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卷四十八 楊李翟應霍爰徐列傳

Volume 48: Biographies of Yang, Li, Di, Ying, Huo, Yuan, Xu

Chapter 54 of 後漢書 ✓ Translated
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1
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Yang Zhong, styled Zishan, came from Chengdu in Shu commandery. When he was thirteen he served as a junior clerk in the commandery. The grand administrator, struck by his ability, sent him to the capital for schooling, and there he mastered the Spring and Autumn Annals. Under Emperor Ming he was called to the Orchid Terrace and given the post of collating secretary [1].
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Commentary [1]: Yuan Shansong writes that when lightning in Shu commandery struck the office that handled legal decisions, Yang Zhong submitted a written report blaming harsh and tangled litigation; the grand administrator then had him compose a piece on thunder and lightning and was greatly impressed.
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Commentary [1]: The Spring and Autumn records that in Duke Zhao's twentieth year Gongsun Hui of Cao left Mao and fled to Song. The Gongyang commentary glosses the wording as indicating rebellion. Why does the text avoid saying outright that he rebelled? The wording spares the descendants of Prince Xishi. The Spring and Autumn spares the worthy by concealing their shame. What made Prince Xishi worthy? He gave up his claim to the rulership. The gentleman prolongs praise of the good and keeps censure of the wicked short; he limits blame to the individual but lets praise extend to posterity. Because they are heirs of a worthy man, the gentleman shields their fault in the record."
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Commentary [2]: The Qian Han shu "Yinyi" defines the three clans as the father's, the mother's, and the wife's lines.
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Commentary [3]: Taizong is Emperor Wen of the Former Han. The Records of the Historian says of Emperor Wen that his virtue rose to perfection—could he have been anything but humane? He did away with laws that seized kin and punished whole households for one person's crime."
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Commentary [4]: The lacuna in the text is sometimes written with the character for "ox." Yi here means pestilence or epidemic disease.
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Commentary [5]: Emperor Yuan's edict quotes the saying that people naturally cling to their land and dread uprooting.
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Commentary [6]: The preface to "Pan Geng" in the Documents says Pan Geng relocated the capital five times; as he was about to rule from Bo, the Yin people grumbled together. Bo is present-day Yanshi in Henan, which is why the gloss speaks of a move close to Luoyi.
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Commentary [7]: Mao means vegetation or grassland. The Erya lists Guzhu, Beihu, the Queen Mother of the West, and Rixia as the "four outer wastes." It also defines the four extremes as reaching east to Taiyuan, west to Bin, south to Puyin, and north to Zhuli. Calling a place "without grass" or placing it among the wastes and extremes is a way of saying "very far away," not a claim that it lies exactly at those named points.
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Commentary [8]: In the third year of Chuyuan under Emperor Yuan, Zhuya commandery rose in revolt; Jia Juanzhi, holding the rank of awaiting orders, argued for abandoning Zhuya to relieve famine, and the commandery was abolished. In the twenty-first year of Emperor Guangwu, the rulers of Shanshan, Jushi, and sixteen other polities sent their sons to court as hostages and begged for a protector-general. The emperor, with China still consolidating and no margin for frontier entanglements, sent the hostages home and showered them with rewards. The image of fish and scaly creatures stands for distant tribes whose inhabitants are treated as little different from sea life. By "robes and caps" the text means the Chinese heartland. Yang Xiong writes in the Fa yan that cutting off Zhuya was Juanzhi's achievement; otherwise the barbarians might have overturned Chinese rule.
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Commentary [9]: The Gongyang asks why the annals record the razing of the Spring Platform. To register blame." Both raising and tearing it down draw censure: the ancestors built it, yet later generations tear it down; the proper course is simply not to live there."
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Commentary [10]: The Gongyang records that in Duke Xiang's eleventh year three armies were established. What did "three armies" signify? They corresponded to three high ministers. The Gongyang on Duke Zhao's fifth year adds that the central army was later disbanded. What did abolishing the central army mean? A return to the older military organization." Keeping or abolishing those forces was a matter of suiting institutions to the moment.
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Yang Zhong urged that Emperor Xuan had summoned scholars broadly and settled the Five Classics at the Stone Canal Pavilion. Today, with few disturbances in the empire, learners could perfect their craft, but petty exegetes are tearing apart the larger tradition. He proposed repeating the Stone Canal conference so as to leave a permanent standard for posterity." An edict followed, summoning Confucians to the White Tiger Hall to thrash out textual agreement and disagreement. When Yang Zhong was jailed for a separate matter, Zhao Bo, Ban Gu, Jia Kui, and others petitioned that his mastery of the Annals and wide learning deserved mercy; his own memorial won him a pardon that very day, and he joined the White Tiger deliberations. He was later commissioned to condense Sima Qian's history to more than one hundred thousand characters.
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Commentary [1]: The gloss gives the reading yu (fourth tone), the same sound as in the word meaning to take part in."
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Ma Liao, elder brother of the empress dowager and commandant of the guards, lived carefully and frugally for himself yet failed to discipline his children. Yang Zhong, who was friendly with Ma Liao, sent a letter of warning: "They say that under Yao and Shun every household deserved a noble's patent; under Jie and Zhou every household would have deserved the executioner." Why was that? Yao and Shun built moral dikes around the people, while Jie and Zhou taught arrogance and waste." The Classic of Poetry says, "Gleaming white silk—its color depends on what dye it meets." The brightest and the dullest are said to be beyond reshaping; those in between rise or fall through education. When the Spring and Autumn names only the ruler for killing an heir or full brother, it heaps blame on him for failing to teach." Rite prescribes that at eight a prince receives a junior tutor in literacy and arithmetic to awaken his mind; at fifteen a grand tutor instructs him in the canon to set his purpose straight." Since the Han founding, many kings have neglected moral instruction, stumbled into taboos, lost their fiefs, and won no good name. Your rank is exalted and all eyes are on you; you must walk as if on thin ice or a precipice and make that your chief rule! The young gentlemen at the Yellow Gates are in their vigorous years; they have none of Elder Prince Changjun's modest reserve, yet they bind themselves to reckless companions. Left unchecked they grow willful. One glance at past examples is enough to freeze the heart. You, my lord, ought to live by that same warning of ice and abyss." Ma Liao ignored the advice. His son Ma Yu was later condemned for displaying libelous placards, and Ma Liao was sent back to his fief.
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Commentary [1]: The comparison appears in Lu Jia's New Sayings.
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Commentary [2]: The line comes from a poem not preserved in the received Odes. Jiaojiao describes a gleaming white look. Mozi tells of watching silk being dyed and sighing that indigo turns it blue and yellow turns it yellow, so the dyer's choice matters fatally."
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Commentary [3]: The Gongyang asks why the text says the marquis of Jin killed Crown Prince Shensheng. Why name the ruler of Jin alone? The answer: naming only the lord when he kills his heir or full brother heaps the guilt on him."
