1
志第十三五行一
Treatise Thirteen: The Five Elements, Part One.
2
貌不恭淫雨服妖雞禍青眚屋自壞訛言旱謠狼食人
Undignified bearing; unseasonable downpours; dress as ill omen; calamities involving fowl; greenish spectral blights; dwellings that fall without human cause; lying rumors; drought; rhymed portents; wolves that prey on men.
3
《五行傳》說及其占應，《漢書·五行志》錄之詳矣。 故泰山太守應劭、給事中董巴、散騎常侍譙周並撰建武以來災異。 今合而論之，以續《前志》云。
The classic exposition in the Treatise on the Five Elements, with the omens read from it and the events that answered them, was already set down at length in the Book of Han's treatise on the subject. Ying Shao, who had governed Taishan, the palace attendant Dong Ba, and Qiao Zhou, a regular attendant-in-ordinary of the scattered cavalry, each compiled records of portents and disasters from the opening of the Jianwu reign onward. Here those materials are brought together and discussed in one place, extending the earlier treatise.
4
《五行傳》曰：「田獵不宿，飲食不享，出入不節，奪民農時，及有姦謀，則木不曲直。」 謂木失其性而爲災也。 又曰：「貌之不恭，是謂不肅。 厥咎狂，厥罰恒雨，厥極惡。 時則有服妖，時則有龜孽，時則有雞禍，時則有下體生上之痾，時則有青眚、青祥，惟金沴木。」 說云：氣之相傷謂之沴。
The Treatise on the Five Elements declares: "When the ruler hunts without pause, feasts without making the proper offerings, comes and goes without measure, robs the people of their seasons for tillage, and harbors secret treachery, the virtue associated with wood fails—wood no longer 'bends and straightens' as it ought." That is to say, the nature of wood is corrupted and disaster follows. It continues: "When bearing is irreverent, that is termed a failure of awe-inspiring demeanor. The blame falls on frenzy; the chastisement is unrelenting rain; the worst outcome is thoroughgoing evil. In such times appear freaks of dress, omens involving turtles, calamities among fowl, ailments that afflict the lower body yet show on the upper, bluish-green spectral visitations and greenish good-luck prodigies—metal, in the cycle of qi, is said to harm wood." Commentary explains that when one phase of qi wounds another, that interaction is called li—injurious encroachment.
5
建武元年，赤眉賊率樊崇、逢安等共立劉盆子爲天子。 然崇等視之如小兒，百事自由，初不恤錄也。 後正旦至，君臣欲共饗，既坐，酒食未下，羣臣更起，亂不可整。 時，大司農楊音案劒怒曰：「小兒戲尚不如此！」 其後遂破壞，崇、安等皆誅死。 唯音爲關内侯，以壽終。
In Jianwu's first year the Red Eyebrows, under Fan Chong and Feng An, enthroned the boy Liu Penzi as emperor. They treated him as a puppet, letting him have his way in trifles while never truly minding what he did. At the New Year banquet they had barely sat down when, before a cup was poured, the courtiers were on their feet again in such confusion that no one could restore order. At that time Grand Minister of Agriculture Yang Yin, grasping his sword in anger, said: "Even children's play is not like this!" The regime soon fell apart, and Fan Chong, Feng An, and their fellows were put to death. Yang Yin alone was ennobled as a marquis within the passes and died in bed of old age.
6
光武崩，山陽王荆哭不哀，作飛書與東海王，勸使作亂。 明帝以荆同母弟，太后在，故隱之。 後徙王廣陵，荆遂坐復謀反自殺也。
After Guangwu's death Prince Jing of Shanyang showed so little sorrow at the bier that he was suspected at once; he then sent a secret letter to the Prince of Donghai, goading him into revolt. Emperor Ming hushed the affair out of respect for his mother the dowager, for Jing was his full brother. Later, when Jing was transferred to the kingdom of Guangling, he was caught plotting rebellion a second time and took his own life.
7
章帝時，竇皇后兄憲以皇后甚幸於上，故人人莫不畏憲。 憲於是強請奪沁水長公主田，公主畏憲，與之，憲乃賤顧之。 後上幸公主田，覺之，問憲，憲又上言借之。 上以后故，但譴敕之，不治其罪。 後章帝崩，竇太后攝政，憲秉機密，忠直之臣與憲忤者，憲多害之，其後憲兄弟遂皆被誅。
Under Emperor Zhang, Dou Xian—the empress's brother—terrified the whole court because his sister held the emperor's complete favor. He bullied the senior Princess of Qinshui into surrendering her estate; once she yielded out of fear, he treated her with open contempt. When the emperor later rode over those same fields and learned the truth, he confronted Dou Xian, who brazenly claimed he had only borrowed the land. For the empress's sake the emperor limited himself to a stern reprimand and brought no charges. After Zhangdi's death the Dou empress dowager ruled as regent while Dou Xian monopolized confidential business; anyone who stood up to him tended to disappear, until at last the whole Dou clan was wiped out.
8
桓帝時，梁冀秉政，兄弟貴盛自恣，好驅馳過度，至於歸家，猶馳驅入門。 百姓號之曰「梁氏滅門驅馳」，後遂誅滅。
Under Emperor Huan, Liang Ji dominated the government; his brothers were swaggering magnates who raced their chariots past all decency and would thunder through their own gates at a gallop. People took to calling their racing "the Liangs' headlong ride to clan extinction"—and in the end the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.
