Volume 114 Records 14: Fu Jian Part Two

苻堅

Fu Jian.

，堅饗群臣於前殿，樂奏賦詩。秦州別駕天水姜平子詩有「丁」字，直而不曲。堅問其故，平子曰：「臣丁至剛，不可以屈，且曲下者之不正之物，未足獻也。」堅笑曰：「名不虛行。」因擢為上第。

In the front hall Fu Jian feasted his ministers while musicians played and the company composed verse. Jiang Pingzi, who served as aide to the Qinzhou regional inspector, wrote a poem in which the character ding appeared with straight strokes, never bending. When Jian pressed him, Pingzi answered that ding stood for unyielding firmness, that anything that bent downward was morally crooked, and therefore unworthy to present. Jian laughed and replied that the man's reputation matched his clever excuse. He thereupon placed him in the top grade of the examination.

堅兄法子東海公陽與王猛子散騎侍郎皮謀反，事泄，堅問反狀，陽曰：「《禮》雲，父母之仇，不同天地。臣父哀公，死不以罪，齊襄復九世之仇，而況臣也！」皮曰：「臣父丞相有佐命之勳，而臣不免貧餒，所以圖富也。」堅流涕謂陽曰：「哀公之薨，事不在朕，卿寧不知之！」讓皮曰：「丞相臨終，托卿以十具牛為田，不聞為卿求位。知子莫若父，何斯言之征也！」皆赦不誅，徙陽于高昌，皮于朔方之北。苻融以位忝宗正，不能肅遏奸萌，上疏請待罪私籓。堅不許。將以融為司徒，融固辭。堅銳意荊、揚，將謀入寇，乃改授融征南大將軍、開府儀同三司。

Fu Yang, heir of Fu Fa's ducal line in the east, conspired with Wang Pi, Wang Meng's son and a scattered-cavalry attendant; when the plot was exposed, Jian demanded an explanation. Yang quoted the canonical rule that a son must avenge a slain parent. He insisted that his father had been wronged to death and that even a blood feud many generations deep deserved redress, let alone his own case. Wang Pi answered more plainly that he had plotted for wealth because his family, despite his father's service, still lived in want. Jian wept as he told Yang that he was not responsible for Duke Ai's death and that Yang knew it. Turning to Pi, he reminded him that Wang Meng's dying gift had been draft oxen for the plow, not a bid for rank. He added that a father knows his son best, and Wang Meng's judgment had proved painfully accurate. In the end he spared them both, exiling Yang to Gaochang and Pi beyond Shuofang. Fu Rong, mortified that treason had sprouted on his watch as imperial-clan intendant, offered to accept demotion and wait out his disgrace in his own fief. Jian refused the request. He had intended to make Fu Rong minister of education, but Fu Rong steadfastly declined. Determined to strike south toward the Jin heartland, Jian reassigned him as general who conquers the south with full staff privileges matching the three highest ministers.

新平郡獻玉器。初，堅即偽位，新平王彫陳說圖讖，堅大悅，以彫為太史令。嘗言於堅曰：「謹案讖云：'古月之末亂中州，洪水大起健西流，惟有雄子定八州。 '此即三祖、陛下之聖諱也。又曰：'當有草付臣又土，滅東燕，破白虜，氐在中，華在表。 '案圖讖之文，陛下當滅燕，平六州。願徙汧、隴諸氐于京師，三秦大戶置於邊地，以應圖讖之言。」堅訪之王猛，猛以彫為左道惑眾，勸堅誅之。彫臨刑上疏曰：「臣以趙建武四年，從京兆劉湛學，明於圖記，謂臣曰：'新平地古顓頊之墟，裏名曰雞閭。記雲，此裏應出帝王寶器，其名曰延壽寶鼎。顓頊有雲，河上先生為吾隱之於咸陽西北，吾之孫有草付臣又土應之。 '湛又云：'吾嘗齋於室中，夜有流星大如半月，落於此地，斯蓋是乎！ '願陛下志之，平七州之後，出於壬午之年。」至是而新平人得之以獻，器銘篆書文題之法，一為天王，二為王后，三為三公，四為諸侯，五為伯子男，六為卿大夫，七為元士。自此已下，考載文記，列帝王名臣，自天子王后，內外次序，上應天文，象紫宮布列，依玉牒版辭，不違帝王之數。從上元人皇起，至中元，窮於下元，天地一變，盡三元而止。堅以彫言有征，追贈光祿大夫。

The commandery of Xinping sent forward jade implements fit for a Son of Heaven. When Jian had first seized the throne, Wang Diao of Xinping had flattered him with apocryphal prophecies; delighted, Jian put him in charge of the astrological office. Wang Diao once cited a cryptic verse about turmoil in the heartland, floods, a western surge of power, and a hero who would pacify the eight provinces. He claimed its characters spelled the taboo names of Jian's forebears and of Jian himself. Another line, he said, described a ruler whose name compounded the graphs for Fu and Jian, who would crush Former Yan and the steppe peoples while ordering Chinese and non-Chinese subjects. From that same lore he argued that Jian was destined to annex Murong Yan and bring six provinces to heel. He urged relocating Di households to the capital and exiling powerful Qin families to the borderlands to fulfill the omens. Jian asked Wang Meng, who dismissed Wang Diao as a charlatan and urged his execution. On the scaffold Wang Diao insisted that he had studied under Liu Zhan since the Later Zhao period and had learned that Xinping covered Zhuanxu's old ground and contained a hamlet called Jimen. Prophetic writings, he said, promised a dynastic tripod called Extended Life would surface there. He added a tale of Zhuanxu, a riverside hermit, and a descendant whose name matched Fu Jian's graphs. Liu Zhan, he claimed, had even seen a great meteor fall on the very spot while fasting. He begged Jian to mark the omen and expect the tripod after seven provinces fell, in a ren-wu year. Soon afterward locals unearthed a jade object whose raised seal text ranked offices from king and queen down through the nobility and bureaucracy in seven tiers. Lower bands correlated sovereigns and ministers with constellations and palace layouts, as if the piece were a cosmic census cast in jade. Its chronology ran through the three cosmic primes until the cycle closed, framing Jian's rise as cosmically timed. Convinced by the "fulfilled" prophecy, Jian posthumously ennobled Wang Diao as grand master of brilliant prosperity.

幽州蝗，廣袤千里，堅遣其散騎常侍劉蘭持節為使者，發青、冀、幽、并百姓討之。

When a locust swarm blanketed Youzhou, Jian dispatched Liu Lan with imperial staff to rally the northern provinces in beating back the plague.

以苻朗為使持節、都督青徐兗三州諸軍事、鎮東將軍、青州刺史，以諫議大夫裴元略為陵江將軍、西夷校尉、巴西梓潼二郡太守，密授規模，令與王撫備舟師於蜀，將以入寇。

He named Fu Lang to command the eastern front toward Jin while secretly instructing Pei Yuanlue to ready a Sichuan flotilla with Wang Fu for a coordinated strike.

車師前部王彌窴、鄯善王休密馱朝於堅，堅賜以朝服，引見西堂。窴等觀其宮宇壯麗，儀衛嚴肅，甚懼，因請年年貢獻。堅以西域路遙，不許，令三年一貢，九年一朝，以為永制。窴等請曰：「大宛諸國雖通貢獻，然誠節未純，請乞依漢置都護故事。若王師出關，請為鄉導。」堅於是以驍騎呂光為持節、都督西討諸軍事，與陵江將軍姜飛、輕騎將軍彭晃等配兵七萬，以討定西域。苻融以虛秏中國，投兵萬里之外，得其人不可役，得其地不可耕，固諫以為不可。堅曰：「二漢力不能制匈奴，猶出師西域。今匈奴既平，易若摧朽，雖勞師遠役，可傳檄而定，化被昆山，垂芳千載，不亦美哉！」朝臣又屢諫，皆不納。

The rulers of Cheshi and Shanshan visited Chang'an; Jian robed them as peers and received them in the western hall. Awed by the capital's grandeur and the discipline of the escort, they volunteered annual tribute out of fear. Jian deemed the Silk Road too long for yearly embassies and fixed a cycle of triennial gifts and nine-year audiences instead. The kings pleaded for a protector-general on the Han model, arguing that western states still wavered in loyalty. They offered to guide Qin troops if Jian sent an army beyond the frontier. Jian therefore gave Lu Guang seventy thousand men, with Jiang Fei and Peng Huang as subordinates, to subdue the Tarim states. Fu Rong warned that a far-western war would drain the core territories for gains neither taxable nor arable. Jian replied that even the weak Eastern and Western Han had projected force westward despite Xiongnu pressure. With the steppe quiet, he boasted that a proclamation could finish the job and win him immortal fame as far as Kunlun. The court objected again and again; Jian brushed every warning aside.

