1
孝友者，人之至行也，而恆性存焉。 有子者欲其孝，有弟者欲其友，豈非人之恆情乎？ 為子而孝，為弟而友，又豈非人之恆性乎？ 以人之恆情責人之恆性，而不副所欲者恆有焉。 有竭力於是，豈非難乎。 天生五穀以養人，五穀之有恆性也。 服田力穡以望有秋，農夫之有恆情也。 五穀熟，人民育，豈異事乎。 然以唐、虞之世，「黎民阻饑」不免以命稷，「百姓不親、五品不遜」不免以命契，以是知順成之不可必，猶孝友之不易得也。 是故「有年」、「大有年」以異書于聖人之經，孝友以至行傳于歷代之史，勸農興孝之教不廢於歷代之政，孝弟力田自漢以來有其科。 章宗嘗曰：「孝義之人，素行已備，雖有希覬，猶不失為行善。」 庶幾帝王之善訓矣。 夫金世孝友見於旌表、載於史冊者僅六人焉。 作《孝友傳》。
Filial devotion and brotherly friendship rank among the highest human virtues, and they embody what is constant in human nature. Parents hope their sons will be filial; elder brothers hope their younger brothers will be dutiful — is this not the enduring sentiment common to all people? To act as a filial son and a devoted younger brother — is this not likewise what is constant in human nature? When one measures people's constant nature against their constant feelings, there will always be those who fall short of what is hoped for. To strive with one's whole heart toward this end is no easy thing. Heaven created the five grains to sustain humankind, and the grains themselves possess a fixed nature. To till the soil and labor through the seasons in hope of an autumn harvest is the farmer's unchanging aim. When the grain ripens, the people thrive — are these not one and the same outcome? Even in the age of Tang and Yu, when "the people were beset by hunger," Ji had to be put in charge of agriculture; when "the common folk were estranged and the five bonds of kinship were in disorder," Qi had to be entrusted with education — which shows that a bountiful harvest cannot be taken for granted any more than filial piety and brotherly devotion can be secured at will. This is why phrases like "a year of abundance" and "a year of great abundance" receive special notice in the classics of the sages, why exemplary filial piety and friendship are recorded generation after generation as supreme virtue, why successive dynasties never ceased to exhort farming and filial duty in their policies, and why the Han and later dynasties maintained stipends for "filial sons and brothers who exert themselves in farming." Emperor Zhangzong once remarked: "Those who are filial and righteous have already perfected their daily conduct; even if they harbor some personal ambition, they still count as men who do good." This may be taken as the worthy teaching of sage emperors. Under the Jin, only six men whose filial piety and brotherly devotion earned public commendation and a place in the historical record can be named. Hence this "Biographies of Filial Piety and Friendship."
2
溫蒂罕斡魯補
Wendihanwolubu
3
溫蒂罕斡魯補，西北路宋葛斜斯渾猛安人。 年十五，居父喪，不飲酒食肉，廬於墓側。 母疾，刲股肉療之，疾愈。 詔以為護衛。
Wendihanwolubu came from Songgexiesihun Meng'an in the Northwest Circuit. At fifteen, during mourning for his father, he abstained from wine and meat and lived in a hut beside the grave. When his mother fell ill, he cut flesh from his own thigh to heal her, and she recovered. He was appointed to the Imperial Guard by imperial decree.
4
陳顏，衛州汲縣人。 世業農。 父光，宋季擢武舉第，調壽陽尉，未赴。 值金兵取汴，光病，圍城中。 顏間關渡河，往省其父，因扶疾北歸。 光家奴謀良不可，誣告光與賊殺人。 光系獄，榜掠不勝，因自誣服。 顏詣郡請代父死，太守徐某哀之，不敢決，適帥臣至郡，以其狀白，帥曰：「此真孝子也。」 遂並釋之。 天會七年，詔旌表其門閭。
Chen Yan came from Ji County in Weizhou. His family had been farmers for generations. His father Guang, in the late Song, topped the military examination and was appointed magistrate of Shouyang, though he never took up the post. When the Jin army captured Bianjing, Guang fell ill and was trapped inside the besieged city. Yan braved hardship to cross the river and visit his father, then helped him home to the north despite his illness. When a household slave's evil scheme failed, he falsely accused Guang of murdering a man together with bandits. Guang was thrown into prison; unable to endure the torture, he falsely confessed to the crime. Yan went to the prefectural seat and asked to die in his father's stead. Prefect Xu was deeply moved but dared not decide the matter; when the circuit commissioner arrived, he reported the case, and the commissioner said, "This is a true filial son." Both father and son were then released. In the seventh year of Tianhui, an edict ordered a commemorative tablet erected at his gate.
