drifted into the set of Wang and Xu heirs, a crowd of brocade-clad idlers that never suited him.
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家本北邊，志節忼慨，數求使匈奴。 河平中，單于來朝，上使伯持節迎於塞下。 會定襄大姓石、李群輩報怨，殺追捕吏，伯上狀，因自請願試守期月。 上遣侍中中郎將王舜馳傳代伯護單于，并奉璽書印綬，即拜伯為定襄太守。 定襄聞伯素貴，年少，自請治劇，畏其下車作威，吏民竦息。 伯至，請問耆老父祖故人有舊恩者，迎延滿堂，日為供具，執子孫禮。 郡中益弛。 諸所賓禮皆名豪，懷恩醉酒，共諫伯宜頗攝錄盜賊，具言本謀亡匿處。 伯曰：「是所望於父師矣。」 乃召屬縣長吏，選精進掾史，分部收捕，及它隱伏，旬日盡得。 郡中震栗，咸稱神明。 歲餘，上徵伯。 伯上書願過故郡上父祖冢。 有詔，太守都尉以下會。 因召宗族，各以親疏加恩施，散數百金。 北州以為榮，長老紀焉。 道病中風，既至，以侍中光祿大夫養病，賞賜甚厚，數年未能起。
Raised on the northern marches, he burned with blunt ardor and repeatedly asked to be sent on embassies to the steppe. During the Heping reign the Chanyu visited the capital, and the emperor dispatched Ban Bo with an imperial staff to greet him just inside the frontier. Just then magnate families named Shi and Li in Dingxiang, feuding bloodily, had murdered pursuing constables; Ban Bo filed a report and volunteered to govern the commandery provisionally for one month. The court therefore sent Wang Shun galloping with the imperial insignia to relieve Ban Bo of the reception duty and invest him on the spot as governor of Dingxiang. The commandery knew Ban Bo as young, noble-born, and hungry for a tough post, and everyone braced for a harsh new governor who would swagger in with threats. Instead he sought out venerable locals and long-standing friends of his forebears, filled his hall with guests, fed them daily, and treated them with the deference of a grandson. Tension in the commandery eased further. The notables he had wined were local titans who, warmed by his courtesy, drank deep and urged him to tighten the dragnet and map every hideout of the feuding clans. Ban Bo answered, "That is exactly the counsel I wanted from elders I respect." He then assembled county heads, picked sharp subordinates, fanned them out in teams, and within ten days every fugitive and accomplice was in custody. The whole commandery stood in awe and hailed him as uncannily effective. A little over a year later the emperor recalled Ban Bo to court. Ban Bo asked leave to detour through Dingxiang and tend the graves of his father and grandfather. An edict ordered the sitting governor, the commandant of dependent states, and every official beneath them to gather with him. He called his clan, graded gifts by kinship nearness, and handed out several hundred pounds of gold. Northerners spoke of the scene with pride, and old men still recounted it. A stroke struck him en route; once home he held titular rank as Palace Attendant and Grand Counselor of the Household under lavish stipends, yet for years he could not leave his bed.
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After Empress Xu fell, Lady Ban withdrew to serve the Dowager in the eastern palace, a maid named Li Ping rose to an honored lady, and Zhao Feiyan took the empress's seal; Ban Bo promptly claimed serious illness. Months later Cheng called on him while touring nearby estates; terrified of seeming disloyal, Ban Bo roused himself and went back on duty.
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Once Wang Feng was gone, favorites such as Marquis Zhang Fang of Fuping and Marquis Chunyu Chang of Dingling won the emperor's intimacy: on town trips they slipped out in disguise, and on the road they shared his chariot and took the reins. Inside the palace they threw banquets where the Zhao and Li women and the gentlemen-attendants tipped their cups, bellowed toasts, and roared with laughter. Beside the imperial couch stood painted screens of King Zhou drunk and draped over Daji in the revels of the endless night. Noting that Ban Bo had lately returned to favor, the emperor kept glancing at him politely, then jerked his chin at the scene and asked Ban Bo, "Was wicked King Zhou really as bad as this?" Ban Bo replied, "The Documents says, 'Then he used women's words'—how could there have been such sprawling license at court? What people call 'every evil was ascribed to him' means the truth was not in fact this extreme." The emperor said, "If it was not like this, what warning does this picture carry?" Ban Bo said, "'Sunk deep in drink' is why the viscount of Wei announced his departure; 'Shouting this way and roaring that way' is why the Greater Odes linger on it with sorrow. The warnings in the Odes and Documents against licentious disorder all trace their source to wine." The emperor thereupon sighed as if agreeing and said, "I have not seen Ban for a long time; today I have again heard blunt straight speech!" Zhang Fang and his set scowled, excused themselves to change robes, and drifted out until the party collapsed. An agent from the Changxin Palace steward Linbiao happened to witness the whole exchange.
