1
列傳第六十四文藝下○趙渢周昂王庭筠劉昂李經劉從益呂中孚+張建李純甫王郁宋九嘉龐鑄李獻能王若虛王元節孫國綱麻九疇李汾元德明子元好問
Biography 64, Continuation of Literary Arts — Zhao Feng, Zhou Ang, Wang Tingyun, Liu Ang, Li Jing, Liu Congyi, Lü Zhongfu and Zhang Jian, Li Chunfu, Wang Yu, Song Jiujia, Pang Zhu, Li Xianneng, Wang Ruoxu, Wang Yuanjie, Sun Guogang, Ma Jiuchou, Li Fen, and Yuan Haowen, son of Yuan Deming
2
趙渢，字文孺，東平人。 大定二十二年進士，仕至禮部郎中。 性沖淡，學道有所得。 尤工書，自號「黃山」。 趙秉文雲：「渢之正書體兼顏、蘇，行草備諸家體，其超放又似楊凝式，當處蘇、黃伯仲間。」 党懷英小篆，李陽冰以來鮮有及者，時人以渢配之，號曰「党趙」。 有《黃山集》行於世。
Zhao Feng, whose style name was Wenru, came from Dongping. He passed the jinshi examination in the twenty-second year of the Dading reign and rose to Director of Rituals in the Ministry of Rites. By temperament he was serene and unworldly, and in his pursuit of the Way he achieved genuine insight. He excelled above all in calligraphy and took the sobriquet "Mount Huang." Zhao Bingwen remarked: "In regular script, Feng's hand blends Yan Zhenqing and Su Shi; in running and cursive script he has mastered every major school. His bold, unfettered manner also recalls Yang Ningshi — he belongs in the same rank as Su and Huang." Dang Huaiying's small seal script had scarcely been equaled since Li Yangbing's day, and people of the time paired Feng with him, dubbing the two "Dang and Zhao." His Collected Works of Mount Huang circulated widely.
3
周昂，字德卿，真定人。 父伯祿字天錫，大定進士，仕至同知沁南軍節度使。 昂年二十四擢第。 調南和簿，有異政。 遷良鄉令，入拜監察御史。 路鐸以言事被斥，昂送以詩，語涉謗訕，坐停銓。 久之，起為隆州都軍，以邊功複召為三司官。 大安兵興，權行六部員外郎。
Zhou Ang, whose style name was Deqing, came from Zhending. His father Bo Lu, styled Tiansi, had passed the jinshi examination in the Dading reign and rose to Vice Commissioner of the Qinnan Military Commission. Ang won his degree at the age of twenty-four. Posted as registrar of Nanhe, he distinguished himself with exceptional governance. He was promoted to magistrate of Liangxiang and later summoned to serve as Investigating Censor. When Lu Duo was dismissed for speaking out on policy, Ang sent him a parting poem whose wording bordered on defamation, and Ang was consequently barred from further appointments. After a long interval he was reappointed military commander of Long Prefecture, and for his achievements on the frontier he was summoned back as an official of the Three Departments. When hostilities broke out in the Da'an era, he served provisionally as Vice Director in the Six Ministries.
4
其甥王若虛嘗學於昂，昂教之曰：「文章工於外而拙於內者，可以驚四筵而不可以適獨坐，可以取口稱而不可以得首肯。」 又雲：「文章以意為主，以言語為役，主強而役弱則無令不從。 今人往往驕其所役，至跋扈難制，甚者反役其主，雖極辭語之工，而豈文之正哉。」
His nephew Wang Ruoxu had once studied under him. Ang instructed him: "Prose that is polished on the surface but hollow within may dazzle a banquet hall yet fail to hold up in quiet reading; it may win applause yet never earn a true nod of agreement." He also said: "In writing, the idea must be master and language the servant; when the master is strong and the servant subordinate, every command is obeyed. Writers today often let language grow arrogant until it becomes unruly and ungovernable; in the worst cases language enslaves the idea. However exquisite the phrasing, how can that be genuine prose?"
5
昂孝友，喜名節，學術醇正，文筆高雅，諸儒皆師尊之。 既曆台省，為人所擠，竟坐詩得罪，謫東海上十數年。 始入翰林，言事愈切。 出佐三司非所好，從宗室承裕軍。 承裕失利，跳走上穀，眾欲徑歸，昂獨不從，城陷，與其從子嗣明同死於難。 嗣明字晦之。
Ang was devoted to family and friends, prized integrity and reputation, pursued learning of rare purity, and wrote in an elevated style; scholars everywhere regarded him as a master. After serving in the censorate and secretariat he was pushed aside by rivals and ultimately fell afoul of the authorities over a poem, spending more than a decade in exile on the eastern coast. When he first entered the Hanlin Academy, his memorials on policy grew ever more forthright. A post assisting the Three Departments did not suit him, so he joined the army of the imperial clansman Chengyu. When Chengyu was defeated and fled toward Shanggu, the troops wanted to march straight home, but Ang alone refused. When the city fell, he and his nephew Siming perished together in the disaster. Siming's style name was Huizhi.
6
王庭筠
Wang Tingyun
7
王庭筠，字子端，遼東人。 生未期，視書識十七字。 七歲學詩，十一歲賦全題。 稍長，涿郡王翛一見，期以國士。 登大定十六年進士第。 調恩州軍事判官，臨政即有聲。 郡民鄒四者謀為不軌，事覺，逮捕千餘人，而鄒四竄匿不能得。 朝廷遣大理司直王仲軻治其獄，庭筠以計獲鄒四，分別詿誤，坐預謀者十二人而已。 再調館陶主簿。
Wang Tingyun, whose style name was Ziduan, came from Liaodong. Before he was even a hundred days old, he could recognize seventeen characters at a glance in a book. At seven he began studying poetry, and at eleven he could compose a complete examination essay on an assigned theme. As he grew older, Wang Xiao of Zhuo Commandery met him once and pronounced him a man of national stature. He passed the jinshi examination in the sixteenth year of the Dading reign. Posted as military adjutant of En Prefecture, he quickly earned a reputation for effective governance. A local man named Zou Si plotted rebellion. When the plot was uncovered, more than a thousand people were arrested, but Zou Si escaped into hiding and could not be captured. The court dispatched Wang Zhongke of the Court of Judicial Review to try the case. Tingyun devised a plan to capture Zou Si, sorted out those who had been misled from the true conspirators, and in the end only twelve were convicted of participation in the plot. He was transferred to serve as chief clerk of Guantao.