5
劉瑜，棣州人。 家貧甚，母喪不能具葬，乃質其子以給喪事。 明昌三年，詔賜粟帛，複其終身。
Liu Yu came from Dizhou. His family was desperately poor; when his mother died he could not afford a proper burial, so he pawned his own son to pay for the funeral expenses. In the third year of Mingchang, an edict granted him grain and cloth and exempted him from taxes and corvée for life.
6
孟興，蚤喪父，事母孝謹，母沒，喪葬盡禮。 事兄如事其父。 明昌三年，詔賜帛十匹、粟二十石。
Meng Xing lost his father at an early age; he served his mother with filial devotion, and when she died he conducted the funeral with full propriety. He treated his elder brother with the same respect he would have shown his father. In the third year of Mingchang, an edict granted him ten bolts of cloth and twenty piculs of grain.
7
王震，甯海州文登縣人。 為進士學。 母患風疾，刲股肉雜飲食中，疾遂愈。 母沒，哀泣過禮，目生翳。 服除，目不療而愈，皆以為孝感所致。 特賜同進士出身，詔尚書省擬注職任。
Wang Zhen came from Wendeng County in Ninghai Prefecture. He pursued the jinshi degree. When his mother suffered from a paralytic ailment, he cut flesh from his thigh and mixed it into her meals, and she recovered. When his mother died, his mourning exceeded the prescribed bounds and a film formed over his eyes. When the mourning period ended, his eyes healed without medical treatment, and all agreed this was the result of filial devotion moving Heaven. He was specially granted the rank of tong jinshi graduate, and the Ministry of Personnel was ordered to propose an appointment for him.
8
劉政，洺州人。 性篤孝，母老喪明，政每以舌舐母目，逾旬母能視物。 母疾，晝夜侍側，衣不解帶，刲股肉啖之者再三。 母死，負土起墳，鄉鄰欲佐其勞，政謝之。 葬之日，飛鳥哀鳴，翔集丘木間。 廬於墓側者三年。 防禦使以聞，除太子掌飲丞。
Liu Zheng came from Mingzhou. Deeply filial by nature, when his aged mother went blind, Zheng licked her eyes with his tongue each day, and within ten days she could see again. When his mother fell ill, he attended her day and night without undressing, and repeatedly cut flesh from his thigh for her to eat. When his mother died, he carried earth on his back to raise the tomb mound; neighbors offered to help, but Zheng refused. On the day of the burial, birds cried mournfully and circled among the trees on the grave mound. He lived in a hut beside the tomb for three years. The defense commissioner reported his conduct to the court, and Zheng was appointed Director of Beverages in the Crown Prince's household.
9
孔子稱逸民伯夷、叔齊、夷逸、硃張、柳下惠、少連，其立心造行之異同，各有所稱謂，而柳下惠則又嘗仕於當世者也。 長沮、桀溺之徒，則無所取焉。 後世，凡隱遁之士，其名皆列于史傳，何歟？ 蓋古之仕者，其志將以行道，其為貧而仕下列者，猶必先事而後食焉。 後世幹祿者多，其先人尚人之志與歎老嗟卑之心，能去是者鮮矣。 故君子于士之遠引高蹈者特稱述之，庶聞其風猶足以立懦廉頑也。 作《隱逸傳》。
Confucius praised the recluses Boyi, Shuqi, Yiyi, Zhuzhang, Liuxiahui, and Shaolian; though their purposes and conduct differed in ways that earned each his own epithet, Liuxiahui had also once held office in his own time. Men like Changju and Jieni, however, he would not approve at all. In later ages, the names of all who withdrew into seclusion are entered in historical biographies — why is this? Presumably the ancients who entered office meant to put the Way into practice; even those who took humble posts out of poverty still put service before salary. In later ages office-seekers were legion; the ancients' esteem for worthies and the habit of lamenting one's years and sighing over low station — few could cast these aside. Therefore the gentleman especially commends scholars who withdraw far from the world, hoping that hearing their example may yet stiffen the cowardly and shame the shameless. Hence this "Biographies of Recluses."