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Later, when the emperor came to court at the Eastern Palace, the Empress Dowager wept and said, "The emperor's complexion has lately grown thin and dark. Palace Attendant Ban was first recommended by the Grand General; he should receive exceptional favor. Seek out more men like him, so they may support your sagely virtue. She insisted that Marquis Zhang Fang of Fuping be ordered back to his estate for the time being." The emperor said, "Yes." When General of Chariots and Cavalry Wang Yin heard of this, he prompted the chancellor and the imperial counselor to memorialize the crimes of the Marquis of Fuping, Zhang Fang, and the emperor sent Fang out as a commandant on the frontier. Later, when he was summoned back again, the Empress Dowager wrote to the emperor, saying, "What I spoke of before has still not taken effect, and now the Marquis of Fuping has come back again. How can I remain silent?" The emperor apologized and said, "From now on I shall obey the edict." At the time Xu Shang was Minister of the Lesser Treasury and Shi Dan was Chamberlain for Attendants. The emperor brought Shang and Dan into court as grand counselors of the household, promoted Ban Bo to chief commandant of waters and parks, and had him serve as Palace Attendant together with his two teachers; all held the salary rank of fully two thousand piculs. Ban Bo routinely escorted the emperor to the Dowager's audiences; and whenever weighty policy arose, he and his colleagues carried the throne's instructions to the high ministers. Cheng slowly lost his taste for pleasure trips and turned again to classical study, which delighted the Dowager. After another memorial from Chancellor Fangjin, Zhang Fang finally went to his estate for good. Ban Bo soon died of illness at thirty-eight, and the court mourned the loss.
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Ban You had a capacious mind; Shi Dan nominated him worthy and upright, his policy essay won him a consultant post, and he rose to remonstrant grandee and right colonel of the gentlemen while collating palace archives beside Liu Xiang. Whenever memorials reached the throne, Ban You was the reader the emperor picked to intone the palace collection. Cheng prized his skill enough to gift him facsimile sets of the rare books. Because palace books were still withheld from the public, the Prince of Dongping's request, as imperial uncle, for Sima Qian's histories and the masters' treatises was refused when the Grand General reported against it. The full story appears in the prince's biography. Ban You died young as well, leaving a son Si who won renown in that generation.
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In his youth Ban Zhi served as a Yellow Gate Gentleman and Palace Attendant and maintained strict integrity. Late in Cheng's reign, when the Prince of Dingtao was named heir, the heir's agents quizzed every intimate attendant, but Ban Zhi alone refused to reply. Emperor Ai posted him chief commandant over the Xihe dependent state, then promoted him to chancellor of Guangping.
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While young, Wang Mang was friendly with Ban Zhi and his brothers, who served alongside him. He treated Ban You as an elder brother and Ban Zhi as a younger one. When Ban You died, Wang Mang donned mourning hemp and gave lavish funeral gifts. After Emperor Ping took the throne, the Dowager regent and Wang Mang in power sought to polish the age into Great Peace, dispatching envoys to survey local customs and collect praise songs, but Ban Zhi sent nothing up. Langye administrator Gongsun Hong reported disasters to the capital; Grand Minister of Works Zhen Feng sent aides racing to both commanderies to warn officials and people, then impeached Hong for inventing ill omens and Zhi for withholding auspicious responses and obstructing the sage government—both accused of capital crimes. The Dowager said, "Failing to proclaim virtue deserves a different penalty from reporting disasters. And this is a worthy family of the rear palace, whom I pity." Gongsun Hong alone was imprisoned and executed. Ban Zhi, afraid, memorialized his gratitude and apology, asked to surrender the chancellor seal, and sought appointment as a gentleman of Yanling Park; the Dowager agreed. He drew his former stipend for the rest of his life. Thereafter the Ban house kept out of Wang Mang's limelight and escaped punishment as well.
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Cheng's easy temper invited blunt speech, so ministers such as Wang Yin and Zhai Fangjin policed the law while scholars like Liu Xiang, Du Ye, Wang Zhang, and Zhu Yun flayed the throne; from the imperial tutor the marquis of Anchang through the Wang uncles and every powerful consort kin of the Shi and Xu lines, no favorite escaped their written attacks. Only Gu Yong once said, "During the Jianshi and Heping eras, the eminence of the Xu and Ban houses shook the former court and blazed across the four quarters. Rewards and gifts were beyond measure; they emptied the inner treasury, and favor shown to women reached an unsurpassable extreme; while the new crop of favorites, heaven-rejected, would outdo them tenfold." He aimed the rebuke at Zhao Feiyan and Li Ping, yet commentators say no one could gainsay his point.
