1
志第十四五行二
Treatise Fourteen: The Five Elements, Part Two.
2
灾火草妖羽虫孽羊祸
Fire as disaster; freak growths among plants; plagues among fowl and winged pests; calamities involving sheep.
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《五行傳》曰：「弃法律，逐功臣，殺太子，以妾为妻，则火不炎上。」 谓火失其性而为灾也。 又曰：「视之不明，是谓不悊。 厥咎舒，厥罚常燠，厥极疾，时则有草妖，时则有蠃虫之孽，时则有羊祸，时则有赤眚、赤祥，惟水沴火。」 蠃虫，刘歆傳以为羽虫。
The Treatise on the Five Elements warns that when laws are trampled, good servants banished, the crown prince murdered, and a concubine raised to wife, the virtue of fire fails—it no longer "blazes upward" as it should. That is, fire’s nature is corrupted and calamity follows. It adds: "When the ruler’s vision clouds over, that is called a failure of wise judgment. The blame falls on lax rule; the scourge is endless summer heat; the worst end is pestilence; such times bring freaks among plants, plagues among soft-bodied vermin, omens involving sheep, and crimson spectral fires—and in the cycle of qi, water is said to harm fire." Commentary following Liu Xin classes those "soft" pests with omens among winged things.
4
建武中，渔阳太守彭宠被征。 书至，明日潞县火，灾起城中，飞出城外，燔千余家，殺人。 京房《易傳》曰：「上不俭，下不節，盛火数起，燔宫室。」 儒说火以明为德而主礼。 时宠与幽州牧朱浮有隙，疑浮见浸谮，故意狐疑，其妻劝无应征，遂反叛攻浮，卒诛灭。
During Guangwu’s Jianwu years the summons reached Peng Chong, governor of Yuyang. The day after the edict arrived, Lu county erupted in a fire that started downtown, leaped the walls, consumed over a thousand homes, and killed many. Jing Fang’s Commentary on the Changes says: "If above is not frugal and below is not restrained, flourishing fires arise repeatedly and burn palace halls." Confucian exegetes say fire’s virtue is clarity and its domain is ritual. Peng Chong had quarreled with the regional inspector Zhu Fu, brooded on slander, and—on his wife’s advice—defied the recall; he rose against Zhu Fu and was destroyed.
5
和帝永元八年十二月丁巳，南宫宣室殿火。 是时和帝幸北宫，窦太后在南宫。 明年，窦太后崩。
On a dingsi day in the twelfth month of Yongyuan 8 the Xuanshi Hall in the Southern Palace caught fire. The emperor was spending his nights in the Northern Palace while Empress Dowager Dou remained in the south. She died the following year.
6
十三年八月己亥，北宫盛馔门阁火。 是时和帝幸邓贵人，阴后宠衰怨恨，上有欲废之意。 明年，会得阴后挟伪道事，遂废，迁于桐宫，以忧死，立邓贵人为皇后。
In the eighth month of Yongyuan 13 fire destroyed the Shengzhuan gate-tower of the Northern Palace. Emperor He had turned to Lady Deng while Empress Yin, fallen from favor, smoldered with hate; the emperor meant to cast her off. The next year the Yin empress was caught in a sorcery scandal, stripped of rank, confined to the Cold Palace, and left to die of shame; Lady Deng became empress in her place.
7
十五年六月辛酉，汉中城固南城门灾。 此孝和皇帝将绝世之象也。 其后二年，宫车晏驾，殇帝及平原王皆早夭折，和帝世绝。
On a xinyou day in the sixth month of Yongyuan 15 the south gate of Chenggu in Hanzhong burned. It foretold the extinction of Emperor He’s line. Within two years the emperor was dead, the boy emperor and the prince of Pingyuan followed him to the grave, and He left no heir.