9
和帝永元十年、十三年、十四年、十五年，皆淫雨傷稼。
Four separate years of Emperor He's Yongyuan era—10, 13, 14, and 15—brought such relentless rain that the harvests rotted in the fields.
10
安帝元年、四年秋，郡國十淫雨傷稼。
In the first and fourth years of Emperor An's reign, autumn storms ruined crops across ten provinces.
11
永寧元年，郡國三十三淫雨傷稼。
The first year of Yongning saw thirty-three commanderies and kingdoms deluged until the grain failed.
12
建光元年，京都及郡國二十九淫雨傷稼。 是時羌反久未平，百姓屯戍，不解愁苦。
Jianguang's first year brought the same affliction to the capital and twenty-nine other jurisdictions. The Qiang revolt still raged, and the people—stuck in endless garrison duty—had no respite from misery.
13
延光元年，郡國二十七淫雨傷稼。
Yanguang's first year added twenty-seven more regions where the rains spoiled the harvest.
14
二年，郡國五連雨傷稼。
The following year five commanderies suffered week after week of rain and lost their crops.
15
順帝永建四年，司隸、荆、豫、兗、冀部淫雨傷稼。
In the fourth year of Yongjian under Emperor Shun, the capital inspectorate and the Jing, Yu, Yan, and Ji macro-regions were drowned by unseasonable rains.
16
六年，冀州淫雨傷稼。
Two years later Ji Province alone was battered by the same scourge.
17
桓帝延熹二年夏，霖雨五十餘日。 是時，大將軍梁冀秉政，謀害上所幸鄧貴人母宣，冀又擅殺議郎邴尊。 上欲誅冀，懼其持權日久，威勢強盛，恐有逆命，害及吏民，密與近臣中常侍單超等圖其方畧。 其年八月，冀卒伏罪誅滅。
In the second summer of Emperor Huan's Yanxi era the skies opened for fifty-odd days of steady downpour. Liang Ji was then dictator at court: he schemed against Lady Deng's mother Xuan, whom the emperor cherished, and he murdered the advisor Bing Zun without trial. The emperor meant to destroy Liang Ji yet dreaded the general's entrenched might; he feared a violent refusal that would cost officials and commoners their lives, so he took Shan Chao and other trusted eunuchs into his confidence and worked out a plan in secret. In the eighth month of that same year Liang Ji was convicted and the entire faction extirpated.
18
中平六年夏，霖雨八十餘日。 是時，靈帝新棄羣臣，大行尚在梓宫，大將軍何進與佐軍校尉袁紹等共謀欲誅廢中官。 下文陵畢，中常侍張讓等共殺進，兵戰京都，死者數千。
The sixth year of Zhongping brought eighty-some days of unbroken summer rain. Emperor Ling had just died; his bier still stood in the palace when He Jin the general-in-chief and Yuan Shao, an assistant commandant of the army, conspired to slaughter the eunuchs and strip them of office. Once Emperor Ling had been interred at Wenling, Zhang Rang and his fellow eunuchs cut down He Jin; Luoyang erupted in street fighting and thousands died.
19
更始諸將軍過雒陽者數十辈，皆帻而衣婦人衣繡擁蕭。 時，智者見之，以爲服之不中，身之災也，乃奔入邊郡避之。 是服妖也。 其後更始遂爲赤眉所殺。
Dozens of Gengshi-era generals marched through Luoyang wearing turbans over women's embroidered gowns, their hair dressed in elaborate coils. Thoughtful observers took this perversion of dress for a personal ill omen and fled to the frontier for safety. This was reckoned a "clothing prodigy" in the sense of the omen texts. Gengshi soon fell to the Red Eyebrows and lost his life.
20
桓帝元嘉中，京都婦女作愁眉、啼粧、堕馬髻、折要步、齲齒笑。 所謂愁眉者，細而曲折。 啼粧者，薄拭目下，若啼處。 堕馬髻者，作一邊。 折要步者，足不在體下。 齲齒笑者，若齒痛，樂不欣欣。 始自大將軍梁冀家所爲，京都歙然，諸夏皆放效。 此近服妖也。 梁冀二世上將，婚媾王室，大作威福，將危社稷。 天誡若曰：「兵馬將往收捕，婦女憂愁，踧眉啼泣，吏卒掣頓，折其要脊，令髻傾邪，雖強語笑，无復氣味也。」 到延熹二年，舉宗誅夷。
During Emperor Huan's Yuanjia years the women of Luoyang took up "grieving" brows, tear-stained cosmetics, side-swept chignons styled like a tumble from a horse, a mincing walk that snapped at the waist, and smiles that bared teeth as if in pain. The "sorrowful" brow was plucked thin and drawn in nervous curves. The "weeping" face was rouged only under the eyes, as though fresh from tears. The "fallen-from-a-horse" coiffure swept all the hair to one side. The "broken waist" walk kept the feet from falling straight under the torso—an exaggerated sway. The "rotting-tooth" smile looked like a wince of dental pain—mirth without merriment. The fashion started in General Liang Ji's mansion, swept the capital overnight, and was copied through the heartland. This was reckoned a near cousin to the omen of freakish dress. For two generations the Liangs had held the supreme command, intermarried with the imperial clan, thrown their weight about, and brought the dynasty to the brink. Heaven seemed to warn: "Troops are coming to drag families away—women will weep and cringe, guards will wrench their backs and snap their spines, their hair will hang askew, and any laughter they manage will be hollow." In the second Yanxi year the entire Liang clan was extirpated.
