1
Su Jing, whose courtesy name was Bokuang, came from Pingling in Fufeng commandery. Under Emperor Ping, Su Jing’s mastery of the Book of Changes earned him appointment as Erudite Libationer charged with expounding the Book of Documents. He excelled at prognostic charts and apocryphal "weft" texts and commanded the literature of the hundred schools. Under Wang Mang he joined Liu Xin and others in overseeing editorial work on the palace books and received appointment as commandant of Dai commandery. While the Xiongnu ravaged the north and most border regions suffered, Su Jing nevertheless kept Dai commandery intact and at peace. When Emperor Guangwu took the throne, Su Jing was confirmed as administrator of Dai commandery and tasked with fortifying the frontier against the Xiongnu. In winter of Jianwu 5, Lu Fang overran the northern commanderies, and the emperor dispatched Adjutant-General Sui Di to station troops in Dai. Su Jing fell seriously ill, transferred military authority to his brother, and traveled to the capital to submit himself for punishment. He was made a palace attendant but within a few months resigned on grounds of ill health.
2
3
I trust those who serve you are all well. In former days I went in and out at the National Instructor’s side with nothing more than editing skill, helping collate the palace library; I cherished that connection in private yet could never break free of it. They say a gentleman feels for his fellows and sorrows when worthy men go unrecognized. Whether clever or dull, everyone first avoids danger, then pursues gain; first fixes intent, then pursues reputation. Zhiguo saw Zhibo’s warmongering would destroy him and fled under an altered name; Chen Ping knew Xiang Yu was heaven-forsaken and gave his loyalty to Gaozu—both reached the height of discernment. I hear your prefect once bent the knee to Yan Cen, then saw the light and withdrew to nurture his moral standing. How could the worthy examples of earlier generations be improved upon? You live among talented men in obscurity; given a little time to weigh competing opinions against the charts and annals and the facts on the ground, you could see clearly what profits and what harms—why stay trapped in revolt and bear the stain of willful wrongdoing? How does that square with the conduct of a gentleman?
4
Common pedants of the day, too muddled to tell sense from nonsense, still presume to lecture on current affairs and confuse everyone who listens. Some claim dynasties rise in cycles and the winner is unknown, so seizing ground by force might win the unbelievable prize. Others say no true king has yet emerged, so one should read the times, side with the powerful, and wait while keeping one’s position. Can either of those views actually hold water? Confucius’s cryptic classics spell out Han’s crimson mandate: mystery veils the inner chamber, the wording is obscure but the message is plain. Han’s fire virtue follows Yao’s line; even in gloom it must flare; it carries forward ages of fortune and holds inexhaustible tokens. The Wangs may have usurped in a moment of weakness, yet they ended in hideous execution—dismemberment and clan extinction—is that not demonstration enough? That is why High Heaven looks down with lingering concern: it is watching over Han’s heirs. If disputants ignore Heaven and the sages and cheaply let odd tales like Master Kuang’s miscellany dizzy them, while scribblers churn out doctrine that derails the true path—why credit any of it?
5
Some classicists argue: the five planets stray from their predicted positions; the calendar is awry; Mercury has long failed to behave as expected; Venus crosses lines; Mars advances and retreats suspiciously; Saturn encircles the Celestial Street; Jupiter will not leave Di and Fang. They take such omens to bear on the dynasty itself. Calamities do not occur without meaning; each aligns with an astrological jurisdiction and its ruling house. Fang and Xin mark Song’s celestial segment—corresponding to Donghai. The Tail constellation marks Yan’s segment—here, Yuyang. Dong Xian still deludes himself in Donghai; Peng Chong holds Yuyang in revolt. The sovereign’s anger runs high and sends armies against them—so Mars answers accordingly, and both rebels reap punishment. Since Xin fell, Venus and Mercury have wandered off course—now guarding Dongjing, now hiding in the Feathered Forest, now lingering by feudal screens, now pacing the imperial stars, now shining across the zenith, now sunk from sight, now feeble, now brilliant to north and south, now swelling and shrinking into hooks, now staggering unchecked—all foretell the purge of fate and the sage emperor’s receipt of the mandate. Traitors and rebel heirs contradict one another; charlatans gesture at the sky and spread garbled doctrine. Given all this, how could astronomy ever stay neatly "on schedule"?