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Commentary [4]: The Elder Dai record says children at eight went to outer quarters for minor skills and etiquette. It adds that three "junior" officers—the junior guardian, tutor, and instructor—kept company with the heir apparent. The "Inner Rules" in the Record of Rites sets study abroad with writing and reckoning at ten.
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Commentary [5]: Ma Liao's sons Fang and Guang both held posts as gentlemen of the Yellow Gates. Confucius warned that in the vigor of life one must beware strife."
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Commentary [6]: Dou Changjun, elder brother of Emperor Wen's empress, and Dou Guangguo (Shaojun), though of low birth, were paired with steady mentors by Zhou Bo and Guan Ying and grew into modest gentlemen who never flaunted their new rank.
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Commentary [7]: Ma Fang's biography notes hundreds of hangers-on thronging the brothers' gates.
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Commentary [8]: The character xian (county) is here read xuan, meaning "to display in public" or "to suspend."
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Yang Zhong's brother Feng served the commandery. When Grand Administrator Lian Fan fell under provincial investigation, Feng visited Yang Zhong, who spoke up for Fan and was exiled to Beidi for meddling. On the emperor's eastern progress, phoenix and yellow dragon appeared; Yang Zhong offered fifteen odes celebrating the portents and the ancestral achievement, received a pardon, and was allowed home.
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He authored twelve fascicles of outer commentary on the Spring and Autumn and revised chapter-and-verse commentary to one hundred fifty thousand characters. In the twelfth year of Yongyuan he was called to office as a gentleman of the palace and died in that post. The chapter ends this entry with commentary note two.
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Commentary [1]: Local tradition says Yang Zhong was banished to Wangsong in Beidi while his mother died in Shu. He wrote the "Morning Breeze" poem to voice his bitterness at punishment and exile."
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Commentary [2]: Yuan Shansong records Jia Kui's recommendation and Yang Zhong's summons as gentleman of the palace. At his death the court granted two hundred thousand cash for burial expenses."
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Li Fa, styled Bodu, came from Nanzheng in Hanzhong commandery. He read widely in the canon and was upright by temperament, with a strong sense of duty. In the ninth year of Yongyuan under Emperor He he took the worthy-and-upright examination, became an erudite, and rose to palace attendant and supernumerary grandee of the Household. A year later he memorialized that government had grown harsh and fussy, straying from the Yongping and Jianchu models; eunuchs wielded too much power and the imperial in-laws enjoyed excessive favor; he charged the historiographers with falsifying the record, so that later readers weighing deeds would find no clear warrant. He missed the sovereign's meaning, was referred to judicial officials, and reduced to commoner status. He went home, barred his gate, and lived in seclusion. Old acquaintances and students would call; when talk turned to why he had offended the throne, he would not reply. Pressed until he spoke, Fa answered with a line from the Analects: "Can a worthless man be trusted to serve his prince?" Men who dread the loss of office will stop at nothing. [1] Mencius compares the humane man to an archer who straightens his stance before he looses the string. When his shot goes wide, he blames no rival who outshoots him; he looks to his own form alone. After eight years at home the court called him back as a gentleman consultant and remonstrance grandee; he still spoke his mind as sharply as before. As grand administrator of Runan he governed so well that his name was widely praised. He eventually retired to his home district and died there.
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Commentary [1]: The lines above quote Confucius from the Analects. Zheng Xuan glosses the phrase as describing sycophants who will commit any baseness.
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Commentary [2]: The passage comes from the Gongsun Chou section of Mencius. To turn the matter back on oneself is to practice self-restraint and self-reproach rather than faulting others.
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Zhai Pu, styled Zichao, came from Luo in Guanghan commandery. Poetry had been the family learning for four generations. He favored the Laozi and excelled at apocryphal charts, astronomy, and calendar mathematics. After killing a man to avenge his uncle he faced exile to Rinan, fled to Chang'an, earned a living as a fortune-teller and face-reader, and later tended sheep in Liangzhou. An amnesty allowed him to come home. He held commandery office, then received appointment as gentleman consultant and rose to palace attendant.
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Commentary [1]: Luo was in Guanghan; the river rises on Mount Zhang and flows south into Jian; the old walled town stood south of modern Luo county. The gloss gives the fanqie spelling zi-tian for the name Jian.
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A Secretariat seat was open; the emperor told officers at six hundred bushels and above to sit an examination on government, astronomy, and occult learning, with top scorers to be appointed. Confident in his own talent, Zhai Pu resented the former grand astrologer Sun Yi and feared Yi would be chosen ahead of him, so he paid Yi a visit. Once seated he wept continuously and said nothing else. Sun Yi asked why; Zhai Pu claimed the prognostications named a rebel Sun Deng who would be destroyed by eunuchs on account of his cleverness. From your looks, he said, Yi seemed the man the prophecy described. [1] He added that, owing to Yi's kindness to him, he wept for the calamity about to strike Yi. Terrified, Sun Yi filed a illness report and skipped the exam. [2] With Yi out of the running, Zhai Pu took first place and became a Secretariat director.
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Commentary [1]: An apocryphal chart describes a Han traitor Sun Deng—tall, small-mouthed, legally shrewd, contemptuous of the classics, and silencing good men.
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Commentary [2]: 'Shifting illness' meant filing a memorial pleading sickness to withdraw.
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Emperor An had just begun to rule in his own name; moved by memory of his grandmother Lady Song, he showered titles on her kin. His uncle Geng Bao and the Yan brothers, the empress's siblings, likewise monopolized frightening influence. Zhai Pu therefore offered a long memorial of remonstrance.
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He cited Weizi, who feigned madness to flee Yin, and Shusun Tong, who abandoned Qin for Han—not because they scorned their rulers, but because the age forced their hand. He had received exceptional favor under a court that tolerated frank speech; he could not parrot the crowd for profit while claiming to stand between heaven and earth. [1] The emperor bore Heaven's mandate and had survived the restoration; he should be building an era of supreme peace, yet no path to true reform was visible. Distant precedents were obscure; he asked to prove his point with recent history. The Dou and Deng affines had once tilted the realm, stacking offices, seals, gold, and goods until advisers meddled with the throne itself and plotted to shift the dynastic altars. [2] Had not their exalted station and wide reach bred that catastrophe? When those houses fell, heads rolled like melons—who would not then trade rank for the life of a lone pig, if only he could? [3] Sudden greatness ends in violent ruin; rank gained by crooked paths draws swift punishment. The present in-laws enjoyed favor rivaling nature's own shaping power—unmatched since Emperor Yuan's reign. The emperor's kindness truly embraced the wider kinship network. Yet revenue and power had drained from the public fisc into private mansions; to repeat the overturned-cart mistake invited another smash-up. [4] Meanwhile ministers stayed mute or murmured approval, bolstering one another's cowardice. [5] Authority delegated to outsiders might never be reclaimed; a tiger given wings could not be caged afterward. [6] Confucius had warned that once power was scattered like pearls in a marsh, every hand would seize them. [7] Laozi forbade flaunting the state's keen instruments. [8] That, he concluded, was the crux of survival or ruin for the dynasty.