8
明昌元年三月，章宗諭旨學士院曰：「王庭筠所試文，句太長，朕不喜此，亦恐四方效之。」 又謂平章張汝霖曰：「王庭筠文藝頗佳，然語句不健，其人才高，亦不難改也。」 四月，召庭筠試館職，中選。 御史台言庭筠在館陶嘗犯贓罪，不當以館閣處之，遂罷。 乃卜居彰德，買田隆慮，讀書黃華山寺，因以自號。 是年十二月，上因語及學士，歎其乏材，參政守貞曰：「王庭筠其人也。」 三年，召為應奉翰林文字，命與秘書郎張汝方品第法書、名畫，遂分入品者為五百五十卷。
In the third month of the first year of Mingchang, Emperor Zhangzong directed the Hanlin Academy: "Wang Tingyun's examination essay uses sentences that are too long. I dislike this, and I fear others across the realm will copy the fashion." He also told Grand Councilor Zhang Rulin: "Wang Tingyun's literary gifts are considerable, but his phrasing lacks force. His talent is high, so it should not be difficult to correct." In the fourth month Tingyun was summoned to compete for an academy post and was selected. The Censorate reported that Tingyun had once committed an offense involving bribery while serving at Guantao and was unfit for an academy post, and he was dismissed. He then settled at Zhangde, purchased land at Longlu, and devoted himself to study at Mount Huanghua Temple, adopting the mountain's name as his sobriquet. That December, as the emperor spoke of academicians he lamented the dearth of talent. Participating Councilor Shouzhen said, "Wang Tingyun is your man." In the third year he was summoned to serve as Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin and, together with Secretariat Gentleman Zhang Rufang, was charged with grading model calligraphy and famous paintings; five hundred and fifty scrolls were classified as superior works.
9
五年八月，上顧謂宰執曰：「應奉王庭筠，朕欲以詔誥委之，其人才亦豈易得。 近党懷英作《長白山冊文》，殊不工。 聞文士多妒庭筠者，不論其文，顧以行止為訾。 大抵讀書人多口頰，或相黨。 昔東漢之士與宦官分朋，固無足怪。 如唐牛僧孺、李德裕，宋司馬光、王安石，均為儒者，而互相排毀何耶。」 遂遷庭筠為翰林修撰。
In the eighth month of the fifth year the emperor addressed the chief ministers: "Attendant Wang Tingyun — I mean to entrust imperial edicts and proclamations to him. Talent like his is not easily found. Recently Dang Huaiying composed the Encomium for Mount Changbai, and the work was distinctly poor. I hear that many men of letters are jealous of Tingyun; they do not judge his writing on its merits but attack his personal conduct instead. As a rule, scholars are quick with gossip and often band together in factions. In the Eastern Han, scholars and eunuchs formed rival factions — that is hardly surprising. Consider Tang's Niu Sengru and Li Deyu, or Song's Sima Guang and Wang Anshi — all were Confucian scholars, yet they tore one another down. Why should that be?" Tingyun was thereupon promoted to Hanlin Compiler.
10
承安元年正月，坐趙秉文上書事，削一官，杖六十，解職，語在秉文傳。 二年，降授鄭州防禦判官。 四年，起為應奉翰林文字。 泰和元年，複為翰林修撰，扈從秋山，應制賦詩三十餘首，上甚嘉之。 明年，卒，年四十有七。 上素知其貧，詔有司賻錢八十萬以給喪事，求生平詩文藏之秘閣。 又以禦制詩賜其家，其引雲：「王遵古，朕之故人也。 乃子庭筠，複以才選直禁林者首尾十年，今茲雲亡，玉堂、東觀，無複斯人矣。」
In the first month of the first year of Cheng'an he was implicated in Zhao Bingwen's memorial affair, stripped of one rank, beaten sixty strokes, and dismissed from office — the full account appears in Bingwen's biography. In the second year he was demoted to Defense Adjutant of Zheng Prefecture. In the fourth year he was recalled to serve as Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin. In the first year of Taihe he was again appointed Hanlin Compiler, accompanied the emperor on the autumn mountain tour, and composed more than thirty poems at imperial command, which the emperor greatly admired. The following year he died at the age of forty-seven. The emperor had long known how poor he was and ordered the authorities to grant eight hundred thousand cash for his funeral expenses and to collect his life's poems and prose for preservation in the imperial archive. He also bestowed an imperial poem on the family, with a preface that read: "Wang Zungu was an old friend of mine. His son Tingyun was again chosen for his talent to serve in the Forbidden Grove for a full decade. Now he has passed away, and in the Jade Hall and Eastern View there will never be such a man again."
11
庭筠儀觀秀偉，善談笑，外若簡貴，人初不敢與接。 既見，和氣溢于顏間，殷勤慰藉如恐不及，少有可取極口稱道，他日雖百負不恨也。 從游者如韓溫甫，路元亨、張進卿，李公度，其薦引者如趙秉文、馮璧、李純甫，皆一時名士，世以知人許之。 為文能道所欲言，暮年詩律深嚴，七言長篇尤工險韻。 有《藂辨》十卷，文集四十卷。 書法學米元章，與趙渢、趙秉文俱以名家，庭筠尤善山水墨竹雲。
Tingyun was tall and striking in appearance, witty in conversation, and outwardly aloof and dignified, so at first people hesitated to approach him. Once you met him, warmth radiated from his face and he offered encouragement as though afraid he might not do enough. The smallest merit he praised to the skies, and even if you wronged him a hundred times later, he bore no grudge. Among those who studied under him were Han Wenpu, Lu Yuanheng, Zhang Jinqing, and Li Gongdu; among those he recommended were Zhao Bingwen, Feng Bi, and Li Chunfu — all celebrated figures of the day. The world acknowledged him as a judge of talent. In prose he could say exactly what he meant. In his later years his poetry grew rigorously disciplined, and he was especially masterful in long seven-character poems with demanding rhymes. He left ten juan of Collected Discriminations and forty juan of collected writings. In calligraphy he studied Mi Fu; he, Zhao Feng, and Zhao Bingwen were all celebrated masters, while Tingyun was especially accomplished in landscape painting, ink bamboo, and clouds.
12
子曼慶，亦能詩並書，仕至行省右司郎中，自號「淡遊」雲。
His son Manqing was also accomplished in poetry and calligraphy, rose to Director of the Right Office of a Branch Secretariat, and styled himself "Leisurely Wanderer."