8
安帝永初二年四月甲寅，汉阳阿阳城中失火，烧殺三千五百七十人。 先是和帝崩，有皇子二人，皇子胜长，邓皇后贪殇帝少，欲自养长立之。 延平元年，殇帝崩。 胜有厥疾不笃，群臣咸欲立之，太后以前既不立胜，遂更立清河王子，是为安帝。 司空周章等心不厌服，谋欲诛邓氏，废太后、安帝，而更立胜。 元年十一月，事觉，章等被诛。 其后凉州叛羌为害大甚，凉州诸郡寄治冯翊、扶风界。 及太后崩，邓氏被诛。
On an jiayin day in the fourth month of Yongchu 2 a conflagration in Ayang, Hanyang, killed 3,570 people. After He’s death two princes survived; Liu Sheng was the elder, but Empress Deng preferred the infant Shang so she could prolong her regency. The child emperor died in Yanping 1. Liu Sheng was fit enough to rule, and the court wanted him, but the dowager—having once passed him over—enthroned the Qinghe prince’s son as Emperor An instead. Zhou Zhang and other ministers secretly planned a coup: wipe out the Deng family, depose regent and emperor, and restore Liu Sheng. The plot surfaced that eleventh month and the conspirators died. Then the Liangzhou Qiang revolted so fiercely that the northwestern commanderies had to be administered from Fengyi and Fufeng in the interior. After the dowager’s death the Dengs were extirpated.
9
四年三月戊子，杜陵园火。
On a wuzi day in the third month of the fourth year fire swept Emperor Xuan’s Du necropolis.
10
元初四年二月壬戌，武库火。 是时，羌叛，大为寇害，发天下兵以攻御之，积十余年未已，天下厌苦兵役。
The Han arsenal went up in flames on a renxu day in the second month of Yuanchu 4. The Qiang war had dragged on for over a decade; the realm groaned under endless levies.
11
延光元年八月戊子，阳陵园寝殿火。 凡灾发于先陵，此太子将废之象也。 若曰：不当废太子以自剪，则火不当害先陵之寝也。 明年，上以谗言废皇太子为济阴王。 后二年，宫车宴驾。 中黄门孙程等十九人起兵殿省，诛贼臣，立济阴王。
On a wuzi day in the eighth month of Yanguang 1 fire consumed the resting hall at Emperor Jing’s Yang mausoleum. Flames at an imperial tomb foretell a crown prince’s fall. Heaven seemed to warn: strike the heir and you scorch your own ancestors’ sleep. The next year the emperor believed calumny and demoted the crown prince to prince of Jiyin. Two years later the emperor himself was dead. Sun Cheng’s eunuch party struck, slew the usurping ministers, and restored the Jiyin prince to the throne.
12
四年秋七月乙丑，渔阳城门楼灾。
On a yichou day in the seventh month of the fourth year the Yuyang gate-tower burned.
13
顺帝永建三年七月丁酉，茂陵园寝灾。
On a dingyou day in the seventh month of Yongjian 3 fire damaged Emperor Wu’s Mao mausoleum hall.
14
阳嘉元年，恭陵庑灾，及东西莫府火。 太尉李固以为奢僭所致。 陵之初造，祸及枯骨，规广治之尤饰。 又上欲更造宫室，益台观，故火起莫府。 烧材木。
Yangjia 1 brought fire to Emperor An’s Gongling colonnades and to the east and west secretariat compounds. Li Gu blamed luxury beyond measure. Tombs built too grandly call down disaster even on the dead—such was the excess of their scale and ornament. The emperor also meant to expand the palaces; hence the blaze in the ministerial offices. The flames devoured the stockpiled lumber.
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汉安元年三月甲午，雒阳刘汉等百九十七家为火所烧，后四年，宫车比三晏驾，建和元年君位乃定。
On a jiawu day in the third month of Han’an 1 fire destroyed 197 Luoyang households including Liu Han’s; within four years three emperors died in quick succession, and the throne did not steady until Jianhe 1.
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桓帝建和二年五月癸丑，北宫掖庭中德阳殿火，及左掖门。 先是梁太后兄冀挟奸枉，以故太尉李固、杜乔正直，恐害其事，令人诬奏固、乔而诛灭之。 是后梁太后崩，而梁氏诛灭。
On a guichou day in the fifth month of Jianhe 2 fire swept the Deyang Hall in the harem and spread to the left yemen gate. Liang Ji had murdered Li Gu and Du Qiao on trumped-up charges to silence honest ministers. After the Liang dowager’s death the whole clan was wiped out.