晉將軍朱綽焚踐沔北屯田，掠六百餘戶而還。堅引群臣會議，曰：「吾統承大業垂二十載，芟夷逋穢，四方略定，惟東南一隅未賓王化。吾每思天下不一，未嘗不臨食輟餔，今欲起天下兵以討之。略計兵杖精卒，可有九十七萬，吾將躬先啟行，薄伐南裔，于諸卿意何如？」秘書監硃彤曰：「陛下應天順時，恭行天罰，嘯吒則五嶽摧覆，呼吸則江海絕流，若一舉百萬，必有征無戰。晉主自當銜璧輿櫬，啟顙軍門，若迷而弗悟，必逃死江海，猛將追之，即可賜命南巢。中州之人，還之桑梓。然後回駕岱宗，告成封禪，起白雲於中壇，受萬歲於中嶽，爾則終古一時，書契未有。」堅大悅曰：「吾之志也。」左僕射權翼進曰：「臣以為晉未可伐。夫以紂之無道，天下離心，八百諸侯不謀而至，武王猶曰彼有人焉，回師止旆。三仁誅放，然後奮戈牧野。今晉道雖微，未聞喪德，君臣和睦，上下同心。謝安、桓沖，江表偉才，可謂晉有人焉。臣聞師克在和，今晉和矣，未可圖也。」堅默然久之，曰：「諸君各言其志。」太子左衛率石越對曰：「吳人恃險偏隅，不賓王命，陛下親禦六師，問罪衡、越，誠合人神四海之望。但今歲鎮星守斗牛，福德有吳。懸象無差，弗可犯也。且晉中宗，籓王耳，夷夏之情，咸共推之，遺愛猶在於人。昌明，其孫也，國有長江之險，朝無昏貳之釁。臣愚以為利用修德，未宜動師。孔子曰：'遠人不服，修文德以來之。 '願保境養兵，伺其虛隙。」堅曰：「吾聞武王伐紂，逆歲犯星。天道幽遠，未可知也。昔夫差威陵上國，而為句踐所滅。仲謀澤洽全吳，孫皓因三代之業，龍驤一呼，君臣面縛，雖有長江，其能固乎！以吾之眾旅，投鞭于江，足斷其流。」越曰：「臣聞紂為無道，天下患之。夫差淫虐，孫皓昏暴，眾叛親離，所以敗也。今晉雖無德，未有斯罪，深願厲兵積粟以待天時。」群臣各有異同，庭議者久之。堅曰：「所謂築室於道，沮計萬端，吾當內斷於心矣。」群臣出後，獨留苻融議之。堅曰：「自古大事，定策者一兩人而已，群議紛紜，徒亂人意，吾當與汝決之」融曰：「歲鎮在斗牛，吳、越之福，不可以伐一也。晉主休明，朝臣用命，不可以伐二也。我數戰，兵疲將倦，有憚敵之意，不可以伐三也。諸言不可者，策之上也，願陛下納之。」堅作色曰：「汝復如此，天下之事，吾當誰與言之！今有眾百萬，資仗如山，吾雖未稱令主，亦不為暗劣。以累捷之威，擊垂亡之寇，何不克之有乎！吾終不以賊遺子孫，為宗廟社稷之憂也。」融泣曰：「吳之不可伐昭然，虛勞大舉，必無功而反。臣之所憂，非此而已。陛下寵育鮮卑、羌、羯，布諸畿甸，舊人族類，斥徙遐方。今傾國而去，如有風塵之變者，其如宗廟何！監國以弱卒數萬留守京師，鮮卑、羌、羯攢聚如林，此皆國之賊也，我之仇也。臣恐非但徒返而已，亦未必萬全。臣智識愚淺，誠不足采；王景略一時奇士，陛下每擬之孔明，其臨終之言不可忘也。」堅不納。游于東苑，命沙門道安同輦。權翼諫曰：「臣聞天子之法駕，侍中陪乘，清道而行，進止有度。三代末主，或虧大倫，適一時之情，書惡來世。故班姬辭輦，垂美無窮。道安毀形賤士，不宜參穢神輿。」堅作色曰：「安公道冥至境，德為時尊。朕舉天下之重，未足以易之。非公與輦之榮，此乃朕之顯也。」命翼扶安升輦，顧謂安曰：「朕將與公南游吳、越，整六師而巡狩，謁虞陵於疑嶺，瞻禹穴於會稽，泛長江，臨滄海，不亦樂乎！」安曰：「陛下應天禦世，居中土而制四維，逍遙順時，以適聖躬，動則鳴鑾清道，止則神棲無為，端拱而化，與堯、舜比靈斯，何為勞身於馳騎，口倦於經略，櫛風沐雨。蒙塵野次乎？且東南區區，地下氣癘，虞舜遊而不返，大禹適而弗歸，何足以上勞神駕，下困蒼生。《詩》云：'惠此中國，以綏四方。 '苟文德足以懷遠，可不煩寸兵而坐賓百越。」堅曰：「非為地不廣、人不足也，但思混一六合，以濟蒼生。天生蒸庶，樹之君者，所以除煩去亂，安得憚勞！朕既大運所鐘，將簡天心以行天罰。高辛有熊泉之役，唐堯有丹水之師，此皆著之前典，昭之後王。誠如公言，帝王無省方之文乎？且朕此行也，以義舉耳，使流度衣冠之胄，還其墟墳，復其桑梓，止為濟難銓才，不欲窮兵極武。」安曰：「若鑾駕必欲親動，猶不願遠涉江、淮，可暫幸洛陽，明授勝略，馳紙檄於丹陽，開其改迷之路。如其不庭，伐之可也。」堅不納。先是，群臣以堅信重道安，謂安曰：「主上欲有事于東南，公何不為蒼生致一言也！」故安因此而諫。苻融及尚書原紹、石越等上書面諫，前後數十，堅終不從。堅少子中山公詵有寵於堅，又諫曰：「臣聞季梁在隨，楚人憚之；宮奇在虞，晉不窺兵。國有人焉故也。及謀之不用，而亡不淹歲。前車之覆軌，後車之明鑒。陽平公，國之謀主，而陛下違之；晉有謝安、桓沖，而陛下伐之。是行也，臣竊惑焉。」堅曰：「國有元龜。可以決大謀；朝有公卿，可以定進否。孺子言焉，將為戮也。」

A Jin column under Zhu Chuo ravaged Qin's Han River colonies, carrying off six hundred-odd households. At court he declared that after two decades of conquest only the southeast still resisted his mandate. He said the thought of a divided empire stole his appetite and that he meant to mobilize the whole realm against Jin. He claimed nine hundred seventy thousand effectives and asked whether he should personally lead the southern thrust. Zhu Tong flattered him with cosmic hyperbole about his power to shake mountains and dry rivers with a word. He predicted that Emperor Xiaowu would surrender at once or flee to a watery grave while Qin pursuers finished him south of Lake Chao. He promised to repatriate northerners to their old homesteads. He closed with a vision of Feng-Shan rites on Mount Tai and an ageless triumph without precedent in the annals. Jian exclaimed that this was exactly his ambition. Quan Yi answered that Jin should not be invaded. He cited King Wu's hesitation even when Shang was tottering and vassals flocked to him without prior coordination. Wu struck only after dispatching Shang's loyal ministers. Jin, he argued, showed no comparable moral collapse; court and country still pulled together. Figures such as Xie An and Huan Chong proved that the east still had statesmen of stature. Because armies win through inner unity, and Jin enjoyed that unity, the time was wrong for Qin. Jian fell silent, then invited every minister to speak freely. Shi Yue conceded that a personal expedition against the southern enclave would gratify gods and men alike. But astrology, he warned, favored the southeast: the year star hung over the Jin sector. He insisted that stellar signs were not to be defied. He reminded Jian that Sima Rui had been widely accepted, Chinese and non-Chinese, and his memory still endeared the house of Jin. Emperor Xiaowu, he noted, was Yuan's lineal descendant, the Yangtze shielded the dynasty, and the palace showed no Consort Dusk-style corruption. Shi Yue therefore urged patience and moral suasion rather than war. He quoted Confucius on winning distant peoples through culture rather than force. He asked Jian to husband strength and await Jin's own mistakes. Jian countered with King Wu's willingness to campaign even when omens were adverse. He dismissed astrology as unknowable. He cited Fuchai's humiliation despite dominating the north. Sun Quan's legacy and Sun Hao's inherited realm had not saved Wu from Wang Jun's fleet; a great river was no sure shield. He boasted that Qin soldiers could stem the river by throwing in their riding crops. Shi Yue replied that tyrants fell because the world hated them. Fuchai and Sun Hao had lost the people through cruelty and folly. Jin, he repeated, showed none of those fatal vices, so Qin should drill, store grain, and bide Heaven's hour. Ministers argued pro and con until the session wore on. Jian compared their wrangling to builders arguing in the middle of a road and said he would settle the matter privately. When the others withdrew he kept Fu Rong alone. He told Fu Rong that policy belonged to a tiny circle, then heard Fu Rong's first reason: astrology favored the lower Yangzi. Second, the Jin court still commanded loyalty. Third, Qin's own army was exhausted and secretly afraid. Fu Rong urged Jian to treat the naysayers as wise counselors. Jian flushed and demanded to know whom he could trust if not himself. He cited his million men and mountain of arms and denied that he was a mediocre sovereign. Victory over a dying foe after so many wins seemed inevitable to him. He vowed not to bequeath the Jin "bandit" problem to posterity or the state cult. Fu Rong wept that the southern campaign was folly sure to fail. Worse dangers, he said, lay beyond a mere reverse. He pointed to Jian's policy of settling Xianbei, Qiang, and Jie tribes around the capital while exiling older Di allies. If Jian emptied the realm on campaign, a sudden coup could endanger the ancestral shrines. The crown prince would guard Chang'an with feeble garrison troops while potentially hostile tribes ringed the city. Fu Rong doubted both success abroad and security at home. He disclaimed his own counsel as crude. Yet Wang Meng's dying advice, he insisted, deserved the respect Jian had likened to Zhuge Liang's. Jian refused to listen. He toured the eastern pleasure grounds and made the monk Dao'an ride beside him in the imperial carriage. Quan Yi protested that regalia required a courtier as riding companion, cleared roads, and measured pacing—not a Buddhist cleric. Even the final rulers of the three ancient dynasties debased fundamental ethics for passing whim, and the classics still hold their shame up to posterity. That is why Lady Ban of Han refused to ride beside the emperor and won praise that has never faded. Dao'an is a tonsured commoner and has no place fouling the imperial equipage. Jian flushed and retorted that the monk commanded the deepest insight and commanded universal respect. He insisted that not even the empire's whole weight could buy Dao'an's worth. Having Dao'an beside him was no favor to Quan Yi, he said, but a mark of his own enlightenment. He made Quan Yi steady the monk into the carriage, then mused aloud about a triumphal tour to the southeast—Shun's grave, Yu's legend, the Yangtze, and the open sea—as though it were a pleasure outing. Dao'an answered that a true Son of Heaven should rule from the center like Yao and Shun, moving only with full ritual and governing through stillness, not by exhausting himself on campaign or exposing the court to wind and rain, still less endure exile and life in field camps. The south-east, he added, was a small, fever-ridden basin where even sage-kings had met trouble; it hardly justified dragging the throne and the people into hardship. He quoted the Odes on winning the heartland through kindness. With true civil virtue, he argued, the southern tribes could be won without drawing a sword. Jian replied that scale was not the issue—he meant to unify the realm and save the common people. Heaven had appointed rulers precisely to end turmoil, he insisted, so a ruler must not shun hardship. He claimed Heaven's mandate rested on him and authorized punitive war. He cited ancient sage-kings who had still gone to war despite their virtue. If Dao'an were right, he asked, would the classics never record royal tours? He framed the invasion as a humane restoration of exiled gentry to their ancestral soil, not mere conquest. Dao'an conceded that if Jian had to move, he should stop at Luoyang and try edicts before crossing the great rivers. War could follow only if Jin still refused allegiance. Jian would not take the advice. Courtiers had privately begged Dao'an to intervene because they knew Jian listened to him. That was why Dao'an had raised the protest. Fu Rong, Yuan Shao, Shi Yue, and others filed dozens of face-to-face memorials; Jian ignored every one. His young favorite Fu Shen cited wise ministers whose presence had once deterred invaders: while Gong Zhiqi stayed in Yu, Jin had not dared raise an army. Their states survived because wise men still served there. Once those counselors were ignored, those kingdoms fell within a year. The overturned wheels ahead should warn the chariot behind. Fu Rong, Duke of Yangping, was Qin's chief planner—yet Jian set his counsel aside. Jin still had Xie An and Huan Chong, yet Jian meant to strike. Fu Shen confessed he could not fathom the campaign. Jian snapped that the realm possessed the oracle bone, enough to settle grand strategy, while the high ministers could judge whether to march or halt. Boys who talked that way, he warned, earned the death stroke.