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Ban Si pursued Confucian texts yet revered the Daoist teachings of Laozi and Yan Junping. When Huan Sheng wished to borrow his books, Ban Si replied, "As for Master Yan, he cut off sagehood and discarded cleverness, cultivated life and guarded the genuine, was clear, empty, and still, and returned to the natural; he took only creation as teacher and friend and was not enslaved by the vulgar world. If he angled in one gully, then the myriad things could not corrupt his purpose; if he rested on one hill, then all under Heaven could not alter his joy. Such a man never walked into the sages' snares or nibbled a proud king's hook; he wandered beyond labels, which is why he is worth imitating. Now you, sir, have already put on the fetters of benevolence and duty and tied yourself to the reins and locks of reputation. You crouch in the tracks of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius and race toward the utmost earnestness of Yan Hui and Min Ziqian; since you are already bound fast by worldly teaching, why use the great Way merely to dazzle yourself? There was once a man who went to Handan to learn a new way of walking. Before mastering the strut he forgot his own walk and had to crawl home in shame. Lest your borrowing end the same way, I decline to lend the books." Such was Ban Si's conduct and the tone of his debate.
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叔皮唯聖人之道然後盡心焉。 年二十，遭王莽敗，世祖即位於冀州。 時隗囂據壟擁眾，招輯英俊，而公孫述稱帝於蜀漢，天下雲擾，大者連州郡，小者據縣邑。 囂問彪曰：「往者周亡，戰國並爭，天下分裂，數世然後乃定，其抑者從橫之事復起於今乎？ 將承運迭興在於一人也？ 願先生論之。」 對曰：「周之廢興與漢異。 昔周立爵五等，諸侯從政，本根既微，枝葉強大，故其末流有從橫之事，其勢然也。 漢家承秦之制，並立郡縣，主有專己之威，臣無百年之柄，至於成帝，假借外家，哀、平短祚，國嗣三絕，危自上起，傷不及下。 故王氏之貴，傾擅朝廷，能竊號位，而不根於民。 是以即真之後，天下莫不引領而歎，十餘年間，外內騷擾，遠近俱發，假號雲合，咸稱劉氏，不謀而同辭。 方今雄桀帶州城者，皆無七國世業之資。 詩云：『皇矣上帝，臨下有赫，鑒觀四方，求民之莫。』 今民皆謳吟思漢，鄉仰劉氏，已可知矣。」 囂曰：「先生言周、漢之勢，可也，至於但見愚民習識劉氏姓號之故，而謂漢家復興，疏矣！ 昔秦失其鹿，劉季逐而掎之，時民復知漢虖！」 既感囂言，又愍狂狡之不息，乃著王命論以救時難。 其辭曰：
Ban Biao reserved his full devotion for the path of the sages alone. At twenty he lived through Wang Mang's fall and watched Liu Xiu raise the Han banner in Ji. Wei Xiao then blocked the Long road and recruited talent while Gongsun Shu styled himself emperor in Shu; the realm splintered into rival zones large and small. Wei Xiao asked Ban Biao, "In former times when Zhou fell, the Warring States strove together and the realm split apart, and only after several generations was it settled—will the affairs of vertical and horizontal alliances rise again now, or will the received mandate pass in turn and concentrate in a single man? He begged Ban Biao to give his reading." He replied, "The decline and rise of Zhou differ from those of Han. Zhou had enfeoffed powerful barons whose branches overshadowed the crown, which is why the age of alliances followed inevitably. Han copied Qin's commandery system so the emperor kept iron control while ministers lacked hereditary leverage; down to Cheng the consort clans borrowed authority, Ai and Ping died young, the succession failed thrice, yet the rot started in the palace, not among the people. Thus the Wangs could bully the court and seize the throne in name, but they never sank roots in the common folk. Once Wang Mang mounted the throne as emperor, the realm looked on with clenched throats; within a decade rebellion boiled inside the borders and out, every quarter flew false Liu banners, and men who had never conspired used the same slogan. Today's strongmen who sit on walled prefectures command none of the old Warring States' hereditary depth. As the Greater Odes put it: 'Sublime is God on high, terrible in His gaze across the realm, searching out where the people may find peace.' The folk already sing of their longing for Han and lift their eyes to the Liu name, which tells you all you need to know." Wei Xiao said, "What you say, sir, about the tendencies of Zhou and Han is acceptable, but to infer from the mere fact that foolish commoners are habituated to the Liu surname that the house of Han will rise again is far too loose! In olden times Qin lost the deer, and Liu Ji chased and seized it—did the people then even know there would be a Han?" Half persuaded by Wei Xiao yet sick of endless adventurism, Ban Biao drafted the Discourse on the King's Mandate to steady a chaotic age. The text runs as follows:
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昔在帝堯之禪曰：「咨爾舜，天之曆數在爾躬。」 舜亦以命禹。 臮于稷𢍆，咸佐唐虞，光濟四海，奕世載德，至于湯武，而有天下。 雖其遭遇異時，禪代不同，至于應天順民，其揆一也。 是故劉氏承堯之祚，氏族之世，著乎春秋。 唐據火德，而漢紹之，始起沛澤，則神母夜號，以章赤帝之符。 由是言之，帝王之祚，必有明聖顯懿之德，豐功厚利積絫之業，然後精誠通於神明，流澤加於生民，故能為鬼神所福饗，天下所歸往，未見運世無本，功德不紀，而得屈起在此位者也。 世俗見高祖興於布衣，不達其故，以為適遭暴亂，得奮其劍，游說之士至比天下於逐鹿，幸捷而得之，不知神器有命，不可以智力求也。 悲夫！ 此世所以多亂臣賊子者也。 若然者，豈徒闇於天道哉？ 又不睹之於人事矣！
When Emperor Yao yielded the throne he said, "Shun, the numbered seasons of Heaven now sit on you." Shun passed the same charge to Yu. Through ministers such as Hou Ji and Xie the virtue of Yao and Shun spread across the seas, generation on generation, until Tang of Shang and Wu of Zhou inherited the whole realm. Their circumstances and transfers of power varied, yet each case matched Heaven's will and the people's heart in the same way. The Liu lineage thus continued Yao's mandate, a pedigree the Spring and Autumn Annals already recorded. Emperor Yao held the virtue of Fire, and Han succeeded it; when it first arose in the Pei marshes, the divine mother cried out in the night to manifest the token of the Red Emperor. Imperial fortune, in short, demands luminous virtue and piled-up achievements before the spirits answer and the people rally; no one seizes the dragon throne from thin air with neither merit nor mandate. Common opinion mistakes Gaozu for a lucky swordsman who grabbed power in chaos, the "deer hunt" cliché of rhetoricians; they miss that the sacred vessel answers only to fate, not to cunning or muscle. A bitter pity. That blindness is why treason and usurpation multiply. If that were the whole story, would the fault lie only in misunderstanding Heaven? They have not even looked at the evidence of human affairs.