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Commentary [1]: Ministers who chimed together regardless of truth were likened to mindless thunder-echoes. The Record of Rites enjoins men not to mimic empty thunder. The Zuo Tradition speaks of the ruler who stands on earth yet bears heaven on his head—his solemn charge.
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Commentary [2]: 'Sacred regalia' denoted the imperial throne. Laozi says the realm's sacred vessels cannot be handled like private tools. Dou Xian had haunted the inner palace, won the empress dowager's trust, and conspired to kill. The emperor uncovered the plot and put him to death. After Empress Dowager Deng's death, palace informants charged Deng Kui and Deng Hong with copying the deposed emperor's coup and backing Prince De of Pingyuan. The emperor believed the tale and stripped the Dengs to commoners.
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Commentary [3]: Zhuangzi's parable of the fattened ox begins with a hiring offer. The beast wears brocade and eats grain and fodder. Dragged to the great temple, it would gladly trade places with any scrawny calf—if only it could. The Hou Han shu text reads 'piglet' instead of 'calf,' a variant wording.
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Commentary [4]: Jia Yi quoted the proverb about learning from a predecessor's wreck.
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Commentary [5]: The Shijing laments ministers buzzing and backbiting. Mao's gloss reads the lines as grumbling against superiors while neglecting duty. The Erya defines the same phrases as dereliction of office. The commentary gives fanqie jiang-xi for the reading of zi. Two homophone graphs were used interchangeably in antiquity.
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Commentary [6]: The Outer Commentary to the Han Odes warns against giving a tiger wings. Seating unworthy men in high office was likened to that fatal gift.
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Commentary [7]: The apocryphal chart warns that overmighty ministers diminish the throne and that concentrated kin power turns clans against one another. The manuscript carries the gloss corpse at this break in the quotation. The quotation continues with evil deeds and the image of pearls cast into a marsh, tempting every mouth to seize them. The commentary explains that delegated power tempts every hand to seize private gain, like pearls lying in a fen that no mouth can resist pocketing. Here 'spit' means simply to cast forth.
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Commentary [8]: Laozi's Dao jing compares state secrets to fish that must stay in deep water. Heshang Gong glosses sharp tools as techniques of rule. Those techniques must not be exposed to every petty official.
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Frugality is the beauty of virtue, and sound government lives in restraint. [1] Emperor Wen had refused a terrace that cost a hundred jin of cash and had curtains sewn from memorial bags. [2] When mocked for stinginess, he replied that he was steward of the empire's purse, not its squanderer. His thrift left granaries bursting until grain spoiled and cash strings rotted uncounted. Yet in the few months since the present reign began, gifts and stipends had already surpassed counting. Taxing the realm to enrich idle mansions had emptied the treasury and beggared the people; another emergency would demand fresh levies, and hatred would soon breed revolt.
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Commentary [1]: Yu Sun of Lu praised thrift as the ornament of virtue— and condemned extravagance as the root of vice.
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Commentary [2]: Emperor Wen had priced a pleasure terrace at a hundred jin of metal. He said that a hundred jin equaled the entire means of ten middling families and asked what need there was of a terrace. So he abandoned the project. Dongfang Shuo added that Wen had sewn court document pouches into hall drapes.
49
King Cheng of Zhou had been ringed by the dukes of Zhou, Shao, and Bi and by Scribe Yi—four mentors bracing the throne. Correct models met his eyes and ears, so that when he mounted the throne the realm felt secure—policy was already settled. The throne now had King Cheng's dignity but not his ring of wise ministers; how could perfect peace follow from that?
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Since the previous year omens and reprimands had crowded in—earth fissures, heaven's portents, cliffs turned to gullies. Earnest self-scrutiny could yet turn ill luck to good. Contempt for those warnings would deepen the wound. He begged the emperor to toil for the people, think deeply, promote loyal men, purge flatterers, curb palace luxury, prize moral worth over display, bridle appetite, and end private revels. Portraits of past rulers should line the halls as reminders of how states rise and fall—only then might harm cease and good harvests return.
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Commentary [1]: Mencius distinguishes human rank— from the heaven-given virtues of benevolence, right, ritual, wisdom, and trustworthiness.
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The throne ignored the memorial, and the powerful in-laws and favorites hated Zhai Pu for it.
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In the third year of the Yanguang era he was sent out as grand administrator of Jiuquan. When over a thousand rebel Qiang horsemen from Dunhuang raided the frontier, Zhai Pu counterattacked, claimed nine hundred heads, and all but destroyed the band; his reputation thundered across the northwest. He was promoted to metropolitan superintendent of the capital region. Emperor Shun appointed him supernumerary grandee of the Household and then superintendent of imperial works. By trimming routine outlays he saved forty or fifty million cash every year. [1] Again and again he used anomalies as occasions to set policy straight, though one graph in the source is illegible. [3] The great families jointly accused Zhai Pu and Secretariat Director Gao Tang Zhi of taking bribes and pulling strings; he escaped execution by one degree and was sent home. A fresh memorial claimed he had once conspired with Zhang Kai of Henan to rebel; he was arrested and remanded to the minister of justice. Du Zhen and others filed counter-memorials, and the charge was exposed as false. He died in retirement at his house. Endnote marker for commentary three.
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Commentary [1]: Here jing denotes the standing or regular budget.
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Commentary [2]: The court asked Zhai Pu how to repair cosmic imbalance when flood and drought struck together. Zhai Pu answered with a memorial on the prognostications: the charts foretold that around the fourth century of Han a feeble emperor would bar his gates to calamity, with the fatal count falling near the three-hundred-year mark. An asterisk in the commentary marks an interruption in the quoted apocryphon. Parenthetical characters in the source suggest a textual emendation at this break. The damaged quotation urges calendar reform around the dou pitch, return to the ancient kings' core virtues, seasonal sumptuary law, and plain living to push back the four-hundred-year crisis. The emperor accepted the advice, says the quotation.
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Commentary [3]: The regional tradition introduces Du Zhen of Mianzhu, styled Mengzong. From boyhood he was known for filial piety, mastered the Changes and the Spring and Autumn, memorized a vast corpus, and honored Zhai Pu of his commandery as an elder brother. When Zhai Pu was jailed, Du Zhen filed a desperate appeal, took six hundred blows for it, and still won Pu's release; the capital applauded his courage.
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He composed twelve fascicles of glosses on the apocryphal Yuanshen and Gouming texts. Endnote marker for commentary one.
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Commentary [1]: Both titles belong to the weft-book tradition attached to the Classic of Filial Piety. The commentary glosses gu with the usual reading for exegesis.