所司奏劉蘭討蝗幽州，經秋冬不滅，請征下廷尉詔獄。堅曰：「災降自天，殆非人力所能除也。此自朕之政違所致，蘭何罪焉！」

Officials impeached Liu Lan for failing to stop the locusts after two seasons and demanded he face imperial prison. Jian replied that the plague came from Heaven and lay beyond human remedy. If policy was to blame, he said, Liu Lan was innocent.

明年，呂光發長安，堅送于建章宮，謂光曰：「西戎荒俗，非禮義之邦。羈縻之道，服而赦之，示以中國之威，導以王化之法，勿極武窮兵，過深殘掠。」加鄯善王休密馱使持節、散騎常侍、都督西域諸軍事、甯西將軍，車師前部王彌窴使持節、平西將軍、西域都護，率其國兵為光鄉導。

The following year Jian escorted Lu Guang from Jianzhang and warned that the western barbarians knew no Chinese rites. He ordered a policy of submission and pardon, showing imperial prestige and spreading moral instruction without needless slaughter. He promoted the western kings with full military titles so their troops could guide Lu Guang.

是年，益州西南夷、海南諸國皆遣使貢其方物。

The same year tribes southwest of Yizhou and states across the southern ocean sent tribute.

堅南遊灞上，從容謂群臣曰：「軒轅，大聖也，其仁若天，其智若神，猶隨不順者從而征之，居無常所，以兵為衛，故能日月所照，風雨所至，莫不率從。今天下垂平，惟東南未殄。朕忝荷大業，巨責攸歸，豈敢優遊卒歲，不建大同之業！每思桓溫之寇也，江東不可不滅。今有勁卒百萬，文武如林，鼓行而摧遺晉，若商風之隕秋籜。朝廷內外，皆言不可，吾實未解所由。晉武若信朝士之言而不征吳者，天下何由一軌！吾計決矣，不復與諸卿議也。」太子宏進曰：「吳今得歲，不可伐也。且晉主無罪，人為之用；謝安、桓沖兄弟皆一方之俊才，君臣戮力，阻險長江，未可圖也。但可厲兵積粟，以待暴主，一舉而滅之。今若動而無功，則威名損於外，資財竭於內。是故聖王之行師也，內斷必誠，然後用之。彼若憑長江以固守，徙江北百姓于江南，增城清野，杜門不戰，我已疲矣，彼未引弓。土下氣癘，不可久留，陛下將若之何？」堅曰：「往年車騎滅燕，亦犯歲而捷之。天道幽遠，非汝所知也。昔始皇之滅六國，其王豈皆暴乎？且吾內斷於心久矣，舉必克之，何為無功！吾方命蠻夷以攻其內，精甲勁兵以攻其外，內外如此，安有不克！」道安曰：「太子之言是也，願陛下納之。」堅弗從。冠軍慕容垂言於堅曰：「陛下德侔軒、唐，功高湯、武，威澤被於八表，遠夷重譯而歸。司馬昌明因餘燼之資，敢距王命，是而不誅，法將安措！孫氏跨僭江東，終並于晉，其勢然也。臣聞小不敵大，弱不禦強，況大秦之應符，陛下之聖武，強兵百萬，韓、白盈朝，而令其偷魂假號，以賊虜遺子孫哉！《詩》云：'築室於道謀，是用不潰于成。 '陛下內斷神謀足矣，不煩廣訪朝臣以亂聖慮。昔晉武之平吳也，言可者張、杜數賢而已，若采群臣之言，豈能建不世之功！諺雲憑天俟時，時已至矣，其可已乎！」堅大悅，曰：「與吾定天下者，其惟卿耳。」賜帛五百匹。

On the Bashang parade ground Jian likened himself to the Yellow Emperor, who had never ceased mobile campaigning until all under heaven obeyed. He claimed the empire was nearly pacified except for the southeast. He said he could not idle while unification remained undone. Each memory of Huan Wen's northern raids convinced him that Jiangdong had to fall. A million veterans, he boasted, would scatter Jin like wind stripping leaves. He professed bafflement that everyone opposed him. He asked how Sima Yan could have reunified China had he listened to pacifists. He closed debate and declared the decision final. Crown Prince Fu Hong warned that astrology favored the enemy, that the Jin emperor had committed no offense and still commanded loyalty, and that Xie An and the Huan brothers, defending the Yangtze, were not easy prey. He urged Jian to wait for Jin to produce a tyrant, then strike once. A failed campaign now would cost prestige abroad and treasure at home. Sage kings, he said, marched only after unshakable inner resolve. Jin could fortify the south bank, evacuate northerners, and refuse battle until Qin collapsed from exhaustion. The southern climate alone, he warned, could not sustain a long siege. Jian answered with Fu Rong's earlier victory over Former Yan despite bad omens. He again dismissed astrology as unknowable. He asked whether every conquered king of Qin Shihuang's era had been a tyrant. He insisted his mind was made up and victory assured. He planned to use internal fifth columns and external assault together. Dao'an endorsed the crown prince, but Jian still refused. Murong Chui flattered Jian as surpassing the sage founders and drawing tribute from every quarter. He denounced Emperor Xiaowu for defying Heaven's anointed conqueror. He said Sun Quan's separatist state had inevitably fallen to Jin, and argued that mighty Qin could not leave a rump Jin for posterity. He quoted the Odes against deciding policy in public confusion, urging Jian to trust his own secret counsel alone, citing how Sima Yan had ignored the crowd and listened to Zhang Hua and Du Yu. He closed with a proverb: Heaven's hour had come. Delighted, Jian told Murong Chui that only he truly shared the vision of conquest. He rewarded him with five hundred rolls of silk.

彗星掃東井。自堅之四月，長安有水影，遠觀若水，視地則見人，至是則止。堅惡之。上林竹死，洛陽地陷。

A comet trailed across the eastern well of the sky. For months Chang'an had shimmered with phantom floods that resolved into human shapes when approached—omens that ended only now. Jian found the omens ominous. Imperial park bamboo withered and Luoyang's earth gaped open—further ill signs.

晉車騎將軍桓沖率眾十萬伐堅，遂攻襄陽。遣前將軍劉波、冠軍桓石虔、振威桓石民攻沔北諸城；輔國楊亮伐蜀，攻拔伍城，進攻涪城，龍驤胡彬攻下蔡；鷹揚郭銓攻武當；沖別將攻萬歲城，拔之。堅大怒，遣其子征南睿及冠軍慕容垂、左衛毛當率步騎五萬救襄陽，揚武張崇救武當，後將軍張蠔、步兵校尉姚萇救涪城。睿次新野，垂次鄧城。王師敗張崇于武當，掠二千餘戶而歸。睿遣垂及驍騎石越為前鋒，次於沔水。垂、越夜命三軍人持十炬火，系炬於樹枝，光照十數里中。沖懼，退還上明。張蠔出斜谷，楊亮亦引兵退歸。

Huan Chong marched a hundred thousand Jin troops against Qin and laid siege to Xiangyang. He dispatched columns under Liu Bo, Huan Shiqian, and Huan Shimin against the Han River towns, while Yang Liang struck into Shu, took Wucheng, pressed Fucheng, and Hu Bin seized Xia Cai, and Guo Quan hit Wudang. Another detachment stormed Wansui and carried it. Jian sent Fu Rui, Murong Chui, and Mao Dang with fifty thousand men toward Xiangyang, Zhang Chong toward Wudang, and Zhang He with Yao Chang toward Fucheng. Fu Rui camped at Xinye while Murong Chui stopped at Dengcheng. Jin troops routed Zhang Chong at Wudang and carried off over two thousand households. Fu Rui ordered Murong Chui and Shi Yue ahead to the Han River line. Murong Chui and Shi Yue lit thousands of decoy fires in the trees, lighting the riverbank for miles. Faced with that display, Huan Chong pulled back to Shangming. Zhang He advanced through Xie Valley until Yang Liang likewise retreated.

堅下書悉發諸州公私馬，人十丁遣一兵。門在灼然者，為崇文義從。良家子年二十已下，武藝驍勇，富室材雄者，皆拜羽林郎。下書期克捷之日，以帝為尚書左僕射，謝安為吏部尚書，桓沖為侍中，並立第以待之。良家子至者三萬餘騎。其秦州主簿金城趙盛之為建威將軍、少年都統。遣征南苻融、驃騎張蠔、撫軍苻方、衛軍梁成、平南慕容暐、冠軍慕容垂率步騎二十五萬為前鋒。堅發長安，戎卒六十餘萬，騎二十七萬，前後千里，旗鼓相望。堅至項城，涼州之兵始達咸陽，蜀漢之軍順流而下，幽、冀之眾至於彭城，東西萬里，水陸齊進。運漕萬艘，自河入石門，達於汝、潁。

Jian drafted every tenth able man and requisitioned horses public and private across the provinces. Families plainly exempt from ordinary service were mustered into a literati volunteer corps. Wealthy youths under twenty who excelled at arms became imperial guardsmen of the Feathered Forest. He boasted that he would house Sima Yao, Xie An, and Huan Chong in ready-built mansions as his ministers after victory. More than thirty thousand elite young horsemen reported for duty. He named Zhao Sheng of Jincheng, a Qinzhou clerk, to lead these young recruits. The first wave—Fu Rong, Zhang He, Fu Fang, Liang Cheng, Murong Wei, Murong Chui—took a quarter million men toward the front. When Jian himself left Chang'an he brought over six hundred thousand foot and two hundred seventy thousand horse in a column that spanned a thousand li. By the time Jian reached Xiangcheng, Liangzhou contingents were still straggling into Xianyang, Sichuan fleets were sliding downriver, and Hebei divisions had reached Pengcheng—Qin's hosts stretched ten thousand li in a coordinated land-and-water advance. Ten thousand grain barges passed through Stone Gate from the Yellow River into the Ru-Ying network.