21
延熹中，梁冀誅后，京都帻颜短耳長，短上長下。 時中常侍單超、左悺、徐璜、具瑗、唐衡在帝左右，縱其姦慝。 海内愠曰：一將軍死，五將軍出。 家有數侯，子弟列布州郡，宾客杂袭腾翥，上短下長，與梁冀同占。 到其八年，桓帝因日蚀之變，乃拜故司徒韩寅爲司隸校尉，以次誅鉏，京都正清。
After Liang Ji's fall, during the Yanxi years, Luoyang took to turbans cut short across the crown with long flaps at the ears—the upper line abrupt, the lower line drawn out. Shan Chao, Zuo Guan, Xu Huang, Ju Yuan, and Tang Heng—the eunuch quintet at the emperor's elbow—ran wild with corruption. A bitter proverb ran through the realm: "One general-in-chief falls—five spring up to replace him." Each household boasted multiple marquises, their sons planted in every province, their clients flocking like birds on the wing; the fashion—short above, long below—mirrored the omen once read from Liang Ji's excess. In the eighth year of that reign Emperor Huan seized on a solar eclipse as his cue, named the former minister Han Yin metropolitan commandant, and purged the eunuch faction step by step until Luoyang was clean again.
22
延熹中，京都長者皆著木屐； 婦女始嫁，至作漆画五采爲系。 此服妖也。 到九年，党事始发，傳黄門北寺，临時惶惑，不能信天任命，多有逃走不就考者，九族拘繫，及所過歷，長少婦女皆被桎梏，應木屐之象也。
During Yanxi the respectable men of Luoyang went about in wooden clogs; brides began tying their hair with lacquered ribbons painted in five colors. Another sign in the category of freakish dress. In the ninth year the great proscription began; suspects were hustled into the eunuchs' North Prison. Panic spread—men no longer trusted providence, many bolted rather than face interrogation, whole clans were shackled, and wherever the dragnet reached, women young and old were marched off in cangues and leg-irons, the very picture the wooden clogs had foretold.
23
靈帝建寧中，京都長者皆以苇方笥爲粧具，下士尽然。 時有識者窃言：苇方笥，郡國讞箧也； 今珍用之，此天下人皆當有罪讞於理官也。 到光和三年癸丑赦令詔書，吏民依黨禁錮者赦除之，有不見文，他以類比疑者谳。 於是諸有黨郡皆讞廷尉，人名悉入方笥中。
Under Emperor Ling, during Jianning, the capital's leading families kept their cosmetics in square reed boxes—and soon every petty clerk aped the style. Wits whispered that those reed cases were the very "appeal caskets" in which provinces filed criminal memorials; to prize them for rouge and powder meant the whole empire would soon stand convicted before the law. In the third year of Guanghe, on the guichou day, an edict of general amnesty lifted the faction ban—where the wording was unclear, doubtful cases were sent up for the court to decide by analogy. Every county with a "faction" list forwarded its dossiers to the commandant of justice, and the accused were filed away—names and all—in those square reed boxes.
24
靈帝好胡服、胡帳、胡牀、胡坐、胡飯、胡空侯、胡笛、胡舞，京都貴戚皆竞爲之。 此服妖也。 其後董卓多擁胡兵，填塞街衢，虏掠宫掖，发掘園陵。
Emperor Ling doted on frontier dress, frontier tents, folding chairs, cross-legged sitting, frontier dishes, barbarian lutes and pipes, and barbarian dance—and the great families of Luoyang rushed to outdo one another. Another omen-class freak of dress. Then Dong Zhuo flooded the capital with steppe troops, choked the avenues, looted the inner palaces, and broke open imperial tombs.
25
靈帝於宫中西園駕四白驢，躬自操轡，驅馳周旋，以爲大樂。 於是公卿貴戚转相放效，至乘辎軿以爲騎從，互相侵奪，贾與馬齊。 案《易》曰：「時乘六龍以御天。」 行天者莫若龍，行地者莫若馬。 《詩》云：「四牡騤騤，載是常服。」 「檀車煌煌，四牡彭彭。」 夫驢乃服重致遠，上下山谷，野人之所用耳，何有帝王君子而驂服之乎！ 迟鈍之畜，而今貴之。 天意若曰：國且大亂，賢愚倒植，凡執政者皆如驢也。 其後董卓陵虐王室，多援邊人以充本朝，胡夷異种，跨蹈中國。
In the Western Garden inside the palace Emperor Ling hitched four white donkeys, seized the reins himself, and raced in circles for sport. High ministers and imperial in-laws copied the fad until they used light wagons as outriders in their escorts, jostling one another on the road until a donkey cost as much as a horse. The Book of Changes says of the sage ruler that he "rides the six dragons to traverse Heaven." Nothing matches the dragon for motion above, nothing the horse for motion below. The Classic of Poetry praises the team: "Four tall stallions in full battle harness." Elsewhere it sings of "the gleaming sandalwood car and four powerful steeds." The donkey is a beast of burden for hill folk—how could Son of Heaven or a gentleman take it for a chariot team! A dull, plodding creature—yet the court now prizes it. Heaven's message read: "The realm will soon convulse; wise and foolish will trade places, and every man at the helm will be a donkey." Dong Zhuo then rode roughshod over the dynasty, drafting frontier peoples into the capital until foreign tribes overran the heartland.