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Starving drifters on the highway dream only of a patched coat or a sack of grain, a few coins of wealth, and still rot in the ditch. Why should that be? Even poverty and plenty ride an appointed lot. How then could anyone lightly seize the Son of Heaven's rank, the wealth of the realm, and the spirits' favor? Though men may seize power in a moment of crisis, even those as brave as Han Xin and Ying Bu, as strong as Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu, or as successful as Wang Mang ended boiled in cauldrons, laid on the block, pickled, or torn apart. How much less should petty men beneath them covertly covet the throne? A cripple nag cannot run the thousand-mile road, sparrows cannot soar like great birds, splinter wood will not roof a hall, and a small-minded man cannot wear the crown. The Changes say, "The tripod breaks its legs and spills the duke's gruel," meaning it could not bear the burden.
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At the end of Qin, local strongmen together urged Chen Ying to accept the title of king. His mother stopped him, saying, "Ever since I became a daughter-in-law in your family, we have been poor and lowly for generations. Sudden wealth and honor would be inauspicious. Better to place the troops under someone else: if the undertaking succeeds, you will receive a small share of the benefit; if it fails, the disaster will fall elsewhere." Chen Ying obeyed, and his house survived the wars unscathed. Wang Ling's mother likewise saw that the Xiang clan would fall and the Liu house would rise. While Wang Ling served Han, his mother was held by Chu; meeting a Han envoy, she said to him, "I beg you tell my son: the King of Han is a man of generous nature and is sure to gain all under Heaven; let him serve him carefully and harbor no second heart." She then drew a blade before the envoy and fell dead to steel her son's resolve. Han triumphed, Wang Ling rose to chancellor, and ennoblement followed. If a woman's wit could read fate, save her lineage, and earn a line in the annals, how much more should a grown man grasp the mandate! Fortune governs rise and fall, yet human choice steers blessing or curse; Chen's mother knew whom to quit, Wang's mother knew whom to back, and those four judgments settle who may be king.
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蓋在高祖，其興也有五：一曰帝堯之苗裔，二曰體貌多奇異，三曰神武有徵應，四曰寬明而仁恕，五曰知人善任使。 加之以信誠好謀，達於聽受，見善如不及，用人如由己，從諫如順流，趣時如嚮赴； 當食吐哺，納子房之策； 拔足揮洗，揖酈生之說； 寤戍卒之言，斷懷土之情； 高四皓之名，割肌膚之愛； 舉韓信於行陳，收陳平於亡命，英雄陳力，群策畢舉：此高祖之大略，所以成帝業也。 若乃靈瑞符應，又可略聞矣。 初劉媼任高祖而夢與神遇，震電晦冥，有龍蛇之怪。 及其長而多靈，有異於眾，是以王、武感物而折券，呂公睹形而進女； 秦皇東游以厭其氣，呂后望雲而知所處； 始受命則白蛇分，西入關則五星聚。 故淮陰、留侯謂之天授，非人力也。
Gaozu's ascent rested on five signs: Yao's bloodline, a singular physique, omens that blessed his arms, a generous humane temper, and a gift for placing the right men. He was candid, loved strategy, listened well, chased every good counsel, handed offices as freely as if they were his own limbs, took advice like running water, and seized each moment as though answering a call; he spat out a mouthful mid-meal to enact Zhang Liang's scheme; he broke off his bath to salute Li Yiji's plea; he heeded a guardsman's plea and checked his homesick march; he courted the Four Elders though it cost him a father's love; He pulled Han Xin from the ranks, rescued Chen Ping from flight, and let every able man lend strength until the imperial work was done. The portents that marked him deserve a word as well. Lady Liu dreamed of a spirit when she conceived him; thunder rolled in black sky and dragon shapes writhed. As he matured, uncanny signs set him apart, so Wang and Wu tore up old debts at a glance and Lü Gong married him a daughter for his bearing; the Qin First Emperor toured east to smother his qi, while Empress Lü read clouds to find him; His first mandate split the white serpent, and the five planets clustered when he entered the passes. Han Xin and Zhang Liang called such things Heaven's investiture, not mortal striving.