10
褚承亮
Chu Chengliang
11
褚承亮，字茂先，真定人。 宋蘇軾自定武謫官過真定，承亮以文謁之，大為稱賞。 宣和五年秋，應鄉試，同試者八百人，承亮為第一。 明年，登第。 調易州戶曹，未赴，會金兵南下。 天會六年，斡離不既破真定，拘籍境內進士試安國寺，承亮名亦在籍中，匿而不出。 軍中知其才，嚴令押赴，與諸生對策。 策問「上皇無道、少帝失信。」 舉人承風旨，極口詆毀。 承亮詣主文劉侍中曰：「君父之罪，豈臣子所得言耶？」 長揖而出。 劉為之動容。 餘悉放第，凡七十二人，遂號七十二賢榜。 狀元許必仕為郎官，一日出左掖門，墮馬，首中閫石死，餘皆無顯者。 劉多承亮之誼，薦知槁城縣。 漫應之，即棄去。 年七十終，門人私諡曰「玄貞先生。」
Chu Chengliang, styled Maoxian, came from Zhending. When Su Shi of the Song, demoted from Dingwu, passed through Zhending, Chengliang presented his writings and won high praise. In the autumn of the fifth year of Xuanhe he took the provincial examination and ranked first among eight hundred candidates. The following year he passed the metropolitan examination. He was appointed registrar of households in Yizhou but had not yet reported when the Jin army marched south. In the sixth year of Tianhui, after Wolibu captured Zhending, he registered local jinshi and held an examination at Anguo Temple; Chengliang's name was on the list, but he hid and refused to appear. The army knew his talent and issued strict orders to bring him in by force; he took the policy examination together with the other candidates. The policy question read: "The Retired Emperor was without the Way; the Young Emperor lost the trust of the people." The candidates followed the intended line and vilified them without restraint. Chengliang went to the chief examiner, Vice Minister Liu, and said, "The offenses of sovereign and father — how can a subject presume to speak of them?" He bowed deeply and walked out. Liu was deeply moved. The rest were all passed; seventy-two in all — hence it was called the roster of the seventy-two worthies. The top graduate Xu Bishi became a court gentleman; one day leaving the Left Flank Gate he fell from his horse, struck his head on the gate stone, and died; none of the rest rose to prominence. Out of deep regard for Chengliang, Liu recommended him as magistrate of Gaocheng County. He agreed perfunctorily and then abandoned the post at once. He died at seventy; his disciples gave him the posthumous title Master Xuanzhen.
12
子席珍，正隆二年進士，官州縣有聲。
His son Xizhen passed the jinshi examination in the second year of Zhenglong and won a reputation in prefectural and county office.
13
王去非
Wang Qufei
14
王去非，字廣道，平陰人。 嘗就舉，不得意即屏去，督妻孥耕織以給伏臘。 家居教授，束修有餘輒分惠人。 弟子班晄冘貧不能朝夕，一女及笄，去非為辦資裝嫁之。 北鄰有喪忌東出，西與北皆人居，南則去非家，去非壞蠶室使喪南出，遂得葬焉。 大定二十四年卒，年八十四。
Wang Qufei, styled Guangdao, came from Pingyin. He once took the examinations; when dissatisfied with the outcome he withdrew at once and had his wife and children farm and weave to meet the year's seasonal needs. He taught at home; whenever he had tuition left over he shared it with others. His disciple Ban Huang was so poor he could scarcely make ends meet; when a daughter came of age, Qufei provided her dowry and saw her married. A northern neighbor had a funeral but taboo forbade taking the procession east; west and north were built up, and to the south lay Qufei's home — Qufei tore down his silkworm room so the funeral could pass south, and the burial was accomplished. He died in the twenty-fourth year of Dading, at the age of eighty-four.