26
熹平中，省内冠狗带綬，以爲笑樂。 有一狗突出，走入司徒府門，或見之者，莫不惊怪。 京房《易傳》曰：「君不正，臣欲篡，厥妖狗冠出。」 后靈帝寵用便嬖子弟，永樂宾客、鸿都羣小，傳相汲引，公卿牧守，比肩是也。 又遣御史於西邸卖官，關内侯顧五百萬者，赐與金紫； 詣闕上書占令長，随县好醜，豐約有賈。 強者貪如豺虎，弱者畧不類物，實狗而冠者也。 司徒，古之丞相，壹统國政。 天戒若曰：宰相多非其人，尸祿素餐，莫能据正持重，阿意曲從。 今在位者皆如狗也，故狗走入其門。
During Xiping the inner palace staged mock investitures—dogs in official caps and ribboned seals—for amusement. One dog broke loose and dashed into the gate of the Minister of Education—every witness was struck with dread. Jing Fang's treatise warns: "When the ruler strays from the Way and ministers plot usurpation, Heaven sends the prodigy of a dog in an official's cap." Emperor Ling went on to shower favor on his minions' sons, the hangers-on at Yongle, the riffraff of the Hongdu Academy—men who pulled one another up until every minister and provincial governor seemed cut from the same cloth. He set up a market for ranks at the Western Lodge: five million cash bought a marquisate within the passes and the gold seal with purple ribbon; Anyone could walk to the palace gate, bid for a magistracy, and pay a sliding scale—fat fees for rich counties, lean ones for poor. The bold ones devoured like wolves; the timid ones scarcely looked human—they were dogs in caps, nothing more. The Minister of Education was once the chancellor—the officer who unified the administration of the realm. Heaven seemed to warn: "Too many chief ministers are the wrong men—drawing pay for empty seats, unable to stand firm, always trimming to the ruler's whim." The men in power were hounds in caps—which is why Heaven sent a dog through the minister's gate.
27
靈帝數游戲於西園中，令後宫采女爲客舍主人，身爲商賈服。 行至舍，采女下酒食，因共飲食以爲戲樂。 此服妖也。 其後天下大亂。
Emperor Ling often staged bawdy play in the Western Garden, dressing palace ladies as innkeepers while he himself put on the garb of a peddler. He would "arrive" at the mock inn; the women served wine and food, and all feasted together for sport. Another omen in the category of perverted dress. The empire then slid into chaos.
28
獻帝建安中，男子之衣，好爲長躬而下甚短，女子好爲長裙而上甚短。 時益州從事莫嗣以爲服妖，是陽无下而陰无上也，天下未欲平也。 后還，遂大亂。
In the Jian'an years of Emperor Xian, men wore jackets that hung long on the torso but ended abruptly at the waist, while women favored long skirts paired with bodices cut scandalously short. Mo Si, an aide in Yi Province, read the new fashions as an ill omen: the masculine had lost its footing, the feminine its summit—the realm was not ready to rest. He was proved right when the emperor came back from exile and the world slid into chaos.
29
桓帝永興二年四月丙午，光祿勋吏舍壁下夜有青氣，視之，得玉鈎、玦各一。 鈎長七寸二分，玦周五寸四分，身中皆雕鏤。 此青祥也，玉，金類也。 七寸二分，商數也。 五寸四分，徵數也。 商爲臣，徵爲事，盖爲人臣引决事者不肅，將有禍也。 是時梁冀秉政專恣，后四岁，梁氏誅滅也。
On a bingwu day in the fourth month of Yongxing 2, a greenish glow appeared at night under the eunuch finance office; when clerks dug there they found a carved jade belt hook and a broken ring. The hook measured seven cun two fen; the ring's girth was five cun four fen; both pieces were richly engraved. Green jade prodigies belong to the wood-metal nexus—jade itself counts as a metal-like substance in the scheme. Seven cun two fen matches the "shang" tone in the pitch-pipe numerology. Five cun four fen answers to the "zhi" pipe. Because "shang" codes for ministers and "zhi" for public business, the omen pointed to high officials who shaped policy without gravity—disaster would follow. Liang Ji was then absolute master of the court; four years later his whole clan was extirpated.
30
延熹五年，太学門无故自壞。 襄楷以爲太学前疑所居，其門自壞，文德將喪，教化廢也。 是後天下遂至喪亂。
In Yanxi 5 the main gate of the Imperial Academy fell in though no one had touched it. Xiang Kai argued that the academy had housed the ancient "doubtful" star; when its gate gave way of its own accord, it foretold the collapse of moral culture and the abandonment of education. The empire soon sank into anarchy.
31
永康元年十月壬戌，南宫平城門内屋自壞。 金沴木，木動也。 其十二月，宫車晏駕。
On a renxu day in the tenth month of Yongkang 1, structures inside Luoyang's Pingcheng Gate in the Southern Palace fell without warning. Metal was encroaching on wood—the element of timber shook. In the twelfth month the emperor died—the euphemism "the palace carriage tarried."
32
三年二月，公府驻駕庑自壞，南北三十餘間。
In the third year, second month, the colonnade where ministers waited on the imperial progress collapsed—over thirty bays along the north-south range.
33
中平一年二月癸亥，廣陽城門外上屋自壞也。
On a guihai day in the second month of Zhongping 1, the upper structures outside Luoyang's Guangyang Gate crumbled on their own.
34
獻帝初平二年三月，長安宣平城門外屋无故自壞。 至三年夏，司徒王允使中郎將吕布殺太师董卓，夷三族。
In the third month of Chuping 2, under Emperor Xian, the buildings outside Chang'an's Xuanping Gate fell in though no storm had struck. In the summer of the third year Minister Wang Yun sent Lü Bu to cut down Dong Zhuo the grand preceptor and wipe out three generations of his kin.