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Review the gains and losses of past and present, test the success and failure of deeds, examine the age's fortunes of emperors and kings, and consider what is meant by the five signs. If one's choices do not fit that position and one's auspicious signs do not match that measure, yet one is blinded by power and profit, oversteps the order, and occupies it recklessly, without measuring one's strength outwardly or knowing the mandate inwardly, then one will surely lose the lord who preserves the house, forfeit the full span of life, meet the ill omen of the broken leg, and submit to execution by axe and halberd. Had men of ambition truly awakened to these warnings, looked far, and understood deeply; had they heeded the clear judgment shown in the stories of Wang Ling and Chen Ying, abandoned Han Xin and Ying Bu's ambitions, rejected blind talk of chasing the deer, and recognized that the imperial regalia have a destined recipient; had they not grasped at the unattainable and made themselves a laughingstock to those two mothers, then blessings would have flowed to their descendants and Heaven's bounty endured.
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Seeing that Wei Xiao would never see reason, Ban Biao crossed to the Hexi corridor beyond the Yellow River. Dou Rong, general of the west, admired his character and sought him out. Nominated for outstanding talent, he served as magistrate of Xu until illness drove him home. Later the three highest ministers repeatedly called him to office. He never took a post for the stipend, and each appointment chafed; He studied for truth, not for show, wide-ranging yet never coarse; His words stayed plain: he expounded the classics rather than inventing flashy prose.
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系高頊之玄冑兮，氏中葉之炳靈，繇凱風而蟬蛻兮，雄朔野以颺聲。 皇十紀而鴻漸兮，有羽儀於上京。 巨滔天而泯夏兮，考遘愍以行謠，終保己而貽則兮，里上仁之所廬。 懿前烈之純淑兮，窮與達其必濟，咨孤矇之眇眇兮，將圮絕而罔階，豈余身之足殉兮？ 愇世業之可懷。
I am sprung from Zhuanxu's line; at mid-house a bright spirit woke; borne on a victorious wind I shed my shell like a cicada and sent a hero's cry across the northern wastes. Ten generations later the great wild goose began its climb, and in the capital our clan spread ceremonial plumes. When the flood drowned Xia, my people wandered in grief yet kept their integrity and left a pattern of life in the village they called supreme goodness. Their old virtue shone in every fortune, high or low; now I, a blind orphan on the edge of ruin, ask whether my life is worth the sacrifice. I mourn because the family legacy still calls me back.
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靖潛處以永思兮，經日月而彌遠，匪黨人之敢拾兮，庶斯言之不玷。 魂煢煢與神交兮，精誠發於宵寐，夢登山而迥眺兮，覿幽人之髣彿，㩜葛藟而授余兮，眷峻谷曰勿隧。 昒昕寤而仰思兮，心蒙蒙猶未察，黃神邈而靡質兮，儀遺讖以臆對。 曰乘高而遌神兮，道遐通而不迷，葛綿綿於樛木兮，詠南風以為綏，蓋惴惴之臨深兮，乃二雅之所祗。 既誶爾以吉象兮，又申之以炯戒：盍孟晉以迨群兮？ 辰焂忽其不再。
I lie withdrawn and brood as months lengthen; no faction lifts me, yet I pray these lines stay clean. In dream my lonely soul meets a sage on a height; he gives me twisting vines and a voice from the gorge warns me not to bore through the cliff. Dawn breaks and I am still dazed; the Yellow Spirit stays veiled, leaving only a riddle to puzzle out. The voice said: climb high to meet the god, the path stays true, bind yourself like kudzu to a great tree, sing the southern breeze for calm, and tremble at the abyss as the Odes demand. Having shown good omens, it also warned: why not hurry on with the throng? The moments race past and will not return.
26
I hold the spirit's slow counsel and linger, knowing heaven and earth are endless while new generations crowd the world. Obstacles tangle, troubles multiply, yet wisdom stays scarce. Only the greatest sage awakens and escapes; the mob cannot steer that fate. Shu Wu once guarded Wei for his elder brother, yet was slain as an enemy when that brother returned. Guan Zhong drew a bow to slay his enemy, only to see that enemy become lord and finish his own rise. Fortunes shift and mock foresight; no one reads the end from the beginning. Some nursed grudge yet won first reward, others earned favor yet died; Li asked for blessing from distant luck, Wang found joy in what had frightened him. Twists like these taught the northern elder how gain and loss lean on each other. Shan lost vigor though he ruled a lane, Zhang shone outward yet felt inner pinch; I aimed at the golden mean like the rare few, yet even Yan and Ran missed it. Jie Ni invited Zilu to follow him, dismissing Confucius as still unworthy; Zilu would not withdraw from the world's turmoil, and in the end it cost him his life. He haunted the Master's school yet found no rescue; when the pickle jar spilled, what good was hindsight? Rigid uprightness courts disaster; only shunning chaos is a trustworthy path; Form and breath rise from the root while branches grow thick with spirit. I fear the mantis scolding its shadow; good fortune has hardly begun to speak.