15
趙質，字景道，遼相思溫之裔。 大定末，舉進士不第，隱居燕城南，教授為業。 明昌間，章宗游春水過焉，聞弦誦聲，幸其齋舍，見壁間所題詩，諷詠久之，賞其志趣不凡。 召至行殿，命之官。 因辭曰：「臣僻性野逸，志在長林豐草，金鑣玉絡非所願也。 況聖明在上，可不容巢、由為外臣乎。」 上益奇之，賜田畝千，複之終身。 泰和二年卒，年八十五。
Zhao Zhi, styled Jingdao, was a descendant of Sixianwen of the Liao. In the late Dading era he failed the jinshi examination, withdrew to live south of Yan Capital, and made a living by teaching. During Mingchang, when Emperor Zhangzong toured the spring waters and passed by, he heard recitation, visited Zhi's study, saw poems inscribed on the walls, chanted them at length, and admired his uncommon spirit. He was summoned to the traveling palace and offered an appointment. He declined, saying, "Your servant has a reclusive and untamed nature; my heart lies in deep woods and lush meadows — golden bridles and jade trappings are not what I desire. Moreover, with a sage sovereign on the throne, surely men like Chao Fu and Xu You may be tolerated as subjects beyond the court?" The emperor admired him all the more, granted him a thousand mu of land, and exempted him from taxes and corvée for life. He died in the second year of Taihe, at the age of eighty-five.
16
杜時升
Du Shisheng
17
杜時升，字進之，霸州信安人。 博學知天文，不肯仕進。 承安、泰和間，宰相數薦時升可大用。 時升謂所親曰：「吾觀正北赤氣如血，東西亙天，天下當大亂，亂而南北當合為一。 消息盈虛，迴圈無端，察往考來，孰能違之。」 是時，風俗侈靡，紀綱大壞，世宗之業遂衰。 時升乃南渡河，隱居嵩、洛山中，從學者甚眾。 大抵以「伊洛之學」教人自時升始。 正大間，大元兵攻潼關，拒守甚堅，眾皆相賀，時升曰：「大兵皆在秦、鞏間，若假道于宋，出襄、漢入宛、葉，鐵騎長驅勢如風雨，無高山大川為之阻，土崩之勢也。」 頃之，大元兵果自饒峰關涉襄陽出南陽，金人敗績於三峰山，汴京不守，皆如時升所料雲。 正大末，卒。
Du Shisheng, styled Jinzhi, came from Xin'an in Bazhou. Broadly learned and versed in astronomy, he refused to seek office. During Chengan and Taihe, chief ministers repeatedly recommended Shisheng for high office. Shisheng told those close to him, "I see crimson vapor like blood in the far north, stretching east and west across the sky; the realm will fall into great disorder, and when the turmoil ends north and south will become one. Growth and decline, fullness and emptiness, cycle without end — who, examining past and future, can defy it?" At that time customs were extravagant and corrupt, institutions were in ruins, and the achievements of Emperor Shizong went into decline. Shisheng then crossed the river south, withdrew to the Song and Luo mountains, and attracted a great many students. Teaching the learning of the Yi and Luo schools broadly to others began with Shisheng. During Zhengda, when the Great Yuan army attacked Tong Pass and the defense held firm, all congratulated one another; Shisheng said, "The main force is all between Qin and Gong; if they borrow a route through Song, emerge from Xiang and Han into Wan and Ye, and iron cavalry drives straight ahead like wind and rain with no high mountains or great rivers to block them, the realm will collapse like a landslide." Before long the Great Yuan army did cross Raofeng Pass through Xiangyang and emerge at Nanyang; the Jin were defeated at Sanfeng Mountain and Bianjing fell — all exactly as Shisheng had foreseen. In the late Zhengda era he died.