35
《五行傳》曰：「好攻戰，轻百姓，饰城郭，侵邊境，則金不從革。」 謂金失其性而爲災也。 又曰：「言之不從，是謂不乂。 厥咎僭，厥罰恒陽，厥極憂。 時則有詩妖，時則有介虫之孽，時則有犬禍，時則有口舌之痾，時則有白眚、白祥、惟木沴金。」 介虫，劉歆傳以爲毛虫。 乂，治也。
The Treatise on the Five Elements warns that when rulers delight in war, despise the people, gild their ramparts, and raid the frontiers, the virtue of metal fails—it no longer "yields and changes" as it should. That is, the nature of metal is corrupted and calamity follows. It adds: "When counsel goes unheeded, that is termed a breakdown of good government. The fault is overreaching; the scourge is relentless drought; the bitter end is widespread grief. Such ages bring rhymed portents, plagues among armored insects, canine omens, ailments of speech, pallid spectral blights—and in the cycle of qi, wood is said to harm metal." Commentators following Liu Xin class the "shelled" pests with hairy vermin omens. Here yi means orderly rule.
36
安帝永初元年十一月，民讹言相惊，司隸、並、冀州民人流移。 時，鄧太皇專政。 婦人以順爲道，故《禮》「夫死從子」之命。 今專主事，此不從而僭也。
In the eleventh month of Yongchu 1 wild rumors threw the people into panic; refugees streamed from the capital region, Bing, and Ji. Empress Dowager Deng was then regent in all but name. Women take compliance as their way; therefore the Rites have the command "when the husband dies, follow the son." To monopolize state business was neither "following" a man nor staying within a woman's sphere—it was usurpation.
37
世祖建武五年夏，旱。 《京房傳》曰：「欲德不用，兹謂張，厥災荒，其旱陰雲不雨，變而赤，因四陰。 眾出過時，兹謂廣，其旱不生。 上下皆蔽，兹謂隔，其旱天赤三月，時有雹殺飛禽。 上缘求妃，兹謂僭，其旱三月大温亡云。 君高臺府，兹謂犯，陰侵陽，其旱萬物根死，有火災。 庶位逾節，兹謂僭，其旱泽物枯，爲火所傷。」 是時，天下僭逆者未尽誅，軍多過時。
A drought struck in the summer of Emperor Guangwu's fifth Jianwu year. Jing Fang lists omens of drought: "when virtue is spurned, Heaven stretches the land into waste; clouds gather but yield no rain, then flush an ominous red as yin forces encroach. Armies kept in the field too long "spread" exhaustion; the fields then refuse every shoot. When ruler and minister deceive each other, Heaven "blocks" the rain—the heavens burn red for months and hailstones cut down birds in flight. A ruler who chases women beyond measure commits usurpation against Heaven; the land then swelters for three cloudless months. Towering palaces offend the balance of yin and yang; drought kills every root, and fires follow. When petty officials overstep their rank, usurpation dries the wetlands and scorches what should be moist." Rebels still lived while imperial columns overstayed in the field—both sins on Jing Fang's list.
38
章帝章和二年夏，旱。 時，章帝崩后，竇太后兄弟用事奢僭。
Drought gripped the summer of Zhanghe 2 under Emperor Zhang. Emperor Zhang had just died; the Dou brothers flaunted power for their sister the dowager, spending wildly beyond their station.
39
和帝永元六年秋，京都旱。 時，雒陽有冤囚，和帝幸雒陽寺，錄囚徒，理冤囚，收令下獄抵罪。 行未還宫，澍雨降。
Luoyang baked under drought in the autumn of Yongyuan 6. A miscarriage of justice in Luoyang brought Emperor He in person to the city jail; he freed the innocent, jailed the magistrate, and laid the charge at his door. He had not yet reached the palace when a soaking rain began to fall.
40
安帝永初六年夏，旱。 七年夏，旱。
The summer of Yongchu 6 brought drought under Emperor An. Drought returned the following summer.
41
元初元年夏，旱。 二年夏，旱。 六年夏，旱。
Yuanchu's first summer was rainless. The next summer brought drought again. Four years later another parched summer arrived.
42
順帝永建三年夏，旱。 五年夏，旱。
Emperor Shun's third Yongjian summer was a season of drought. Two years later drought struck again.
43
陽嘉二年夏，旱。 時，李固对策，以爲奢僭所致也。
Yangjia 2 brought another rainless summer. Li Gu, answering the court's policy questions, blamed the skies on luxury and overreaching.
44
冲帝永熹元年夏，旱。 時，冲帝幼崩，太尉李固勸太后兄梁冀立嗣帝，擇年長有德者，天下賴之，則功名不朽。 年幼未可知，如后不善，悔无所及。 時太后及冀貪立年幼，欲久自傳，遂立質帝，八岁。 此不用德。
The child-emperor Chong's sole summer reign year opened with drought. When the boy emperor died, Li Gu the grand commandant begged Liang Ji to choose a mature, virtuous heir so the realm might rally and their own names live on. A child on the throne is a gamble—if he turns vicious, remorse will come too late. The dowager and Liang Ji preferred a malleable child so they could prolong their regency, and enthroned the eight-year-old Emperor Zhi. They spurned the counsel of virtue.
45
桓帝元嘉元年夏，旱。 是時，梁冀秉政，妻、子並受封，寵逾節。
Emperor Huan's first Yuanjia summer was dry. Liang Ji dominated the court while his wife and sons piled up titles beyond all decency.
46
延熹元年六月，旱。
The sixth month of Yanxi 1 saw drought.