13
劉昂，字之昂，興州人。 大定十九年進士。 曾、高而下七世登科。 昂天資警悟，律賦自成一家，作詩得晚唐體，尤工絕句。 李純甫《故人外傳》雲，昂早得仕，年三十三為尚書省掾，調平涼路轉運副使。 時術士有言昂官止五品，昂不信。 俄以母憂去職，連蹇十年，卜居洛陽，有終焉之志。 有薦其才于章宗者，泰和初，自國子司業擢為左司郎中。 會掌書大中與賈鉉漏言除授事，為言者所劾，獄辭連昂。 章宗震怒。 一時聞人如史肅、李著、王宇、宗室從鬱皆譴逐之，鉉尋亦罷政。 昂降上京留守判官，道卒，竟如術者之言。
Liu Ang, whose style name was Zhi'ang, came from Xing Prefecture. He passed the jinshi examination in the nineteenth year of the Dading reign. For seven generations, from his great-great-grandfather's line downward, his family had produced examination graduates. Ang was exceptionally quick-witted by nature; his regulated fu formed a distinctive school of its own; in poetry he mastered the late Tang style and was especially accomplished in quatrains. Li Chunfu's Unofficial Biographies of Old Friends records that Ang entered government service early; at thirty-three he was a clerk in the Department of State Affairs and was posted as Vice Transport Commissioner of Pingliang Circuit. At the time a fortune-teller declared that Ang's official rank would never rise above the fifth grade, but Ang refused to believe it. Soon he left office to observe mourning for his mother, then spent a decade in repeated setbacks. He settled in Luoyang with the intention of ending his days there. Someone recommended his talent to Emperor Zhangzong, and at the beginning of the Taihe reign he was promoted from Vice Director of the Directorate of Education to Left Department Director. It happened that Director of Documents Dazhong and Jia Xuan leaked word of a pending appointment; critics impeached them, and the case records implicated Ang as well. Emperor Zhangzong was furious. At once celebrated figures such as Shi Su, Li Zhuo, Wang Yu, and the imperial clansman Congyu were all banished, and Xuan soon left office as well. Ang was demoted to Adjutant of the Shangjing Military Commission and died on the journey, exactly as the fortune-teller had predicted.
14
李經，字天英，錦州人。 作詩極刻苦，喜出奇語，不蹈襲前人。 李純甫見其詩曰：「真今世太白也。」 由是名大震。 再舉不第，拂衣去。 南渡後，其鄉帥有表至朝廷，士大夫識之曰：「此天英筆也。」 朝議以武功就命倅其州，後不知所終。
Li Jing, whose style name was Tianying, came from Jin Prefecture. He composed poetry with extraordinary labor, delighted in startling turns of phrase, and refused to imitate his predecessors. When Li Chunfu read his poems he declared, "This is truly the Li Bai of our age." From that moment his fame spread far and wide. After failing the examinations twice, he shook the dust from his robes and walked away from official life. After the court crossed south, his district commander sent a memorial to the court, and scholar-officials recognized it at once: "This is Tianying's hand." The court appointed him, on the strength of his military service, as vice-prefect of his home prefecture; afterward his fate is unknown.
15
劉從益
Liu Congyi
16
劉從益，字雲卿，渾源人。 其高祖捴，天會元年詞賦進士，子孫多由科第入仕。 從益登大安元年進士第，累官監察御史，坐與當路辨曲直，得罪去。 久之，起為葉縣令，修學勵俗，有古良吏風。 葉自兵興，戶減三之一，田不毛者萬七千畝有奇，其歲入七萬石如故。 從益請于大司農，為減一萬，民甚賴之，流亡歸者四千餘家。 未幾，被召，百姓詣尚書省乞留，不聽。 入授應奉翰林文字，逾月以疾卒，年四十四。 葉人聞之，以端午罷酒為位而哭，且立石頌德，以致哀思。
Liu Congyi, whose style name was Yunqing, came from Hunyuan. His great-great-grandfather Cui passed the rhapsody-and-fu jinshi examination in the first year of Tianhui, and for generations his descendants had entered government service through the civil examinations. Congyi passed the jinshi examination in the first year of Da'an, rose through the ranks to Investigating Censor, and was dismissed after disputing right and wrong with those in power. After a long interval he was reappointed magistrate of Ye County, where he promoted learning and moral reform in the manner of the exemplary officials of antiquity. Since the outbreak of war, Ye had lost a third of its households, and more than seventeen thousand mu of land lay fallow, yet the annual tax levy still stood at seventy thousand shi, unchanged from before. Congyi petitioned the Grand Minister of Agriculture to reduce the levy by ten thousand shi. The people depended greatly on this relief, and more than four thousand refugee households returned. Before long he was summoned to the capital. The people went to the Department of State Affairs to beg that he be kept in office, but their plea was denied. He entered the capital and was appointed Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin, but a little more than a month later he died of illness at the age of forty-four. When the people of Ye heard the news, they abstained from wine on the Dragon Boat Festival and gathered to mourn him, and they erected a stone inscription praising his virtue to express their grief.
17
從益博學強記，精于經學。 為文章長於詩，五言尤工，有《蓬門集》。
Congyi was broadly learned with an exceptional memory and was a master of the Confucian classics. As a writer he excelled in poetry, especially five-character verse. He left a collection entitled Works from the Humble Gate.
18
子祁字京叔。 為太學生。 甚有文名。 值金末喪亂，作《歸潛志》以紀金事，修《金史》多採用焉。
His son Qi was styled Jingshu. He was a student at the Imperial Academy. He enjoyed considerable literary renown. At the collapse of the Jin dynasty he wrote Returning to Seclusion to record events of the Jin era, and the compilers of the History of Jin drew heavily upon it.
19
呂中孚張建
Lü Zhongfu and Zhang Jian
20
呂中孚，字信臣，冀州南宮人。 張建字吉甫，蒲城人。 皆有詩名。 中孚有《清漳集》。 建明昌初授絳州教官，召為宮教、應奉翰林文字。 以老請致仕，章宗愛其純素，不欲令去，授同知華州防禦使，仍賜詩以寵之。 自號「蘭泉」，有集行於世。
Lü Zhongfu, whose style name was Xinchen, came from Nangong in Ji Prefecture. Zhang Jian, whose style name was Jifu, came from Pucheng. Both enjoyed a reputation as poets. Zhongfu left the Collected Works of Clear Zhang. In the early Mingchang era Jian was appointed instructor of Jiang Prefecture, then summoned to serve as palace instructor and Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin. He asked to retire on account of age. Emperor Zhangzong admired his plain, unadorned character and did not wish to let him go, appointing him Vice Commissioner of Huazhou Defense while still bestowing an imperial poem to honor him. He styled himself "Orchid Spring," and his collected works circulated widely.