18
郝天挺
Hao Tianting
19
郝天挺，字晉卿，澤州陵川人。 早衰多疾，厭於科舉，遂不復充賦。 太原元好問嘗從學進士業，天挺曰：「今人賦學以速售為功，六經百家分磔緝綴，或篇章句讀不之知，幸而得之，不免為庸人。」 又曰：「讀書不為藝文，選官不為利養，唯通人能之。」 又曰：「今之仕多以貪敗，皆苦饑寒不能自持耳。 丈夫不耐饑寒，一事不可為。 子以吾言求之，科舉在其中矣。」 或曰：「以此學進士無乃戾乎？」 天挺曰：「正欲渠不為舉子爾。」 貞祐中，居河南，往來淇衛間。 為人有崖岸，耿耿自信，寧落魄困窮，終不一至豪富之門。 年五十，終於舞陽。
Hao Tianting, styled Jinqing, came from Lingchuan in Ze Prefecture. Prematurely aged and often ill, he grew weary of the civil examinations and never again presented himself as a candidate. Yuan Haowen of Taiyuan once studied for the jinshi under him. Tianting said, "People today study composition only to sell themselves quickly; the Six Classics and the hundred schools are torn apart and stitched together — some cannot even punctuate a passage. If by luck they pass, they remain mediocrities all the same." He also said, "To read books not for literary display, to seek office not for profit and sustenance — only a man of true penetration can do this." He also said, "Those who take office today mostly fail through greed; they all suffer hunger and cold and cannot hold themselves steady. A man who cannot endure hunger and cold cannot accomplish a single thing. Seek what I say within yourself, and the civil examination lies within it." Someone said, "To study the jinshi in this way — is it not contrary to the purpose?" Tianting said, "I mean precisely that he should not become a mere examination candidate." During Zhenyou he lived in Henan and traveled between Qi and Wei. In character he was steep and unyielding; upright and self-confident, he would rather be destitute than ever once visit the gates of the wealthy. He died at Wuyang at the age of fifty.
20
薛繼元
Xue Jiyuan
21
薛繼先，字曼卿。 南渡後，隱居洛西山中，課童子讀書。 事母孝，與人交謙遜和雅，所居化之。 子純孝，字方叔，有父風。 有詐為曼卿書就方叔取物者，曼卿年已老狀貌如少者，客不知其為曼卿而以為方叔也，而與之書，曼卿如所取付之。 監察禦史石玠行部過曼卿，曼卿不之見。 或言：「君何無鄉曲情。」 曼卿曰：「君未之思耳。 凡今時政未必皆善，禦史一有所劾，將謂自我發之。 同惡相庇，他日並鄉里必有受禍者。」 其畏慎皆此類。 壬辰之亂，病沒宜陽。
Xue Jixian, styled Manqing. After the southward crossing he withdrew to the western Luo mountains and taught boys to read. He served his mother filially; in dealings with others he was modest, gentle, and refined, and the community where he lived was transformed by his example. His son Chunxiao, styled Fangshu, had his father's manner. Someone forged a letter in Manqing's name and went to Fangshu to collect goods; though Manqing was old, he still looked young, and the visitor, mistaking him for Fangshu, handed him the letter — Manqing paid out what was requested without question. Investigating Censor Shi Jie passed through on circuit inspection, but Manqing refused to see him. Someone said, "Why do you show no neighborly feeling?" Manqing said, "You have not thought it through. Present policies are not necessarily all good; if the censor impeaches someone, it will be thought that I set it in motion. Evildoers shield one another, and someday people of our own village will surely suffer for it." His caution and prudence were all of this kind. In the disorder of renchen year he died of illness at Yiyang.
22
高仲振
Gao Zhongzhen
23
高仲振，字正之，遼東人。 其兄領開封鎮兵，仲振依之以居。 既而以家業付其兄，挈妻子入嵩山。 博極群書，尤深《易》《皇極經世》學。 安貧自樂，不入城市，山野小人亦知敬之。 嘗與其弟子張潛、王汝梅行山谷間，人望之翩然如仙。 或曰仲振嘗遇異人教以養生術，嘗終日燕坐，骨節戛戛有聲，所談皆世外事，有扣之者輒不復語雲。
Gao Zhongzhen, styled Zhengzhi, came from Liaodong. His elder brother commanded the Kaifeng garrison, and Zhongzhen lived with him. Then he entrusted the family estate to his brother, took his wife and children, and withdrew to Mount Song. He read exhaustively among all books and was especially deep in the Book of Changes and the Huangji jingshi tradition. Content in poverty and finding joy within himself, he did not enter cities; even rustic folk of the hills knew to revere him. Once, walking through valleys and hills with his disciples Zhang Qian and Wang Rumei, onlookers thought them airy and transcendent as immortals. Some say Zhongzhen once met an extraordinary man who taught him the art of nurturing life; he would sit at ease all day, his joints crackling audibly; he spoke only of matters beyond the world, and when questioned he would say no more.