27
Li shone as Fire Regulator under Gaoxin, and his Mi descendants grew mighty in the south; Qin won awe through every ceremony, Jiang's line paused thrice at its zenith; seeing how kindness proves true, I lift my gaze to Heaven's highway and walk that track. The eastern Yi slew kindness, yet kings aligned the threes and fives; A Rong queen broke filial piety, Bo returned between dragon and tiger, disbanded troops to nurture nature, then drowned himself in wine and paired his own fetters. Scales stirred in Xia's hall, turned three dynasties, and snuffed Zhou out; Soft feathers changed in Xuan's palace and brought five reigns to ruin.
28
The Way runs long while life runs short; silence never circles all; clerks still ask things of ghosts and sound the dark through time. The Gui clan settled among the Jiang as a divination in Jingzhong's youth had foretold; the Duke of Zhou calculated his dynasty's allotted years from the tortoise shell. Xuan and Cao rose or fell by dreams below; Lu and Wei won posthumous names from carved songs. An ancestress heard a newborn wail and set it in stone; Xu read fate in twisted twigs. The Way blends whole and follows nature; methods spring from one root yet branch apart. Spirit settles fate before the heart knows it; fate then rides every deed up or down. The turning stream never rests; fortune therefore tightens and slackens with each blow. Three luan share one frame; though plenty shifts, the rule holds true. Deeply tangled omens bewilder the common crowd. Zhuang Zhou and Jia Yi railed in reckless essays, treating life and death, fortune and woe, as one; their brave words chided human passion, yet they still shrank from the butchered ox and hated the halter.
29
The highest teaching is the sage's verdict: trust innate nature and judge duty accordingly. You may crave yet not clutch, shrink from evil yet not dodge duty; hold fast to the Master's spare rule and virtue rides easy. The three benevolent worthies walked different paths to the same goal; Yi and Hui clashed in style yet harmonized in purpose. Duan Ganmu's retirement by moral example strengthened Wei; Shen Baoxu's bleeding feet saved Chu from ruin. Ji Xin gave his body for the emperor; the Four Elders fed their resolve and shunned ambition. Trees and shrubs differ, yet any that bears true fruit will thrive. To perish yet leave an undying name is the standard the ancients strove for.
30
Heaven's canopy rewards sincerity; the sages' great paths gather lesser goodness into faith. The Shao dance of Emperor Shun so moved nature that phoenixes flocked; Confucius forgot his meal for ages after hearing it. The uncrowned king's classic drew the qilin at the end; Han inherited that mandate in a later era. When essence meets spirit it moves the world; spirit rides breath into the finest grain of things. Prince Yang's wandering glance made gibbons wail; Li Guang's tiger shot cracked the boulder. Without utter sincerity nothing connects; without inward truth no one trusts the sign. Trifling arts demand truth at last; how much more the man who drowns himself in the genuine Way.
31
32
亂曰：天造屮昧，立性命兮，復心弘道，惟賢聖兮。 渾元運物，流不處兮，
Coda: Heaven began in twilight and fixed our natures; broadening the mind and the Way is work for sages alone. The cosmic breath rolls creation onward and never lingers in one place.
33
保身遺名，民之表兮。 舍生取誼，亦道用兮，憂傷夭物，忝莫痛兮！ 昊爾太素，
Keep the body whole yet leave a name: that is the people's pattern. To die for duty is also the Way's tool; to wound creation through worry is the bitterest disgrace. O boundless primal simplicity,
34
曷渝色兮？ 尚粵其幾，淪神域兮！
why should you shift your color? I would rise on your hidden hinge and plunge into the spirit's domain.