融等攻陷壽春，執晉平虜將軍徐元喜、安豐太守王先。垂攻陷鄖城，害晉將軍王太丘。梁成與其揚州刺史王顯、弋陽太守王詠等率眾五萬，屯於洛澗，柵淮以遏東軍。成頻敗王師。晉遣都督謝石、徐州刺史謝玄、豫州刺史桓伊、輔國謝琰等水陸七萬，相繼距融，去洛澗二十五里，憚成不進。龍驤將軍胡彬先保硤石，為融所逼，糧盡，詐揚沙以示融軍，潛遣使告石等曰：「今賊盛糧盡，恐不見大軍。」融軍人獲而送之。融乃馳使白堅曰：「賊少易俘，但懼其越逸，宜速進眾軍，掎禽賊帥。」堅大悅，恐石等遁也，舍大軍于項城，以輕騎八千兼道赴之，令軍人曰：「敢言吾至壽春者拔舌。」故石等弗知。晉龍驤將軍劉牢之率勁卒五千，夜襲梁成壘，克之，斬成及王顯、王詠等十將，士卒死者萬五千。謝石等以既敗梁成，水陸繼進。堅與苻融登城而望王師，見部陣齊整，將士精銳，又北望八公山上草木，皆類人形，顧謂融曰：「此亦勍敵也，何謂少乎！」憮然有懼色。初，朝廷聞堅入寇，會稽王道子以威儀鼓吹求助於鐘山之神，奉以相國之號。及堅之見草木狀人，若有力焉。

Fu Rong's van took Shouyang, seizing Jin generals Xu Yuanxi and the Anfeng prefect Wang Xian. Murong Chui seized Yuncheng and killed the Jin commander Wang Taiqiu. Liang Cheng, Wang Xian, Wang Yong, and fifty thousand men walled the Huai at the Luo inlet to stop the eastern Jin relief force. Liang Cheng repulsed several Jin attacks. Xie Shi, Xie Xuan, Huan Yi, and Xie Yan brought seventy thousand men to face Fu Rong but halted twenty-five li short of the Luo lines, intimidated by Liang Cheng. Hu Bin, trapped at Xiaoshi with empty granaries, kicked up dust as a bluff while secretly warning Xie Shi that Qin seemed overwhelming and supplies were gone. Fu Rong's men intercepted the courier and forwarded him to headquarters. Fu Rong sent urgent word that Jin was weak and ripe for netting if the main army hurried south. Elated, Jian abandoned the main host at Xiangcheng, raced ahead with eight thousand horse, and threatened anyone who revealed his arrival at Shouyang. His secrecy kept the Jin command ignorant of his presence. Liu Laizhi's night raid on Liang Cheng's camp killed the Qin general and fifteen thousand men. Emboldened by Liu Laizhi's victory, the Jin army pushed forward on every axis. From the wall Fu Jian and Fu Rong saw Jin's crisp ranks—and every bush on Bagong seemed a soldier—whereupon Jian muttered that this was no weak enemy. His face fell and fear showed plain. Earlier, as Qin marched south, Sima Daozi had implored Mount Zhong's deity with full ritual pomp, elevating it to ministerial rank. The historian adds that the omen Jian read in the hillside scrub matched that divine appeal.

堅遣其尚書硃序說石等以眾盛，欲脅而降之。序詭謂石曰：「若秦百萬之眾皆至，則莫可敵也。及其眾軍未集，宜在速戰。若挫其前鋒，可以得志。」石聞堅在壽春也，懼，謀不戰以疲之。謝琰勸從序言，遣使請戰，許之。時張蠔敗謝石于肥南，謝玄、謝琰勒卒數萬，陣以待之。蠔乃退，列陣逼肥水。王師不得渡，遣使謂融曰：「君懸軍深入，置陣逼水，此持久之計，豈欲戰者乎？若小退師，令將士周旋，僕與君公緩轡而觀之，不亦美乎！」融於是麾軍卻陣，欲因其濟水，覆而取之。軍遂奔退，制之不可止。融馳騎略陣，馬倒被殺，軍遂大敗。王師乘勝追擊，至於青岡，死者相枕。堅為流矢所中，單騎遁還於淮北，饑甚，人有進壺飧豚髀者，堅食之，大悅，曰：「昔公孫豆粥何以加也！」使賜帛十匹，綿十斤。辭曰：「臣聞白龍厭天池之樂而見困豫且，陛下目所睹也，耳所聞也。今蒙塵之難，豈自天乎！且妄施不為惠，妄受不為忠。陛下，臣之父母也，安有子養而求報哉！」弗顧而退。堅大慚，顧謂其夫人張氏曰：「朕若用朝臣之言，豈見今日之事邪！當何面目復臨天下乎？」潸然流涕而去。聞風聲鶴唳，皆謂晉師之至。其僕射張天錫、尚書硃序及徐元喜等皆歸順。初，諺言「堅不出項」，群臣勸堅停項，為六軍聲鎮，堅不從，故敗。

Jian ordered the captured Jin minister Zhu Xu to intimidate Xie Shi into capitulation. Zhu Xu quietly warned that a united million-man host would be unstoppable, but while Qin's columns were still scattered, Jin had to strike fast. Crush the spearhead, he urged, and the invasion would falter. Learning that Fu Jian himself had reached Shouyang, Xie Shi hesitated to offer battle and hoped to delay. Xie Yan pressed him to trust Zhu Xu's advice; they challenged Fu Rong, who accepted. Zhang He had just mauled Xie Shi south of the Fei River, so Xie Xuan and Xie Yan formed a battle line to meet him. Zhang He pulled back and anchored his formation tight against the Fei's north bank. Jin envoys told Fu Rong that a water's-edge stalemate suited Qin, not pitched battle, and proposed a minor Qin pullback so both sides could maneuver—an offer meant to tempt him. Fu Rong ordered a feigned retreat, planning to crush Jin mid-river. Instead the line collapsed into a rout he could not halt. Fu Rong fell from his horse under Jin arrows, and his host shattered. Jin pursuers drove the fugitives to Qinggang, where corpses piled deep. A wounded Fu Jian fled north of the Huai, starving until a commoner fed him stew and pork; he compared the meal to the gruel once offered to Emperor Guangwu. He tried to reward the peasant with silk and cotton. The man refused, citing the fable of the white dragon who left paradise only to be caught by a fisherman, and asked whether Jian's downfall was truly Heaven's will. Unmerited gifts, he said, were no kindness, nor was accepting them loyalty. A child owed parents care without thought of payback. He bowed off despite Jian's command. Ashamed, Jian told Empress Zhang that he should have listened to his advisers, and wondered how he could ever show himself to the realm. He left in tears. Every gust and birdcall seemed to the fugitives like pursuing Jin troops. Zhang Tianxi, Zhu Xu, Xu Yuanxi, and other Qin notables surrendered to Jin. Folk wisdom had warned Fu Jian not to advance past Xiangcheng; ministers begged him to stop there and command from the rear, but his rashness brought defeat.

諸軍悉潰，惟慕容垂一軍獨全，堅以千餘騎赴之。垂子寶勸垂殺堅，垂不從，乃以兵屬堅。初，慕容暐屯鄖城，姜成等守漳口，晉隨郡太守夏侯澄攻姜成，斬之，暐棄其眾奔還。堅收離集散，比至洛陽，眾十餘萬，百官威儀軍容粗備。未及關而垂有貳志，說堅請巡撫燕、岱，並求拜墓，堅許之。權翼固諫以為不可，堅不從。尋懼垂為變，悔之，遣驍騎石越率卒三千戍鄴，驃騎張蠔率羽林五千戍并州，留兵四千配鎮軍毛當戍洛陽。堅至自淮南，次於長安東之行宮，哭苻融而後入，告罪於其太廟，赦殊死已下，文武增位一級，厲兵課農，存恤孤老，諸士卒不返者皆復其家終世。贈融大司馬，諡曰哀公。

Every column dissolved except Murong Chui's, so Jian rode to his camp with a thousand horse. Murong Bao urged patricide, but Chui refused and instead lent his intact division to shield Jian. Earlier Murong Wei had garrisoned Yuncheng until Jin's Xiahou Cheng killed his defender Jiang Cheng at the Zhang crossing, forcing Wei to bolt. Fu Jian scraped together stragglers until, by Luoyang, he again commanded over a hundred thousand men with something like a court and escort. Before the capital gates Murong Chui begged leave to pacify the old Yan homeland and tend clan graves; Jian consented. Quan Yi warned that releasing Chui was fatal; Jian ignored him. Second thoughts led him to garrison Ye, Bingzhou, and Luoyang against Murong Chui's return. Back near Chang'an he mourned Fu Rong, confessed before the ancestors, issued amnesties and relief, and exempted the households of the fallen forever. He ennobled the dead Fu Rong as grand marshal and posthumously titled him Duke of Lament.

衛軍從事中郎丁零、翟斌反于河南，長樂公苻丕遣慕容垂及苻飛龍討之。垂南結丁零，殺飛龍，盡坑其眾。豫州牧、平原公苻暉遣毛當擊翟斌，為斌所敗，當死之。垂子農亡奔列人，招集群盜，眾至萬數千。丕遣石越擊之，為農所敗，越死之。垂引丁零、烏丸之眾二十餘萬，為飛梯地道以攻鄴城。

When Dingling leader Zhai Bin rose south of the river, Fu Pi ordered Murong Chui and Fu Feilong against him. Murong Chui slew Fu Feilong, allied with Zhai Bin, and annihilated the Di escort. Fu Hui's column under Mao Dang lost to Zhai Bin; Mao Dang fell in battle. Murong Nong fled to Lieren, rallied outlaws, and raised tens of thousands. Fu Pi's general Shi Yue died attacking Murong Nong. Murong Chui besieged Ye with two hundred thousand Dingling and Wuhuan auxiliaries, using siege ladders and saps.

慕容暐弟燕故濟北王泓先為北地長史，聞垂攻鄴，亡命奔關東，收諸馬牧鮮卑，眾至數千，還屯華陰。慕容暐乃潛使諸弟及宗人起兵於外。堅遣將軍強永率騎擊之，為泓所敗，泓眾遂盛，自稱使持節、大都督陝西諸軍事、大將軍、雍州牧、濟北王，推叔父垂為丞相、都督陝東諸軍事、領大司馬、冀州牧、吳王。

Murong Hong, former prince of Jibei, fled east, rallied Xianbei herders, and seized Huayin with thousands of riders. Murong Wei smuggled word for kinsmen to rise beyond the capital. Qiang Yong lost to Murong Hong, who then proclaimed himself prince of Jibei with grand titles and named Murong Chui his chancellor in the east.