24
張潛，字仲升，武清人。 幼有志節，慕荊軻、聶政為人，年三十始折節讀書。 時人高其行誼，目曰「張古人。」 後客崧山，從仲振受《易》。 年五十，始娶魯山孫氏，亦有賢行，夫婦相敬如賓，負薪拾穗，行歌自得，不知其貧也。 鄰里有為潛種瓜者，及熟讓潛，潛弗許，竟分而食之。 嘗行道中拾一斧，夫婦計度移時，乃持歸訪其主還之。 裏有兄弟分財者，其弟曰：「我家如此，獨不畏張先生知耶？」 遂如初。 天興間，潛挈家避兵少室，乃不食七日死，孫氏亦投絕澗死焉。
Zhang Qian, styled Zhongsheng, came from Wuqing. In youth he had resolve and integrity, admired Jing Ke and Nie Zheng, and only at thirty began to restrain himself and study books. People of the time honored his conduct and called him "Zhang the Ancient." Later he lodged on Mount Song and studied the Book of Changes under Zhongzhen. At fifty he married a woman of the Sun clan of Lushan, who was likewise virtuous; husband and wife treated each other with the respect due guests, carried firewood and gleaned grain, walked singing contentedly, and seemed unaware of their poverty. A neighbor planted melons for Qian; when they ripened he offered them to Qian, but Qian refused and in the end they shared them. Once on the road he picked up an axe; husband and wife deliberated for some time, then sought out the owner and returned it. In the village brothers were dividing property; the younger said, "Our family is like this — are we not afraid that Master Zhang will know?" They then returned to the original arrangement. During Tianxing, Qian took his family to Shaoshi to escape the troops; he fasted seven days and died, and Lady Sun also threw herself into a deep ravine and died.
25
王汝梅
Wang Rumei
26
王汝梅，字大用，大名人。 始由律學為伊陽簿，秩滿，遂隱居不仕。 性嗜書，動有禮法。 生徒以法經就學者，兼授以經學。 諸生服其教，無敢為非義者。 同業嘗憫其貧，時周之，皆謝不受。 後不知所終。
Wang Rumei, styled Dayong, came from Daming. He first entered office through legal studies as registrar of Yiyang; when his term ended he withdrew and never served again. By nature he loved books and in every action observed ritual propriety. Students who came to study the legal classics with him he also taught the classical canon. His students submitted to his teaching, and none dared do what was not righteous. Colleagues once pitied his poverty and from time to time gave him relief, but he always declined. Later no one knew what became of him.
27
宋可，字予之，武陟人。 其姑適大族槁氏，貞祐之兵，夫及子皆死於難。 姑以白金五十笏遺可，可受不辭。 其後姑得槁氏疏族立為後，挈之省外家。 可乃置酒會鄉鄰，謂姑曰：「姑往時遺可以金，可以槁氏無子故受之。 今有子矣，此金槁氏物，非姑物也，可何名取之。」 因呼妻子舁金歸之，鄉里用是重之。 未幾，北兵駐山陽，軍中有聞可名者，訪知所在，質其子，使人招之曰：「從我者禍福共之，不然，汝子死矣。」 親舊競勸之往，可皆謝不從，曰：「吾有子無子，與吾兒死生，皆有命焉。 豈以一子故，並平生所守者亡之。」 後竟以無子。
Song Ke, styled Yuzhi, came from Wuzhi. His paternal aunt had married into the great Gao clan; in the warfare of Zhenyou, her husband and sons all died in the calamity. The aunt left Ke fifty ingots of white silver, and Ke accepted without declining. Later the aunt obtained a distant kinsman of the Gao clan to establish as heir and took him to live outside her maiden family. Ke then set out wine and gathered the neighbors, saying to his aunt, "Aunt, when you formerly left me the gold, I accepted it because the Gao clan had no heir. Now there is an heir; this gold belongs to the Gao clan, not to you — by what right should I keep it?" He then called his wife and children to carry the gold back, and the village held him in high esteem for it. Before long the northern army was stationed at Shanyang; someone in the army who had heard Ke's name found where he lived, took his son hostage, and sent a messenger saying, "If you follow me, we share fortune and misfortune; otherwise your son dies." Kin and friends all urged him to go; Ke declined them all, saying, "Whether I have a son or not, and whether my son lives or dies — all are ordained by fate. How could I for the sake of one son cast away what I have upheld all my life?" In the end he lost his son because of this.