21
李純甫
Li Chunfu
22
李純甫，字之純，弘州襄陰人。 祖安上，嘗魁西京進士。 父采，卒於益都府治中。 純甫幼穎悟異常，初業詞賦，及讀《左氏春秋》，大愛之，遂更為經義學。 擢承安二年經義進士。 為文法莊周、列禦寇、左氏、《戰國策》，後進多宗之。 又喜談兵，慨然有經世心。 章宗南征，兩上疏策其勝負，上奇之，給送軍中，後多如所料。 宰執愛其文，薦入翰林。 及大元兵起，又上疏論時事，不報。 宣宗遷汴，再入翰林。 時丞相高琪擅威福柄，擢為左司都事，純甫審其必敗，以母老辭去。 既而高琪誅，複入翰林，連知貢舉。 正大末，坐取人逾新格，出倅坊州。 未赴，改京兆府判官。 卒於汴，年四十七。
Li Chunfu, whose style name was Zhichun, came from Xiangyin in Hong Prefecture. His grandfather Anshang had once placed first in the jinshi examination at the Western Capital. His father Cai died while serving as administrative aide of Yidu Prefecture. Chunfu was exceptionally quick-witted as a youth. He first studied rhapsody and fu, but when he read the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals he fell deeply in love with it and switched to the study of classical exegesis. He passed the jinshi examination in classical exegesis in the second year of Cheng'an. As a writer he modeled himself on Zhuangzi, Lie Yukou, the Zuo Commentary, and the Stratagems of the Warring States, and younger writers largely followed his example. He also delighted in military affairs and burned with a desire to put the world in order. When Emperor Zhangzong campaigned south, Chunfu twice submitted memorials forecasting the outcome; the emperor was impressed and had them forwarded to the army, and later events largely matched his predictions. The chief ministers admired his writing and recommended him for the Hanlin Academy. When the armies of the Great Yuan rose, he again submitted a memorial on current affairs, but received no response. When Emperor Xuanzong moved the capital to Bian, Chunfu again entered the Hanlin Academy. At the time Grand Councilor Gao Qi monopolized power and promoted Chunfu to Director of the Left Department, but Chunfu saw that Qi would surely fall and declined on the grounds that his mother was elderly. Soon after Qi was executed, Chunfu returned to the Hanlin and successively oversaw the civil examinations. At the end of the Zhengda era he was demoted to vice-prefect of Fang Prefecture for accepting candidates beyond the new quota. Before he could take up the post he was reassigned as administrative judge of the Jingzhao metropolitan prefecture. He died at Bian at the age of forty-seven.
23
純甫為人聰敏，少自負其材，謂功名可俯拾，作《矮柏賦》，以諸葛孔明、王景略自期。 由小官上萬方書，援宋為證，甚切，當路者以迂闊見抑。 中年，度其道不行，益縱酒自放，無仕進意。 得官未成考，旋即歸隱。 日與禪僧士子游，以文酒為事，嘯歌袒裼出禮法外，或飲數月不醒。 人有酒見招，不擇貴賤必往，往輒醉，雖沉醉亦未嘗廢著書。 然晚年喜佛，力探其奧義。 自類其文，凡論性理及關佛老二家者號「內稿」，其餘應物文字為「外稿」。 又解《楞嚴》、《金剛經》、《老子》、《莊子》。 又有《中庸集解》、《鳴道集解》，號「中國心學、西方文教」。 數十萬言，以故為名教所貶雲。
By nature Chunfu was brilliant. In youth he was confident in his own gifts and believed that fame and office lay within easy reach. He wrote the "Rhapsody on the Dwarf Cypress," measuring himself against Zhuge Liang and Wang Meng. From a minor post he submitted a memorial addressed to all directions, citing Song as a precedent in urgent terms; those in power dismissed him as impractical and utopian. In midlife, seeing that his path would not prevail, he gave himself ever more to drink and reckless freedom, with no further desire for office. He gained office but had not yet completed his term evaluation when he at once withdrew into seclusion. Day after day he kept company with Chan monks and scholars, devoting himself to wine and letters; singing loudly and casting off his robes beyond the bounds of propriety, he sometimes drank for months without sobering. Whenever anyone invited him to drink, he went without regard to rank; he always went and always got drunk, yet even in deep intoxication he never stopped writing. Yet in his later years he turned to Buddhism and strove to probe its deepest meaning. He classified his own writings: pieces on human nature and on Buddhism and Daoism he called "inner drafts," while everything else written in response to worldly affairs he called "outer drafts." He also wrote commentaries on the Shurangama Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Laozi, and the Zhuangzi. He also wrote Collected Commentaries on the Doctrine of the Mean and Collected Commentaries on the Way of the Mings, which he styled "Heart Learning of China, Literary Teaching of the West." They ran to several hundred thousand characters, and for this reason he was disparaged by orthodox Confucian teaching.
24
王郁，字飛伯，大興人。 儀狀魁奇，目光如鶻。 少居釣台，閉門讀書，不接人事。 久之，為文法柳宗元，閎肆奇古，動輒數千言。 歌詩俊逸，效李白。 嘗作《王子小傳》以自敘。 天興初元，汴京被圍，上書言事，不報。 四月，圍稍解，挺身突出，為兵士所得。 其將遇之甚厚，鬱經行無機防，為其下所忌，見殺。 臨終，懷中出書曰：「是吾平生著述，可傳付中州士大夫曰，王鬱死矣。」 年三十餘。 同時以詩鳴者，雷琯、侯冊、王元粹雲。
Wang Yu, whose style name was Feibo, came from Daxing. He was striking in stature, with a gaze sharp as a falcon's. In youth he lived at Fishing Terrace, reading behind closed doors and refusing all worldly entanglements. After a long interval he took Liu Zongyuan as his literary model, writing in a vast, bold, and archaic style that often ran to several thousand characters. His songs and poems were elegant and uninhibited, in the manner of Li Bai. He once wrote a "Little Biography of the Prince" as an autobiographical sketch. In the first year of the Tianxing era, when Bianjing was besieged, he submitted a memorial on public affairs but received no response. In the fourth month, when the siege had eased somewhat, he forced his way out and was seized by soldiers. The commander treated him with great generosity, but Yu traveled without precaution and was resented by his subordinates and killed. At the end he drew writings from his breast and said, "These are my life's compositions. Pass them to the scholar-officials of the Central Plains with the message that Wang Yu is dead." He was a little over thirty years old. Those famed in poetry at the same time included Lei Guan, Hou Ce, and Wang Yuancui.
25
宋九嘉
Song Jiujia
26
龐鑄，字才卿，遼東人。 少擢第，仕有聲。 南渡後，為翰林待制，遷戶部侍郎。 坐游貴戚家，出倅東平，改京兆路轉運使，卒。 博學能文，工詩，造語奇健不凡，世多傳之。
Pang Zhu, whose style name was Caiqing, came from Liaodong. He passed the examinations at a young age and served with distinction. After the court crossed south he served as Hanlin Attendant-in-Waiting and was promoted to Vice Minister of Revenue. For visiting the house of an imperial in-law he was demoted to vice-prefect of Dongping, then reassigned as transport commissioner of the Jingzhao Circuit, where he died. He was broadly learned and accomplished in letters, skilled in poetry, with phrasing that was striking, vigorous, and uncommon; his works circulated widely in his day.