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延熹四年正月辛酉，南宫嘉德殿火。 戊子，丙署火。 二月壬辰，武库火。 五月丁卯，原陵长寿门火。 先是，亳后因贱人得幸，号贵人。 为后。 上以后母宣为长安君，封其兄弟，爱宠隆崇，又多封无功者。 去年春，白马令李云坐直谏死。 至此彗除心、尾，火连作。
On a xinyou day in the first month of Yanxi 4 the Jiade Hall burned. The Bing office compound caught fire the same month on wuzi. On renchen in the second month the arsenal burned again. On dingmao in the fifth month fire struck the Changshou Gate at Emperor Guangwu’s Yuan tomb. Earlier the future empress—here called the Lady of Bo—had won the emperor from the lowest ranks and borne the title Honored Lady. She was then raised to empress. The emperor ennobled Lady Xuan as Lady Chang’an, showered titles on her kin, and handed marquisates to favorites who had done nothing to earn them. The year before, Li Yun of Baima had been executed for speaking plain truth to the throne. A comet had already scoured Heart and Tail; now fires chained across the capital.
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五年正月壬午，南宫丙署火。 四月乙丑，恭北陵东阙火。 戊辰，虎贲掖门火。 五月，康陵园寝火。 甲申，中藏府承禄署火。 七月己未，南宫承善闼内火。
On renwu in the first month of Yanxi 5 the Southern Palace’s Bing office burned. On yichou in the fourth month fire damaged the east tower of Emperor An’s tomb. On wuchen the Tiger-Gaurd side gate caught fire. The Kangling hall burned in the fifth month. On jiashen the Cheng-lu office in the imperial treasury went up in flames. On jiwei in the seventh month fire broke out inside the Chengshan gate of the Southern Palace.
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六年四月辛亥，康陵东署火。 七月甲申，平陵园寝火。
On xinhai in the fourth month of the sixth year Kangling’s east annex burned. On jiashen in the seventh month the Pingling resting hall caught fire.
20
八年二月己酉，南宫嘉德署、黄龙、千秋万岁殿皆火。 四月甲寅，安陵园寝火。 闰月，南宫长秋、和欢殿后钩盾、掖庭朔平署各火。 十一月壬子，德阳前殿西阁及黄门北寺火，殺人。
On jiyou in the second month of the eighth year three major Southern Palace structures burned together. On jiayin in the fourth month Anling’s hall burned. In the leap month fires separately struck the Changqiu and Hehuan halls and rear harem offices. On renzi in the eleventh month flames took the Deyang Hall’s west wing and the eunuchs’ North Prison, with loss of life.
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九年三月癸己，京都夜有火光转行，民相惊噪。
On a guisi night in the third month of the ninth year Luoyang saw wandering will-o’-wisp lights and panicked crowds.
22
灵帝熹平四年五月，延陵园灾。
In the fifth month of Xiping 4 Emperor Shun’s Yan mausoleum burned.
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光和四年闰月辛酉，北宫东掖庭永巷署灾。
On xinyou in the leap month of Guanghe 4 fire destroyed the Yongxiang harem office in the Northern Palace.
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五年五月庚申，德阳前殿西北入门内永乐太后宫署火。
On gengshen in the fifth month Lady Dong’s Yongle apartments beside Deyang Hall caught fire.
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中平二年二月己酉，南宫云台灾。 庚戌，乐成门灾，延及北阙，度道西烧嘉德、和欢殿。 案云台之灾自上起，榱题数百，同时并然，若就县华镫，其日烧尽，延及白虎、威兴门、尚书、符節、兰台。 夫云台者，乃周家之所造也，图书、术籍、珍玩、宝怪皆所藏在也。 京房《易傳》曰：「君不思道，厥妖火烧宫。」 是时，黄巾作慝，变乱天常，七州二十八郡同时俱发，命将出众，虽颇有所禽，然宛、广宗、曲阳尚未破坏，役起负海，杼柚空悬，百姓死伤已过半矣。 而灵帝曾不克己复礼，虐侈滋甚，尺一雨布，驺骑电激，官非其人，政以贿成，内嬖鸿都，并受封爵。 京都为之语曰：「今兹诸侯岁也。」 天戒若曰：放贤赏淫，何以旧典为？ 故焚其台门秘府也。 其后三年，灵帝暴崩，续以董卓之乱，火三日不绝，京都为丘墟矣。
On jiyou in the second month of Zhongping 2 the Southern Palace’s Cloud Terrace burned. The next day the Lecheng Gate fire spread through the north tower and west avenue to Jiade and Hehuan. The Cloud Terrace blaze started at the roofline; hundreds of corbels ignited like candles on a chandelier and in one day consumed the terrace, then raced to the White Tiger and Weixing gates and the central archives. Zhou had raised that terrace to house the imperial libraries and rare treasures. Jing Fang’s Commentary on the Changes says: "When the lord does not ponder the Way, its prodigy is fire burning the palace." The Yellow Turban revolt convulsed twenty-eight commanderies; imperial generals won only partial success while great strongholds held out; levies emptied every workshop and killed or maimed more than half the populace. Emperor Ling only deepened his excess—lavish edicts, courier relays racing night and day, offices sold to the highest bidder, and Hongdu favorites ennobled wholesale. Luoyang jeered, "This season—everyone’s a marquis." Heaven seemed to ask why any statute mattered when virtue was banished and vice ennobled. So it consumed the terrace gates and the archives they guarded. Within three years the emperor was dead; Dong Zhuo’s occupation left Luoyang burning three days until nothing remained but rubble.