堅謂權翼曰：「吾不從卿言，鮮卑至是。關東之地，吾不復與之爭，將若泓何？」翼曰：「寇不可長。慕容垂正可據山東為亂，不暇近逼。今暐及宗族種類盡在京師，鮮卑之眾布於畿甸，實社稷之元憂，宜遣重將討之。」堅乃以廣平公苻熙為使持節、都督雍州雜戎諸軍事、鎮東大將軍、雍州刺史，鎮蒲阪。征苻睿為都督中外諸軍事、衛大將軍、司隸校尉、錄尚書事，配兵五萬以左將軍竇沖為長史，龍驤姚萇為司馬，討泓于華澤。平陽太守慕容沖起兵河東，有眾二萬，進攻蒲阪，堅命竇沖討之。苻睿勇果輕敵，不恤士眾。泓聞其至也，懼，率眾將奔關東，睿馳兵要之。姚萇諫曰：「鮮卑有思歸之心，宜驅令出關，不可遏也。」睿弗從，戰于華澤，睿敗績，被殺。堅大怒。萇懼誅，遂叛。竇衝擊慕容沖於河東，大破之，沖率騎八千奔於泓軍。泓眾至十餘萬，遣使謂堅曰：「秦為無道，滅我社稷。今天誘其衷，使秦師傾敗，將欲興復大燕。吳王已定關東，可速資備大駕，奉送家兄皇帝並宗室功臣之家。泓當率關中燕人，翼衛皇帝，還返鄴都，與秦以武牢為界，分王天下，永為鄰好，不復為秦之患也。钜鹿公輕戇銳進，為亂兵所害，非泓之意。」堅大怒，召慕容暐責之曰：「卿父子幹紀僭亂，乖逆人神，朕應天行神，盡兵勢而得卿。卿非改迷歸善，而合宗蒙宥，兄弟布列上將、納言，雖曰破滅，其實若歸。奈何因王師小敗，便猖悖若此！垂為長蛇於關東，泓、沖稱兵內侮。泓書如此，卿欲去者，朕當相資。卿之宗族，可謂人面獸心，殆不可以國士期也。」暐叩頭流血，泣涕陳謝。堅久之曰：「《書》云，父子兄弟無相及也。卿之忠誠，實簡朕心，此自三豎之罪，非卿之過。」復其位而待之如初。命暐以書招喻垂及泓、沖，使息兵還長安，恕其反叛之咎。而暐密遣使者謂泓曰：「今秦數已終，長安怪異特甚，當不復能久立。吾既籠中之人，必無還理。昔不能保守宗廟，致令傾喪若斯，吾罪人也，不足復顧吾之存亡。社稷不輕，勉建大業，以興復為務。可以吳王為相國，中山王為太宰、領大司馬，汝可為大將軍、領司徒，承制封拜。聽吾死問，汝使即尊位。」泓於是進向長安，改年曰燕興。是時鬼夜哭，三旬而止。

Jian told Quan Yi that ignoring his warning had unleashed the Murongs. He conceded Shandong but asked how to stop Murong Hong. Quan Yi replied that rebellion must be crushed early, Murong Chui was busy in Shandong and no immediate threat to Guanzhong, but Murong Wei and every Xianbei noble still in Chang'an posed the graver danger. He named Fu Xi to hold Puban against western thrusts, and Fu Rui with Yao Chang and fifty thousand men to destroy Murong Hong at Huaze. Murong Chong rose in Hedong with twenty thousand men and struck Puban until Jian sent Dou Chong. Fu Rui was rash, despised his foe, and wasted lives. Murong Hong tried to bolt east; Fu Rui raced to cut him off. Yao Chang urged letting homesick Xianbei leave the pass rather than forcing a fight. Fu Rui ignored him, fought at Huaze, and died in defeat. Jian exploded with rage. Fearing blame, Yao Chang mutinied. Dou Chong routed Murong Chong, who fled with eight thousand horse to Murong Hong. Murong Hong's army swelled past a hundred thousand; he wrote that Qin had extinguished Yan without justice, and that Heaven's vengeance invited the Murongs to restore Yan. He demanded carriages to escort Murong Wei and noble hostages east, promising to shepherd former Yan subjects home and divide the realm at Hulao pass. He disclaimed responsibility for Fu Rui's death in the melee. Jian summoned Murong Wei, accusing the Murongs of treason despite his mercy, noting how generously he had employed the captives, and raged that a single setback should not license revolt. Murong Chui strangled the east while Hong and Murong Chong struck inside Guanzhong, and said he would fund their departure if they wished to leave. He called the Murongs beasts in human masks. Murong Wei kowtowed in terror and tears. After a long silence Jian quoted the Shangshu on punishing individuals, not kin, and blamed only the three Murong ringleaders, then restored Murong Wei's titles. He made Murong Wei write ordering the rebels to disarm and return under amnesty, yet secretly told Murong Hong that Qin's omens foretold collapse, confessed that he himself was trapped beyond rescue, and disclaimed personal survival, urging his kinsman to put dynastic revival first, laying out a shadow cabinet with Murong Chui as minister, Murong Chong as grand steward, and Murong Hong as commander, and authorizing Hong to seize the throne on news of Wei's death. Murong Hong then marched on Chang'an and proclaimed a new reign title, Yanxing. For a month the capital was haunted by night wailing that then ceased.

堅率步騎二萬討姚萇於北地，次於趙氏塢，使護軍楊璧遊騎三千，斷其奔路，右軍徐成、左軍竇沖、鎮軍毛盛等屢戰敗之，仍斷其運水之路。馮翊遊欽因淮南之敗，聚眾數千，保據頻陽，遣軍運水及粟，以饋姚萇，楊璧盡獲之。萇軍渴甚，遣其弟鎮北尹買率勁卒二萬決堰。竇沖率眾敗其軍于鸛雀渠，斬尹買及首級萬三千。萇眾危懼，人有渴死者。俄而降雨于萇營，營中水三尺，周營百步之外，寸餘而已，於是萇軍大振。堅方食，去案怒曰：「天其無心，何故降澤賊營！」萇又東引慕容泓為援。

Fu Jian camped at Zhao Stockade, sent Yang Bi's riders to cut Yao Chang's retreat, and used Xu Cheng, Dou Chong, and Mao Sheng to beat him repeatedly while blocking every water convoy. You Qin of Fanyi exploited Qin's southern disaster to supply Yao Chang from Pinyang until Yang Bi seized every convoy. Yao Chang ordered his brother Yinmai with twenty thousand men to break the dam and reach water. Dou Chong crushed them at Guanque Ditch, killing Yinmai and thirteen thousand. Yao Chang's men were parched and desperate; some died of thirst. Then rain soaked only Yao Chang's camp ankle-deep while a ring just outside stayed dry—a miracle that revived his army. At his meal Fu Jian flung his table aside, raging that Heaven would water the rebels, while Yao Chang linked up with Murong Hong.

泓謀臣高蓋、宿勤崇等以泓德望後沖，且持法苛峻，乃殺泓，立沖為皇太弟，承制行事，自相署置。

Gao Gai and Suqin Chong murdered Murong Hong for his harsh rule and weaker charisma, elevated Murong Chong as heir-apparent regent, and handed out offices on their own authority.

姚萇留其弟征虜緒守楊渠川大營，率眾七萬來攻堅。堅遣楊璧等擊之，為萇所敗，獲楊璧、毛盛、徐成及前軍齊午等數十人，皆禮而遣之。

Yao Chang left Yao Xu at Yangqu and struck Chang'an with seventy thousand men. Fu Jian's counterattack failed; Yao Chang captured Yang Bi and other generals but courteously released them.

苻暉率洛陽、陝城之眾七萬歸於長安。益州刺史王廣遣將軍王蠔率蜀漢之眾來赴難。堅聞慕容沖去長安二百餘里，引師而歸，使撫軍苻方戍驪山，拜苻暉使持節、散騎常侍、都督中外諸軍事、車騎大將軍、司隸校尉、錄尚書，配兵五萬距沖，河間公苻琳為中軍大將軍，為暉後繼。沖乃令婦人乘牛馬為眾，揭竿為旗，揚土為塵，督厲其眾，晨攻暉營于鄭西。暉出距戰，沖揚塵鼓噪，暉師敗績。堅又以尚書姜宇為前將軍，與苻琳率眾三萬，擊沖於灞上，為沖所敗，宇死之，琳中流矢，沖遂據阿房城。初，堅之滅燕，沖姊為清河公主，年十四，有殊色，堅納之，寵冠後庭。沖年十二，亦有龍陽之姿，堅又幸之。姊弟專寵，宮人莫進。長安歌之曰：「一雌復一雄，雙飛入紫宮。」咸懼為亂。王猛切諫，堅乃出沖。長安又謠曰：「鳳皇鳳皇止阿房。」堅以鳳皇非梧桐不棲，非竹實不食，乃植桐竹數十萬株于阿房城以待之。沖小字鳳皇，至是，終為堅賊，入止阿房城焉。

Fu Hui marched seventy thousand men from Luoyang and the Shan forts back to the capital. Wang Guang of Yizhou dispatched Wang Hao with Sichuan troops to relieve the throne. Learning Murong Chong neared Chang'an, Fu Jian rushed west, left Fu Fang on Lishan, and gave Fu Hui fifty thousand men to block Murong Chong while Fu Lin backed him with the central army. Murong Chong used women, dust, and sham banners to mask a dawn assault on Fu Hui west of Zheng. Fu Hui rode out to meet him but Murong Chong's dust and noise broke his line. Fu Jian sent Jiang Yu and Fu Lin with thirty thousand to Bashang; Murong Chong killed Jiang Yu, wounded Fu Lin, and seized Epang. When Qin conquered Yan, Fu Jian took Murong Chong's fourteen-year-old sister, the Princess of Qinghe, as concubine and doted on her above all others. At twelve Murong Chong possessed the same androgynous allure, and Jian bedded him too. The siblings shared the harem to the exclusion of every other woman. Ballads mocked a hen and a rooster flying together into the purple palace. The court feared scandal and revolt. Wang Meng's blunt warning finally got Murong Chong expelled from the palace. A new rhyme said the phoenix would alight on Epang, so Fu Jian planted bamboo and paulownia at Epang to lure the mythical bird. Murong Chong's pet name had been Phoenix; he now fulfilled the omen as Fu Jian's scourge by seizing Epang.

晉西中郎將桓石虔進據魯陽，遣河南太守高茂北戍洛陽。晉冠軍謝玄次於下邳，徐州刺史趙遷棄彭城奔還。玄前鋒張願追遷及於碭山，轉戰而免。玄進據彭城。

Huan Shiqian seized Luyang and posted Gao Mao north of Luoyang. Xie Xuan camped at Xiapi while Qin's Zhao Qian fled Pengcheng. Zhang Yuan chased Zhao Qian to Dangshan and fought him to a draw. Xie Xuan then occupied Pengcheng.

時呂光討平西域三十六國，所獲珍寶以萬萬計。堅下書以光為使持節、散騎常侍、都督玉門以西諸軍事、安西將軍、西域校尉，進封順鄉侯，增邑一千戶。

Lu Guang had subdued thirty-six Tarim kingdoms and seized treasure beyond counting. Fu Jian promoted Lu Guang with full western commands and a larger fief.