28
辛願，字敬之，福昌人。 年二十五始知讀書，取《白氏諷諫集》自試，一日便能背誦。 乃聚書環堵中讀之，至《書伊訓》、《詩河廣》頗若有所省，欲罷不能，因更致力焉。 由是博極書史，作文有繩尺，詩律精嚴有自得之趣。 性野逸，不修威儀，貴人延客，麻衣草屨、足脛赤露坦然於其間，劇談豪飲，傍若無人。 嘗謂王鬱曰：「王侯將相，世所共嗜者，聖人有以得之亦不避。 得之不以道，與夫居之不能行己之志，是欲澡其身而伏於廁也。 是難與他人道，子宜保之。」 其志趣如此。
Xin Yuan, styled Jingzhi, came from Fuchang. At twenty-five he first learned to read; he took Bai Juyi's Collection of Admonitions and Satires to test himself and could recite it in a single day. He then gathered books and read within four walls; when he reached the "Instructions of Yi" in the Documents and "He Guangs" in the Odes he seemed awakened, wished to stop but could not, and redoubled his effort. From this he became broadly versed in books and histories; his prose had measure and discipline, and his regulated verse was precise and strict with a flavor uniquely his own. Wild and untamed by nature, he did not cultivate imposing bearing; when nobles entertained guests, he appeared among them in hemp robes and straw sandals with bare shins exposed, talked freely and drank boldly, as if no one else were present. He once said to Wang Yu, "Kings, marquises, generals, and ministers are what the world commonly covets; if a sage obtains them by proper means he does not avoid them. To obtain them not by the Way, or to hold them yet be unable to carry out one's own aims — that is like wanting to bathe yet crouching in a privy. This is hard to speak of to others; you should keep it safe." His aspirations were of this kind.
29
後為河南府治中高廷玉客。 廷玉為府尹溫蒂罕福興所誣，願亦被訊掠，幾不得免，自是生事益狼狽。 願雅負高氣，不以從俗俯仰，迫以饑凍流離，往往見之於詩。 有詩數千首，常貯竹橐中。 正大末，歿洛下。 其詩有雲：「黃綺暫來為漢友，巢由終不是唐臣。」 真處士語也。
Later he became a retainer of Gao Tingyu, administrative aide of Henan Prefecture. Tingyu was slandered by the prefect Wendihan Fuxing; Yuan was also tortured under interrogation and nearly could not escape; from then on his affairs grew ever more distressed. Yuan bore lofty spirit by nature and would not bow to custom; pressed by hunger, cold, and wandering exile, this often appeared in his poetry. He had several thousand poems, which he always kept in a bamboo bag. In the late Zhengda era he died in the Luo region. Among his poems is the line: "Huang and Qi came for a time as friends of Han; Chao and You in the end were not ministers of Tang." These are truly the words of a recluse.
30
王予可
Wang Yuke
31
王予可，字南雲，河東吉州人。 父本軍校，予可亦嘗隸籍。 年三十許，大病後忽發狂，久之能把筆作詩文，及說世外恍惚事。 南渡後，居上蔡、遂平、郾城之間，遇文士則稱「大成將軍」，于佛前則稱「諦摩龍什」，於道則稱「騶天玄俊」，于貴遊則稱「威錦堂主人」。
Wang Yuke, styled Nanyun, came from Jizhou in Hedong. His father had been a military officer; Yuke also once held a place on the military register. At about thirty, after a grave illness he suddenly went mad; after a long while he could take up the brush and compose poetry and prose, and speak of vague matters beyond the world. After the southward crossing he lived between Shangcai, Suiping, and Yancheng; meeting literary men he called himself "Great Completion General"; before the Buddha he called himself "Kumarajiva of Truth"; in Daoist settings he called himself "Zou Tian Xuanjun"; among noble travelers he called himself "Master of the Weijin Hall."
