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卷五十二 崔駰列傳

Volume 52: Biography of Cui Yin

Chapter 58 of 後漢書 · Book of Later Han
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Chapter 58
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涿 []
Cui Yin, style Tingbo, came from Anping in Zhuo Commandery. His great-great-grandfather Cui Chao, under Emperor Zhao, held a staff post in You Province; he urged the provincial inspector not to deal with Prince Dan of Yan, the so-called 'pricked' prince. After Prince Dan's fall, he was raised to imperial clerk censor. He fathered Cui Shu, who successively governed four commanderies as grand administrator and everywhere earned a name for ability.
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Note: Prince Dan of Yan was Emperor Wu's son; he joined Shangguan Jie and others in a revolt and took his own life. The character read li (as in 'cut').
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Cui Shu’s youngest son, Cui Zhuan, served as commandery professor of letters under Wang Mang; his command of the classics earned him a summons to the imperial coach office. The grand protector Zhen Feng nominated him for colonel of foot soldiers. Zhuan refused: 'They say you do not ask a humane man how to wage war on another state, and you do not ask a classicist how to draw up a battle line. Why should this appointment fall to me?' With that he filed a resignation on his own initiative and went home. See note three below.
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Note: The Han shu quotes Dong Zhongshu: 'Long ago… (the character supplied in the text reads 'at'). …someone—the Lord of Lu asked Liu Xiahui: "I mean to strike Qi; what do you think?" Liu Xiahui answered: "You must not." Going home, he looked troubled and said: "I was taught that humane men are not consulted about invading another state—so why do these words come to me?"'
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Note: "The Analects records Duke Ling of Wei asking Confucius about military arrays. Confucius replied: "I have learned something about ritual vessels; as for leading troops, I have had no training."'
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Note: He declined the nomination and filed a self-indictment, holding that he was not a proper candidate.
7
Wang Mang bore a grudge toward anyone who would not side with him and repeatedly used the statutes to harm them. Meanwhile Zhuan’s older brother Fa curried favor with Wang Mang through slick ingratiation and climbed to grand minister of works. Their mother, Lady Shi, was versed in the canon and the hundred schools of thought; Mang showered her with exceptional honors—she was styled Lady Yicheng, given a gold seal on purple ribbon, a lacquered carriage with crimson wheel hubs, and shone conspicuously in the Xin court.
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[]羿[] [] []滿 []
Later Mang named Zhuan grand administrator of Jianxin commandery. Zhuan had no way out and lamented: "I live in a time that is anything but 'no error,' and I serve a master as cruel as Jiao or Yi of old; I have a mother above and brothers below—how could I save my own spotless name and put my kin in mortal danger? He took a lone carriage to his seat, pleaded sickness, refused to handle business, and for three years never made the rounds of his districts. His aide Ni Chang urged him on, and Zhuan roused himself at last to go out and proclaim the spring agricultural orders. Everywhere he went the jail cells were crammed. Zhuan wept aloud: "Alas! When punishments miss the mean, innocent people are caught in the snare. What wrong have these people done, that it should come to this?"
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He reviewed the dockets, set matters right, and freed over two thousand people. His subordinates kowtowed and warned him: "The new regime is still tightening its grip, and regional governors are severe. To forgive offenses and redress injustice is the way of a humane man— —but to play the lone gentleman may yet bring regret!" Zhuan replied: "Lord Wen of Zhu would not exchange his own life for anyone else's; the noble man says that is knowing fate. If executing one grand administrator could ransom two thousand souls, I would count it a bargain." On that plea he resigned and left.
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Note: Wang Mang renamed Qiancheng commandery Jianxin and called its governor grand administrator.
11
[] 羿 羿 羿
Note: The Zhou yi says: "The movement of 'no error' pushed to the limit meets calamity at the road's end." The Zuo zhuan adds: "When the Xia house waned, Hou Yi shifted from Chu to Qiongshi, used the Xia populace to seize their government, and abandoned himself to hunting. He took Han Zhuo into service—a treacherous younger kinsman of the lord of Boming. He trapped Yi in the chase and so stole his state and household. Zhuo occupied Yi's home, fathered Jiao and a second son (the name is lost in the received text), and trusted in malice, fraud, and sham, winning no one's goodwill." The note gives the fanqie reading for Jiao. The gloss gives the fanqie for the damaged name (traditionally reconstructed).
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Comment on note three: The Continued Han Treatise says: "Commanderies and kingdoms regularly in spring proceed (to) …to each county, urge farming and silk raising, and relieve the destitute."
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Note: That is, to publish the spring agricultural edict.
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Note: An (the jail name) is glossed with the an sound. The Han shu yinyi explains: "Local jails were called an."
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Note: 'The new government' means Wang Mang's enthronement.
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Note: "The Zuo zhuan says Lord Wen of Zhu divined on removing the capital to Yi. The scribe reported: "It benefits the people but not the ruler." The lord of Zhu said: "If the people gain, I gain with them." If they prosper, I share in that prosperity." So he moved the seat to Yi. The fifth month after the move, Lord Wen of Zhu died. The noble man said he had known his allotted fate."
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In the first years of Emperor Guangwu's Jianwu era, many at court spoke up for him, and the You provincial inspector again nominated Zhuan as xianliang. Zhuan believed his family had accepted unworthy honors from Wang Mang and therefore felt ashamed before the restored Han, so he declined all posts and lived in retirement. He settled in Yingyang, shut his doors to think, and wrote sixty-four chapters of the Zhou yi lin, using them to read good and ill fortune; diviners found them uncannily accurate. On his deathbed he composed a fu of self-lament titled Weizhi ('Consoling My Purpose'). It begins:
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I praise the ancients who met their destined moment and marvel how Yi Yin and Fu Yue arrived in the nick of time. My nature answers to compass and square; I trim it finer than even Gongshu Ban or the craftsman Chui could carve. I keep to the true line of plumb and rule, one in spirit with the subtle counsel that 'cuts metal when two hearts agree.' I walk Heaven's great road in a brilliant age and leap beyond a millennium to leave enduring merit. Is this the crown of cultivated virtue, or simply Heaven's favor settling where it will?
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Note: Gou means 'to encounter.' Chen means 'the right moment.'
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Note: Yi Yin sought out Tang; Fu Yue was found by Gaozong. The Erya glosses the word (graph damaged) as 'meet.' The fanqie spelling is given for its pronunciation.
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Note: Gongshu Ban came from Lu. Chui served Shun as minister of public works. Both were master artisans. They stand for Tang and Gaozong in the metaphor.
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Note: Zhun is the plumb line. Yue is the carpenter's marking cord. Zhen means upright, correct. The Zhou yi says: "Two men of one mind can slice through metal." Xuance means a subtle, penetrating plan."
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Note: On the Da chu hexagram (Qian over Gen), the top line reads: "What of Heaven's highway? Success." Zheng Xuan explains: "Gen is the hand; the hand here is the shoulder. Qian is the head. The space between head and shoulder is where a burden is carried. Qian stands for Heaven, Gen for a path—thus the image of Heaven's highway."
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I mourn that my life was ill-starred, born into the Han house as it slid into eclipse. Miasma and false rainbows choked the sky; the charioteer of the sun suddenly veiled his light. The six reins of state fell to private hands; the royal net frayed and collapsed (the last word is damaged in the text). Li Si and Wang Gong flaunted their power; Hou Yi and Han Zhuo raged unchecked. They watched smooth courtiers exploit every crack and usurp the myriad levers of the throne. I hoped good ministers might let me cling to life, yet I could only howl and plead in council. Woe that the three dukes failed me—then Heaven's awful mandate closed on me. Had I not even the small steadfastness of Xiong Liao? I grieve that my life was broken and brought low. I look to the fading breath of the wise, dreading the rebuke the Da ya would pronounce. So I folded my wings and resigned myself to fate, took the tallies and held the northeast march (Gen). I resent that, blocked at every turn, I did not withdraw; I forsake the high path of the Stone Gate recluses. I painted moth eyebrows at the inner gate and broke the Master's warning against seductive beauty. [Note thirteen] I scorn the bumpkin's belated regret and long to follow the noble guest of the White Colt ode. [Note fourteen] Time and again I feigned sickness until, three calendar rounds later, the court let me go.
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[Note fifteen] I drifted aloft and withdrew to the distance, lodging my person among towering cliffs in seclusion. [Note sixteen] I plumbed the deepest truths in silent thought and ranged the inner chambers of the six canonical texts. [Note seventeen] High Heaven issued a second charge of mercy; its favor gathered on the Jianwu restoration. [Note eighteen] The comet-tail scourge flashed like lightning and swept the realm clean from corner to corner. [Note nineteen] Sacred power spread like pouring rain; the common folk danced and drummed for joy. The throne threw open every gate to seek talent, and the You provincial governor nominated me. [Note twenty] My mind was made up and my course set—this was no quest for empty honors from country greybeards. [Note twenty-one] I hung up the carriage, tethered the team, and turned my back on the scramble for place. I mourned the season when spring robes are donned, barred the humble wicket gate, and erased every trace of the road out. [Note twenty-two] I passed the endless daylight in quiet ease, keeping body and destiny whole to the end of my span. [Note twenty-three] I prize coming home with limb and virtue intact, lest I disgrace the father who went before me. [Note twenty-four] End of this stanza's notes.
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Note: Zao here means 'formed' or 'brought to pass.'
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Note: Ding means 'to strike upon' or 'to encounter.'