6
乃者，五月甲申，天有白虹，自子加午，廣可十丈，長可萬丈，正臨倚彌。 倚彌即黎丘，秦豐之都也。 是時月入於畢。 畢為天網，主網羅無道之君，故武王將伐紂，上祭於畢，求助天也。 夫仲夏甲申為八魁。 八魁，上帝開塞之將也，主退惡攘逆。 流星狀似蚩尤旗，或曰營頭，或曰天槍，出奎而西北行，至延牙營上，散為數百而滅，奎為毒螫，主庫兵。 此二變，郡中及延牙士眾所共見也。 是故延牙遂之武當，托言發兵，實避其殃。 今年《比卦》部歲，《坤》主立冬，《坎》主冬至，水性滅火，南方之兵受歲禍也。 德在中宮，刑在木，木勝土，刑制德，今年兵事畢已，中國安寧之效也。 五七之家三十五姓，彭、秦、延氏不得豫焉。 如何怪惑，依而恃之？ 《葛累》之詩，『求福不回』，其若是乎！
Lately, on a fifth-month jiashen day, a white arc spanned from zi to wu—some ten feet wide and immense in length—hovering directly above Yimi. Yimi is Liqiu, the seat of Qin Feng. That same time the moon entered the Bi lodge. Bi is the celestial net that snares wicked rulers. King Wu therefore sacrificed at Bi before marching against Shang, invoking Heaven’s aid. A jiashen day in midsummer falls among the Eight Chiefs (bagui, spirits of closure). Those Eight Chiefs are Heaven’s marshals of closure and release; they govern expulsion of wickedness and suppression of rebellion. A meteor like Chiyou’s banner—called "camp head" or "sky lance"—rose from Kui, streaked northwest to Yan Cen’s camp, broke into hundreds of sparks, and died; Kui stands for poison sting and armory stores. Everyone in the district and Yan Cen’s troops saw both phenomena. So Yan Cen withdrew toward Wudang under the pretext of mobilizing—actually fleeing Heaven’s warning. This year’s ruling hexagram is Bi; Kun holds Beginning of Winter, Kan the solstice; water quenches fire—southern armies will bear the year’s curse. Virtue sits in the central palace, retribution in wood; wood prevails over earth and checks virtue—campaigns will close and the heartland will rest. The thirty-five great lineages of the five-and-seven houses omit Peng, Qin, and Yan. Why linger in wonder and pin hope on them? As the "Ge Lei" ode says, "Seek blessing without deviating"—surely that is the course.
7
圖讖之占，眾變之驗，皆君所明。 善惡之分，去就之決，不可不察。 無忽鄙言！
You already grasp chart lore and the shifting signs that confirm it. Discerning good from evil and choosing where to stand admits no negligence. Do not dismiss this blunt counsel.
8
The Duke of Zhou favored Kangshu because Kangshu did not join Guan and Cai’s revolt. Emperor Jing favored the king of Jibei for refusing to follow Liu Pi’s rebellion. From Emperor Gengshi onward, traitors and loyalists stand in sharp contrast—how can you not see which side is which? No doctor cures Heaven-doomed patients; brute force cannot rival fate—what Heaven tears down, mortals cannot shore up. You should quietly confer with Administrator Liu on terms of surrender. Confucius hurried from court to court; Mozi rushed about—they cared for humanity that intensely. The butcher who rescued Chu sought no fiefs or salary. When Mao Jiao confronted the Qin court, was he angling for profit? They acted from devotion and universal compassion—wrath at wrong simply could not be contained.
9
He sent another lengthy letter to Deng Zhongkuang (omitted here); Deng and Liu Gong then capitulated.
10
11
Yang Hou, courtesy Zhonghuan, hailed from Xindu in Guanghan. His grandfather Yang Chunqing mastered prognostic lore and served Gongsun Shu as a general. When Han forces conquered Shu, Chunqing committed suicide; at the last he warned his son Yang Tong: "In my document case lies an ancestral secret scripture meant for Han—honor and preserve it." Tong heeded his father’s charge; after the mourning period he traveled to Qianwei to learn ancient methods from Zhou Xun and studied the Hetu–Luoshu texts and astronomical reckoning with Zheng Boshan in his home commandery. During Jianchu he served as magistrate of Pengcheng during a province-wide drought; by analyzing yin–yang cycles he brought rain to his county. Prefect Zong Zhan then asked him to pray for the whole commandery, and rain fell there too. After that the court routinely sought his reading whenever anomalies arose. Tong wrote the "House Method with Commentary," two volumes of Inner Prophecies with exegetical notes, rose to grand counselor of the household, and was honored among the state’s three elders. He died at ninety.
12
Tong’s son was Hou. Hou’s mother quarreled with Bo, her husband’s son by an earlier wife; at nine sui Hou tried to heal the breach by pretending to be mute and fasting. When she understood his purpose she was stricken, relented, and grew far kinder. Bo later reached the rank of grand counselor of the household.