35
Under Yongping he entered as a court gentleman, supervised collation of the palace library, gave himself wholly to learning, and took writing for his life's work. Critics mocked his want of deeds; remembering how Dongfang Shuo and Yang Xiong excused their obscurity by the absence of Su or Zhang, yet never rebuked opportunism with the true Way, he felt compelled to answer. The piece opens:
36
賓戲主人曰：「蓋聞聖人有壹定之論，列士有不易之分，亦云名而已矣。 故太上有立德，其次有立功。 夫德不得後身而特盛，功不得背時而獨章，是以聖喆之治，棲棲皇皇，孔席不煗，墨突不黔。 由此言之，取舍者昔人之上務，著作者前列之餘事耳。 今吾子幸游帝王之世，躬帶冕之服，浮英華，湛道德，矕龍虎之文，舊矣。 卒不能攄首尾，奮翼鱗，振拔洿塗，跨騰風雲，使見之者景駭，聞之者嚮震。 徒樂枕經籍書，紆體衡門，上無所蔕，下無所根。 獨攄意虖宇宙之外，銳思於豪芒之內，潛神默記，恆以年歲。 然而器不賈於當己，用不效於一世，雖馳辯如濤波，摛藻如春華，猶無益於殿最。 意者，且運朝夕之策，定合會之計，使存有顯號，亡有美諡，不亦優虖？」
The guest said to the host, "Sages hold one steady teaching, steadfast men one fixed portion, and fame is said to crown the whole affair. The highest goal is founding imperishable virtue; next comes founding merit. Virtue cannot peak if you put yourself last, nor can merit blaze if you ignore the hour; hence true sages never rest—Confucius' mat stayed cool, Mozi's hearth stayed clean. Choosing a path was the ancients' first duty; composing books came after. You live under an enlightened throne, wear court regalia, swim in culture and soak in the Way, and have long feasted your eyes on imperial portents. Yet you never spread wings from the mud or ride the tempest so that sight of you would stagger the world. You hug your books beneath a humble gate, tethered neither to high office nor to solid ground. You send the mind past the sky while polishing thoughts on a pinpoint, brooding in silence year on year. Still your talent finds no buyer today, your use no proof in this life; torrents of eloquence and springtime rhetoric win you no place in the merit roll. Why not scheme for office and alliance so the living gain rank and the dead fine posthumous names—would that not be wiser?"
37
主人逌爾而咲曰：「若賓之言，斯所謂見勢利之華，闇道德之實，守穾奧之熒燭，未卬天庭而睹白日也。 曩者王塗蕪穢，周失其御，侯伯方軌，戰國橫騖，於是七雄虓闞，分裂諸夏，龍戰而虎爭。 游說之徒，風颺電激，並起而救之，其餘猋飛景附，煜霅其間者，蓋不可勝載。 當此之時，搦朽摩鈍，鈆刀皆能壹斷，是故魯連飛一矢而蹶千金，虞卿以顧眄而捐相印也。 夫啾發投曲，感耳之聲，合之律度，淫䵷而不可聽者，非韶、夏之樂也； 因勢合變，偶時之會，風移俗易，乖忤而不可通者，非君子之法也。 及至從人合之，衡人散之，亡命漂說，羇旅騁辭，商鞅挾三術以鑽孝公，李斯奮時務而要始皇，彼皆躡風雲之會，履顛沛之勢，據徼乘邪以求一日之富貴，朝為榮華，夕而焦瘁，福不盈眥，禍益於世，凶人且以自悔，況吉士而是賴虖！ 且功不可以虛成，名不可以偽立，韓設辯以徼君，呂行詐以賈國。 說難既酋，其身乃囚； 秦貨既貴，厥宗亦隧。 是故仲尼抗浮雲之志，孟軻養浩然之氣，彼豈樂為迂闊哉？ 道不可以貳也。 方今大漢洒埽群穢，夷險芟荒，廓帝紘，恢皇綱，基隆於羲、農，規廣於黃、唐； 其君天下也，炎之如日，威之如神，函之如海，養之如春。 是以六合之內，莫不同原共流，沐浴玄德，稟卬太和，枝附葉著，譬猶屮木之殖山林，鳥魚之毓川澤，得氣者蕃滋，失時者苓落，參天墬而施化，豈云人事之厚薄哉？ 今子處皇世而論戰國，耀所聞而疑所覿，欲從旄敦而度高虖泰山，懷氿濫而測深虖重淵，亦未至也。」
The host smiled faintly and said, "What you say is what people call seeing the blossoms of power and profit while remaining blind to the substance of the Way and virtue, guarding a flickering candle in a hidden corner without ever lifting your eyes to the heavenly court to behold the bright sun. Once royal roads rotted, Zhou lost control, barons raced abreast, and the seven powers tore China in a war of dragon and tiger. Rhetoricians stormed in like wind and lightning, and hangers-on swarmed beyond counting. In that chaos a blunt knife could decide a fate, so Lu Zhonglian felled a fortune with one shaft and Yu Qing dropped a premier's seal at a glance. Shrill novelty may please the ear yet fail the scale—that is not the music of Shao and Xia; and tactics that chase fashion until custom warps are not the gentleman's law. Think of the vertical and horizontal strategists and the exiles who peddled their arguments: Shang Yang used three techniques to insinuate himself with Duke Xiao, and Li Si exploited the needs of the age to win over the First Emperor. They caught the winds of opportunity and rode the turmoil of their times, seizing crooked chances to gain a day's wealth and honor. Glorious in the morning, by evening they were ruined; their good fortune did not last a moment, while their calamities burdened the age. Even evil men came to regret this path. How much less should a good man rely on it? Merit cannot be faked nor name bought: Han Fei angled his prince with rhetoric, Lü Buwei sold the realm by deceit. Han Fei completed "The Difficulty of Persuasion," only to be imprisoned; once Lü Buwei's Qin merchandise had fetched its high price, his clan too sank into the grave. So Confucius fixed his mind above the clouds and Mencius fed the flood-like breath—were they merely eccentric? The Way allows no divided loyalty. Great Han has cleansed the mire, cut the brambles, stretched the emperor's net wider than Fu Xi or Shen Nong, vaster than Huangdi or Yao; its rule warms like the sun, awes like a god, holds all like the sea, and quickens like spring. Within the six directions all drink one stream, bathe in hidden virtue, and cling like leaves to a tree; timing makes the growth, heaven and earth do the shaping—human whim weighs little. Now you, sir, live in a glorious age yet discourse on the Warring States, dazzled by hearsay while doubting what you see. You would use a low mound to gauge Mount Tai and a puddle to fathom the abyss. You are nowhere near the mark."