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As superintendent, Zhai Pu had memorialized that Emperor Wen began with single-classic chairs, Emperor Wu gathered the empire's libraries, and Emperor Xuan debated six classics at Stone Canal, producing multitudes of students. [3] Emperor Guangwu, grieving the ruin of learning, had rebuilt the Grand Academy with dormitories, inner and outer lecture halls, and student quarters that drew scholars from everywhere. When Emperor Ming finished the circular moat school, some wanted the Grand Academy torn down; Grand Commandant Zhao, whose personal name is missing in the text, argued both institutions should survive, and both stand today. Lately the grounds had fallen into disuse as vegetable patches, hayfields, and sheep walks. Zhai Pu urged a fresh restoration to attract the next generation of learners. The throne approved his plan. After his disgrace the Grand Academy was rebuilt and expanded; students are said to have raised a stele in his honor on the campus.
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Commentary [1]: The Hou Han author notes that five-classics chairs began under Wu, not Wen, so Zhai Pu's dating is puzzling.
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Commentary [2]: Emperor Wu had ordered the ritual bureau to revive neglected learning and rites. Raising the lost meant recovering lost texts, that is, the empire-wide book hunt.
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Commentary [3]: In Ganlu 3 Emperor Xuan held a palace conference on the five classics and adjudicated Gongyang versus Guliang in person. Because Guliang was then elevated alongside the older five, contemporaries spoke of six classics. Stone Canal was the name of the palace gallery where the debate met. Student rolls had grown from one hundred under Zhao to doubled under Xuan, then Yuan removed caps so enrollments could soar toward ten thousand.
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Ying Feng, styled Shishu, came from Nandun in Runan commandery. His great-grandfather Ying Shun bore the courtesy name Huazhong. Under Emperor He he served as metropolitan governor of Henan and superintendent of works, famed for clean self-discipline and shrewd administration. [1] He had ten sons, each accomplished as a scholar. His third son Die became grand administrator of Jiangxia. Die begat Chen, who in turn governed Wuling as grand administrator. Chen was the father of Ying Feng.
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Commentary [1]: Hua Qiao describes young Shun as a scrupulous clerk who never opened private mail. Recommended as filial and incorrupt, he rose through palace gentleman and right aide to regional inspector of Ji, unstained by favoritism. As chancellor of Dongping he enforced rewards and punishments so consistently that clerks feared to transgress. A catalpa sprouted on his courtroom roof; observers attributed it to his extreme filial care for his stepmother. When Dou Xian held the western frontier, local magnates sent sons with bribes; after Xian's fall they were purged, but Shun alone had stayed clean and so won renown. Five years as superintendent of works yielded savings reckoned in the hundreds of millions. The Runan gazetteer adds that Shun's wife had been Deng Yuanyi's divorced first wife. Deng Yuanyi's father Bokao was vice-director of the Secretariat; Yuanyi went home, but his wife stayed to wait on her mother-in-law until the old woman, despising her, locked her up and starved her—still she never complained. When Bokao noticed her state, he pressed for an explanation. Yuanyi's little boy Lang said plainly that his mother was not sick, only starving. Bokao burst into tears at the cruelty of a kinswoman-by-marriage. He sent the daughter-in-law home to her own family at once. She later remarried Ying Shun and became Huazhong's consort. One day Shun's wife rode the official carriage past Yuanyi, who told bystanders that she had been his blameless ex-wife ruined by his mother's cruelty. Their son Lang, now a court gentleman, refused her letters and burned the clothes she sent. Undeterred, she contrived a meeting at her Li in-laws' house under a false pretext. Lang came, bowed to his mother in tears, and fled the room. She ran after him crying that she had nearly perished at their hands through no fault of her own. After that mother and son never spoke again.
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Ying Feng had been prodigious from childhood: every journey and sight fixed itself in his memory without effort. He could take in five columns of text at a single glance. As the commandery's sentencing clerk he inspected forty-two counties and logged hundreds or thousands of inmates. Back at headquarters he recited every prisoner's name, charge, and sentence from memory and astonished his superiors. [1] He composed a long sequel to the Book of Han preserving many details. [2] Grand General Liang Ju nominated him as flourishing talent.
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Commentary [1]: Xie Cheng tells how young Feng went to the capital as chief clerk on the annual accounting mission beside Xu Xun. Xu Xun secretly listed every official, guest, post-house clerk, and servant they met along the road to test Feng's memory. On returning home he handed Feng his written tally. Feng immediately spotted one omission: a station chief's Hu slave named Lu who had served him drink in Yingchuan. Everyone present was dumbfounded. The same source tells how at twenty he called on Yuan He of Pengcheng, saw only a wheelwright's half face through a cracked door, and walked away. Years later he recognized that same wheelwright on the road and hailed him by sight.
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Commentary [2]: Yuan Shansong credits him with a seventeen-fascicle digest of Sima Qian, the Han histories, and the Han ji from the founding down to his day.
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Earlier the Wuling tribesman Zhanshan had led four thousand rebels in seizing a magistrate and holding out for years. The emperor asked the high ministers for a plan, and the four offices nominated Ying Feng as the general the crisis needed. [1] In Yongxing 1 he became grand administrator of Wuling. On arrival he soothed the tribes; Zhanshan and his followers surrendered and broke camp. He founded schools, promoted men of mean origin, and his rule was praised for transforming local ways. He lost office over a procedural fault in public business.
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Commentary [1]: The four high offices are explained in the empress's basic annals.
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During Xianxi the Wuling tribes again ravaged Jingzhou; General of Chariots and Cavalry Feng Gun, knowing Ying Feng's prestige among the tribes, asked him to join the expedition. He received appointment as staff supervisor on the campaign. [1] Ying Feng planned the campaign; when the enemy broke, Gun credited him and recommended him as metropolitan commandant. As metropolitan commandant he indicted wrongdoing without sparing great houses, earning a name for harsh justice.
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Commentary [1]: Xie Cheng preserves an edict branding the rebels fish in a boiling pot who must be scorched away to cleanse national shame. Because he had once ruled the south and his name still carried there, the court gave him the mission again. His career now hung on this campaign. The edict granted him one hundred thousand cash, rhinoceros-horn gear, a gold-inlaid saber, and a leather belt, though the manuscript is damaged on two gift names. The edict closed by urging him to spare no effort!
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After Empress Deng's fall, Lady Tian won Emperor Huan's favor, and he considered raising her as empress. Ying Feng argued that the Tians were too humble for the throne of the consort, citing how Zhou took a Di bride and King Xiang had to flee to Zheng. [1] He reminded the throne that Emperor Cheng's favor for Flying Swallow Zhao ended his line. The choice of empress governs whether the house rises or falls. He urged the emperor to seek a bride like the Guanju poem praises and to shun the five forbidden matches. [2] The emperor took the advice and enthroned Empress Dou instead.