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献帝初平元年八月，霸桥灾。 其后三年，董卓见殺。
In the eighth month of Chuping 1 the Ba Bridge burned. Three years later Dong Zhuo lay dead.
27
庶征之恒燠，《汉书》以冬温应之。 中兴以来，亦有冬温，而记不录云。
The Han treatise matched unseasonable winter warmth to the "constant heat" omen. The Eastern Han knew warm winters too, though the compilers left them unlogged.
28
安帝元初三年，有瓜异本共生，八瓜同蒂，时以为嘉瓜。 或以为瓜者外延，离本而实，女子外属之象也。 是时，阎皇后初立，后阎后与外亲耿宝等共谮太子，废为济阴王，更外迎济北王子犊立之，草妖也。
Yuanchu 3 produced a freak vine: eight gourds on one stem, hailed at first as a good omen. Skeptics read the gourd as a symbol of affinal power branching from the court. Empress Yan had just risen; she and Geng Bao framed the crown prince, demoted him, and imported the Jibei boy Liu Du—exactly the "grass prodigy" reading.
29
桓帝延熹九年，雒阳城局竹柏叶有伤者。 占曰：「天子凶。」
In Yanxi 9 leaves of bamboo and cypress inside Luoyang’s wards bore strange scars. Divination said: "The Son of Heaven is in peril."
30
灵帝熹平三年，右校别作中有两樗树，皆高四尺所，其一株宿夕暴长，长丈余，大一围，作胡人状，头目鬓须发备具。 京房《易傳》曰：「王德衰，下人将起，则有木生人状。」
In Xiping 3 a pair of ailanthus saplings in the right camp workshops shot overnight into a man-shaped tree the height of a Hu barbarian, complete in face and hair. Jing Fang’s Commentary on the Changes says: "When kingly virtue declines and the lower people are about to rise, then there is wood that grows in human shape."
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五年十月壬午，御所居殿后槐树，皆六七围，自拔，倒竖，根在上。
On renwu in the tenth month of Xiping 5 the great locust trees behind the imperial bedchamber tore loose and stood on their crowns, roots in the air.
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中平元年夏，东郡，陈留济阳、长桓，济阴冤句、离狐县界，有草生，其茎靡累肿大，如手指，状似鸠雀龙蛇鸟兽之形，五色各如其状，毛羽头目足翅皆具。 近草妖也。 是岁，黄巾贼始起。 皇后兄何进，异父兄朱苗，皆为将军，领兵。 后苗封济阴侯，进、苗遂秉威权，特国柄，汉遂微弱，自此始焉。
That summer freak grass sprang up along the Ji River borderlands, sprouting finger-thick stalks molded like birds and beasts in five colors, every feather and claw distinct. The annalist classes it with grass prodigies. That same year the Yellow Turbans rose in rebellion. Empress He’s brother He Jin and her half-brother Zhu Miao each held generalships and led armies. When Zhu Miao became marquis of Jiyin, he and He Jin seized the levers of power and the dynasty began its slide.
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中平中，长安城西北六七里空树中，有人面生鬓。
During Zhongping a hollow tree northwest of Chang’an sprouted a bearded human face in its cavity.
34
献帝兴平元年九月，桑复生椹，可食。
In the ninth month of Xingping 1 mulberries fruited out of season—sweet enough to eat.