27
李獻能
Li Xianneng
28
李獻能，字欽叔，河中人。 先世有為金吾衛上將軍者，時號「李金吾家」。 迨獻能昆弟皆以文學名，從兄獻卿、獻誠、從弟獻甫相繼擢第，故李氏有「四桂堂」。
Li Xianneng, whose style name was Qinshu, came from Hezhong. His forebears had included a general of the Jinwu Guard, and the family was known in its day as "the Li household of the Jinwu Guard." By the time Xianneng and his brothers were all famed for literature, his elder cousin Xianqing, Xianqing's brother Xiancheng, and his younger cousin Xianfu passed the examinations in succession, earning the Li family the name "Hall of Four Cassia."
29
獻能苦學博覽，于文尤長於四六。 貞祐三年，特賜詞賦進士，廷試第一人，宏詞優等。 授應奉翰林文字。 在翰苑凡十年，出為鄜州觀察判官。 用薦者複為應奉，俄遷修撰。 正大末，以鎮南軍節度副使充河中帥府經歷官。 大元兵破河中，奔陝州，行省以郐雚左右司郎中，值趙三三軍變遇害，年四十三。
Xianneng studied with arduous labor and wide reading; in letters he was especially accomplished in parallel prose. In the third year of Zhenyou he was specially granted the jinshi in rhapsody and fu, placed first in the palace examination, and rated superior in the macro-rhapsody competition. He was appointed Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin. He spent ten years in the Hanlin altogether, then left office to serve as administrative judge of the Zouzhou observation commission. On recommendation he was again made an attendant scribe; soon he was promoted to compiler. At the end of the Zhengda era he served as military vice commissioner of the Zhennan Army and staff officer at the Hezhong commandery headquarters. When the Great Yuan army captured Hezhong he fled to Shaan Prefecture. The branch secretariat appointed him Left Department Director, but he was killed in the mutiny of Zhao Sansan's army at the age of forty-three.
30
獻能為人眇小而黑色，頗有髯。 善談論，每敷說今古，聲鏗亮可聽。 作詩有志于風雅，又刻意樂章。 在翰院，應機敏捷號得體。 趙秉文、李純甫嘗曰：「李獻能天生今世翰苑材。」 故每薦之，不令出館。 家故饒財，盡於貞祐之亂，在京師無以自資。 其母素豪奢，厚於自奉，小不如意則必訶譴，人視之殆不堪憂，獻能處之自若也。 時人以純孝稱之。 嘗謂人雲：「吾幼夢官至五品，壽不至五十。」 後竟如其言。
Xianneng was slight in build and dark in complexion, with a rather full beard. He was skilled at discourse; whenever he expounded past and present affairs, his voice rang clear and was a pleasure to hear. In poetry he aspired to the standards of the Airs and Elegances and also devoted himself painstakingly to song lyrics. In the Hanlin he was nimble in meeting occasions and was praised for apt deportment. Zhao Bingwen and Li Chunfu once said, "Li Xianneng is a Hanlin talent sent by Heaven for our age." Therefore they always recommended him and would not allow him to leave the academy. His family had once been wealthy, but everything was lost in the disorders of Zhenyou, and in the capital he had no means to support himself. His mother had always been extravagant and indulged herself generously; at the slightest displeasure she would scold and reproach him. Others thought this nearly unbearable, yet Xianneng bore it with complete composure. People of the time praised him for pure filial devotion. He once told others, "In youth I dreamed that my office would reach the fifth rank and that I would not live past fifty." In the end it turned out exactly as he had said.
31
王若虛
Wang Ruoxu
32
王若虛，字從之，槁城人也。 幼穎悟，若夙昔在文字間者。 擢承安二年經義進士。 調鄜州錄事，曆管城、門山二縣令，皆有惠政，秩滿，老幼攀送，數日乃得行。 用薦入為國史院編修官，遷應奉翰林文字。 奉使夏國，還授同知泗州軍州事，留為著作佐郎。 正大初，《宣宗實錄》成，遷平涼府判官。 未幾，召為左司諫，後轉延州刺史，入為直學士。
Wang Ruoxu, whose style name was Congzhi, came from Gaocheng. Even as a child he was quick-witted, as though he had always lived among written words. He passed the jinshi examination in classical exegesis in the second year of Cheng'an. He was assigned recorder of Zou Prefecture and successively served as magistrate of Guancheng and Menshan, enacting benevolent policies in each place. When his terms ended, old and young clung to him in farewell, and several days passed before he could take his leave. On recommendation he entered the Institute of National History as a compiler and was promoted to Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin. After serving as envoy to Western Xia, he was appointed Vice Commissioner of Sizhou and retained as Assistant in the Office of Writings. In the early Zhengda era, when the Veritable Records of Emperor Xuanzong were completed, he was promoted to administrative judge of Pingliang Prefecture. Before long he was summoned as Left Department Remonstrator, later transferred to prefect of Yan Prefecture, then entered service as Academician Expositor.
33
元興元年，哀宗走歸德。 明年春，崔立變。 群小附和，請為立建功德碑，翟奕以尚書省命召若虛為文。 時奕輩恃勢作威，人或少忤，則讒構立見屠滅。 若虛自分必死，私謂左右司員外郎元好問曰：「今召我作碑，不從則死。 作之則名節掃地，不若死之為愈。 雖然，我姑以理諭之。」 乃謂奕輩曰：「丞相功德碑當指何事為言？」 奕輩怒曰：「丞相以京城降，活生靈百萬，非功德乎？」 曰； 「學士代王言，功德碑謂之代王言可乎？ 且丞相既以城降，則朝官皆出其門，自古豈有門下人為主帥誦功德而可信乎後世哉？」 奕輩不能奪，乃召太學生劉祁、麻革輩赴省，好問、張信之喻以立碑事，曰：「眾議屬二君，且已白鄭王矣，二君其無讓。」 祁等固辭而別。 數日，促迫不已，祁即為草定，以付好問，好問意未愜，乃自為之。 既成，以示若虛，乃共刪定數字，然止直敘其事而已。 後兵入城，不果立也。
In the first year of Yuanxing, Emperor Aizong fled to Guide. The following spring, Cui Li mutinied. Petty men rallied to him and requested a merit stele for Li; Zhai Yi, acting on orders from the Department of State Affairs, summoned Ruoxu to compose the text. At the time Yi and his faction relied on power to act arrogantly; anyone who slightly crossed them would be slandered and at once put to death. Ruoxu judged that he would surely die and privately told Left and Right Department Vice Director Yuan Haowen, "Now they summon me to write a stele; if I refuse, I die. If I write it, my reputation for integrity will be destroyed — better to die. Even so, I shall for the moment try to persuade them with reason." He then said to Yi and the rest, "A merit stele for the Grand Councilor — what affair should it speak of?" Yi and the rest said angrily, "The Grand Councilor surrendered the capital and saved a million lives — is that not merit?" Ruoxu said: "An academician speaks for the king — can a merit stele be called speaking for the king? Moreover, since the Grand Councilor has already surrendered the city, all court officials came from his faction — since antiquity has there ever been a case in which a commander's own followers composed his merit stele and could be trusted by posterity?" Yi and the rest could not overcome him and therefore summoned Imperial Academy students Liu Qi, Ma Ge, and others to the secretariat. Haowen and Zhang Xinzhi explained the stele affair to them, saying, "Public opinion assigns this to you two, and it has already been reported to Prince Zheng — you must not decline." Qi and the rest firmly declined and withdrew. After several days of unceasing pressure, Qi at once drafted a version and handed it to Haowen, but Haowen was not satisfied and wrote it himself. When it was finished it was shown to Ruoxu, and together they revised a few characters, yet in the end they only stated the facts plainly. Later the army entered the city, and the stele was never erected.