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Commentary [1]: The Zuo cites King Xiang's plan to wed a Di princess—Fu Chen's name is damaged in the manuscript. The gloss supplies the character chen for the damaged minister's name. The minister warned that the northern Di were rapacious and that the king courted disaster by inviting them. King Xiang ignored the warning. Di tribes struck the royal domain and drove King Xiang from his capital.
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Commentary [2]: The Outer Han Odes lists five forbidden brides, beginning with a widow's eldest daughter. A household afflicted with foul hereditary disease was another barred match. Families whose members bore mutilating punishments were likewise excluded. Women from morally chaotic clans were unsuitable. Sons of traitorous houses completed the list of forbidden unions.
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When the faction cases erupted, Ying Feng retired in disgust, pleading sickness. He wrote thirty laments modeled on Encountering Sorrow, grieving Qu Yuan and his own plight. Notables repeatedly nominated him, but he died before another posting came. His son was Ying Shao.
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Ying Shao took the courtesy name Zhongyuan. From boyhood he studied deeply and read omnivorously. Under Emperor Ling he took the filial-and-incorrupt examination and became an aide to General He Miao.
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Commentary [1]: Xie Cheng's work and other sources diverge on detail. The gloss character yue appears in parentheses in the manuscript. Family registers give one form of his style, the Later Han literary tradition another, and the Han official precedents a third; editors cannot decide which is authentic.
78
西 觿
In Zhongping 2 the Hanyang rebels Bian Zhang and Han Sui allied with Qiang and Hu, pushed east into the capital region, and Huangfu Song marched west against them. Huangfu Song asked for three thousand Wuhuan auxiliaries. Zou Jing argued the Wuhuan contingent was too small and proposed hiring Xianbei light horse instead. Han Zhuo warned that stripping Wuhuan garrisons would invite Xianbei raids on their families. The Wuhuan would rush home to defend their hearths, crippling the campaign. The scheme would help neither the war effort nor the troops' spirit.
79
Zou Jing lived on the frontier and knew nomad duplicity firsthand. He insisted five thousand Xianbei riders under Zou Jing would shatter the rebels. Ying Shao answered with a counter-memorial.
80
巿 [] 忿 便 西 []
He painted the Xianbei as rootless nomads beyond the Gobi, faithless plunderers who yearly raided the frontier. They feigned submission only at border markets when Chinese goods tempted them. Their trade was greed for silk and metal, not respect for Han might. Sated with profit they always turned on their hosts. That is why wise policy kept them outside the pale. He cited Ma Xu and Wang Yuan hiring Xianbei against Xiongnu and Zhao Chong doing the same against Qiang—precedents that proved costly. Those allies had taken heads yet mostly ran amok. Strict discipline made them mutinous. Loose rein let them loot settlements. They robbed farmers, waylaid caravans, rustled stock, and stole weapons. Paid off in silk, they stayed and demanded iron for more arms. When refused iron they piled silk to burn, blackmailing the commanders. Frontier officers, fearing mutiny, bought peace with concessions. With rebels still in the field, trusting Xianbei courted irreparable regret. He proposed recruiting loyal Longxi Qiang auxiliaries, paying them well. [2] Li Can of the commandery, steady and shrewd, could inspire such allies. Victory required a gradual strategy, not a rushed gamble.
81
Han Zhuo and Ying Shao traded further memorials. The emperor convened the ministers and adopted Ying Shao's view.
82
[]
Commentary [1]: 'Court house' here means the central government. The Gongyang contrasts inner Chinese states with outer barbarians.
83
[]
Commentary [2]: Lao here means issued rations. Some texts read the graph as merit instead of rations. In that reading it means reward for merit.
84
觿 退
He ranked top in a third-year evaluation, rose twice, and in year six became grand administrator of Taishan. Chuping 2 brought three hundred thousand Yellow Turbans swarming into Taishan. Ying Shao rallied his staff, killed thousands, took ten thousand prisoners and two thousand supply wagons, and drove the rebels from the commandery.
85
He recalled how Yin Ci and Shi Yu faced death for murder until kin offered to die in their place. Chen Zhong had argued for mercy on grounds of doubt. Ying Shao later answered Chen Zhong, insisting on the letter of the law while conceding narrow exceptions. His written rebuttal ran as follows.
86
使 []
The Documents praise Heaven's ordered ritual and the five insignia of rank. Heaven's punishments too have their proper fivefold use. Xunzi says punishment exists to stop violence and warn the wicked. Ranks, offices, rewards, and terrors must each fit the deed. When virtue, talent, reward, and penalty fall out of alignment, the state courts disaster. Killers die and maimers are maimed: that code stood for every dynasty. Even Gaozu's simplified Qin laws kept capital punishment for homicide. Stable times call for stern justice; chaotic times may temper severity. [1] The Documents already taught flexible severity—within bounds.
87
[]
Commentary [1]: The gloss explains the Documents line about matching penalty to the age.
88
[] [] [] []耀 [] [][]
Yet Yin Ci and Shi Yu had murdered in peacetime out of private spite. [1] Their relatives had volunteered to die in winter review, not to commute the convicts' guilt. He compared them to Shao Hu's useless suicide for Prince Jiu, which Confucius scorned. [2] He contrasted them with Chao Cuo's father and Zhao Kuo's mother, who died or intervened to save the law. [3] Servants who hang themselves act from impulse, not from moral heroism. [4] Prisons echo Heaven's killing thunder; mercy mirrors Heaven's nurturing rain. [5] One withered blade in spring or one bloom in autumn were omens— —so sparing murderers while executing innocent volunteers would invert those signs. Chen Zhong had mistaken transient mercy for principle and stretched the eight mitigations too far. None of the eight mitigation categories covered common murder. [6][7] Mitigating intent is not the same as trading innocent lives for guilty ones. Twisting the code would corrupt the state beyond repair.
89
Ying Shao wrote thirty such forensic refutations in all.
90
[]
Commentary [1]: Zu here means to lean on or trust in force. The Zuo uses the phrase of Zhou Xu, who trusted his troops and cruelty.
91
[]
Commentary [2]: Shao Hu served as a Qi minister. Prince Jiu was Duke Xiang of Qi's illegitimate son. When Jiu lost the succession struggle to Duke Huan, his tutor Shao Hu died with him. Confucius called Shao Hu's suicide a pointless peasant gesture.
92
[]
Commentary [3]: Chao Cuo's reforms stirred the kingdoms against the throne. His father foresaw that meddling would destroy their clan. The old man poisoned himself in protest. The Records introduce Zhao Kuo's mother, wife of Zhao She. When Zhao wanted Kuo to command, his mother warned that the son was not the father. The king brushed her aside. She extracted a promise that she would not share his punishment if he failed. The king swore agreement. After Changping the court spared her because she had protested on record. Ban Gu invoked her example in discussing Chao Cuo—though the text is damaged at one graph.