47
靈帝熹平五年夏，旱。 六年夏，旱。
Emperor Ling's fifth Xiping summer brought drought. The following summer was dry as well.
48
光和五年夏，旱。 六年夏，旱。 是時，常侍、黄門僭作威福。
Guanghe 5 opened with a drought summer. The next year the same scourge returned. Palace eunuchs were then playing tyrant, handing down fortune and ruin at whim.
49
獻帝興平元年秋，長安旱。 是時，李傕、郭汜專權縱事。
Chang'an withered in the autumn of Xingping 1 under Emperor Xian. Li Jue and Guo Si then ran the capital as they pleased.
50
更始時，南陽有童謠曰：「諧不諧，在赤眉。 得不得，在河北。」 是時，更始在長安，世祖爲大司馬平定河北。 更始大臣並僭專權，故謠妖作也。 后更始遂爲赤眉所殺，是更始之不諧在赤眉也。 世祖自河北興。
During the Gengshi interregnum a rhyme ran through Nanyang: "Whether the tune holds—ask the Red Eyebrows. Whether the prize is won—look to the north of the Yellow River." Gengshi held Chang'an while Liu Xiu, as grand marshal, was pacifying the north. Gengshi's ministers had all seized power beyond their right—hence these portentous rhymes. The Red Eyebrows soon killed Gengshi—the "lack of harmony" line had pointed straight at them. Liu Xiu rose to power from the Hebei plain.
51
世祖建武六年，蜀童謠曰：「黄牛白腹，五铢當復。」 是時，公孙述僭號於蜀，時人窃言王莽称黄，述欲继之，故称白； 五铢，漢家货，明當復也。 述遂誅滅。
In Jianwu 6 a Shu children's rhyme ran: "The yellow bull shows a white belly—the Han five-zhu coin will return." Gongsun Shu had declared himself emperor in Shu; gossips said Wang Mang's regime had been the "yellow" phase and Shu styled itself "white" as his successor; the five-zhu was Han coinage—plainly it would be restored. Gongsun Shu was destroyed.
52
王莽末，天水童謠曰：「出吳門，望缇羣。 見一蹇人，言欲上天； 令天可上，地上安得民！」 時，隗嚣初起兵於天水，后意稍廣，欲爲天子，遂破滅，嚣少病蹇。 吳門，冀郭門名也。 缇羣，山名也。
Near Wang Mang's fall Tianshui children sang: "Out through Wu Gate, eyes on the Ti hills. There walks a cripple who swears he will climb to Heaven; If Heaven were truly within reach, what people would be left on earth!" Wei Xiao had launched his rebellion from Tianshui, then dreamed of the throne—and fell; he had been lame from youth, matching the rhyme's cripple. "Wu Gate" was a gate in the Ji capital's wall. "Ti herd" denoted a mountain.
53
順帝之末，京都童謠曰：「直如弦，死道邊。 曲如鈎，反封侯。」 案順帝即世，孝質短祚，大將軍梁冀貪树疏幼，以爲己功，專國號令，以赡其私。 太尉李固以爲清河王雅性聪明，敦詩悦禮，加又属亲，立長則順，置善則固。 而冀建白太后，策免固，征蠡吾侯，遂即至尊。 固是日幽毙於獄，暴尸道路，而太尉胡廣封安樂乡侯、司徒趙戒厨亭侯、司空袁湯安國亭侯云。
Late in Emperor Shun's reign Luoyang children chanted: "Straight as a bowstring—you end dead in the ditch. Crooked as a fishhook—you win a marquisate instead." Emperor Shun died; Emperor Zhi reigned briefly; Liang Ji the general-in-chief forced a distant child onto the throne, claimed the credit, and bent every edict to private gain. Li Gu urged enthroning the Prince of Qinghe—a clever, cultivated kinsman; the elder line would satisfy the realm, a worthy choice would steady the state. Liang Ji overruled him, secured the dowager's edict, cashiered Li Gu, and brought in the Marquis of Liwu—the future Emperor Huan. Li Gu died the same day in a dungeon, his body flung in the street, while Hu Guang, Zhao Jie, and Yuan Tang—the ministers who bent to Liang Ji—each walked away with a new noble title.
54
桓帝之初，天下童謠曰：「小麦青青大麦枯，誰當獲者婦與姑。 丈人何在西击胡，吏買馬，君具車，請爲諸君鼓咙胡。」 案元嘉中凉州諸羌一時俱反，南入蜀、漢，東抄三輔，延及並、冀，大爲民害。 命將出眾，每戰常负，中國益发甲卒，麦多委棄，但有婦女獲刈之也。 吏買馬，君具車者，言调发重及有秩者也。 請爲諸君鼓咙胡者，不敢公言，私咽語。
Early in Emperor Huan's reign a rhyme swept the empire: "Green wheat, blasted barley—who gathers the harvest? Wives and mothers-in-law. Where are the men? Off west fighting the Hu; clerks must buy horses, masters fit the carts—let me hum a marching tune for you all." In the Yuanjia years the Liangzhou Qiang revolted as one, poured into Ba and Han, pillaged the capital region, and spread ruin through Bing and Ji. Imperial armies marched and lost again and again; conscripts multiplied while grain rotted in the fields—only women were left to scythe what they could. The line about clerks, horses, and masters' carts meant crushing levies on every salaried official. "Let me hum for you" meant the people dared not speak aloud and muttered their grievances in their throats.