32
為人軀幹雄偉，貌奇古，戴青葛巾，項後垂雙帶若牛耳，一金鏤環在頂額之間，兩頰以青涅之為翠靨。 衣長不能掩脛。 落魄嗜酒，每入城，市人爭以酒食遺之。 夜宿土室中，夏月或屍穢在傍、蛆蟲狼籍不恤也。 人與之紙，落筆數百言，或詩或文，散漫碎雜，無句讀、無首尾，多六經中語及韻學家古文奇字，字畫峭勁，遇宋諱亦時避之。 或問以故事，其應如響，諸所引書，皆世所未見。 談說之際稍若有條貫，則又以誕幻語亂之。 麻九疇、張玨與之遊最狎，言其詩以百分為率，可曉者才二三耳。
He had an imposing frame and a strange, archaic appearance; he wore a green ramie cap with twin bands hanging behind the neck like ox ears, a gold-inlaid ring between crown and brow, and green paste on both cheeks as kingfisher beauty marks. His robes were long yet could not cover his shins. Down and out and fond of wine, whenever he entered the city the townspeople vied to give him food and drink. At night he lodged in earthen rooms; in summer sometimes a putrid corpse lay beside him and maggots were scattered about — he paid no heed. When people gave him paper, he would write several hundred words of poetry or prose, scattered and fragmentary, without punctuation or clear beginning and end, mostly phrases from the Six Classics and archaic odd characters of rhyme scholars; the script was steep and forceful, and when he encountered Song taboo names he sometimes avoided them. If asked about historical precedents, his answers came like echoes; all the books he cited were unknown to the world. In conversation he would seem for a moment coherent, then disrupt it again with extravagant and illusory speech. Ma Jiuchou and Zhang Jue were closest in his company; they said that of his poetry, taking a hundred as the measure, only two or three parts could be understood.
33
壬辰兵亂，為順天將領所得，知其名，竊議欲挈之北歸，館於州之瑞雲觀。 予可明日見將領自言曰：「我不能住君家瑞雲觀也。」 不數日卒。 後複有見於淮上者。
In the military disorder of renchen year he was taken by a Shuntian general who knew his name; they privately discussed taking him north and lodged him at the Ruiyun Abbey of the prefecture. The next day Yuke saw the general and said, "I cannot stay at your Ruiyun Abbey." Within a few days he died. Later he was again seen on the Huai.
34
贊曰：金世隱逸不多見，今于簡冊所有，得十有二人焉。 其卓爾不群者三人。 褚承亮宋人，勒試進士，主司發策問宋徽、欽之罪，承亮長揖而去之。 方金人重舉業，杜時升居山中，首以「伊洛之學」教後進。 宋可不願仕，人執其子為質，寧棄而不就，遂以無子。 雖制行過中，豈不賢于殺妻以求大將者乎。 大夫士見善明、用心剛，故能為人所難為者如此。
The eulogy says: Recluses were not often seen in the Jin age; what the historical records now contain amounts to twelve men. Of these, three stood out beyond the common run. Chu Chengliang was a Song subject; compelled to take the jinshi examination, the chief examiner set a policy question on the offenses of emperors Hui and Qin of Song, and Chengliang bowed deeply and walked out. Just when the Jin prized the examination curriculum, Du Shisheng dwelt in the mountains and was the first to teach the younger generation the learning of the Yi and Luo schools. Song Ke would not take office; men seized his son as hostage, yet he would rather lose his son than submit — and so he did. Though his conduct exceeded the mean, is he not more worthy than one who killed his wife to obtain a generalship? Great officers and gentlemen who see good clearly and apply their hearts firmly can therefore do what others find difficult, as in cases such as these.