93
[]
Commentary [4]: The gloss stresses that such suicides stem from blind passion, not policy. The same point appears in the Shiji encomium on Luan Bu.
94
[]
Commentary [5]: You Ji's Zuo Tradition remark is cited.
95
[]
Commentary [6]: The Zhou li gloss explains kin among the eight deliberations. Kin here includes former associates. Worthy denotes moral character. Able denotes technical and ritual competence. Merit covers men of outstanding service. Noble rank matches officials who must be consulted before punishment. Diligence covers ministers exhausted in public toil. Guest covers the two honored descendant houses.
96
[]
Commentary [7]: The Zuo line on judging by human circumstance is quoted. The gloss on intent-based judgment points to Hu Guang's treatment.
97
He condensed statutes into the Han ritual compendium and submitted it in the first year of Jianan. The memorial began:
98
[] * () **[西]* [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
No state business outweighs preserving the documentary record. Archives settle doubt, clarify justice, align rewards and penalties with the golden mean, and instruct posterity. Therefore Chancellor Dong— The manuscript gloss marks east for a damaged place-name graph. —Zhongshu retired ill, yet Zhang Tang still walked to his alley for legal advice. [2] From that came 232 Spring-and-Autumn case rulings grounded in canonical text. Dong Zhuo's fires destroyed the Han law library as nothing in history had. [3] With the court removed to Xu, the mandate must be rebuilt from scratch. He bundled 250 documents spanning statutes, Documents precedents, commandant slips, case law, ministerial registers, and Spring-and-Autumn rulings. He removed repetition and imposed a clear structure. [5] Thirty forensic refutations grouped eighty-two topics. [6] Twenty-five pieces echo the Han shu, four the Han ji, all edited for consistency. Twenty-six draw on notable authors old and new. Twenty-seven fascicles are his own composition. He disclaimed perfection yet offered the work as a tool for the throne. [8] He likened himself to the fool who sold sun-dried rats as gems. The Song rustic who cherished worthless Yan stone in silken wraps is a parallel. Listeners laughed behind their sleeves at such pedantry. [9] The Zuo line prefers plain utility over vain splendor. [10] So he humbly offered his compilation to wiser men. It might not reorder the realm yet could broaden the emperor's counsel. He begged the sovereign to read it in spare moments.
99
Emperor Xian approved the work.
100
[]
Commentary [1]: The Liji defines ritual as clearing doubt.
101
[] []
Commentary [2]: Dong Zhongshu's consultations appear in the Han shu. Commentary [3]: Huo glosses as existence.
102
[]
Commentary [4]: Here the minister of works stands for the chancellor. Hence the office kept master registers of business. Cheng's Secretariat divided into five bureaus listed in Han precedents.
103
[] []
Commentary [5]: Fanqie readings for duplicate graphs are given. Commentary [6]: Han ji means the Eastern Lodge annals.
104
[] []
Commentary [7]: Fanqie for yi. Yi here means 'thus' or 'this.' Commentary [8]: Fanqie for ji.
105
[] 便
Commentary [9]: Yin Wenzi tells the pun on pu. The Zhou buyer asked the trader for pu. The merchant agreed. He found a dried rat and walked away abashed. The Zhanguo ce repeats the tale. Ying Shao notes his wording differs from earlier versions. He flags textual variance between dried rat and unsmoked rat. Master Que's story of the Yan stone opens. The host staged a ritual unveiling in brocade and leather cases. The guest laughed that it was mere paving stone. The host fumed at the insult. He only hid the rock more zealously. Commentary: zhan is a pronoun. A damaged graph is read like xi. Ti denotes crimson silk. Chu ci mentions bright ti robes. The gloss explains vivid garments.
106
[] * () **[]*
Commentary [10]: The Zuo quotes a lost ode on preferring coarse cloth. Fine brides are contrasted with humble mates. The ode urges mutual aid among lords. Du Yu calls it a stray poem. Ji and Jiang mean princesses of great houses. Jiao cui glosses as humble folk. The text parallels jiao cui with qiao— —the graph cui appears in parentheses. The variants are ancient graphic swaps.
107
In the second year he became Yuan Shao's strategic colonel. With the move to Xu, precedents were lost and archives thin. He compiled Han bureaucratic ritual; much of what survived was his work.
108
He turned the portrait eulogies his father collected into a biographical register. He also wrote the Middle Han preface on recent events. His Fengsu tong sorted terminology and folk belief. The prose is plain yet later scholars prize his erudition. His corpus totals 136 works. His Han shu commentary also circulated widely. He died at Ye.
109
[]
Students Yang and Qu won fame as writers. Endnote marker one.
110
[]
Commentary [1]: Hua Qiao names brother Ying Xun. Xun was Yang's father. The Wei chronicle gives their styles and literary fame.
111
[]
Early Eastern Han saw a widow of the Ying clan with four sons. Spirit light on the village altar revealed buried gold. Her line rose for seven generations to Yang's eminence. Endnote marker one.
112
[]
Commentary [1]: The genealogy begins with Ying Shun. Die governed Jiangxia. Chen governed Wuling. Feng served as staff supervisor. Feng begat Ying Shao, aide to the general-in-chief. Xun served the ministry of works. Ying Xun's son Ying Yang became an aide under Cao Cao's chancellery.
113
Huo Xu, styled Shuzhi, came from Ye in Wei commandery. As a young scholar he mastered the canon. A malice-bearer accused Song Guang, Xu's uncle, of falsifying imperial documents; Guang landed in the Luoyang edict prison under torture. At fifteen Huo Xu addressed Liang Shang in writing.
114
[] []觿
He thanked Liang Shang for promising a fair review of Guang's case. Heaven and earth, he said, had heard the general's fairness. He confessed his personal relief. He cited Spring and Autumn doctrine on intent versus deed, naming Xu Zhi and Zhao Dun. [1] Confucius's method, he argued, should guide Han justice. He quoted the proverb that faces and hearts vary. [2] Physical variety, he added, mirrors moral variety. Temperaments range from rigid to yielding. Yet all men share instinct for survival and gain. He admitted bias as kin yet asked Liang Shang to judge by common sense.
115
[]
Commentary [1]: Identifies Xu Zhi of the Xu Zhi case. The Gongyang records Duke Dao's burial. The classic asks why burial is recorded before the regicide is avenged. The answer: the act was not treated as murder. Zhi's fatal dose is labeled regicide in the text. The burial line shows mercy toward Zhi. Forgiveness here means no criminal label. He Xiu stresses filial intent. That illustrates judging by motive. He turned to Zhao Dun's case. Zhao Dun protested his innocence. The scribe answered that failing to avenge regicide is itself regicide. That exemplifies punishing intent over deed.