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安帝延光三年二月戊子，有五色大鸟集济南台，十月，又集新丰，时以为凤皇。 或以为凤皇阳明之应，故非明主，则隐不见。 凡五色大鸟似凤者，多羽虫之孽。 是时，安帝信中常侍樊丰、江京、阿母王圣及外属耿宝等谗言，免太尉杨震，废太子为济阴王，不悊之异也。 章帝末，号凤皇百四十九见。 时，直臣何敞以为羽孽，似凤，翱翔殿屋，不察也。 记者以为其后章帝崩，以为验。 案宣帝、明帝时，五色鸟群翔殿屋，贾逵以为胡降征也。 帝多善政，虽有过，不及至衰缺，末年胡降二十万口，是其验也。 帝之时，羌胡外叛，谗慝内兴，羽孽之时也。 《乐叶图征》说五凤皆五色，为瑞者一，为孽者四。
On wuzi in the second month of Yanguang 3 a huge polychrome bird perched on Jinan’s terrace and again at Xinfeng—courtiers hailed it as a phoenix. Some argued a true phoenix appears only under a sage-king; otherwise it stays hidden. Such rainbow birds are usually classed as winged omens, not true phoenixes. Emperor An was listening to Fan Feng, Jiang Jing, Wang Sheng, and Geng Bao: he cashiered Yang Zhen and cast down the crown prince—exactly the blindness those birds foretold. Late in Emperor Zhang’s reign the court logged 149 “phoenix” sightings. He Chang called them counterfeit phoenixes wheeling over the halls—omens no one cared to read. The compiler notes that Emperor Zhang soon died—proof, he thought, of ill omen. Under Xuandi and Mingdi similar flocks had appeared; Jia Kui read them as portents of barbarian submission. Those were strong reigns; when 200,000 tribesmen submitted late in the era, Jia Kui’s reading seemed vindicated. Under An the frontiers rose in revolt and calumny filled the palace—the age of false phoenixes. The weft-text on the five phoenixes counts one bird as lucky and four as baleful.
36
桓帝元嘉元年十一月，五色大鸟见济阴己氏。 时以为凤皇。 此时政治衰缺，梁冀秉政阿枉，上幸毫后，皆羽孽时也。
In the eleventh month of Yuanjia 1 a polychrome giant bird showed itself at Yishi in Jiyin. Again the court cried phoenix. Government was rotten, Liang Ji twisted the law, and the emperor doted on Empress Deng—another season of winged ill omens.
37
灵帝光和四年秋，五色大鸟见于新城，众鸟随之，时以为凤皇。 时，灵帝不恤政事，常侍、黄门专权，羽孽之时也。 众鸟之性，见非常班驳，好聚观之，至于小爵希见枭者，虣见犹聚。
In the autumn of Guanghe 4 a giant polychrome bird appeared at Xincheng with a flock in train—again mistaken for a phoenix. Emperor Ling ignored the state while eunuchs ran it—another “winged prodigy” age. Birds flock to anything gaudy; even sparrows will mob an owl on rare sight—so the mob followed the monster bird.
38
中平三年八月中，怀陵上有万余爵，先极悲鸣，已因乱斗相殺，皆断头，悬著树枝枳棘。 到六年，灵帝崩，大将军何进以内宠外嬖，积恶日久，欲悉纠黜，以隆更始冗政，而太后持疑，事久不决。 进从中出，于省内见殺，因是有司荡涤虔刘，后禄而尊厚者无余矣。 夫陵者，高大之象也。 天戒若曰：诸怀爵禄而尊厚者，还自相害至灭亡也。
In Zhongping 3’s eighth month ten thousand sparrows on Emperor Huai’s tumulus wailed, then tore one another apart until headless corpses hung from the brambles. By Zhongping 6 the emperor was dead; He Jin meant to purge palace favorites of long standing, but the dowager hesitated and the coup stalled. He Jin walked into the inner palace and died; then came the great slaughter until no great house survived unscathed. A royal tumulus stands for eminence and power. Heaven warned that title-fat nobles would destroy one another to the last man.
39
桓帝建和三年秋七月，北地廉雨肉似羊肋，或大如手。 近赤祥也。 是时梁太后摄政，兄梁冀专权，枉诛汉良臣故太尉李固、杜乔，天下冤之。 其后梁氏诛灭。
In the seventh month of Jianhe 3 a red rain of meat—lumps like mutton ribs, some palm-sized—fell on Beidi. The annalist classes it with crimson spectral omens. Empress Liang ruled through Liang Ji, who murdered Li Gu and Du Qiao—the realm cried injustice. The Liangs were soon extirpated.