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Note: Fen is the murky aura of ill omen. Ni is the secondary halo or mock-sun beside the disk. Heng li describes malignant qi mounting until it veils the sky. Xihe stands for the charioteer of the sun—here, the sunlight itself. The image means the omens swelled while Han's light failed—an allegory of Wang Mang's seizure of the throne.
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Note: "Guoyu quotes Guan Zhong telling Duke Huan how the sage-kings governed with six instruments of power." Wei Zhao's commentary says: 'The six handles are life, death, poverty, low rank, wealth, and high rank.' Cui means 'broken, cast down'; the gloss gives its fanqie spelling.
30
[] 羿
Note: "Guoyu tells how in Shao Hao's decline the Nine Li corrupted morals until men and gods mingled indistinguishably." The Huainanzi says: 'Formerly Gonggong strove with Zhuanxu to become emperor; in rage he struck Mount Buzhou; the pillar of Heaven broke and the cords of Earth snapped.' Bahu means domineering and brutal. Zisui describes the look of arbitrary, wilful conduct. The first syllable is read zi. Fanqie is given for sui. Hou Yi and Han Zhuo were glossed earlier.
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Note: "The Zhou yi warns that careless hoarding invites theft." Xin means a chink or opening. The 'divine vessel' is the imperial throne. Laozi says: 'All under Heaven is a divine vessel; it cannot be acted upon.' The Documents says: 'Diligent, diligent—from one day to the next, myriad are the engines of rule.'"
32
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Note: 'Assistants' means Wang Mang's regency before usurpation. Tou means getting by meanly or precariously. Haotao is the sound of bitter lament. The Han shu tells how Mang, enthroning the infant Ying as Duke of Ding'an, clutched his hand and wept aloud.
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Note: The 'three high ministers' are the three dukes. 'Betrayed me' alludes to Zhen Feng's nomination that drew Zhuan into service.
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Note: "The Zuo zhuan tells of Duke Sheng of Bai's coup in Chu. Shi Qi said a fighter named Xiong Yi Liao south of the market was worth five hundred soldiers. They went with Bai Gong to visit him. They talked; he was won over; they explained the plot, and he refused; they laid a blade to him, yet he never flinched. Bai Gong said: 'This is not a man who serves profit nor] flattery, quails at no threat, and will not betray another's counsel to curry favor.' With that he walked away." Jie means principled steadfastness. 'My life' means his mother, whose safety he feared for. Jian means to wipe out. Yi means to wound or harm. The gloss explains he could not keep clean hands without endangering his aged mother.
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Note: "Da ya praises the wise who know how to save their own skins."
36
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Note: The Gen trigram marks the northeast—the direction of Zhuan's post. That is, his appointment as governor of Qiancheng commandery.
37
[] 宿 []觿
Note: "The Zhou yi says when heaven and earth shut, worthies withdraw from sight." The Analects says: 'Zilu lodged at Stone Gate. The gatekeeper in the morning asked where he had come from. Zilu answered: 'From the house of Kong.' The man replied: 'The fellow who knows the task is hopeless yet keeps trying?' Note: "Chuci speaks of jealous rivals envying the poet's painted brows." The preface to the Airs of the States says: 'The "Foolish Lad" criticizes the times. Licentious ways ran riot and the sexes blurred, so the poem was arranged as a corrective lesson." The ode runs: 'I climbed the broken wall and looked toward Fu Pass.' Mao Heng glosses gui as 'collapsed. Fu Pass is where the lady's true lover would appear.' The Appended Remarks of the Changes says: 'Alluring looks teach lewdness.' Zheng Xuan says: 'To adorn one's appearance and show it outward is called ye.'"
38
[]貿 貿 使 使
Note: The Shijing line: 'The lad looked artless, hugging cloth to barter for silk. He came not for silk but to court me.' The gloss: "meng is a common fellow. Chichi describes an honest, simple mien. Bu here is silk used as money. Ji means 'to approach.' The sense is: he sought a marriage, not a market deal." The poem adds: 'I swore to age with you; now you age only to spite me.' The note: "she wanted lifelong union; he grew cold and bred her resentment." It also sings: 'Gleaming the white colt.' The image stands for the elusive worthy.
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Note: The gloss equates fu with bai as a phonetic loan, meaning to disclose or explain oneself clearly.
40
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Note: Jun wei names steep mountain heights. Fanqie spelling is given for wei.
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Note: Ze means the deepest layer of meaning.
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Note: Huang is Heaven. Shao means to carry on, to succeed. Xu means compassionate concern. The line means Heaven pitied the Liu house and twice charged Guangwu to restore it.
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Note: Chanqiang is the broom-star, a comet.
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Note: 'Opening the four gates' is imperial summons of talent from every side. You mu means the nomination came from the You provincial governor.
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Note: Ben means ornament or show. The Changes says: 'Silks in bundles, richly adorning the hill garden.'"
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Note: Zeng Dian's spring outing in the Analects: 'In late spring Heng is the crossbar; here, a simple wicket gate. Gui are wheel ruts or footprints.
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Note: Chi means the teeth of age—one's years.
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[] 西
Note: "The Analects records Zengzi summoning his disciples at the end to prove his limbs had escaped harm." The gloss explains: "one's parents bore a complete body, so one must return it unharmed." Tian means to bring shame. Xian zi here means a departed father or ancestor. Mencius quotes Zeng Xi: "The man my father stood in awe of."'
49
Zhuan's son was Yi, who pleaded sickness and lived in seclusion, never entering government.
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Yi fathered Yin, who at thirteen had mastered the Shijing, Zhou yi, and Chunqiu; he was encyclopedic and brilliantly gifted, commandeering every commentary school old and new, and he wrote superbly. As a young man he studied at the imperial university alongside Ban Gu and Fu Yi, his name ranked with theirs. He devoted himself to the classics and had no time yet for the ladder of official promotion. Some contemporaries mocked his extreme quietism, warning he would sacrifice real achievement for a posthumous name. Yin answered them with a piece modeled on Yang Xiong's Jie chao, titled Dazhi ('Penetrating the Intent'). [Note one] It opens thus:
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Note: "Hua Qiao records Yin faulting Yang Xiong for excusing the sophists Fan and Cai and Zou Yan—men who preyed on rulers' weaknesses—by saying they belonged to another age. Yin also cites Xiong's petty borrowing from the Zhuos and slicing meat for his wife—hardly noble conduct—while insisting he was not of their kind. Yin judged that self-portrait inconsistent and rewrote the argument.'"
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A visitor pressed him: "The Zhou yi speaks of readying tools for use and of what can be viewed and brought into harmony—so yang may rise outward and yin sink inward in due turn. [Note one] Spring opens the flower, autumn stores the fruit; from start to finish the inner substance matures. Yet you keep the six classics locked in a casket and the Way pressed to your heart, [note two] wander age after age, and hold court in lofty talk; you fish the deepest pools and reach toward the ninefold sky, [note three] sound the subtlest recesses and chart the sourceless depths of the hidden. Still you never cross a chief minister's threshold or climb a prince's stair; you neither intrigue on the way up nor wallow with the vulgar on the way down. [Note four] You make morality your only company, keep faith with ancient truth, stand in the radiance alone, and refuse to haggle with the herd. Lofty timber spreads no shade; one trunk is not a grove; the Way esteems moving with the season and not scorning the common path. [Note five] Meanwhile the sovereign wields Heaven's de to govern, patterns his bureaucracy on the ancient kings, [note six] opens the imperial academy and regional schools to exalt the ru, and strips rank from the idle to exalt the able; [note seven] summons the steadfast to hone loyalty and filial piety, and spreads a rich moral teaching to sharpen humanity and right; [note eight] chooses keen blades from sound wood and seeks Mo ye steel in the discerning mind. [Note nine] Yet you will not mount the triple steps or peer through the purple doors, [Note ten] take the high seat or look upon the scarlet gate—you would ride a thousand li but never spur the horse; [Note eleven] frankly, I am baffled. So the exceptional man seizes the hour, [note twelve] like game bolting for thick woods or midges swarming to a broad mere. [Note thirteen] Why sit mute and mired while the tide runs?'"
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Note: "The phrase comes from the Xi ci of the Zhou yi." 'May be contemplated and has what fits together' is wording from the Ordering the Hexagrams. Zheng Xuan's commentary on the Changes Qian zao du says: 'Yang arises at zi, yin arises at wu; Heaven's numbers divide greatly. Yang exits through Li, yin enters through Kan; Kan is the middle male trigram, Li the middle female. The Grand Unity's circuit: departure follows the middle male, return the middle female. So the coupling of yin and yang, man and woman, frames every cycle from end to start.'"
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Note: Yun is a jewel box. Du is a chest or coffer. The Analects asks whether the good jade should stay boxed or go to market.'"
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Note: "The Zhou yi line on plumbing depth and distance." The 'nine gan' means the ninefold vault of heaven. Li sao and Tian wen ask who laid out the nine spheres of the round sky.'"
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Note: Zan means to tout or recommend.
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Note: Hua Qiao's text reads 'tall trees cast no shade.' The Changes says: 'How great is the meaning of suiting the time!' Laozi says: 'Blunt its sharpness and align its light; merge with the dust.' Hence the gloss: the Way values joining the multitude.
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Note: Taishang denotes Emperor Ming (Liu Zhuang). Classic phrase: "the highest ruler plants virtue." Heaven's virtue is broad, bright, and all-encompassing. The Changes says: 'Then he occupies the position of Heaven's virtue.' The Shang shu recalls how Tang and Yu modeled antiquity with a hundred posts, while Xia and Shang doubled them yet kept good rule.'" Xian means to take as pattern. Liao means an official post. The point is that the court patterned its bureaucracy on the three sage dynasties.