116
[]
Commentary [2]: Zichan's remark in the Zuo is cited. Zichan denied that all faces—or hearts—match.
117
[] 便 [] [] [] []
[1] Song Guang was a clean official who needed no forgery for career gain. Had he doubted a text, he would have sought a safe fix, not capital crime. Forging an edict to solve a small problem was suicidal folly. [2] He cited the Donghai widow whose false conviction brought three years of drought. [3] Guang's case deserved review, yet he languished unheard. [4] Injustice at court, he warned, skewed cosmic harmony. Amnesties should not be reopened on whim. Clear criminals win mercy sometimes; how much more a framed innocent? That would spare the guilty and kill the wrongly accused. He appealed to impartial justice. [5] He flattered Liang Shang while begging him to act as the just minister Yu Gong once was.
118
[]
Commentary [1]: Guang walked the straight path of office.
119
[]
Commentary [2]: Su Qin compared desperate remedies to poisoned food. The gloss notes aconite variants share one rhizome.
120
[]
Commentary [3]: The Donghai widow legend begins. The old woman told neighbors she felt a burden on her daughter-in-law. She hanged herself to free the younger woman. A spiteful kinswoman accused the widow of murder. Officials tortured a confession from the innocent widow and executed her. Donghai then suffered three years of drought. A new magistrate sacrificed at her grave; rain fell and the harvest returned.
121
[]
Commentary [4]: The Purple Palace symbolizes the high throne. The royal palace mirrored Heaven's court. The twin gate towers stood for the palace gate.
122
[]
Commentary [5]: Yu Gong of Donghai was a famously just sentencing clerk. Neighbors rebuilt his broken gate. He asked them to build a tall gate fit for a minister's chariot. He prophesied honor for his line because of his secret justice. His son became chancellor and his grandson imperial counselor.
123
Liang Shang, impressed, cleared Song Guang and made Huo Xu famous.
124
He rose from commandery service to governor of Jincheng. As governor he won tribal peoples by kindness and was deeply respected. He resigned to mourn his mother. After mourning the court recalled him to Beihai chancellorship and then vice director of the Secretariat. Under Liang Ji's dictatorship no minister dared resist. Huo Xu and Yin Xun kept impeaching Liang Ji at audience. After Ji's fall Emperor Huan ennobled Huo Xu for loyalty. He tried to refuse the fief but the throne insisted.
125
He capped his career as minister of justice and died in harness. His son Huo Jun governed Anding.
126
西簿[]
Yuan Yan, styled Jiping, came from Waihuang in Chenliu. He lived austerely, loved study, and taught the canon. He was plain-spoken and laconic, though one graph in the text is damaged. [1] Magistrate Niu Shu of Longxi hired him as commandant's clerk alongside Fan Dan and Puyang Qian for conversation and counsel. As village overseer his moral sway was so strong that locals knew his name above the county. After two years higher offices called him, but he stayed put. Emperor Huan summoned him as erudite; Yang Bing nominated him worthy and upright, and he rose to palace attendant.
127
[]
Commentary [1]: Puyang is the clan name, not the place.
128
[] []
On a park outing Emperor Huan asked what kind of ruler he was. Yuan Yan answered that he was a middling Han sovereign. The emperor asked for his reasoning. He said the realm thrived under Chen Fan and rotted under eunuch rule—so the emperor could go either way. [1] The emperor compared him to Zhu Yun's blunt courage. [2] He then rose through military and civil posts to grand herald.
129
[]
Commentary [1]: The Han history compares good and evil ministers to Guan Zhong and Shu Diao. That defines a middling ruler swayed by counselors.
130
[] 殿
Commentary [2]: Zhu Yun, styled You. Zhu Yun had begged Chengdi for the imperial executioner's blade to kill a favorite. The emperor asked the target's name. He named Zhang Yu. Chengdi raged that a junior had insulted his teacher. As guards dragged him away he snapped the palace railing. He shouted he would join ancient martyrs and doubted the court's survival. The emperor relented. Chengdi left the broken rail as a monument to blunt loyalty.
131
[] [] []
Emperor Huan often feasted Yuan Yan alone as a scholar-favorite. When a stray star crossed the throne asterism, the emperor quietly asked Yuan Yan what it meant. Yuan Yan answered in a sealed note on the Son of Heaven's cosmic role. Right conduct keeps the constellations in harmony; wicked intent throws the calendar and omens out of true. Emperor Huan ennobled Deng Wan, an old companion from before the throne, beyond normal ministerial favor. He added that gambling with Wan in public shamed the throne. Court companions should refine policy, not dice games. He quoted the Documents' warning about friends of the ruler. [1] Duke Min of Song's fatal dice game illustrated the danger. [2] Emperor Wu's intimacy with singers ended in executions. [3] Passion blinds rulers to fault and merit alike.
132
[] [] [] 使[]
True kings match rank to proven virtue and service. [4] Good company improves the ruler daily; evil company corrupts him. He quoted Confucius on the three good and three bad friendships. [5] Flatterers and palace women ensnare the sovereign's senses. He cited Confucius on the difficulty of managing women and petty men. That was the sage's blunt warning. Even Guangwu sleeping with recluse Yan Guang drew a heavenly portent. [6] If even that virtuous pair drew omens, how much riskier were Huan's low-born favorites? He begged Huan to shun flatterers, hear upright men, and clip eunuch power. [7] Virtue would dispel the drought omens. Emperor Huan read the memorial. Yuan Yan then resigned on grounds of illness. Emperor Ling called him again; he stayed home and died.
133
[]
Commentary [1]: The Documents passage on companions is cited.
134
[]
Commentary [2]: Song Wan's crime heads the Gongyang note. Song Wan had been Lu's prisoner before serving Song. At dice Wan praised Duke Zhuang of Lu while a woman watched. Wan said only Lu's duke deserved the throne. Min jealously sneered that Wan was a prisoner praising Lu. Wan murdered Min in rage.
135
[]
Commentary [3]: Li Yannian's origin. His whole family were performers. His sister became Lady Li. He rose to music director with ministerial rank and shared the emperor's bed. His brother's scandal cost the whole family their lives. Han Yan descended from Han Xin. Yan had been Wu's boyhood favorite until scandal brought execution.
136
[]
Commentary [4]: Zhen means to judge clearly.
137
[] 便便
Commentary [5]: Confucius lists three good friends. Befriend the devious, the ingratiating, and the glib, and you will suffer harm—these are the three kinds of friends that injure you.
138
[] []
Commentary [6]: Yan Guang's story is in the recluse tradition. Commentary [7]: Xi glosses as broad or spreading.
139
[]
His son Yuan Ji governed Baima and won a good name. Endnote marker.
140
[]
Commentary [1]: Xie Cheng gives the son's style as Ji.