55
桓帝之初，京都童謠曰：「城上烏，尾畢逋，公爲吏，子爲徒。 一徒死，百乘車。 車班班，入河間。 河間姹女工數錢，以錢爲室金爲堂。 石上慊慊舂黄粱。 梁下有悬鼓，我欲击之丞卿怒。」 案此皆謂爲政貪也。 城上烏，尾畢逋者，處高利独食，不與下共，謂人主多聚敛也。 公爲吏，子爲徒者，言蛮夷將叛逆，父既爲軍吏，其子又爲卒徒往击之也。 一徒死，百乘車者，言前一人往討胡既死矣，后又遣百乘車往。 車班班，入河間者，言上將崩，乘舆班班入河間迎靈帝也。 河間姹女工數錢，以錢爲室金爲堂者，靈帝既立，其母永樂太后好聚金以爲堂也。 石上慊慊舂黄粱者，言永樂雖积金錢，慊慊常苦不足，使人舂黄粱而食之也。 梁下有悬鼓，我欲击之丞卿怒者，言永樂主教靈帝，使卖官受錢，所祿非其人，天下忠笃之士怨望，欲击悬鼓以求見，丞卿主鼓者，亦復谄順，怒而止我也。
Another Luoyang rhyme in Emperor Huan's early years ran: "Crows on the city wall, tails all frayed—fathers turned clerks, sons turned convicts. One conscript dies—a hundred carriages roll. Carriages in long lines—winding their way to Hejian. The Hejian belle counts her coins—rooms built of copper cash, halls sheeted in gold. On the stone mortar, pestles thump—only yellow millet left to grind. A line from the rhyme: "There's a petition drum under the rafters—I reach for the mallet, but the chancellor and his men fly into a rage." The commentary takes every image in that song as a verdict on rapacious rule. The rooftop crow hoarding scraps alone foretells a Son of Heaven who squeezes the realm for revenue and shares nothing downward. Fathers pressed into the army clerks' corps and sons dragooned as convict troops point to frontier revolts that devour one generation after another. One expeditionary column perishes; the court answers by flinging a hundred more chariots into the same meat grinder. The long train rolling toward Hejian foretold the emperor's death and the hearse-road that would bring the boy Liu Hong from Hejian to the throne. The miserly belle piling coins into walls of copper and ceilings of gold stood for Lady Dong of Yongle, who hoarded specie to gild her palace halls once her son sat on the throne. The pestle on the mortar meant that even mountains of gold could not sate her—she still grudged every grain and made servants pound millet as if famine stalked the harem. The blocked drumbeat pictured honest men who wished to pound the grievance drum only to find the Yongle faction—having taught the emperor to vend offices—had bribed every gatekeeper; the very officials who should relay petitions silenced them instead.
56
桓帝之初，京都童謠曰：「游平卖印自有平，不辟豪賢及大姓。」 案到延熹之末，鄧皇后以譴自殺，乃以竇貴人代之，其父名武字游平，拜城門校尉。 及太后攝政，爲大將軍，與太傅陳蕃合心戮力，惟德是建，印綬所加，咸得其人，豪賢大姓，皆絕望矣。
Another capital rhyme at the start of Emperor Huan's reign ran: "You Ping vends the seals—and balance returns; he shows no favor to magnates or great houses." By late Yanxi Empress Deng had been forced to suicide; Honored Lady Dou replaced her. Her father Dou Wu, whose courtesy name was You Ping, became colonel of the city gates—the very "You Ping" of the rhyme. Under the regency Dou Wu served as general-in-chief beside Grand Tutor Chen Fan; together they handed offices only to worthy men, slamming the door on every great clan that had bought favor under the Liangs.
57
桓帝之末，京都童謠曰：「茅田一頃中有井，四方纤纤不可整。 嚼復嚼，今年尚可后年鐃。」 案《易》曰：「拔茅茹以其汇，征吉。」 茅喻羣賢也。 井者，法也。 於時中常侍管霸、苏康憎疾海内英哲，與長樂少府劉嚣、太常許咏、尚書柳分、尋穆、史佟、司隸唐珍等，代作脣齒。 河内牢川詣闕上書：「汝、颍、南陽，上采虚誉，專作威福； 甘陵有南北二部，三輔尤甚。」 由是傳考黄門北寺，始見廢閣。 茅田一頃者，言羣賢眾多也。 中有井者，言雖厄窮，不失其法度也。 四方纤纤不可整者，言姦慝大炽，不可整理。 嚼復嚼者，京都飲酒相強之辞也。 言食肉者鄙，不恤王政，徒耽宴飲歌呼而已也。 今年尚可者，言但禁錮也。 后年鐃者，陳、竇被誅，天下大壞。
Late in Emperor Huan's reign Luoyang sang: "A hempfield of one qing with a well at its heart—ragged on every side, beyond all mending. Chew and chew—this year we scrape by; next year they'll beat the warning bells." The Classic of Changes counsels: "Uproot the reed and its runners together—then the campaign is lucky." Here the reed patch stands for the cluster of honest ministers. The well in the field is the standard of law still holding at the center. Eunuchs Guan Ba and Su Kang loathed every upright scholar-official; with Liu Ao, Xu Yong, Liu Fen, Xun Mu, Shi Tong, Tang Zhen, and the rest they formed a ring of mutual cover like lip and teeth. A certain Lao Chuan of Henei petitioned the throne: "Runan, Yingchuan, and Nanyang traffic in hollow fame and throw their weight about unchecked; Ganling is split into rival southern and northern cliques, and the capital region is worse still." The case was kicked to the eunuchs' North Prison; for the first time the full machinery of purge and prison came into view. The wide hempfield meant many good men still stood in court. The well promised that even in distress the rule of law would not be lost. The frayed edges meant villainy had flared beyond correction. "Chew again" echoed the toasts by which Luoyang nobles bullied each other into another cup. It mocked meat-eating grandees who ignored the state and drowned only in banquet noise. "This year we scrape by" meant the court still stopped at stripping offices—mere faction proscription. "Next year the bells" was the massacre of Chen Fan and Dou Wu and the collapse that followed.