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Note: The Son of Heaven's round moat school is biyong; feudal lords had the half-scale pan school. Biyong is ringed with water, round as a ritual jade bi. Pan means 'half.' Their schools were half the imperial model. Both institutions founded learning and transmitted doctrine.
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Note: Di is the grindstone.
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Note: "The Wu Yue chunqiu names Gan Jiang of Wu, who forged two blades—one Gan Jiang, one Mo Ye. Mo Ye was his wife's name. He smelted the quintessence of five peaks and six metals while the gods watched the blades take shape." The Garden of Persuasions says: 'The reason Gan Jiang and Mo Ye are prized is that they cut the instant they are set down. The qilin mounts are prized for arriving the moment they are spurred. Given enough time, silk can saw rock and a plug horse will still reach the distance. So wit and agility are a man's true edge.'"
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Note: The three platforms symbolize the three high ministers.
63
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Note: Eight inches equal one zhi (foot span).
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Note: Wen zi ranks the outstanding: above ten thousand is ying, above a thousand jun.'"
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Note: Rui is a gnat-like midge. Pronounced rui. The Shuowen says: 'Qin calls it rui; Chu calls it wen." Mencius speaks of 'stagnant pools and lush marshes.' Liu Xi glosses pei as marsh where water and reeds mingle.'"
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Yin replied: "Do you really say so? If you mean to hustle me onto the world's highway, you ignore how easily a false step would cost me my footing. When yin and yang first split and the cosmos was framed, [note one] Heaven's net was woven, the imperial chronicle began, regnal lines succeeded one another, and the three dynasties rose and fell in turn. The age of Great Court lies beyond memory; the Herxu age cannot be known. [Note two] Primal simplicity dissolved; creatures and customs fell out of joint. Under Gaoxin each nature took its divergent course. [Note three] The Way keeps no fixed path; it widens or narrows with the age. [Note four] To abandon humanity is evil; to grasp righteousness is good. [Note five] The noble man shifts with circumstance and tests every step he takes. So some veil their sight and dive into the deeps, [note six] or rinse their ears and live on peaks; [note seven] some weed a plot and barely fill the belly, [note eight] some gnaw bark and hunger for years; [note nine] some spurn rich appointments, [note ten] some stay on after repeated demotion; [note eleven] some beg office in full regalia, some leap forward at a sovereign's glance; [note twelve] a commoner may dream his way to a prince's ear, [note thirteen] an angler may read omens on the sacred tortoise. [Note fourteen] When chaos blocks every road and cruelty floods the land, [note fifteen] the people sink in flood and gloom while the ruler groans his chouzi lament, [note sixteen] then branch and vine intertwine and high and low reach for each other. [Note seventeen] Then the worthy lend a hand to save the world from disaster, [note eighteen] wade through the mire of common life, for that is the pressing moment. [Note nineteen] Yao bore care yet rehearsed the Tao mo; Gaozu groaned and Zhang Liang weighed the moment; [note twenty] before the peril lifted, Cao Shen and Zhou Bo stirred; [note twenty-one] before the tangle cleared, Chen Ping took the scales. [Note twenty-two] When counsel ran with the Way and they could crush revolt and calm the surge, they engraved black jade patents and wrote up glorious deeds, [note twenty-three] cast legends on the Kunwu forge, [note twenty-four] and cut inscriptions on the bells of Jing and Xiang. [Note twenty-five] In crisis they hitched robes, waded deep, caps snagged—they never looked back. [Note twenty-six] To let a neighbor drown is to fail humanity. In quiet times they smoothed sash and collar and walked to the measure of ritual. [Note twenty-seven] Without courteous deference there is no loyalty. So in peril they save the manners of the age; in calm they keep the rites; they act from an impartial mind and never trade the self for private gain.
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Note: Zhi is given a fanqie reading for euphony in the verse.
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Note: Great Court and Hecu are legendary royal epithets. Here shang means 'distant in time.' Wang means 'there is none' or 'un-.' Shi means 'to remember' or 'record.'
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Note: Gaoxin is the clan name of Emperor Ku (Di Ku).
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Note: Moving with the hour expands or contracts; it cannot be judged by a single fixed rule.
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Note: Laozi's sequence of decline from Dao down to ritual.'"
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Note: Zhuangzi tells how Wuze of the north drowned himself rather than accept Shun's abdication.'"
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Note: Guan is to rinse or wash. Xu You, styled Wuzhong, lived hidden in the Pei marshlands. Yao heard of him and tried to cede the empire to him. Xu You thought the offer defiled him and went to the stream to rinse his ears. His friend Chao Fu was watering a calf; learning that Yao had offered the throne to Xu You, he cried, 'You would foul my calf's muzzle!' He led the beast upstream to drink clear water. The tale appears in Zhuangzi and the Gaoshi zhuan.
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Note: Bo Cheng Zigao held a fief under Yao and Shun. When Yu took power, he resigned and took up the plough. Yu sought him out and found him hoeing in the fields. Recorded in the Lüshi chunqiu.
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Note: "Shuo yuan describes Bao Jiao clothed in bark, feeding on wild fruit." The Han shi waizhuan adds that he tended his greens and starved himself dead on the Luo.'"
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[]輿 使使 輿 使
Note: 'Mad Jieyu' was a recluse of Chu. He lived by the plough and his own labor. The king of Chu, hearing of his virtue, sent messengers with a hundred yi of gold and two four-horse chariots, begging him to administer the south of the Yangzi.'" Jieyu only laughed and gave no reply. When the envoys left, he vanished to parts unknown. See Zhuangzi.
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Note: "The Analects says Liuxia Hui served as judge yet was cashiered thrice. People told him, 'You could go elsewhere.' He answered: 'If I serve others with a straight path, where could I go without three dismissals?'"'
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Note: Hong here means 'disgrace'; the commentary gives fanqie. The Xin xu says: 'Yi Yin bore disgrace, carrying the cauldron and stand to seek audience with Tang.' The Analects line: "when the sovereign's color shifts, the birds rise, circle, and settle." The word ju is given a rhyming reading.
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[]使 使
Note: Gaozong's dream of Yue and the search that found him at Fu Yan. Kong Anguo says: 'The Fu clan's cliff lay on the border of Yu and Guo, on a road travelers used; a stream had ruined the road, so they always made convict laborers wall and maintain it. Fu Yue hid his worth and worked as a conscript builder for his meals." The full story is in the Shang shu.'" 'Kings and dukes' is a blanket term for rulers. Erya lists royal titles as synonyms for 'ruler.'"
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[] 西 西 西
Note: "Zhanguo ce says Lü Shang first met King Wen as a simple angler." The Records of the Grand Historian says: 'The Grand Duke angled to importune the Western Earl of Zhou. The earl hunted only after a divination promising no beast but the helper of a hegemon-king.'" He hunted north of the Wei, met the Grand Duke, and delighted in their talk.'" Yuan means 'great'—hence the tortoise omen.
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Note: Fangyan glosses the word as 'thickly crowded.' Fanqie spelling follows.
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Note: "The Shang shu speaks of the people drowning in flood and gloom." Kong Anguo glosses the terms as water-borne distress.'" The text adds Yao's cry over the flood and his search for a minister to tame it.'"
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Note: Lei is the creeping vine. Read lei as in 'pile.' The Shijing image of vine on the crooked tree.'"
84
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Note: Mencius contrasts public rescue by principle with the human duty to save a drowning in-law.'"
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Note: Bo means to trudge through undergrowth.
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Note: Mo means counsel or planning. Yao met the flood with lament, sought talent among his people, and drew up plans with the house of Tao Tang and Great Yu. See the Shang shu. The Records says: when the Exalted Ancestor was defeated by Xiang Yu, he dismounted, sat on his saddle bow, and asked Zifang: 'I mean to abandon the lands east of the passes—who can share the achievement with me?' Zifang said: 'The king of Jiujiang, Bu; Peng Yue; Han Xin. Give the eastern lands to those three and Chu can be shattered (to) too..'"
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Note: Cao Shen and Zhou Bo of Jiang followed Liu Bang in the wars that founded the dynasty.
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Note: Liu Bang's siege at Baideng and Chen Ping's ruse that freed him.
89
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Note: Gui is the jade tablet of investiture. A weft text says deeds were cut in jade and locked in golden chests.'"
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[]* () *使
Note: "Mozi cites how the Xia ruler Kai (smelting) sent Feilian to split ore on the mountains and cast tripods at Kunwu.'" Cai Yong says Lü Shang's deeds were cast on the Kunwu tripod.'"
91
[]退
Note: "Guoyu praises Wei Ke's victory at Fushi, cut on the Jing bell." The line alludes to Xiang as well as Jing.
92
[]
Note: Tucking the robe means fording deep water. The Xin xu says: 'Now, for fear of wetting your feet, not to save a drowning man—is that permissible?' Huainanzi praises Yu's urgency: cap snagged, shoe lost, he never paused.'"
93
[]
Fanqie for lie (to tread). Lie means to trample or tread. This character ought to follow the 'hand' radical. Guangya glosses the variant as 'to grasp.' That is, adjusting sash and collar to perfect deportment. The Shiji uses the phrase for composing one's dress.'" Hua Qiao's text reads she instead of lie.'