38
39
主人曰：「何為其然也！ 昔咎繇謨虞，箕子訪周，言通帝王，謀合聖神； 殷說夢發於傅巖，周望兆動於渭濱，齊甯激聲於康衢，漢良受書於邳沂，皆俟命而神交，匪詞言之所信，故能建必然之策，展無窮之勳也。 近者陸子優繇，新語以興； 董生下帷，發藻儒林； 劉向司籍，辯章舊聞； 揚雄覃思，法言、大玄：皆及時君之門闈，究先聖之壼奧，婆娑虖術藝之場，休息虖篇籍之囿，以全其質而發其文，用納虖聖聽，列炳於後人，斯非其亞與！ 若乃夷抗行於首陽，惠降志於辱仕，顏耽樂於簞瓢，孔終篇於西狩，聲盈塞於天淵，真吾徒之師表也。 且吾聞之：壹陰壹陽，天墬之方； 乃文乃質，王道之綱； 有同有異，聖喆之常。 故曰：慎修所志，守爾天符，委命共己，味道之腴，神之聽之，名其舍諸！ 賓又不聞龢氏之璧韞於荊石，隨侯之珠藏於蜯蛤虖？ 歷世莫眡，不知其將含景耀，吐英精，曠千載而流夜光也。 應龍潛於潢汙，魚黿媟之，不睹其能奮靈德，合風雲，超忽荒，而躆顥蒼也。 故夫泥蟠而天飛者，應龍之神也； 先賤而後貴者，龢、隨之珍也； 時闇而久章者，君子之真也。 若乃牙、曠清耳於管絃，離婁眇目於豪分； 逢蒙絕技於弧矢，班輸榷巧於斧斤； 良樂軼能於相馭，烏獲抗力於千鈞； 龢、鵲發精於鍼石，研、桑心計於無垠。 僕亦不任廁技於彼列，故密爾自娛於斯文。」
The host answered, "Why imagine such a thing? Gao Yao advised Shun, Jizi counseled Zhou—their speech reached kings, their plans matched the spirits; Fu Yue was revealed in a dream at Fuyan; Lü Wang's omen stirred on the banks of the Wei; Ning Qi's song rang out at the crossroads; and Zhang Liang received the book at the bridge at Xiapi. All awaited their appointed time and communed in spirit, relying on more than words; thus they could devise certain strategies and achieve immeasurable merit. Lu Jia, calm and unhurried, raised the New Discourses; Dong Zhongshu drew his curtain and lit the grove of scholars; Liu Xiang ordered the archives and clarified antiquity; Yang Xiong brooded out the Model Sayings and Great Arcana; each entered the ruler's gate, sounded the sages' chambers, ranged the field of learning, and left texts that shine for posterity—second only to the greatest. Then there were Boyi, who upheld his conduct on Mount Shouyang; Liuxia Hui, who humbled his aspirations to take a dishonorable post; Yan Hui, who delighted in his basket of rice and gourd of water; and Confucius, who brought his classic to an end with the hunt in the west. Their fame fills the space between heaven and the abyss; they are truly exemplars for men such as us. I have heard that yin and yang are the square of heaven and earth; culture and substance are the twin cords of the kingly Way; sameness and difference are the sage's constant scales. The ode says: polish your purpose, keep Heaven's tally, yield life to what is already yours, taste the Way's fat—when spirits listen, can fame stay away? Have you never heard how the He-bi jade slept inside a dull rock or Sui's pearl hid in a shell? Ages passed before anyone knew they would blaze with inner fire and gleam in the dark after a thousand years. The winged dragon wallowed in a puddle while minnows mocked him, blind to the day he would ride the storm into the blue. Mud-bound yet sky-soaring—that is the responding dragon; cheap at first, costly later—that is the He jade and Sui pearl; long hidden, long bright—that is the gentleman's truth. When Ya and Kuang tune their ears to music, or Li Lou splits a hair's breadth; when Peng Meng masters the bow or Lu Ban the adze; when Wang Liang and Bo Le judge horses or Wu Huo hefts a thousand jun; Yi He and Bian Que mastered the needle and stone probe; Ji Yan and Sang Hongyang's financial calculations knew no bounds. I am not fit to stack my small talent beside theirs, so I take quiet joy in these words alone."