劉牢之伐兗州，堅刺史張崇棄鄄城奔于慕容垂。牢之遣將軍劉襲追崇，戰于河南，斬其東平太守楊光而退。牢之遂據鄄城。

Liu Laizhi struck Yanzhou; Zhang Chong abandoned Juancheng for Murong Chui. Liu Xi killed Qin's Dongping prefect south of the river and pulled back. Liu Laizhi then held Juancheng.

慕容沖進逼長安，堅登城觀之，歎曰：「此虜何從出也？其強若斯！」大言責沖曰：「爾輩群奴正可牧牛羊，何為送死！」沖曰：「奴則奴矣，既厭奴苦，復欲取爾見代。」堅遣使送錦袍一領遺沖，稱詔曰：「古人兵交，使在其間。卿遠來草創，得無勞乎？今送一袍，以明本懷。朕於卿恩分如何，而於一朝忽為此變！」沖命詹事答之，亦稱「皇太弟有令：孤今心在天下，豈顧一袍小惠。苟能知命，便可君臣束手，早送皇帝，自當寬貸苻氏，以酬曩好，終不使既往之施獨美於前」。堅大怒曰：「吾不用王景略、陽平公之言，使白虜敢至於此。」

Murong Chong closed on Chang'an; Fu Jian from the wall marveled at the size of the host, astonished at their strength. He bellowed insults, calling them slave herders fit only for livestock, Murong Chong retorted that slaves who had endured slavery meant to replace their masters, Fu Jian sent a silk robe with a message citing ancient courtesy between enemies, asking whether the campaign had worn him out, offering the gift as a token of past kindness, and reproaching Murong Chong's sudden ingratitude. Murong Chong's steward answered that the regent's heart was set on the empire, not on a robe, and demanded Fu Jian surrender Murong Wei and accept terms sparing the Fu if they yielded promptly. Fu Jian raged that ignoring Wang Meng and Fu Rong had let the Murongs get this far.

苻丕在鄴糧竭，馬無草，削松木而食之。會丁零叛慕容垂，垂引師去鄴，始具西問，知苻睿等喪敗，長安危逼，乃遣其陽平太守邵興率騎一千，將北引重合侯苻謨、高邑侯苻亮、阜城侯苻定於常山，固安侯苻鑒、中山太守王兗于中山，以為己援。垂遣將軍張崇要興，獲之于襄國南。又遣其參軍封孚西引張蠔、并州刺史王騰于晉陽，蠔、騰以眾寡不赴。丕進退路窮，乃謀於群僚。司馬楊膺唱歸順之計，丕猶未從。會晉遣濟北太守丁匡據碻磝，濟陽太守郭滿據滑台，將軍顏肱、劉襲次於河北，丕遣將軍桑據距之，為王師所敗。襲等進攻黎陽，克之。丕懼，乃遣從弟就與參軍焦逵請救于謝玄。丕書稱假途求糧，還赴國難，須軍援既接，以鄴與之，若西路不通，長安陷沒，請率所領保守鄴城。乃羈縻一方，文降而已。逵與參軍薑讓密謂楊膺曰：「今禍難如此，京師阻隔，吉凶莫審，密邇寇仇，三軍罄絕，傾危之甚，朝不及夕。觀公豪氣不除，非救世之主，既不能竭盡誠款，速致糧援，方設兩端，必無成也。今日之殆，疾於轉機，不容虛設，徒成反覆。宜正書為表，以結殷勤。若王師之至，必當致身。如其不從，可逼縛與之。苟不義服，一人力耳。古人行權，寧濟為功，況君侯累葉載德，顯祖初著名于晉朝，今復建崇勳，使功業相繼，千載一時，不可失也。」膺素輕丕，自以力能逼之，乃改書而遣逵等，並遣濟南毛蜀、毛鮮等分房為任于晉。

Besieged in Ye, Fu Pi fed on shaved pine when grain and fodder ran out. When Zhai Bin's revolt drew Murong Chui off, Fu Pi learned of disasters in Guanzhong and sent Shao Xing to rally kinsmen Fu Mo, Fu Liang, Fu Ding, the Gu'an marquis Fu Jian, and Wang Yan as reinforcements, but Murong Chui's Zhang Chong ambushed and captured Shao Xing south of Xiangguo. Fu Pi's envoy Feng Fu failed to move Zhang He and Wang Teng from Jinyang for lack of troops. Trapped, Fu Pi consulted his staff. Yang Ying urged surrender to Jin, but Fu Pi hesitated. Jin seized Qiao'ao and Huatai; Fu Pi's Sang Ju lost to Yan Gong and Liu Xi, who then stormed Liyang. Fu Pi then dispatched Fu Jiu and Jiao Kui to beg Xie Xuan for aid. His letter asked passage and grain to relieve Guanzhong, promised Ye once rescued, or holding Ye if Chang'an fell, framing the plea as a nominal submission. Jiao Kui and Jiang Rang told Yang Ying that Ye was doomed within hours, that Fu Pi's pride and double game would win no help, and that delay would prove fatal, so they should rewrite the plea as a frank memorial of allegiance, promising Fu Pi would yield in person when Jin came, or bind Fu Pi and hand him over if he refused, for one man could overpower him, and appealed to family ties with Jin to seize the moment. Yang Ying, despising Fu Pi, forged a submissive letter and sent hostages to Jin.

堅遣鴻臚郝稚征處士王嘉於到獸山。既至，堅每日召嘉與道安於外殿，動靜咨問之。慕容暐入見東堂，稽首謝曰：「弟沖不識義方，孤背國恩，臣罪應萬死。陛下垂天地之容，臣蒙更生之惠。臣二子昨婚，明當三日，愚欲暫屈鑾駕，幸臣私第。」堅許之。暐出，嘉曰：「椎蘆作蘧蒢，不成文章，會天大雨，不得殺羊。」堅與群臣莫之能解。是夜大雨，晨不果出。初，暐之遣諸弟起兵于外也，堅防守甚嚴，謀應之而無因。時鮮卑在城者猶有千餘人，暐乃密結鮮卑之眾，謀伏兵請堅，因而殺之。令其豪帥悉羅騰、屈突鐵侯等潛告之曰：「官今使侯外鎮，聽舊人悉隨，可於某日會集某處。」鮮卑信之。北部人突賢與其妹別，妹為左將軍竇沖小妻，聞以告沖，請留其兄。沖馳入白堅，堅大驚，召騰問之，騰具首服。堅乃誅暐父子及其宗族，城內鮮卑無少長及婦女皆殺之。

Fu Jian sent Hao Zhi to fetch the recluse Wang Jia from Mount Daoshou. He consulted Wang Jia and Dao'an daily in the outer hall. Murong Wei kowtowed, blaming Murong Chong and begging death, thanked Fu Jian for sparing him, and invited Fu Jian to a third-day wedding banquet at his house. Fu Jian agreed. Wang Jia chanted an opaque riddle about rush mats and rain, which baffled Fu Jian and the court, until a night storm scrubbed the planned outing. Murong Wei had long schemed against tight Qin security, and now secretly rallied a thousand Xianbei to ambush Fu Jian at the banquet, telling Xianbei leaders they were being sent out of the city on a set day to gather, and the Xianbei believed the lie. Tuxian's sister, a concubine of Dou Chong, leaked the plot, Dou Chong raced to Fu Jian; Xiluo Teng confessed under interrogation, and Fu Jian slaughtered every Murong and every Xianbei in Chang'an, women and children included.

慕容垂復圍鄴城。焦逵既至，朝廷果欲征丕任子，然後出師。逵固陳丕款誠無貳，並宣楊膺之意，乃遣劉牢之等率眾二萬，水陸運漕救鄴。

Murong Chui renewed the siege of Ye. At court some wanted a hostage from Fu Pi before aiding him, but Jiao Kui vouched for Fu Pi's sincerity and Yang Ying's offer, so Jin sent Liu Laizhi with twenty thousand men and grain to relieve Ye.

時長安大饑，人相食，諸將歸而吐肉以飴妻子。

Meanwhile Chang'an starved until people cannibalized one another and soldiers regurgitated meat for their families,

慕容沖僭稱尊號于阿房，改年更始。堅與沖戰，各有勝負。嘗為沖軍所圍，殿中上將軍鄧邁、左中郎將鄧綏、尚書郎鄧瓊相謂曰：「吾門世荷榮寵，先君建殊功於國家，不可不立忠效節，以成先君之志。且不死君難者，非丈夫也。」於是與毛長樂等蒙獸皮，奮矛而擊沖軍。沖軍潰，堅獲免，嘉其忠勇，並拜五校，加三品將軍，賜爵關內侯。沖又遣其尚書令高蓋率眾夜襲長安，攻陷南門，入於南城。左將軍竇沖、前禁將軍李辯等擊敗之，斬首千八百級，分其屍而食之。堅尋敗沖於城西，追奔至於阿城。諸將請乘勝入城，堅懼為沖所獲，乃擊金以止軍。

while Murong Chong declared himself emperor at Epang under a new era name. Fu Jian and Murong Chong traded wins and losses, until Murong Chong trapped Fu Jian; the Deng cousins resolved to die for the throne their fathers had served, declaring that gentlemen die with their sovereign, donned hides and charged Murong Chong's line, Their sortie broke Murong Chong's ring and earned them rapid promotion, but Murong Chong sent Gao Gai in a night attack that breached the south gate, until Dou Chong and Li Bian slaughtered eighteen hundred attackers and devoured the dead, then Fu Jian drove Murong Chong back to Acheng. Generals wanted to storm Epang, but Fu Jian, fearing ambush, sounded the recall,

是時劉牢之至枋頭。征東參軍徐義、宦人孟豐告苻丕，楊膺、薑讓等謀反，丕收膺、讓戮之。牢之以丕自相屠戮，盤桓不進。

At the same time Liu Laizhi's relief column reached Fangtou. In Ye, eastern-expedition adjutant Xu Yi and the eunuch Meng Feng accused Yang Ying and Jiang Rang of plotting treason, whereupon Fu Pi arrested and executed both men. Liu Laizhi held his column back once Fu Pi began executing his own advisers.