94
[] 觿 [] [] [] [] [][]宿[] [] [] [] [] [] []
'Now the sage sovereign, in nurturing these people, uses plainness for the substance of High Antiquity and carving for the pattern of Tang. [Note one] Within the six regions all is harmony; kindness runs from house to house. He brings the world's diversity under one measure and ranks every category of being. Unequal gifts are weighed on one scale; what breaks and what refines share one wheel of fate. [Note two] When yin and yang keep their due order, every office holds steady. [Note three] Each household knows the music of peace; each man may cultivate his own ease. Arms go to the arsenal while ritual vessels fill the hall; the six statutes shine forth and the nine penalties rest unused. [Note four] He leads the myriad commoners onto the broad, easy path. What need of Li Mu's designs or the Grand Duke's sternness if Yi Yin and Fu Yue go unmentioned—why then stoop to the likes of Fan Ju and Cai Ze? [Note six] The hall raised, timber thrives; the hunt staged, steeds stand ready; [note seven] yin work finished, marsh birds roost; [note eight] harvest done, the Great Fire star sinks. [Note nine] Then hermits crowd like peaks, students stream like currents, robes blanket the land, and official umbrellas mass like clouds. [Note ten] Like the woods south of Heng or north of Dai—you could hew arm-thick trunks without thinning the stand, or bundle saplings without numbering them. [Note eleven] Endless variety, yet everyone finds his place. [Note twelve] Others take the showy flower; I take the solid fruit. To renounce rank is the good I have learned to pursue. [Note thirteen] If moving forward matches the Way, one accepts the jade baton and the pillar ministership without demur; [Note fourteen] if retiring accords with right, one gladly eats chaff and wild greens.
95
[]
Note: Confucius praises Yao's radiant civilization.'" Hence the text invokes the cultural model of Tang.
96
[]
Note: Pi is unfired clay on the wheel. Guo Pu's commentary on the Erya says: 'Pi tai is the beginning of things.' Fanqie for pi.
97
[]
Note: Ning means 'to set' or 'complete.'
98
[]
Note: Xie covers weapons and tools of war. Cuo means to lay aside, unused. The Zhou li lists the grand steward's six statutes for governing the realm: …ordering, teaching, ritual, government, punishments, and public works.'" The Zuo Tradition says: 'Zhou had disorder in government and therefore made the nine punishments.' Du Yu explains it as a written criminal code of nine sections.'"
99
[]
Note: Li Mu served the Yellow Emperor. The histories show the Grand Duke aiding King Wu's campaign against Shang. Li here means stern martial presence.
100
[]
Note: Yi Yin, minister Gao Yao, Fan Ju, and Cai Ze—the note glosses the persuaders named in the verse.
101
[]
Note: Once the hall stands, no more beams are felled, so the woods grow tall and free. Yuan qiu are exotic tribute goods from afar. Cun means the quest has ceased. When the hunt for curios ends, fine steeds are no longer needed.
102
[] 宿宿
Note: After winter's start, cosmic virtue rests in water and yin holds sway—hence 'yin affairs.' The 'water lodges' are the northern seven: Dou, Niu, Nu, Xu, Wei, Shi, Bi. The Yue ling tracks dusk midheavens through the seasons until the water star sets and vanishes.
103
[]
Note: "Erya identifies the Heart asterism as Great Fire." The Odes of Bin say: 'In the seventh month Great Fire flows down.' The same air adds banking the threshing floor in the ninth month.'"
104
[]
Note: Sunny south slope is yang, shaded north yin. Guliang zhuan defines the wooded foot of a peak as lu.'"
105
[]
Note: Eight feet equal one xun. Yi means to cultivate or plant. A gong is the span of two cupped hands. Shu here means thick growth. Fanqie for the reading of shu.
106
[]觿
Note: Youyou means teeming multitudes. Wang ji is 'boundless.' Each party imagines itself the winner.
107
[]觿
Note: 'They' are the crowd just described. The Analects praises those who serve when called and withdraw when not.'"
108
[]
Note: "Lüshi chunqiu promises a jade-tablet noble rank to whoever secures Wu Zixu." The Former Documents sounds and meanings says: 'It is an ancient title of nobility.' It adds that zhuguo in Chu matched Qin's chief minister.'"
109
[] [] 耀祿 [][] [] [] []
'The gentleman does not lack the wish to serve in office. He shames himself if he fawns and crawls for a nomination; [Note one] Not that he scorns marriage, but that he will not scale a wall to snatch another's daughter. [Note two] Bawling one's wares and flaunting a sign is no jewel of Sui or He. Parading cleverness for pay is not the path of Confucius. [Note three] To drift outside one's proper circle for selfish ends, [Note four] to strain like a blood-sweating steed for fashion, and to call someone friend only when gain aligns. [Note five] You mock my standing still; I find your restless scurrying just as hard to bear. [Note six] Ancestors set the rule I dare not break; crooked shortcuts I refuse to take. [Note seven] Let the world speak good or ill as it will. I will trust the nature Heaven gave me and recite the teaching of the greatest wise men; I will breathe the calm air of an ordered age and walk the straightest path on earth.
110
[] [][] [][] [][] []退[] [][] [][] [][] [] []
I dread a tainted character within and the hundred acres of the heart left unhoed. [Note eight] I check my horse to an easy pace and wait what fate and nature allow. [Note nine] Confucius awed the assembly at Jiagu, [Note ten] Yan Ying faced down Cui Zhu with nerve; [note eleven] Cao Gui brandished his tally at Ke, [note twelve] Bian Zhuang broke a brutal foe; [note thirteen] Fan Li read the tide at Kuaiji, [note fourteen] Wu Zixu earned his fame at Baiju; [note fifteen] Lu Zhonglian talked Yan into retreat, [note sixteen] Shen Baoxu saved Chu with one cry; [note seventeen] Tang Ju in old age awed the king of Qin, [note eighteen] Gan Luo, still a child, dealt with Zhao; [note nineteen] Yuan Xian proved honest over a simple meal, [note twenty] Zhao Dun earned gratitude for a gift of meat; [note twenty-one] Prince Ji of Wu pledged faith beneath a tomb tree, [note twenty-two] Zhan Ji (Liuxia Hui) kept faith with a woman at his door; [note twenty-three] Yan Hui showed benevolence in a worn wheel hub, Cheng Ying revealed duty in saving Zhao Wu. [Note twenty-four] I cannot rank with such paragons, yet I quietly honor the sequence the ancients made of them.'"
111
[]退
Note: Kua pi is the mincing obsequiousness of the sycophant.
112
[]
Note: "Mencius' ugly parable of stealing a bride over the wall." Zhao Qiu glosses lou as 'to seize or pull.' The character follows the 'hand' radical. 'Chu zi' is an unmarried girl.'"
113
[]* () *
Note: Hua Qiao's text (says) substitutes the graph for 'devious' for 'follow.'" Hui means crooked or deviant.
114
[]
Note: Lun is proper class; dang is clique. Xun means to angle for gain. It describes befriending the unworthy only to advance oneself.
115
[]
Note: 'Blood-sweating' images extreme exertion. Jing shi is racing the fashion of the hour. Friendship founded on profit, not on principle.
116
[]
Note: the damaged phrase means petty fussing.
117
[]
Note: Wang means 'bent.' Jing is a road or course.
118
[]
Note: "The Shang shu speaks of shameful conduct broadcast abroad." The Record of Rites says: 'Human dispositions are the field of the sage-kings. They plough with ritual, plant with righteousness, weed with teaching.'" Anciently each husbandman had a hundred mu. Yun means to hoe out weeds.
119
[]
Note: 'Easy pace' means no reckless rush. The Zhong yong line: what Heaven commands is our nature. The gloss: retirement is how one embodies that mandate.
120
[]
Note: See the commentary in Chen Chan's biography.
121
[]
Note: See Feng Yan's biography for the gloss.
122
[]
Note: Cao Gui is the same as Cao Mo. The Shiji says Cao Mo served Duke Zhuang of Lu as general, lost thrice to Qi, and when Lu ceded Sui for peace Zhuang kept him in command. Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Zhuang of Lu met at Ke to swear a pact. On the altar Cao Mo drew a short blade on Huan; no guard stirred, and Lu's lost soil was returned.
123
[]
Note: "Xin xu tells how Bian Zhuangzi fled thrice to support his mother and was scorned for it. After her death, when Qi attacked Lu, he begged to join the fight, charged, and took three armored heads. He said, 'I ran three times to keep my mother fed.' Now my purpose is ready and the old reproach is paid. I have heard that a steadfast man will not drag out a shameful life.' He wheeled on the foe, slew ten, and fell. The verdict runs: 'He redeemed the three routs, yet to wipe out his line would leave filial duty unfinished.'"
124
[]
Note: Cuo means to deploy or arrange; fanqie follows. Shi here means strategy or design. The Shiji records Wu's victory at Fujiao and Yue's last stand at Kuaiji with five thousand men. The army of Wu pressed the siege. Goujian asked Fan Li, 'What now?' Fan Li replied, 'Humble speech and lavish gifts to the victor.' Goujian sent Minister Zhong to sue for peace at Wu's camp. Crawling on his knees, he kowtowed and said, 'Goujian begs to be your servant, and his wife your concubine.' The king of Wu accepted and spared Yue. Goujian went home and rallied his troops. Fan Li said, 'The moment has come.' Yue then struck Wu. Wu broke; Yue drove the king of Wu up Mount Gusu again.
125
[]
Note: Wu Zixu, personal name Yuan, came from Chu. His father died at Chu's hands; Zixu fled to Wu with bow in hand, won Helü's trust, and led Wu to crush Chu at Baiju. See the Guliang zhuan.