13
In youth Yang Hou took up his father’s discipline and threw himself into study and writing. Earlier, in Yongchu 3 under Emperor An, Venus entered the Northern Dipper as Luoyang was inundated. Yang Tong was then a palace attendant, and Hou was with him at court. The court questioned Yang Tong, who answered: "I am old and dim-sighted; my son Hou reads the prognostic texts and grasps their gist." Empress Dowager Deng dispatched a eunuch with an edict to interview him; Hou answered that the numerous imperial princes gathered in the capital might stir unrest and ought to be hurried home to their fiefs. She accepted his advice, and the aberrant star shortly disappeared. He also predicted when the flood would ebb, and was proved right. He received appointment as gentleman of the palace. The empress dowager later called him in to discuss prophecy; his replies displeased her, so he was removed and sent home. He resumed study in Qianwei, ignored invitations from regional authorities and the three excellencies, and refused every recommendation for office.
14
永建二年，順帝特徵，詔告郡縣督促發遣。 厚不得已，行到長安，以病自上，因陳漢三百五十年之厄，宜蠲漢改憲之道，及消伏災異，凡五事。 制書褒述，有詔太醫致藥，太宮賜羊酒。 及至，拜議郎，三遷為侍中，特蒙引見，訪以時政。 四年，厚上言『今夏必盛寒，當有疾疫蝗蟲之害』。 是歲，果六州大蝗，疫氣流行。 後又連上『西北二方有兵氣，宜備邊寇』。 車駕臨當西巡，感厚言而止。 至陽嘉三年，西羌寇隴右，明年，烏桓圍度遼將軍耿曄。 永和元年，復上『京師應有水患，又當火災，三公有免者，蠻夷當反畔』。 是夏，洛陽暴水，殺千餘人； 至冬，承福殿災，太尉龐參免； 荊、交二州蠻夷賊殺長吏，寇城郭。 又言『陰臣、近戚、妃黨當受禍。』 明年，宋阿母與宦者褒信侯李元等遘奸廢退； 後二年，中常侍張逵等復坐誣罔大將軍梁商專恣，悉伏誅。 每有災異，厚輒上消救之法，而閹宦專政，言不得信。
In Yongjian 2, Emperor Shun issued a special summons, and edicts went out ordering local officials to send him on his way. Unable to refuse, Hou traveled to Chang'an, pleaded illness to the emperor, and submitted five proposals on Han's three-and-a-half-century crisis: how to lift its burdens, reform the laws, and dispel omens and disasters. The court issued a commendatory rescript, ordered the imperial physician to send medicine, and had the palace kitchens provide sheep and wine. On arrival he was made gentleman consultant, promoted three times to palace attendant, granted a special audience, and consulted on state affairs. In the fourth year, Hou memorialized the throne: "This summer will be bitterly cold, and plague and locusts will follow." That year, locusts ravaged six provinces and epidemic illness spread. He then submitted again and again: "The northwest and north show signs of war; frontier enemies must be prepared for." When the emperor was on the verge of a western tour, he was moved by Hou's warning and called it off. In Yangjia 3 the Western Qiang attacked Longyou; the following year the Wuhuan besieged General Who Crosses the Liao Geng Ye. In Yonghe 1, he memorialized again: "Luoyang will be flooded; a great fire will follow; one of the Three Excellencies will fall; and the southern tribes will rebel." That summer sudden floods struck Luoyang and killed more than a thousand people; by winter Chengfu Hall burned and Grand Commandant Pang Can was dismissed; in Jing and Jiao, tribal rebels killed local officials and attacked towns. He also warned, "Hidden courtiers, imperial kin, and consort cliques will meet disaster." The next year Song A'mu, the eunuch Marquis of Baoxin Li Yuan, and others were exposed in a sexual scandal and removed; Two years later the regular palace attendants Zhang Kui and others were convicted of falsely accusing Grand General Liang Shang of monopolizing power, and all were put to death. Whenever omens appeared, Hou submitted remedies, but eunuchs held power and his warnings went unheeded.
15
When Grand General Liang Ji dominated the court, he sent his brother Liang Buyi—palace attendant—with gifts of carriages, horses, and treasures to court Yang Hou’s acquaintance. Yang Hou ignored the overture and kept insisting he was too ill to attend court, pressing for dismissal. The emperor approved, awarding vehicles, cash, and silk for his retirement. He practiced Huang–Lao teachings and taught disciples—more than three thousand enrolled. Grand Commandant Li Gu pressed his case more than once. In Benchu 1 Empress Dowager Liang summoned him with full classical ceremony; he pleaded illness and stayed away. In Jianhe 3 she summoned him again, yet four years passed without his appearance. He died at home at eighty-two. An imperial rescript authorized mourning sacrifices. Villagers honored him posthumously as "Father Wen." His students built him a shrine, and the commandery’s education officials, at the seasonal community archery assemblies, made sacrifice to him as a standing observance.