34
金亡，微服北歸鎮陽，與渾源劉郁東游泰山，至黃峴峰，憩萃美亭，顧謂同遊曰：「汩沒塵土中一生，不意晚年乃造仙府，誠得終老此山，志願畢矣。」 乃令子忠先歸，遣子恕前行視夷險，因垂足坐大石上，良久瞑目而逝，年七十。 所著文章號《慵夫集》若干卷、《滹南遺老》若干卷、傳於世。
After the fall of Jin he traveled north in plain dress to Zhenyang and, with Liu Yu of Hunyuan, toured Mount Tai to Yellow Xian Peak, where he rested at the Gathering Beauty Pavilion. He turned to his companions and said, "I spent my whole life sunk in the dust of the world — I never expected in my later years to reach this immortal realm. If I could end my days on this mountain, my wish would be fulfilled." He then sent his son Zhong home first and dispatched his son Shu ahead to survey the route, then sat on a great rock with his feet hanging over the edge. After a long while he closed his eyes and passed away at the age of seventy. His writings included the Collected Works of the Idle Man and Old Man of the South of the Hu, each in several juan, which circulated widely.
35
王元節
Wang Yuanjie
36
王元節，字子元，弘州人也。 祖山甫，遼戶部侍郎。 父詡，海陵朝，左司員外郎。 元節幼穎悟，雖家世貴顯，而從學甚謹。 渾源劉捴愛其才俊，以女妻之，遂傳其賦學，登天德三年詞賦進士第。 雅尚氣節，不能隨時俯仰，故仕不顯。 及遷密州觀察判官，既罷，即逍遙鄉里，以詩酒自娛，號曰「遁齊」。 年五十餘卒。 有詩集行於世。
Wang Yuanjie, whose style name was Ziyuan, came from Hong Prefecture. His grandfather Shanfu had served as Vice Minister of Revenue under the Liao. His father Xu, in the Hailing reign, served as Vice Director of the Left Department. Yuanjie was quick-witted as a youth; though his family was illustrious, he pursued his studies with great diligence. Liu Cui of Hunyuan admired his talent and gave him his daughter in marriage, transmitting his fu studies to him. Yuanjie passed the jinshi examination in rhapsody and fu in the third year of Tiande. He prized integrity and could not bow and scrape with the times, and therefore never rose to prominence in office. When he was transferred to administrative judge of the Mizhou observation commission and then dismissed, he retired to his home district, amusing himself with poetry and wine, and styled himself "Recluse of Qi." He died in his fifties. His poetry collection circulated widely.
37
弟元德，亦第進士。 有能名于時，終南京路提刑使。
His younger brother Yuande also passed the jinshi examination. He enjoyed a reputation for ability in his time and ended his career as transport commissioner of the Nanjing Circuit.
38
孫國綱
Sun Guogang
39
孫國綱，字正之。 業儒術，尤長吏事。 為人端重樂易，或有忤者，略不與校，亦未嘗形於怒色。 大安三年，試補尚書吏部掾，未幾，轉御史台令史。 宣宗聞其材幹，興定三年特召為近侍，奉職承應，甚見寵遇，勒留凡三考，出為同知申州事。 無何，召為筆硯直長，擢監察御史，秩滿，敕留再任，蓋知其材器故也。 開興元年，關陝完顏總帥屯河中府，與大元軍戰敗績，哀宗遣國綱乘上廄馬，徑詣河中問敗軍之由，還至中途，值大兵見殺，時年四十四。
Sun Guogang, whose style name was Zhengzhi. He pursued Confucian learning and was especially skilled in administrative affairs. By nature he was dignified and easygoing; when someone crossed him he scarcely argued back and never showed anger on his face. In the third year of Da'an he qualified as a clerk in the Department of State Affairs and soon transferred to secretary of the Censorate. Emperor Xuanzong heard of his ability and in the third year of Xingding specially summoned him as a close attendant, where he served with great favor. He was retained through three evaluations, then left to serve as Vice Commissioner of Shen Prefecture. Before long he was summoned as Director of Writing Implements and promoted to Investigating Censor. When his term ended he was ordered to serve another term, for the court knew his talent. In the first year of Kaixing the Wanyan commander-in-chief of Guan and Shaan, stationed at Hezhong, was defeated by the Great Yuan army. Emperor Aizong sent Guogang on an imperial stable horse straight to Hezhong to investigate the defeat. On the return journey he encountered the enemy army midway and was killed at the age of forty-four.