126
[]
Note: The Shiji introduces Lu Zhonglian of Qi. A Yan general held Liaocheng; Tian Dan could not break the defense. Lu Zhonglian wrote a letter to the Yan commander. The general read it, wept three days, and took his own life. Liaocheng then fell without a fight.
127
[]使
Note: "The Zuo zhuan tells how Shen Baoxu begged Qin for rescue when Wu shattered Chu." He leaned on the palace wall and wailed seven days without food until Qin marched and drove Wu from Chu.
128
[] 使*[]*
Note: Tang Ju is the same man as Tang Sui in other texts. Note: "Zhanguo ce tells how Qi and Chu besieged Wei while Qin held back.
129
西 * () **[]*
A Wei man named Tang Sui, past ninety, traveled west to the king of Qin. The king of Qin said, 'Old sir, you have hurried all this way (for Wei) —Wei has sent envoys again and again; I know the danger Wei faces.' Tang Sui answered, 'Wei fields ten thousand chariots.' It bows east only because Qin is strong. Yet Qi and Chu stand on Wei's border; if your army tarries, Wei will cede territory and league with them against you. You would lose Wei and strengthen both rivals at once.' The king of Qin saw the point and marched at once. The Erya says: 'Dian means crown of the head.' So 'flowered crown' means hoary hair.
130
[] 使 使
Note: Gan Luo of Xiacai was Gan Mao's grandson. At twelve he entered Lü Buwei's service. Qin was sending Zhang Tang to Yan as chief minister. Luo said: 'Lend me five teams of chariots; let me report to Zhao ahead of Zhang Tang.' Lü Buwei told the First Emperor, who received Gan Luo and sent him to Zhao; King Xiangwen met him outside the capital. The Shiji gives the full account. Tong ya means still in childhood.
131
[] 使 殿
Note: Zhao Cui held the Yuan fief, hence 'Yuan Cui.' The Zuo Tradition says: the marquis of Jin asked the guardian at the temple about the warden of Yuan, who answered: 'Formerly Zhao Cui carried a basket of food along a path, hungry yet would not eat—therefore he was made warden of Yuan.' Fanqie for the reading of xian (to show).
132
[]
Note: The Lüshi chunqiu tells how Zhao Dun fed a starving man by the mulberry road. Dun asked him, saying: 'Why are you starving like this?' ' He answered: 'I was an official at Jiang; returning, my provisions ran out; I was ashamed to beg—therefore I came to this pass.' Dun gave him three bundles of dried meat; he bowed but would not eat. Dun asked why. He said: 'I have an aged mother; I meant to leave it for her.' Dun said: 'Eat this; I will give you more.' He added two more bundles of meat.
133
[]使 使
Note: "The Shiji tells how the lord of Xu coveted Jizha's sword but held his tongue. Jizha understood but was bound by embassy rites and could not give it yet. On his return Xu was dead; Jizha hung the sword on a tree at the tomb and rode away.'"
134
[] []
Note: Zhan Ji is Liuxia Hui. The Han shi waizhuan says: 'Lu had a man who lived alone; in the night a violent storm came; a woman rushed to take shelter with him; the man closed his door and would not admit her, saying: "I have heard that a man not sixty does not dwell alone with others. She asked why he did not imitate Liuxia Hui. Liuxia Hui warmed a stranded girl without scandal in Lu.' Note: Cheng Ying is glossed in Feng Yan's biography.' The phrase du gu is not explained in the commentary.
135
[]* () **[]* [] []
During Emperor Zhang's Yuanhe reign the court revived classical rites and the imperial tour of the sacred peaks. Yin submitted four xun odes in praise of Han; the pieces were too long to quote in full. [Note one] The emperor loved letters; when he read Yin's hymns (the emperor) he often praised them and asked Dou Xian, 'Do you know Cui Yin?' He answered: 'Ban Gu several times spoke of him to your servant, yet I have not seen him.' The emperor said: 'You love Ban Gu yet neglect Cui Yin—this is Lord Ye's love of dragons. He bade Dou bring Yin in." [Note two] Yin therefore called on Dou Xian. Xian, wearing slippers, met him at the gate, [note three] smiled and said to Yin: 'Tingbo, I received orders to befriend you—how can you slight me?' He bowed Yin inside as honored guest. Soon the emperor visited Dou's house while Yin was there and wanted to see him. Dou dissuaded him, saying a sovereign should not receive a commoner informally. The emperor understood and said: 'I can make Yin attend morning and evening at my side—why must it be here!' He was on the verge of granting Yin a post when the emperor died.
136
[]西西
Note: Yin's corpus has four directional xun odes; vulgar copies wrongly read 'four' as 'west.'
137
[] []
Note: "Liu Xiang's Xin xu compares Duke Ai's neglect of Zizhang to Ye Gong's false love of dragons. A real dragon answered the call, thrust its head through the window and lashed the hall; Ye fled in terror. So Ye loved only painted dragons, not living ones.' Note: Xi lu is slipping into shoes in haste to greet a guest. Fanqie for xi.
138
Empress Dowager Dou governed; Dou Xian, as powerful kin, drafted palace edicts. Yin sent him a written remonstrance:
139
姿 []
I have heard that deep talk to a slight acquaintance is folly; to expect favor from low station is delusion; to press loyal counsel before trust is earned looks like slander. All three are wrong, yet one may fall into them when zeal outruns judgment. I see in you pure substance and high capacity, keen will and noble temper—the mark of a true worthy. I have been lucky to sit among your clients, [note one] so I speak my whole heart in this one letter.
140
[]
Note: Chen means to rank or set forth.
141
祿[]觿 [] [][] [] []* () **[]* [] 滿 []
A tradition says: 'Those born rich are arrogant; those born noble are [proud].' None have ever combined high birth with freedom from arrogance. Now your honors are new and every eye is on you; in this brilliant age like Yao and Shun's, can you fail to labor night and day for lasting fame, matching Shen Bo and the Zhou dukes? [Note one] The saying runs: do not fret over office—fret over the merit that earns it." [Note two] [Note three] Feng Yewang once held power as an in-law yet kept a worthy name; [note four] lately Commandant Yin, restraining himself with ritual, won lasting good fortune. [Note five] The house of Tan was mighty enough— [Note six] The Yangping marquess's (marquis) line was magnificently powerful nonetheless. They stacked noble titles and commands, seized the axis of power, and held the state's helm. [Note seven] Why then were they mocked in their own day and damned by posterity? Because they swelled with pride and would not yield, had more rank than humanity could bear. Since Han began until Ai and Ping, twenty maternal clans rose; only four kept their lines and lives intact. [Note eight] The Shang shu says: 'Look to Shang for a mirror.'
142
Can you afford not to be careful?
143
[]* () **[]*
Note: The Shangshu dazhuan records Shun's ministers singing the Qing yun ode: 'Bright the auspicious clouds (ritual) solemn and wide; sun and moon pour their light; each dawn renews the last.'"'
144
[]
Note: Shen Bo was King Xuan of Zhou's chief maternal uncle. The dukes of Zhou and Shao both steadied the Zhou throne.
145
[]* () *
Note: The Analects (says) gives Confucius's words. The sense is: worry only whether you stand on humanity and right.
146
[] 使
The Han shu names Feng Yewang, whose sister was Yuan's favorite; he rose to governor of eastern Fufeng. When the censor's chair was empty, the throne ranked candidates among two-thousand-dan officials and put Yewang first.
147
[]
Note: Commandant Yin Xing was the empress dowager's uterine brother (name partly damaged in text). His careful conduct won the sovereign's trust.
148
[]
Note [6] Shi Dan held a fief at Tan—hence the surname Tan in this branch. The Western Han history identifies Shi Dan, courtesy Junzhong, as a native of Lu. His grandfather Gong had a younger sister who became chief concubine to the heir apparent—the prince's name is missing in the received text—under Emperor Wu. Emperor Cheng raised Shi Dan to captain of Eternal Joy, then general of the right and marquis of Wuyang with income from Wuqiang cantonment in Tan under Donghai. Old imperial favor brought lavish rewards—one graph is missing before "reward"—totaling thousands in gold.
149
[]
Note: the Wang line's nine enfeoffments and five grand marshalships. A weft text maps the Dipper: "first star the pivot, stars two to four the bowl, five to seven the handle. The 'ladle' is the dipper handle. The Han shu says the Dipper at the hub commands the realm.'
150
[] 祿* () **[]*
Note: 'waijia' here means the empress's kin. The score counts twenty affinal catastrophes from Lü's coup through the Shangguan slaughter, witchcraft deaths, Huo's fall, down to Wang (Wang) Zi Mang's coup, Xu and Zhao of Cheng, Fu exiled, Ping's Wei in-laws killed, and the Zhao empress dowager's death of grief among them.' Only four lines survived intact: Ding, Jing's Wang, and Xuan's two Xu and Wang consorts.
151
[] [] [] 滿 [] []
Dou power began under Emperor Wen. [Note one] Two early Dou kinsmen won fame through plain virtue before their time; [Note two] Dou Rong as marquis of Anfeng proved his de in aiding the restoration. [Note three] Loyal within, lawful without, they kept the fief and left blessing to this day. The Zhou yi praises the radiance of modest virtue; Daoist teaching warns against brimming rank. [Note four] So the noble man fears more as fortune mounts and bows lower as his title climbs. He takes warning from past and present, inscribes maxims on staff and armrest, carves them on bowls. [Note five] Careful, careful, busy, busy—never rash, never idle. Then every blessing will rest on you and good fortune will never run dry.
152
[]
Note: Dou Ying, styled Wangsun, was a nephew of Empress Dou of Wen. He governed Wu under Wen and served as chamberlain under Jing.