苻暉屢為沖所敗，堅讓之曰：「汝，吾之子也，擁大眾，屢為白虜小兒所摧，何用生為！」暉憤恚自殺。關中堡壁三千餘所，推平遠將軍馮翊、趙敖為統主，相率結盟，遣兵糧助堅。左將軍苟池、右將軍俱石子率騎五千，與沖爭麥，戰於驪山，為沖所敗，池死之，石子奔鄴。堅大怒，復遣領軍楊定率左右精騎二千五百擊沖，大敗之，俘掠鮮卑萬餘而還。堅怒，悉坑之。定果勇善戰，沖深憚之，遂穿馬埳以自固。

Fu Hui kept losing to Murong Chong, so Fu Jian reviled him as a useless son who could not beat the Murong “children.” Humiliated, Fu Hui took his own life. Over three thousand Guanzhong forts rallied behind Zhao Ao of Fanyi, swore mutual aid, and convoyed supplies to Fu Jian. Gou Chi and Ju Shizi took five thousand horse to seize the wheat fields on Lishan, lost to Murong Chong, and left Gou Chi dead and Ju Shizi running for Ye. Fu Jian then sent Yang Ding with twenty-five hundred elite riders who routed Murong Chong and brought back ten thousand Xianbei captives. In a fury Fu Jian had those prisoners massacred in burial pits. Yang Ding’s prowess terrified Murong Chong into digging cavalry traps around his camp.

劉牢之至鄴，慕容垂北如新城。鄴中饑甚，丕率鄴城之眾就晉谷於枋頭。牢之入屯鄴城。慕容垂軍人饑甚，多奔中山，幽、冀人相食。初，關東謠曰：「幽州𡙇，生當滅。若不滅，百姓絕。」𡙇，垂之本名。與丕相持經年，百姓死幾絕。

Liu Laizhi’s arrival at Ye drew Murong Chui north toward Xincheng. Starving Ye surrendered its garrison to Jin grain ships at Fangtou. Liu Laizhi marched in and occupied Ye. Murong Chui’s army starved until men bolted for Zhongshan and cannibalism spread through You and Ji. A Hebei rhyme had long warned that “Youzhou 𡙇” must die— and that otherwise the people would be wiped out altogether.” The graph stood for Murong Chui’s birth name. A year’s stalemate between Murong Chui and Fu Pi left the countryside almost depopulated.

先是，姚萇攻新平，新平太守苟輔將降之，郡人遼西太守馮傑、蓮勺令馮翊等諫曰：「天下喪亂，忠臣乃見。昔田單守一城而存齊，今秦之所有，猶連州累鎮，郡國百城。臣子之于君父，盡心焉，盡力焉，死而後已，豈宜貳哉！」輔大悅，於是憑城固守。萇為土山地道，輔亦為之。或戰山峰，萇眾死者萬有餘人。輔乃詐降，萇將入，覺之，引眾而退。輔馳出擊之，斬獲萬計。至是，糧竭矢盡，外救不至，萇遣吏謂輔曰：「吾方以義取天下，豈仇忠臣乎？卿但率見眾男女還長婁，吾須此城置鎮。」輔以為然，率男女萬五千口出城，萇圍而坑之，男女無遺。初，石季龍末，清河崔悅為新平相，為郡人所殺。悅子液後仕堅，為尚書郎，自表父仇不同天地，請還冀州。堅湣之，禁錮新平人，缺其城角以恥之。新平酋望深以為慚，故相率距萇，以立忠義。

When Yao Chang besieged Xinping, Prefect Gou Fu wavered on surrender until Feng Jie and Feng Yi reminded him that loyal ministers shine in chaos, citing Tian Dan’s single-city defense of Qi and noting that Qin still held a hundred linked cities, and that a servant owes his prince every ounce of loyalty unto death. Heartened, Gou Fu chose to hold the walls. Yao Chang piled siege ramps and sapped tunnels; Gou Fu countered with the same. Fighting on the ridges cost Yao Chang over ten thousand men. Gou Fu’s sham capitulation nearly lured Yao Chang inside before he sensed the trap and pulled back. Gou Fu sallied and killed or captured nearly ten thousand troops. When supplies and arrows failed and no relief came, Yao Chang’s envoy swore he bore no grudge against loyalty, and asked Gou Fu to march every civilian out to “Changlou” so he could garrison the town— Trusting Yao Chang’s pledge, Gou Fu marched fifteen thousand civilians out of the walls; Yao Chang ringed them and buried every soul alive. Years before, Prefect Cui Yue of Qinghe had been murdered by Xinping locals under Later Zhao, and his son Cui Ye later served Fu Jian until he begged leave to avenge his father’s blood feud. Fu Jian pitied Cui Ye, humiliated Xinping by cropping its wall, and kept its notables under stigma, which spurred Xinping’s gentry to resist Yao Chang to the death.

時有群烏數萬，翔鳴于長安城上，其聲甚悲，占者以為鬥羽不終年，有甲兵入城之象。沖率眾登城，堅身貫甲胄，督戰距之，飛矢滿身，血流被體。時雖兵寇危逼，馮翊諸堡壁猶有負糧冒難而至者，多為賊所殺。堅謂之曰：「聞來者率不善達，誠是忠臣赴難之義。當今寇難殷繁，非一人之力所能濟也。庶明靈有照，禍極災返，善保誠順，為國自愛，蓄糧厲甲，端聽師期，不可徒喪無成，相隨獸口。」三輔人為沖所略者，咸遣使告堅，請放火以為內應。堅曰：「哀諸卿忠誠之意也，何復已已。但時運圮喪，恐無益于國，空使諸卿坐自夷滅，吾所不忍也。且吾精兵若獸，利器如霜，而衄于烏合疲鈍之賊，豈非天也！宜善思之。」眾固請曰：「臣等不愛性命，投身為國，若上天有靈，單誠或冀一濟，沒無遺恨矣。」堅遣騎七百應之。而沖營放火者為風焰所燒，其能免者十有一二。堅深痛之，身為設祭而招之曰：「有忠有靈，來就此庭。歸汝先父，勿為妖形。」歔欷流涕，悲不自勝。眾咸相謂曰：「至尊慈恩如此，吾等有死無移。」沖毒暴關中，人皆流散，道路斷絕，千里無煙。堅以甘松護軍仇騰為馮翊太守，加輔國將軍，與破虜將軍蜀人蘭犢慰勉馮翊諸縣之眾。眾咸曰：「與陛下同死共生，誓無有貳。」

Ten thousand crows wheeling above Chang’an shrieking like battle omens foretold steel inside the walls. Murong Chong stormed the battlements while Fu Jian, armored and arrow-riddled, led the defense in person. Even under siege, loyal forts in Fanyi tried to smuggle grain to Chang’an, though Murong’s pickets killed most couriers. Fu Jian told survivors that their loyalty shone though few got through, and that the crisis was beyond any single man’s strength, begging them to husband strength, hoard grain and armor, and wait for a concerted rising instead of throwing themselves away. People Murong Chong had dragged from the Guanzhong heartland offered to light fires inside his camps as signals for Fu Jian. Fu Jian thanked them but refused, fearing their arson would only annihilate loyalists without helping the throne. He added that crack Qin troops should not lose to rabble unless Heaven willed it, and asked them to reconsider. They insisted they would gladly die for a chance at success, so Fu Jian sent seven hundred riders to coordinate. Wind whipped Murong Chong’s own fires back on the volunteers, killing nine in ten. Fu Jian held a public requiem, calling the spirits of the dead to his courtyard, asking them to rest with their ancestors and cease haunting as demons, and wept until he could not contain himself. Onlookers vowed they would die for such a sovereign, while Murong Chong’s cruelty emptied the roads for a thousand li. He appointed Qiu Teng and the Shu general Lan Du to rally Fanyi’s counties. The militias swore to live or die with him alone.

每夜有周城大呼曰：「楊定健兒應屬我，宮殿台觀應坐我，父子同出不共汝。」且尋而不見人跡。城中有書曰《古符傳賈錄》，載「帝出五將久長得」。先是，又謠曰：「堅入五將山長得。」堅大信之，告其太子宏曰：「脫如此言，天或導予。今留汝兼總戎政，勿與賊爭利，朕當出隴收兵運糧以給汝。天其或者正訓予也。」於是遣衛將軍楊定擊沖於城西，為沖所擒。堅彌懼，付宏以後事，將中山公詵、張夫人率騎數百出如五將，宣告州郡，期以孟冬救長安。宏尋將母妻宗室男女數千騎出奔，百僚逃散。慕容沖入據長安，從兵大掠，死者不可勝計。

Nightly voices circled Chang’an claiming Yang Ding’s veterans and the palace for themselves, yet searches found no one. A prophetic book in the city read “The Son of Heaven flees to the Five Generals Mountain and endures long.” A street rhyme had said Fu Jian would find life on Five Generals Mountain, so Fu Jian told Crown Prince Fu Hong he meant to obey Heaven’s roadmap, charging Hong to avoid risky sorties while he himself rode to Long to raise reinforcements and grain, calling the retreat Heaven’s lesson. He first sent Yang Ding west of the city, but Murong Chong captured him. Terror-stricken, he entrusted the capital to Fu Hong and rode toward Five Generals Mountain with Fu Shen, Lady Zhang, and a few hundred horse, promising a winter relief campaign. Fu Hong promptly fled with the women of the harem and thousands of clansmen while the bureaucracy evaporated. Murong Chong’s horde sacked Chang’an beyond counting of corpses.

初，秦之未亂也，關中土然，無火而煙氣大起，方數十里中，月餘不滅。堅每臨聽訟觀，令百姓有怨者舉煙於城北，觀而錄之。長安為之語曰：「欲得必存當舉煙。」又為謠曰：「長鞘馬鞭擊左股，太歲南行當復虜。」秦人呼鮮卑為白虜。慕容垂之起於關東，歲在癸末。堅之分氐戶于諸鎮也，趙整因侍，援琴而歌曰：「阿得脂，阿得脂，博勞舊父是仇綏，尾長翼短不能飛，遠徙種人留鮮卑，一旦緩急語阿誰！」堅笑而不納。至是，整言驗矣。

Before the war smoke had risen from bare earth across dozens of li for a month—an uncanny omen. Fu Jian had once invited citizens to signal injustice with smoke north of town, so Chang’an joked that survival meant lighting warning fires, while another rhyme spoke of whips, the planet Tai Sui, and capturing “white barbarians”— Qin slang for Murong’s Xianbei. Murong Chui’s rebellion came in the guiwei year, and when Fu Jian scattered Di colonists Zhao Zheng had sung a nonsense song mocking Di tails and Xianbei wings, which Fu Jian laughed off, until every line came true.