40
麻九疇
Ma Jiuchou
41
麻九疇，字知幾，易州人。 三歲識字。 七歲能草書，作大字有及數尺者，一時目為神童。 章宗召見，問：「汝入宮殿中，亦懼怯否？」 對曰：「君臣，父子也。 子甯懼父耶？」 上大奇之。 弱冠入太學，有文名。 南渡後，寓居郾、蔡間，入遂平西山，始以古學自力。 博通《五經》，于《易》、《春秋》為尤長。 興定末，試開封府，詞賦第二，經義第一。 再試南省，複然。 聲譽大振，雖婦人小兒皆知其名。 及廷試，以誤絀，士論惜之。 已而隱居不為科舉計。 正大初，門人王說、王采苓俱中第，上以其年幼，怪而問之。 乃知嘗師九疇。 平章政事侯摯、翰林學士趙秉文連章薦之，特賜盧亞榜進士第。 以病，未拜官告歸。 再授太常寺太祝，權博士，俄遷應奉翰林文字。 九疇性資野逸，高蹇自便，與人交，一語不相入則逕去不返顧。 自度終不能與世合，頃之，複謝病去。 居郾城，天興元年，大元兵入河南，挈家走確山，為兵士所得，驅至廣平，病死，年五十。
Ma Jiuchou, whose style name was Zhiji, came from Yi Prefecture. At the age of three he could recognize written characters. At seven he could write cursive script, and the large characters he produced reached several feet in size — for a time he was regarded as a divine child. Emperor Zhangzong summoned him and asked, "If you enter the palace halls, are you also afraid?" He replied, "Sovereign and minister are like father and son. Would a son fear his father?" The emperor was greatly impressed. In his youth he entered the Imperial Academy and gained a literary reputation. After the court crossed south he lived between Yan and Cai, then entered the western hills of Suiping and began to strengthen himself through ancient learning. He mastered the Five Classics broadly and was especially accomplished in the Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals. At the end of the Xingding era he tested at the Kaifeng prefectural office, placing second in rhapsody and fu and first in classical exegesis. When he tested again at the southern capital, the result was the same. His fame spread far and wide; even women and children knew his name. At the palace examination he made a formatting error, to the regret of scholarly opinion. Thereafter he lived in seclusion and made no further plans for the examinations. In early Zhengda his disciples Wang Yue and Wang Cailing both passed the examinations. Seeing how young they were, the emperor wondered and inquired. Only then was it learned that they had studied under Jiuchou. Grand Councilor Hou Zhi and Hanlin Academician Zhao Bingwen submitted successive memorials recommending him, and he was specially granted the jinshi on the Lu Ya list. Because of illness he did not receive appointment and returned home. He was again appointed Grand Sacrificer of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices with acting rank as erudite, and soon promoted to Attendant Scribe of the Hanlin. Jiuchou's nature was wild and free, lofty and self-willed. In dealing with people, if a single remark failed to agree with him he would leave at once and never look back. Judging that he could never harmonize with the world, before long he again pleaded illness and left office. Living at Yancheng, in the first year of Tianxing the Great Yuan army entered Henan. He took his family and fled to Queshan, was seized by soldiers, driven to Guangping, and died of illness at the age of fifty.
42
九疇初因經義學《易》，後喜邵堯夫《皇極書》，因學算數，又喜卜筮、射覆之術。 晚更喜醫，與名醫張子和遊，盡傳其學，且為潤色其所著書。 為文精密奇健，詩尤工致。 後以避謗忌，持戒不作。 明昌以來，稱神童者五人，太原常添壽四歲能作詩，劉滋、劉微、張漢臣後皆無稱，獨知幾能自樹立，耆舊如趙秉文，以征君目之而不名。
Jiuchou first studied the Changes through classical exegesis, later delighted in Shao Yong's Huangji writings and studied mathematics, and also delighted in divination and guessing games. In his later years he turned to medicine, associated with the famous physician Zhang Zihe, fully mastered his learning, and even polished the books Zhang wrote. In prose he was precise, dense, and forceful; in poetry especially refined. Later, to avoid slander and jealousy, he took a vow and ceased composing. Since Mingchang five were called divine children; Chang Tianshou of Taiyuan could compose poetry at four — Liu Zi, Liu Wei, and Zhang Hanchen later won no reputation, while Zhiji alone could stand on his own. Elders such as Zhao Bingwen regarded him as a recluse by title and did not record his name.
43
李汾，字長源，太原平晉人。 為人尚氣，跌宕不羈。 性褊躁，觸之輒怒，以是多為人所惡。 喜讀史。 工詩，雄健有法。 避亂入關，京兆尹子容愛其材，招致門下。 留二年去，之涇州，竭左丞張行信，一見即以上客禮之。 元光間，游大樑，舉進士不中，用薦為史館書寫。 書寫，特抄書小史耳，凡編修官得日錄，纂述即定，以稿授書寫，書寫錄潔本呈翰長。 汾既為之，殊不自聊。 時趙秉文為學士，雷淵、李獻能皆在院，刊修之際，汾在旁正襟危坐，讀太史公、左丘明一篇，或數百言，音吐洪暢，旁若無人。 既畢，顧四坐漫為一語雲「看」。 秉筆諸人積不平，而雷、李尤切齒，乃以嫚罵官長訟於有司，然時論亦有不直雷、李者。 尋罷入關。 明年來京師，上書言時事，不合，去客唐、鄧間。 恆山公武仙署行尚書省講議官。 既而仙與參知政事完顏思烈相異同，頗謀自安，懼汾言論，欲除之。 汾覺，遁泌陽，仙令總帥王德追獲之，鎖養馬平，絕食而死，年未四十。
Li Fen, whose style name was Changyuan, came from Pingjin in Taiyuan. By nature he prized spirit and was unrestrained and unbridled. His temperament was narrow and quick; touch him and he grew angry, and for this many people disliked him. He delighted in reading history. He was skilled in poetry, writing in a bold and disciplined manner. Fleeing the disorders he entered the passes. The metropolitan magistrate Zirong admired his talent and received him into his household. After two years he left and went to Jing Prefecture, where he sought out Left Councilor Zhang Xingxin, who at first sight treated him with the courtesy due a distinguished guest. In the Yuanguang era he traveled to Daliang, failed the jinshi examination, and on recommendation was appointed copyist of the History Institute. A copyist is merely a minor clerk who copies books. Whenever a compiler obtained the daily record and the compilation was settled, the draft was handed to the copyist, who recorded a fair copy and presented it to the chief of the Hanlin. Fen, having taken this post, was deeply ill at ease. At the time Zhao Bingwen was academician and Lei Yuan and Li Xianneng were all in the academy. During revision Fen sat upright beside them and read a passage from the Grand Historian or Zuo Qiuming of several hundred words in a resonant, flowing voice as if no one were present. When he finished he glanced around the room and casually said, "Look." Those holding the brush had long resented him, and Lei and Li especially hated him. They sued him before the authorities for insulting superiors, yet opinion of the time also held that Lei and Li were not entirely in the right. Soon he was dismissed and returned to the passes. The following year he came to the capital and submitted a memorial on current affairs. When it was rejected he left to sojourn between Tang and Deng. Duke Wuxian of Hengshan appointed him discussion officer of the provisional Department of State Affairs. Soon Wuxian and Participating Councilor Wanyan Silie differed in their views and sought their own security. Fearing Fen's outspokenness, they wished to eliminate him. Fen perceived this and fled to Biyang. Wuxian ordered Commander Wang De to pursue and capture him, locked him at Yangmaping, and he died by starvation before the age of forty.