153
[]退
Note: Her brothers Changjun and Shaojun were modest gentlemen despite rank—hence 'pure and law-abiding.'
154
[]
Note: Dou Rong held the Anfeng marquisate.
155
[] 退
Note: "The Zhou yi praises humility's shining lowliness." Laozi says: 'Wealth and honor with pride bring self-brought blame. When the work is done, step back—that is Heaven's Way.'"
156
[] * () **[]*
Note: "The Jin gui quotes King Wu wanting daily maxims at hand. The armrest inscription: in peace remember peril, in life remember ruin—keep both and stay safe.' The staff says: aid others without slack, uphold others without (indulgence) fault.' Mozi says: 'Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang wrote their deeds on bamboo and silk and carved them on plates and bowls.' Yu here is the same as a ritual bowl.
157
簿 []
When Dou Xian took the chariot generalcy, he appointed Yin to his staff. Thirty staffers, all ex-governors—only Yin, young and unsalaried, was pulled into their midst. Xian abused his power; Yin remonstrated again and again. On the northern campaign Yin as chief clerk filed dozens of memos exposing abuses. Xian could not stomach him, found a pretext, and posted him to distant Changcen. [Note one] Yin took the post as exile, refused the appointment, and went home. He died at home in Yongyuan 4 (92 CE). His corpus—verse, rhapsodies, inscriptions, hymns, letters, records, memorials, and shorter pieces—runs to twenty-one titles. His second son was Cui Yuan.
158
[]
Note: Changcen county belonged to Lelang, in Liaodong.
159
[]
Cui Yuan, styled Ziyu, was orphaned young but devoured books and mastered his father's learning. At eighteen he studied in the capital under Jia Kui, who taught him the great canons; he stayed on to master astronomy, calendrics, and Jing Fang's Yi with its sexagenary fractions. [Note one] Confucian scholars hailed him as their master. He was closest to Ma Rong and Zhang Heng. He had killed a man to avenge his murdered brother Zhang and fled the law. An amnesty let him return. The brothers kept a poor household together for decades and set the tone for the village.
160
[]
Note: Technical gloss in Lang Yi's biography.
161
[]
Not until after forty did he take a minor county post. A lawsuit landed him in Fagan jail in Dong commandery. [Note one] Even under interrogation he questioned the jailer on ritual texts. His love of learning did not flag in chains. Cleared, he was recruited by Deng Zun, the Liaodong general. Soon Deng Zun died at law; Yuan went home dismissed.
162
[]
Note: the jail at Fagan.
163
使 [] [] [] []使
Later he was again recruited into the staff of General Yan Xian. Empress Dowager Yan held power while Yan Xian entered court politics. Earlier Emperor An had demoted the heir to prince of Jiyin and installed the marquis of North Village as successor. Sun Yuan knew the North Village marquis was illegitimate and that Yan Xian would fall; he tried to arrange a change of heir but found Yan drunk every day and could never gain an audience. He told chief clerk Chen Chan, "Eunuchs such as Jiang Jing and Chen Da used bedroom influence to bewitch the late emperor—deposing the true heir and enthroning an illegitimate child—the manuscript leaves one graph blank before bastard. The boy emperor fell ill in the ancestral temple—the same portent Zhou Bo read when the puppet emperor of Lu fell ill. [One] Let us seek an audience together, persuade the general to inform the empress dowager, seize Jing and his clique, depose the boy, and enthrone the prince of Jiyin—Heaven and the realm will approve. Like Yi Yin and Huo Guang you could win glory without leaving your mat—and your house would hold fortune forever. Defy Heaven and leave the throne empty too long and you will share the chief villain's guilt though guiltless yourself. [Two] This is the hour when fortune turns—when merit is decided." Chen Chan hesitated and would not commit. When the marquis of North Village died, Sun Cheng raised the prince of Jiyin who became Emperor Shun. Yan Xian and his brothers were executed; Sun Yuan was cashiered for association. His disciple Su Zhi knew the whole plot and meant to memorialize; Sun Yuan heard and forbade him. Chen Chan, now metropolitan commandant, called Sun Yuan in: "Let Su Zhi memorialize—I will testify for you." Sun Yuan replied, "That would be women's whispering behind screens—I beg you never speak of it again." He resigned and went home, ignoring every provincial summons.
164
[]
Note: Lü's puppet emperor deposed by Zhou Bo.
165
[]
Note: Yuan means 'chief' or 'great.' The Shang shu line on the arch-villain.'"
166
[] 使
Note: "Shiji quotes Cai Ze's dice metaphor to Fan Ju. Some players risk all, some play for steady shares. You rule Qin and terrify the lords—yet that is also when Qin should share power.'"
167
[] *[]*
Note: Di means 'merely' or 'only.' Sima Xiangru uses di in the sense of 'simply.'"
168
[]便
Years later Liang Shang opened a new staff and called Yuan first. Twice burned as an in-law's aide, he pleaded sickness and refused. That year he was nominated maocai and made magistrate of Ji. [Note one] As magistrate he opened hundreds of qing of irrigated fields. Seven years in the county won him popular songs.
169
[]
Note: Ji county lay in Henei commandery.
170
宿 祿使[]
In Han'an, Hu Guang and Dou Zhang memorialized him as a veteran scholar and able official; the court named him chancellor of Jibei. Li Gu, then Taishan governor, courted him with letters and gifts. A year later Du Qiao, touring as inspector, impeached him for graft and hauled him to the capital judges. He memorialized in his own defense and won acquittal.
171
He then fell ill and died at sixty-six. On his deathbed he told his son Shi: 'We are born of heaven and earth's breath; at death essence flies to heaven and bone sinks to earth. The body may rest anywhere; do not carry my bones home. Refuse every funeral gift and every sacrificial animal sent in my name.' Cui Shi followed his father's will and laid him to rest in Luoyang.
172
[]使
Note: The eight inspectors appear in Zhou Ju's biography.
173
[] []
Cui Yuan was a master of belles lettres—memorials, stele inscriptions, and admonitions—and left fifty-seven works including the famous Nanyang professor's office memoir. Later generations ranked his Nanyang literary office piece above their own efforts. He loved scholars and feasted guests sumptuously, caring nothing for his estate. For himself he lived on greens and gruel. He kept no granary; his peers called him incorruptible. [Note two] See following gloss.
174
[]
Note: Seven Su in his corpus follows the Seven Stimuli genre.
175
[] 祿
Note: "Hua Qiao records Yuan's lavish hospitality. Critics called it excessive. Yuan grew angry and told his family he skipped meals to feed guests yet earned mockery. He ordered simpler fare lest his sons ridicule him.' He never mended his ways and spent his whole stipend on hospitality.'"
176
His son was Cui Shi.
177
Cui Shi, styled Zizhen, was also known as Tai, with the courtesy name Fushi. From boyhood he was grave and bookish. He mourned at his father's grave. After the mourning period the three highest offices called him; he refused all.
178
便 []
Emperor Huan ordered nominations for extreme filial piety and outstanding conduct. The commandery sent him to the capital; pleading sickness he skipped the examination and was made a court gentleman. He understood statecraft and wrote the Zheng lun with dozens of practical reforms. [Note one] His prose was trenchant and the world admired it. Zhongchang Tong said: 'Every ruler ought to copy out one scroll and place it at his seat.' It opens:
179
[]
Note: Que means solid and straight; fanqie is given.
180
[] [] [] 祿 [] []
From Yao and Shun through Tang and Wu, every sage ruler leaned on wise, learned ministers. Gao Yao's plans built Yao and Shun; Yi Yin and the Viscount of Ji instructed Shang and Zhou to glory. [Note one] No restoration happens without the counsel of the wise. The realm falls into disorder when a long peace dulls the ruler: custom rots, policy slackens, he mistakes peril for safety and never stirs. [Note two] some wallow in pleasure and ignore the business of state; some shut their ears to remonstrance and prefer flattery to truth; [note three] some dither at the crossroads, unable to choose; some trusted aides purse their lips and cling to salary; [note four] and distant advisers are dismissed for low rank. So the bonds of rule fray aloft while talent smothers below. [Note five] Alas!
181
[]
Note: Yi Yin's Yi xun and the Viscount of Ji's Hong fan.
182
[]
Fanqie for tu. Tu means to forget carelessly.
183
[]
Note: cloyed on falsehood, they scorn the genuine.
184
[] 祿
Note: "The Kun line on tying the mouth of the sack." Kuo means to bind or knot. They seal their lips and draw pay.
185
[]
Note: Yu yi means stifled, unable to speak out. Chuci has the line on choked solitude.'"
186
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] 觿 []
Han has stood for over three hundred fifty years. [Note one] Laws grow stale, officials lazy, manners coarse, the people cunning—the crowd cries out for a new restoration. Must rescuing the times mean aping Yao and Shun? [Note two] One need only plug leaks, shore the tilt, trim policy to facts, and settle the realm in peace. [Note three] The sage weighs circumstance and frames law; each age sets its own pace. He does not demand the impossible nor chase distant models while ignoring the crisis at hand. [Note four] Confucius gave Ye, Ai, and Jing different answers because each state needed something different. [Note five] Founders always innovate; restoring sovereigns patch the faults of their day. Pangeng pitied Yin and moved the people to a new capital; [Note six] King Mu erred until the Marquis of Fu set punishments right. [Note seven] Pedants hug the classics and ignore practical rule; they swoon at rumor and scorn evidence—unfit to debate governance! So even sage-like counsel gets blocked. [Note eight] Why? [Note nine] Obstinate scholars cling to habit, love finished projects, fear new starts, and chant 'keep the old code.' Clever men jealous of rivals scribble rebuttals until sound counsel is shouted down. Even Ji and Xie could not win in such a hall. That is why Jia Yi fell to Zhou Bo and Guan Ying, and Qu Yuan nursed his Li sao grief. [Note ten] If Wen, Jia Yi, and loyal ministers could not escape it, who can?