141
[]西 [] [] 使簿
Xu Qiu, styled Mengyu, came from Haixi in Guangling. His father Xu Shu was the famous frontier general. [2] Young Xu Qiu read widely, entered the bureaucracy, and ranked top in evaluation. [3] He rose to regional inspector of Jingzhou. Zhang Zhong, the empress's nephew, looted Nanyang. The empress dowager sent a eunuch to ask Qiu to spare Zhong. Xu Qiu refused to obey private influence. She retaliated by promoting Zhong to metropolitan commandant over Qiu. Qiu impeached Zhong anyway and sent the books to the minister of finance. He purged five corrupt prefects and their counties. In Zhongping 1 he joined Zhu Jun to crush rebels at Wan. Zhong and eunuchs framed Xu Qiu. His military merit won him dismissal instead of worse punishment. He later governed Runan and Donghai with the same transforming touch.
142
[]
Commentary [1]: Fanqie note on the name.
143
[]* () **[]*
Commentary [2]: Xie Cheng begins praise of Xu Shu— The manuscript inserts the graph zhuan in parentheses. —calling him learned in the classics and military texts. He knew the Tai Gong's six arts and befriended bold men.
144
[]
Commentary [3]: Yuan Shansong praises his integrity. He promoted juniors zealously.
145
[] []
En route to Xu, Yuan Shu kidnapped him and offered a princely title. Xu Qiu invoked the Han martyrs Gong Sheng and Bao Xuan. He swore he would die before yielding. [1] Yuan Shu dared not press him. After Shu's fall Qiu brought the imperial seal and borrowed seals back to Xu. Zhao Wen marveled that he still carried the seal. He compared himself to Su Wu clutching his Han credentials.
146
使
He later carried the staff to appoint Cao Cao chancellor. Cao Cao offered him the post; he refused. He died in office.
147
* () * []
The historian judges Sun Yi credulous, Zhai Pu wily, yet Zhai ended as a straight speaker. Perhaps timing and temperament simply differ. The Ying clan shone for seven generations, especially Feng and Shao. Their reference works, though minor genres, reward reading. Yuan Yan and Xu Qiu spoke truth to power without— The text marks a damaged graph read ke. —without crossing into lethal insult; remonstrance could not be abandoned. Endnote marker.
148
[]
Commentary [1]: Confucius praised Zichan's unstoppable counsel. Zichan's eloquence steadied the age.
149
[] []
The eulogy praises Yang Zhong and Li Fa in the west. [1] The two Yings likewise glittered along the Ru River. [2] Zhai tricked Sun; Huo pleaded for Song Guang. Yuan Yan faced the emperor; Xu Qiu defied empress pressure.
150
[]
Commentary [1]: Yizhou corresponds to ancient Liangzhou. The Documents defines Liangzhou by Huayang and Blackwater. Kong Anguo glosses its bounds. Hence Chang Qu titled his regional history Huayang guo zhi.
151
[]
Commentary [2]: Fen means a riverbank—here the Ru ford.
152
The heading marks the collation section.
153
Collation: variant ren for min in an quoted line. The editor prefers ren.
154
Collation: possible redundant phrase in Yang Zhong's letter.
155
殿
Collation: variant graph in Ma Liao warning.
156
Collation: Zhang's Gongyang quotes are abridged versus the received classic. Collation: the received Gongyang wording on Jin and Shensheng. Collation continues the Gongyang question. Collation cites the Gongyang answer on naming the ruler.
157
Collation: Ma Fang and Guang were brothers of Liao, not sons. Collation: reconciles yellow-gate reference with Ma Yu. Collation flags another commentary error.
158
Collation: Shiji variant with shi inserted.
159
*[]*殿
Collation: textual restoration of ji.
160
* () **[]*殿
Collation: damaged line in apocryphon— —gloss inserts shi. —editors restore ji for wicked conduct.
161
殿
Collation adds missing graph in Zhai Pu memorial.
162
Collation: xi should be cong meaning 'from.'
163
* () **[]**[]*
Collation marks asterisk in commentary. Collation gloss yi sheng. Collation: dou for calendar omen. Collation cites three parallel Baogan tu passages. Collation explains dou as Dipper-based reckoning. Collation glosses intercalation via Dipper. Collation links Han calendar reform to the prophecy. Collation reorders yi in the apocryphon. Collation states the emendation is adopted.
164
殿
Collation: xi in memorial title is likely error.
165
Collation: one versus five classics debate. Hui edition supports one classic. Collation cites Wang Yuhai for one classic. Editor prefers five classics reading.
166
The editor notes that when Ying Feng toured forty-two counties on circuit, Qian Daxin observed that the commandery gazetteer for Runan lists only thirty-seven walled towns, so the figure forty-two remains unexplained.
167
Collation: li versus shi for clerk title.
168
* () **[]*
Collation damaged fu line— —gloss chen. —restores minister Chen's name.
169
Collation on five prohibitions wording. Collation notes missing Han shi passage. Collation compares Gongyang subcommentary. Collation cites Da Dai li variant.
170
Collation: tenfold figure variant.
171
* () *
Collation break in Xie Cheng— —insert yue. Collation removes erroneous phrase.
172
*[]*殿
Collation restores graph in style name.
173
Collation: hua versus zhi Tang taboo issue. Editors explain that graphs read hua in this biography and its commentary originally stood for zhi (to govern); Tang dynasty taboo on the emperor's name replaced zhi with li (to order), sometimes with hua (to transform), while shi (age) became dai (generation) or occasionally shi (season)—which is why the line below reads 'punishments are at times light, at times heavy.'
174
殿
Collation: word order in gloss.
175
* () **[西]*西
Collation on Dong Zhongshu line— —east gloss. Collation: Jiaoxi not Jiaodong. Collation adopts Jiaoxi.
176
Collation: zu versus su.
177
* () **[]*殿
Collation lacuna wei— —cui gloss. Collation restores cui.
178
Collation: shi versus shi variant.
179
殿
Collation: yu versus hu preposition.
180
Collation fixes Yang graph.
181
殿
Collation fixes Deqian graph.
182
殿
Collation fixes two wrong graphs in note.
183
殿
Collation fixes aconite graph. Collation: same fix below.
184
殿
Collation fixes ling graph.
185
殿
Collation: son's name Jun versus Xun.
186
殿
Collation: two versus three years.
187
Collation: hua for zhi in Yuan Yan memorial.
188
Collation adds zheng to tingzheng.
189
Collation: Deng Wan versus Deng Wanshi. Collation explains Tang deletion of shi.
190
殿
Collation fixes bi graph.
191
殿
Collation fixes jiao graph.
192
殿
Collation: Mengyu versus Mengben. Collation cites two traditions for the style. Collation interprets Hong's note.
193
Collation fixes duplicate graph error.
194
殿 殿
Collation: Palace adds style to phonetic note. Collation on Palace variant.
195
* () **[]*殿
Collation Xu Shu note— —zhuan gloss. Collation restores bo for learning.
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