44
汾平生詩甚多，不自收集，世所傳者十二三而已。
Fen wrote a great many poems in his lifetime but did not collect them himself; only about twelve or thirteen tenths of them circulate in the world.
45
元德明
Yuan Deming
46
元德明，系出拓拔魏，太原秀容人。 自幼嗜讀書，口不言世俗鄙事，樂易無畦畛，布衣蔬食處之自若，家人不敢以生理累之。 累舉不第，放浪山水間，餘酒賦詩以自適。 年四十八卒。 有《東岩集》三卷。 子好問，最知名。
Yuan Deming traced his line to the Tuoba Wei and came from Xiurong in Taiyuan. From childhood he loved reading and never spoke of vulgar worldly matters. Easygoing and without pretension, he wore plain cloth and ate simple food as if it were natural, and his family did not dare burden him with worldly livelihood. He failed the examinations repeatedly and wandered freely among mountains and waters, spending his surplus on wine and composing poetry for his own pleasure. He died at the age of forty-eight. He left the Eastern Cliff Collection in three juan. His son Haowen was the most renowned.
47
子元好問
His son Yuan Haowen
48
好問字裕之。 七歲能詩。 年十有四，從陵川郝晉卿學，不事舉業，淹貫經傳百家，六年而業成。 下太行，渡大河，為《箕山》、《琴台》等詩。 禮部趙秉文見之，以為近代無此作也。 於是名震京師。 中興定五年第，曆內鄉令。 正大中，為南陽令。 天興初，擢尚書省掾，頃之，除左司都事，轉行尚書省左司員外郎。 金亡，不仕。
Haowen, whose style name was Yuzhi. He could compose poetry at the age of seven. At fourteen he studied under Hao Jinqing of Lingchuan without pursuing examination studies, and in six years he thoroughly mastered the classics and the hundred schools. He descended the Taihang, crossed the Yellow River, and composed poems such as "Mount Ji" and "Zither Terrace." Zhao Bingwen of the Ministry of Rites read them and declared that in recent times there had been nothing like them. From this his name shook the capital. In the fifth year of Zhongxingding he passed the examinations and served successively as magistrate of Neixiang. In the Zhengda era he served as magistrate of Nanyang. In early Tianxing he was promoted to clerk of the Department of State Affairs; before long he was made Director of the Left Department, then transferred to Vice Director of the Left Department of the Branch Secretariat. When Jin fell he did not take office under the new regime.
49
為文有繩尺，備眾體。 其詩奇崛而絕雕劌，巧縟而謝綺麗。 五言高古沈鬱。 七言樂府不用古題，特出新意。 歌謠慷慨，挾幽、并之氣。 其長短句，揄揚新聲，以寫恩怨者又數百篇。 兵後，故老皆盡，好問蔚為一代宗工，四方碑板銘志，盡趨其門。 其所著文章詩若干卷、《杜詩學》一卷、《東坡詩雅》三卷、《錦禨》一卷、《詩文自警》十卷。
In writing he had clear standards and mastered every literary form. His poetry was striking and lofty yet utterly without ornamental carving, ingenious and dense yet rejecting gaudy elegance. His five-character verse was lofty, ancient, and somber. His seven-character yuefu did not use ancient titles but brought forth new ideas of his own. His ballads were impassioned, carrying the spirit of You and Bing. In song lyrics he set new tunes to express gratitude and resentment in several hundred more pieces. After the wars the old generation was gone. Haowen stood as the master of an age, and steles, inscriptions, and epitaphs from every direction hurried to his door. His writings included several juan of prose and poetry, Studies in Du Fu's Poetry in one juan, Poetic Standards of Su Dongpo in three juan, Brocade Admonitions in one juan, and Literary Self-Warnings in ten juan.
50
晚年尤以著作自任，以金源氏有天下，典章法度幾及漢、唐，國亡史作，己所當任。 時金國實錄在順天張萬戶家，乃言于張，願為撰述，既而為樂夔所沮而止。 好問曰：「不可令一代之跡泯而不傳。」 乃構亭於家，著述其上，因名曰「野史」。 凡金源君臣遺言往行，采摭所聞，有所得輒以寸紙細字為記錄，至百余萬言。 今所傳者有《中州集》及《壬辰雜編》若干卷。 年六十八卒。 纂修《金史》，多本其所著雲。
In his later years he especially charged himself with authorship, holding that since the Jin had possessed the realm and its institutions nearly matched Han and Tang, when the state perished the history must be written — and this was his duty. At the time the Jin veritable records were kept in the household of Zhang the ten-thousand-bushel master of Shuntian. He spoke to Zhang and offered to compile them, but Yue Kui obstructed the plan and it came to nothing. Haowen said, "One must not let the traces of an age perish without being passed down." He then built a pavilion at his home and wrote upon it, naming it "Unofficial History" for that reason. He gathered whatever he heard of the words and deeds of Jin sovereigns and ministers, recording each discovery in fine script on a small sheet of paper until his notes ran to more than a million characters. What circulates today includes the Central Plains Collection and Miscellaneous Records of the Renchen year in several juan. He died at the age of sixty-eight. The compilers of the History of Jin drew heavily upon his writings.
51
贊曰：韓昉、吳激，楚材而晉用之，亦足為一代之文矣。 蔡珪、馬定國之該博，胡礪、楊伯仁之敏贍，鄭子聃、麻九疇之英俊，王郁、宋九嘉之邁往。 三李卓犖，純甫知道，汾任氣，獻能尤以純孝見稱。 王庭筠、党懷英、元好問自足知名異代。 王競、劉從益、王若虛之吏治，文不掩其所長。 蔡松年在文藝中，爵位之最重者，道金人言利，興黨獄，殺田玨，文不能掩其所短者歟？ 事繼母有至行，其死家無餘貲，有足取雲。
The commentator says: Han Fang and Wu Ji were Chu talents employed by the Jin, and they too were writers worthy of their age. Cai Gui and Ma Dingguo were comprehensively learned; Hu Li and Yang Boren were quick and prolific; Zheng Zidan and Ma Jiuchou were brilliant; Wang Yu and Song Jiujia were boldly forward-looking. The three Lis stood above the rest: Chunfu knew the Way, Fen relied on force of character, and Xianneng was especially praised for pure filial devotion. Wang Tingyun, Dang Huaiying, and Yuan Haowen were sufficient in themselves to win fame in any age. In the governance of Wang Jing, Liu Congyi, and Wang Ruoxu, their literary fame does not obscure their strengths as officials. Cai Songnian held the highest rank among men of letters, preached profit for the Jin, raised factional prosecutions, and killed Tian Yu — can literary talent truly cover shortcomings such as these? In serving his stepmother he showed exemplary devotion, and at his death his family had no surplus wealth — in this there is still something admirable.