187
[]
Note: Gou means foul or worn.
188
[]
Note: "Gloss on patching torn garments from the Li ji." Fanqie for zhu (prop).
189
[]
Note: Quan means flexible adaptation. They set law to fit the moment rather than copying antiquity.
190
[]
Note: Chasing reputation while ignoring urgent need is no cure for the times.
191
[]
Note: Han Feizi cites Duke Ye's question. Confucius answered: "gladden neighbors and draw the distant." Duke Ai asked about government. Confucius said: "pick the worthy." Duke Jing of Qi asked the same. Confucius said: "restrain expense." Here it says 'overseeing the people' and 'restraining ritual'—the wording differs.
192
[]
Note: Pangeng, Shang king who moved the capital. He moved from Geng to Bo and issued three proclamations.
193
[]
Note: Fu is the Lü marquis of Zhou. He taught King Mu the Xia penal code. Both stories are in the Shang shu.
194
[]
Fanqie for ji (to pull back). Jia Kui glosses ji as hauling from the rear.'"
195
[]觿
Note: Liu Xin on the mob's love of success and fear of beginnings.'"
196
[]
Note: Jia Yi's reforms were destroyed by Zhou Bo and Guan Ying. Qu Yuan served Chu until jealous ministers drove him to compose the Li sao.
197
|*() * []* () **[]*[] [] [] [][] []
(Marginal gloss: "therefore one ought.") Measure strength and weigh virtue—that is the Spring and Autumn teaching. [One] Since we cannot model ourselves purely on the eight reigns of antiquity— (The character shi completes "eight generations" of sage kings.) [Two] one must blend in hegemonic measures, balance stern rewards with harsh punishments, and spell out law and technique to hold men in check. Unless the sovereign equals the highest virtue, severity yields order and laxity breeds chaos. How do we know? Emperor Xuan understood rulership: fierce law broke criminals' nerve until the realm stood taut and still. [Three] His merit reached the ancestral shrine and posterity honors him as Zhongzong. His reckoning of policy outdid even Emperor Wen. Emperor Yuan indulged leniency until authority collapsed; [four] he became the sovereign who seeded Han's later calamities. Here is the mirror of sound and unsound rule. Confucius compiled the Spring and Autumn Annals with praise for Huan of Qi and Wen of Jin—one verb is missing—and admiration for Guan Zhong. Was he rejecting the models of Wen and Wu? He grasped expediency—the way to mend a broken age. [Five] Sages move with the times while pedants refuse change; [six] they imagine knotted cords could settle Qin's chaos or shield dances lift the siege at Pingcheng. Editorial note [seven].
198
[]
Note: Zuo zhuan on Xi's rash attack on Zheng.'"
199
[]* () **[]*
Note: Eight (generations) ages means the high antiquity of the Three August and Five Thearchs. Hegemon rule means Huan of Qi and Wen of Jin.
200
[]
Note: Mi means quiet.
201
[]
Note: Duo is read as hui, 'to ruin.'
202
[]
Note: Zuo zhuan on Huan's rebuke of Chu over tribute reeds; Wen of Jin summoned the king to Jiantu; Guan Zhong once served a rival and shot Huan—examples of timely flexibility.
203
[]
Note: Chuci has the fisherman tell Qu Yuan to move with the hour.'"
204
[]
Note: "The Zhou yi on replacing knotted cords with writing." Gan is the shield in the ritual dance. Qi is the axe.
205
The Shang shu tells how Yu won the Miao with ritual dance, not arms. Gaozu's Pingcheng siege was broken by Chen Ping's ruse. The point: ritual dance is no parallel to Chen Ping's stratagem.
206
[]
Daoyin stretches may prolong life but do not cure typhoid cold; breath exercises may extend years but will not set a shattered bone. [Note one] Rule the realm as you would a body: nourish in health, strike in fever. Penalties are the harsh physic for disorder;
207
[] [] 巿 *[]** () **[]* [] 使 [] [] []
Moral suasion is rich meat for an age of peace. Using moral education to cure cruelty is like feeding roast meat to the dying. Expecting punishments to secure peace is like offering harsh drugs as everyday food. We inherit the wreckage of many reigns and meet a turning point—the manuscript drops one graph before "fortune." For generations policy has been indulgent: the driver dropped the reins, horses gnawed their bits, the four steeds bolted sideways, and the imperial highway lists toward ruin. [Two] We must seize reins and axle to steady the coach—who has leisure to tune carriage bells? [Three] Gaozu had Xiao He codify the Nine Chapters with clan extinction, branding, nose clipping, foot severance, tongue removal, and display of heads—the full "five punishments." Emperor Wen abolished mutilation but substituted three hundred lashes for nose loss, five hundred for the left foot, and execution in the market—the graph before "market" is damaged—for the right foot. Right-foot cases still died; floggings often killed—"lighter" punishment was death in disguise. People clamored to bring back corporal punishment. In Emperor Jing's first year an edict declared: "[Increasing] strokes makes flogging as grave as capital crimes; survivors cannot be treated as (The character min, completing "ordinary subjects.") [People]." New statutes cut stroke counts and softened the rod. Afterward flogging victims usually survived. [Four] Thus Emperor Wen tightened punishment in substance though he eased its form. Severity brought peace, not indulgence. To follow soft words you must reset foundations—make the ruler pupil of the Five Thearchs and mirror of the Three Kings. [Five] Scour Qin's habits, revive the sages, abandon stopgap rule—one graph is missing—restore ancient models, the five ranks, and the well-field grid. [Six] Then appoint ministers like Ji and Xie, Yi and Lu—music will summon phoenixes and stone chimes move the beasts to dance. [Seven] Otherwise reform is only another burden.
208
[]
Note: "Zhuangzi lists the breathing and stretching arts." The Yellow Emperor's Plain Questions says: 'When man is injured by cold and it turns to heat, why is that? Extreme cold breeds heat within." Du ji means prolonging life. Bird-stretch will not cure shanghan; deep breathing will not fuse a fracture.
209
[]
Note: "Kongzi jiayu compares rule to driving a team. A good charioteer tunes tack and team in silence yet covers a thousand li. A good ruler harmonizes law and hearts so punishments rest unused." The Shuowen says: 'Dai: the horse's bit slips free.' Fanqie spelling follows. Huang lu is Heaven's highway.
210
[] *[]**[]**[]*
Note: "He Xiu glosses gan as a wooden gag." Fanqie for gan. Le is the bridle leather. Zhou is the shaft yoke. Jian means to strap fast. Shuo yuan on bells and chimes keeping the horses in cadence.'"
211
[]
Note: The precedents appear in the Han shu penal monograph.
212
[]
Note: Shi means pattern or model.
213
[]
Note: The well-field reckoning—hundred mu per fu, nine fu per jing.
214
[]
Note: "The Shang shu on the ninefold shao and the phoenixes." Kui's line about stone chimes and the beasts dancing.' Later Yuan Tang and Liang Ji called him to staff; he refused both." Yang Fu and He Bao urged the throne to employ Cui Shi at the capital. He became consultant, then Liang Ji's marshal, and edited at the Eastern Library with Bian Shao and Yan Du.
215
[] []
He was posted to Wuyuan commandery. The land grew hemp but the people could not weave; in winter they burrowed in hay and met the magistrate in straw. He sold official stores to buy looms and taught weaving so they could face winter. [Note one] Barbarians raided Yunzhong and Shuofang nine times in a year. He hardened troops and beacons until the frontier ranked him first. [Note two] End of border note.
216
[]
Note: "Du Yu glosses the weaver's trade." Kong Anguo says yun is hemp cloth.'"
217
[]
Note: Zui means 'top of the list.'
218
Recalled on sick leave as consultant, he helped collate the Five Classics. Liang Ji's fall stripped him of rank for years as an old client.
219
Huang Qiong nominated him for Liaodong when Xianbei pressed the frontier. His mother died en route; he asked leave to bury her and mourn. Lady Liu was a model mother and a reader. She had coached his Wuyuan administration from the women's quarters. After mourning the court named him minister. He pleaded sickness in a chaotic age and soon resigned.
220
[] *[]* 祿
For his father's funeral he sold land to build a grand tomb and stele. [Note one] The funeral beggared him, so he sold ale for a living. Neighbors mocked him; he never changed course. He earned only enough to get by. Border posts left him thinner in purse than before. He died in the Jianning years. Friends paid for the coffin when his house could not; Yuan Kui wrote his stone. Fifteen works survive under his name.
221
[]
Note: "Guangya glosses piao as cutting away." Some manuscripts read biao instead.'"
222
His cousin was Cui Lie.
223
[]
Cui Lie, famed in the north, rose to governor and minister. Lingdi put ranks up for sale at Hongdu from chancellors to county posts. Rich buyers prepaid; poor ones paid double after appointment, or bribed eunuchs and nurses. [Note one] Even heroes like Duan Jiong bought their way up. Lie paid five million cash through his nurse and became minister of education. Investiture day brought the emperor to the hall with the full court.