58
桓帝之末，京都童謠曰：「白盖小車何延延。 河間來合諧，河間來合諧！」 案解犊亭属饶陽河間县也。 居无幾何而桓帝崩，使者與解犊侯皆白盖車從河間來。 延延，眾貌也。 是時御史劉儵建議立靈帝，以儵爲侍中，中常侍侯览畏其亲近，必當間己，白拜儵泰山太守，因令司隸迫促殺之。 朝廷少長，思其功效，乃拔用其弟郃，致位司徒，此爲合諧也。
Another late-Huan rhyme went: "Little white-topped coaches—what an endless stream! From Hejian they come, all in tune—from Hejian they come, all in tune!" Jiedu Post stood in Raoyang county under Hejian—ground zero for the omen. Within weeks Emperor Huan was dead; heralds and the Marquis of Jiedu rolled toward Luoyang in white-canopied wagons from Hejian. Yanyan painted the long, crowded train of coaches. Liu You had urged Liu Hong's accession and won a palace post; Hou Lan, fearing a rival at the emperor's ear, had him packed off to Taishan and hounded to death by the metropolitan commandant. Courtiers remembered Liu You's service and raised his brother Liu He to minister of education—Hejian's "harmony" made good after all.
59
靈帝之末，京都童謠曰：「侯非侯，王非王，千乘萬騎上北芒。」 案到中平六年，史侯登蹑至尊，獻帝未有爵號，爲中常侍段珪等數十人所執，公卿百官皆随其后，到河上，乃得來還。 此爲非侯非王上北芒者也。
As Emperor Ling's reign failed, children sang: "No lord is lord, no king is king—thousands of chariots climb Beimang Hill." In Zhongping 6 the young Liu Xie was hustled to the throne while his brother lacked even a princely rank; dozens of eunuchs led him off with the whole bureaucracy trailing until the party turned back only at the Yellow River. That was the scene the rhyme called "no marquis, no king, climbing Beimang."
60
靈帝中平中，京都歌曰：「承樂世董逃，游四郭董逃，蒙天恩董逃，带金紫董逃，行谢恩董逃，整車騎董逃，垂欲发董逃，與中辞董逃，出西門董逃，瞻宫殿董逃，望京城董逃，日夜絕董逃，心摧傷董逃。」 案「董」謂董卓也，言雖跋扈，縱其残暴，終歸逃窜，至於滅族也。
Mid-Zhongping Luoyang took up a bitter refrain: every line of life's pomp ended in the refrain "Dong flees"—a drumbeat on the name Dong Zhuo. The hidden word was Dong Zhuo: "however he strutted, the song foretold he would end in flight and clan extinction."
61
獻帝践祚之初，京都童謠曰：「千里草，何青青。 十日卜，不得生。」 案千里草爲董，十日卜爲卓。 凡别字之體，皆從上起，左右离合，无有從下发端者也。 今二字如此者，天意若曰：卓自下摩上，以臣陵君也。 青青者，暴盛之貌也。 不得生者，亦旋破亡。
When Emperor Xian first mounted the throne, Luoyang children chanted: "The grass that runs a thousand li—how lush and green! Ten days atop the divination sign—no survivor below." Read as a riddle, the lines stack into the characters for Dong Zhuo. Charade characters normally stack from the top outward; none start from the bottom and climb— —so Heaven arranged the pieces to show Zhuo thrusting upward from below, a subject bullying his sovereign. "Green-green" pictured his swagger at its height. "No survivor below" meant he would soon be destroyed.
62
建安初，荆州童謠曰：「八九年間始欲衰，至十三年无孑遺。」 言自中興以來，荆州无破亂，及劉表爲牧，民又豐樂，至此逮八九年。 當始衰者，謂劉表妻當死，諸將並零落也。 十三年无孑遺者，言十三年表又當死，民當移詣冀州也。
Early in Jian'an a Jingzhou rhyme warned: "Around the eighth or ninth year the bloom fades; by the thirteenth nothing remains." Since the Guangwu restoration Jingzhou had known peace; under Liu Biao the people prospered—for about eight or nine years. "Begins to decline" foretold Lady Cai's death and the scattering of Biao's generals. The thirteenth year marked Liu Biao's own end and the people's removal toward the north under Cao Cao's Ji Province.
63
順帝陽嘉元年十月中，望都蒲陰狼殺童兒九十七人。 時，李固对策，引京房《易傳》曰「君將无道，害將及人，去之深山以全身，厥妖狼食人」。 陛下覺寤，比求隱滞，故狼災息。
In the tenth month of Yangjia 1 wolves slaughtered ninety-seven children in Wangdu and Puyin. Li Gu quoted Jing Fang: "When the ruler loses the Way, disaster reaches the people—flee to the hills; Heaven sends wolves to devour them." The emperor took the hint, sought out neglected talent, and the wolf scourge—so the memorial claimed—abated.
64
靈帝建寧中，羣狼數十頭入晉陽南城門嚙人。
During Jianning a pack of wolves burst through Jinyang's south gate and mauled townsfolk.