224
[] []
The emperor looked toward his intimate favorites and said: 'I regret I did not drive a harder bargain—it could have reached ten million.' [Note two] Lady Cheng at the side answered: 'Lord Cui is a famed gentleman of Ji Province—how could he buy an office? She boasted that her pull had won him the seat.' [Note three] Her words ruined his name. After a long while he was not at ease; calmly he asked his son Jun: 'I occupy one of the three dukes—what do critics say?' Jun said: 'In his youth the great man had a heroic name and passed through minister and governor posts—critics did not say it was wrong for him to become one of the three dukes; Now that he had bought the seat, the empire was disappointed.' Lie said: 'Why is it so?'
225
[] []
Jun answered: 'They say you smell of copper coins.' Lie swung his cane at him. Jun, in tiger guard uniform with plumed cap, bolted. Lie cursed: 'Dead soldier—when your father strikes you, you run—is that filial?' [Note four] Jun cited Shun's rule: endure light blows, flee heavy ones.'" [Note five] Lie dropped the stick, ashamed. He later rose to grand commandant.
226
[]
Note: Abao is the imperial nurse.
227
[]
Note: Jin means to regret underselling. Jin is sometimes written 'jian.' The Shuowen says: 'Jian means to draw out as a price.' Fanqie follows.
228
[]
Note: Shu means lovely. The barb: the emperor missed the 'beauty' of the deal. Shu is sometimes written 'zhu.' Zhu means 'root' or 'point.'
229
[]
Note: Lie insulted the tiger guard as a common soldier. The reading 'kong zu' is a scribal mistake.
230
[] 使
Note: "Jiayu on Zengzi and the melon patch. His father Zeng Xi beat him with a heavy staff. Zengzi collapsed and came to slowly. Confucius barred the gate to Zeng Shen for accepting that beating. The tale of Blind Gu and Shun: summoned, Shun always came; marked for death, he always escaped. He bore light blows but fled heavy ones, so his father was never shamed as a murderer.'"
231
西 []
Jun befriended bold spirits and governed Xihe. When Jun joined Yuan Shao against Dong Zhuo, Zhuo jailed Cui Lie in Mei in chains. [Note one] After Zhuo's death Lie became colonel of the city gates. Mutineers slew him when Li Jue took Chang'an.
232
[]
Note: "Shuowen defines langdang as chains." The Former Documents says: 'When men violated the coinage prohibition, they iron-shackled langdang their necks.' The gloss gives the readings for each syllable.
233
Cui Lie left four literary works.
234
[]
The historian writes: generation after generation the Cuis were fine scholars and became a grove of Confucian letters. Yin and Yuan began in great-clan service but finished upright—unlike mere careerists. The fastidious Li Gu, posted with Cui Yuan, sent the formal gift and won his friendship. [Note one] So Du Qiao's charge against Yuan was likely unjust. Cui Shi's Zheng lun on state and chaos outdoes even Chao Cuo.
235
[] * () *[]
Note: "Yili on the guest gift of pheasant or dried meat." The summer gift ju is dried cured meat. (The note repeats the character ju.) The commentary gives a fanqie reading for the syllable.
236
[] 祿
The verse praises the Cuis as masters whose art passes like Zou Shi's 'carved dragon.' [Note one] Zhuan under Wang Mang bent principle to survive. Banished to distant Changcen beyond the Liao. Without integrity, who would choose the mire? Cui Yuan scorned salary and avoided false disgrace. Cui Shi (Zizhen) roused a dull age with his essays.
237
[]
Note: "Shiji pairs Yan Yan and Zou Shi." Liu Xiang's Separate Record says: 'It means Zou Shi's polished prose was like carved dragon patterns.' Chan here means transmitted from master to pupil.
238
Editorial collation notes
239
Collation: "distinguishes the inspector title from the prince's epithet, often conflated in copies."
240
Collation: "Huang Shan doubts the title pairing Zhen Feng as grand guardian."
241
* () **[]*
Page 1703 line 8: 'Formerly' (at) Collation: restored text to match Han shu Dong Zhongshu passage.
242
Collation: "Kanwu emends the staff title to the scribe form." Note: both are staff, but the stricter reading is shi.
243
* () **[]*
Page 1704 line 12: spring circuit (to) Collation: Chen Jingyun reads 'preside' rather than 'arrive' for the circuit verb. Gloss: the counties a governor visits. Collation: "adopted Chen's emendation per Bai guan zhi."
244
殿
Collation: corrected a miswriting of 'sweep' as 'return'.
245
殿
Collation: "variant manuscript forms of the same word are noted; wording kept."
246
*() **[]*
Page 1707 line 8: 'not for profit' Collation: restored the flattery graph per the Jijie edition.
247
*[]*殿
Collation: supplied a missing particle to match the Analects.
248
殿
Collation: "first-person pronoun aligned with the Analects."
249
殿
Collation: "conjunction emended per Ji and Palace editions."
250
殿
Collation: "two manuscript variants for the fine-horse phrase." Note: both phrases denote good horses.
251
殿
Collation: "lacuna filled with the graph meaning tangled obstruction per editions." Collation: "Hui Dong cites Fangyan for the graph read lòng." "Guo Pu gives its fanqie as nü dong." Collation: "adopts Hui Dong's lòng reading."
252
Collation: Kanwu on emending particles and adding 'therefore'.
253
* () **[]*
Page 1713 line 5: 'Chu can be broken' (it) Collation: particle emended per Kanwu.
254
* () *使
Page 1713 line 10: Xia Kai (smelting) Collation: "Shen Qinhan marks the smelting character as redundant." Collation: redundant graph removed. Collation: "split versus break (Wang Niansun)."
255
殿
Collation: "personal name written with the platoon-style graph per editions." Note: the numeral and platoon graphs interchange here.
256
Collation: "surname graph corrected from a common miswriting."
257
* () *
Page 1716 line 7: Hua Qiao (says) Collation: "deleted a redundant speech particle."
258
Collation: corrected a miswriting of 'time' as 'profit'.
259
殿
Collation: corrected miswritten 'follow' graphs per the Ji edition.
260
Collation: the word 'army' may be redundant.
261
Collation: "distinguishes homophonous name graphs for Tang Ju."
262
使*[]*殿
Collation: added the phrase 'from Qin' per Ji and Palace editions.
263
* () **[]*
Collation note on a Zhanguo ce parallel about the elder's hurried journey (fragment continues). (Wei) Collation: demonstrative emended to the state name Wei per Ji edition. Collation: "cites modern Zhanguo ce wording."
264
Collation: Chen Jingyun reads the state name Jin for a miswritten 'formerly'.
265
* () **[]*
Collation note on page 1718 line 16 (text continues in the next line). (Emperor) Collation: the graph should read chang 'often' rather than di 'emperor' per Ji edition.
266
* () **[]*
Page 1720 line 2: Yang (ping) Collation: "the Yangping enfeoffment title should read Ping, not Marquis; texts cite Wang Feng." Collation: emendation adopted. Collation: Huang Shan on succession of the Yangping title.
267
* () **[]*殿
Collation note on page 1720 line 6 (text continues in the next line). (Ritual) Collation: earnest graph substituted for a miswritten ritual graph per Palace edition. Collation: "explains a double corruption through two ritual graphs."
268
* () *
Page 1720 line 8: Analects (says) Collation: adjusted the Analects attribution line.
269
* () **[]*
Page 1721 line 1: Wang clan (Wang) Collation: "kinship line emended for Wang Mang's descent from empress Wang's brother." Collation: correction applied.
270
Collation: two reduplication variants for 'careful' in Ji versus Palace editions.
271
* () **[]*殿
Collation fragment: staff inscription line continues. (Indulgence) Collation: graph emended per Palace edition. Collation: Qian Dazhao reads 'blame' for 'indulgence'.
272
殿
Collation: homophone emended to 'only' per Ji edition. Note: the two graphs are interchangeable.
273
*[]*
Collation: attribution emended per Huang Shan. Collation: speaker identified as Zhuo Wenjun, not Xiangru.
274
Collation: Yulan variant for 'exhaust'.
275
Collation: Zhang Senkai prefers 'listen' over 'virtue' per Zhiyao.
276
* () *
Collation note on page 1727 line 12 (continues). (Therefore ought) Collation: Kanwu deletes a duplicated 'therefore ought' phrase. Collation: deletion applied.
277
* () **[]*
Collation fragment on 'eight ages' phrase. (Generations) Collation: Kanwu reads 'age' for 'generation'. Collation: Hui Dong cites Wenxuan on 'eight ages.' Collation: transmission error corrected. Same emendation in the commentary.
278
Collation: "Huang Shan adds a clause on Guan Zhong's later service to Huan."
279
殿
Collation: Palace edition omits the verb 'bring.'
280
殿
Collation: corrected a miswriting of 'request' as 'clear'.
281
*[]*殿
Collation: added wording per Ji and Palace to match the penal treatise.
282
* () **[]*
Collation fragment on 'cannot be a person'. (A commoner) Collation: restores 'person' for a miswritten 'commoner' per the former treatise. Collation: emendation applied.
283
Collation: Ji edition reads 'great' where others read 'Heaven' for huang lu.
284
*[]**[]*殿
Collation: supplied conditional particles per Ji and Palace editions.
285
*[]* 殿
Collation: "supplied possessive particle per received Shuo yuan." Collation: Ji and Palace omit the word 'motion' before 'rhythm.'
286
*[]*殿
Collation: supplied demonstrative 'this' per Ji and Palace editions.
287
殿
Collation: "errata on office versus court-service graph." Collation: "Wang Huifen on mutual error between office and court-service wording."
288
Collation: corrected a miswriting of 'signal' as 'mark'.
289
Collation: variant graph for 'strike' in Ji edition.
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