堅至五將山，姚萇遣將軍吳忠圍之。堅眾奔散，獨侍御十數人而已。神色自若，坐而待之，召宰人進食。俄而忠至，執堅以歸新平，幽之於別室。萇求傳國璽於堅曰：「萇次膺符曆，可以為惠。」堅瞋目叱之曰：「小羌乃敢幹逼天子，豈以傳國璽授汝羌也，圖緯符命，何所依據？五胡次序，無汝羌名。違天不祥，其能久乎！璽已送晉，不可得也。」萇又遣尹緯說堅，求為堯、舜禪代之事。堅責緯曰：「禪代者，聖賢之事。姚萇叛賊，奈何擬之古人！」堅既不許萇以禪代，罵而求死，萇乃縊堅于新平佛寺中，時年四十八。中山公詵及張夫人並自殺。是歲太元十年也。

At Five Generals Mountain Yao Chang’s general Wu Zhong ringed Fu Jian’s camp. The last retainers melted away until a handful of chamber attendants stayed. Fu Jian kept his composure, sat waiting, and called for a meal, until Wu Zhong seized him and locked him in Xinping, where Yao Chang demanded the jade seal, claiming the mandate now fell to him, Fu Jian glared and called him a petty Qiang usurper with no claim to the heirloom, citing the old “Five Hu” roll that never listed the Qiang, and swore Heaven would punish such treason, insisting the true seal was already bound for Jin. Yao Chang then sent Yin Wei urging a Yao-Shun style abdication, Fu Jian retorted that abdication belonged to sages, not to a traitor like Yao Chang, and when Fu Jian kept defying and demanding death, Yao Chang strangled him in a Xinping monastery at age forty-eight. Fu Shen and Lady Zhang killed themselves with him. It was the tenth year of the Jin Taiyuan era.

宏之奔也，歸其南秦州刺史楊璧于下辯，璧距之，乃奔武翥氐豪強熙，假道歸順，朝廷處宏于江州。宏歷位元輔國將軍。桓玄篡位，以宏為梁州刺史。義熙初，以謀叛被誅。

Fu Hong first sought Yang Bi at Xiabian, was turned away, detoured through Wudu Di territory to surrender to Jin, and was parked at Jiangzhou, where he rose to general who aids the state, later named Liangzhou inspector under Huan Xuan’s usurpation, and executed early in the Yixi era for plotting revolt.

初，堅強盛之時，國有童謠云：「河水清復清，苻詔死新城。」堅聞而惡之，每征伐，戒軍候云：「地有名新者避之。」時又童謠云：「阿堅連牽三十年，若後欲敗當在江、淮間。」堅在位二十七年，因壽春之敗，其國大亂，後二年，竟死于新平佛寺，咸應謠言矣。丕僭號，偽追諡堅曰世祖宣昭皇帝。

Children’s songs from Fu Jian’s zenith had foretold a “Fu Zhao” dying at Xincheng, so he ordered armies to skirt every place called “New,” while another rhyme tied his twenty-seven-year reign to disaster on the Huai line, which proved true: twenty-seven years of rule, the Feishui debacle, and death two years later in Xinping matched every omen. After Fu Pi declared himself emperor he canonized Fu Jian posthumously as Shizu’s “Shining Manifest” emperor.

王猛

Wang Meng.

王猛，字景略，北海劇人也，家于魏郡。少貧賤，以鬻畚為業。嘗貨畚於洛陽，乃有一人貴買其畚，而雲無直，自言：「家去此無遠，可隨我取直。」猛利其貴而從之，行不覺遠，忽至深山，見一父老，鬚髮皓然，踞胡床而坐，左右十許人，有一人引猛進拜之。父老曰：「王公何緣拜也！」乃十倍償畚直，遣人送之。猛既出，顧視，乃嵩高山也。

Wang Meng, courtesy name Jinglue, came from Ju county in Beihai but had settled his household in Wei commandery, growing up in poverty he earned a living peddling carrying baskets, and once in Luoyang a customer overpaid for his baskets yet claimed to have no money on hand, inviting him home to collect payment. Wang Meng took the bait of an inflated price and followed the buyer into the hills until they came to a white-haired patriarch enthroned on a camp stool with a handful of attendants. The elder waved off his prostration, asking why a future lord should bow, then paid ten times the asking price and sent him home with an escort. Looking back, Wang Meng realized he had been on Mount Song,

猛瑰姿俊偉。博學好兵書，謹重嚴毅，氣度雄遠，細事不幹其慮，自不參其神契，略不與交通，是以浮華之士咸輕而笑之。猛悠然自得，不以屑懷。少游于鄴都，時人罕能識也。惟徐統見而奇之，召為功曹。遁而不應，遂隱于華陰山。懷佐世之志，希龍顏之主，斂翼待時，候風雲而後動。桓溫入關，猛被褐而詣之，一面談當世之事，捫虱而言，旁若無人。溫察而異之，問曰：「吾奉天子之命，率銳師十萬，杖義討逆，為百姓除殘賊，而三秦豪傑未有至者何也？」猛曰：「公不遠數千里，深入寇境，長安咫尺而不渡灞水，百姓未見公心故也，所以不至。」溫默然無以酬之。溫之將還，賜猛車馬，拜高官督護，請與俱南。猛還山咨師，師曰：「卿與桓溫豈並世哉！在此自可富貴，何為遠乎！」猛乃止。

Wang Meng was strikingly tall and handsome, well read in the military classics, grave and aloof, disdainful of petty company, which made fashionable men mock him, yet he remained serenely indifferent to their scorn. In his youth he wandered Ye, little noticed by contemporaries, until Xu Tong singled him out and offered him a clerkship, which he declined, preferring reclusion on Mount Huayin, biding his time for a dragon-faced ruler worthy of his talent. When Huan Wen marched into Guanzhong, Wang Meng met him in homespun, spoke of statecraft while picking lice as coolly as if alone, and Huan Wen asked why no Qin notables had rallied to his hundred-thousand-man crusade, Wang Meng answered that Huan Wen's refusal to ford the Ba and strike Chang'an showed the people he lacked true resolve, leaving Huan Wen speechless, who then offered Wang Meng rich gifts and a staff post to lure him south, but Wang Meng's teacher asked whether he could ever share an era with Huan Wen, and said wealth and honor were already at hand in the north, so Wang Meng stayed,

苻堅將有大志，聞猛名，遣呂婆樓招之，一見便若平生。語及廢興大事，異符同契，若玄德之遇孔明也。及堅僭位，以猛為中書侍郎。時始平多枋頭西歸之人，豪右縱橫，劫盜充斥，乃轉猛為始平令。猛下車，明法峻刑，澄察善惡，禁勒強豪。鞭殺一吏，百姓上書訟之，有司劾奏，檻車征下廷尉詔獄。堅親問之，曰：「為政之體，德化為先，蒞任未幾而殺戮無數，何其酷也！」猛曰：「臣聞宰甯國以禮，治亂邦以法。陛下不以臣不才，任臣以劇邑，謹為明君翦除凶猾。始殺一奸，余尚萬數，若以臣不能窮殘盡暴，肅清軌法者，敢不甘心鼎鑊，以謝孤負。酷政之刑，臣實未敢受之。」堅謂群臣曰：「王景略固是夷吾、子產之儔也。」於是赦之。

When Fu Jian sought greatness, he sent Lü Polou to fetch Wang Meng; their first meeting felt like old friendship, and their talk of rise and fall matched like Liu Bei meeting Zhuge Liang, Fu Jian appointed him palace secretariat gentleman on taking the throne, then sent him to magistrate Pingyuan, a county swarming with Fangtou veterans and bandit magnates, where he enforced harsh justice, sorted good from evil, and crushed local bullies, until a flogged-to-death clerk triggered a lawsuit and his impeachment to imperial prison, Fu Jian personally challenged him for slaughtering so many so soon, Wang Meng replied that orderly states need rites while ruined regions need law, and that Fu Jian had posted him to a violent border to cull predators for a wise sovereign, adding that one execution left myriad villains and offering his own life if he failed to pacify the district, but refusing the charge of cruel governance itself, Fu Jian then told the court Wang Meng rivaled Guan Zhong and Zichan, and pardoned him,

遷尚書左丞、咸陽內史、京兆尹。未幾，除吏部尚書、太子詹事，又遷尚書左僕射、輔國將軍、司隸校尉，加騎都尉，居中宿衛。時猛年三十六，歲中五遷，權傾內外，宗戚舊臣皆害其寵。尚書仇騰、丞相長史席寶數譖毀之，堅大怒，黜騰為甘松護軍，寶白衣領長史。爾後上下咸服，莫有敢言。頃之，遷尚書令、太子太傅，加散騎常侍。猛頻表累讓，堅竟不許。又轉司徒、錄尚書事，余如故。猛辭以無功，不拜。

promoting him through capital posts, then within a year to director of personnel, tutor to the crown prince, left vice-director, colonel of retainer, and imperial guard, five promotions in one year at age thirty-six made him the most powerful man at court and the target of envy, until Fu Jian banished Qiu Teng and humiliated Xi Bao for slandering him, after which no one dared criticize Wang Meng, Soon he added director of the secretariat and grand tutor, though Wang Meng repeatedly begged off, Fu Jian piled on minister of education and recorder of affairs, which Wang Meng refused for want of merit,

後率諸軍討慕容暐，軍禁嚴明，師無私犯。猛之未至鄴也，劫盜公行，及猛之至，遠近帖然，燕人安之。軍還，以功進封清河郡侯，賜以美妾五人，上女妓十二人，中妓三十八人，馬百匹，車十乘。猛上疏固辭不受。

then led the conquest of Former Yan under iron discipline, so that banditry vanished the moment his army entered Ye, earning a marquisate, concubines, musicians, horses, and carriages, all of which he tried to return,

時既留鎮冀州，堅遣猛於六州之內聽以便宜從事，簡召英俊，以補關東守宰，授訖，言台除正。居數月，上疏曰：「臣前所以朝聞夕拜，不顧艱虞者，正以方難未夷，軍機權速，庶竭命戎行，甘驅馳之役，敷宣皇威，展筋骨之效，故僶俛從事，叨據負乘，可謂恭命于濟時，俟太平於今日。今聖德格於皇天，威靈被於八表，弘化已熙，六合清泰，竊敢披貢丹誠，請避賢路。設官分職，各有司存，豈應孤任愚臣，以速傾敗！東夏之事，非臣區區所能康理，願徙授親賢，濟臣顛墜。若以臣有鷹犬微勤，未忍捐棄者，乞待罪一州，效盡力命。徐方始賓，淮、汝防重，六州處分，府選便宜，輒以悉停。督任弗可虛曠，深願時降神規。」堅不許，遣其侍中梁讜詣鄴喻旨，猛乃視事如前。

while garrisoning Ji he held discretionary personnel power over six provinces to staff the northeast, he then memorialized that he had accepted rapid promotions only for wartime urgency, but now that the realm was pacified he begged to step aside for worthier men, arguing that fixed offices should not be monopolized by one minister, that eastern China needed princely governors, not himself, or at most let him serve as a humble prefect, and asked to end his extraordinary six-province personnel powers, begging Fu Jian to replace him before disaster struck, Fu Jian refused, sent Liang Dan to Ye with the emperor's word, and Wang Meng stayed in office,

俄入為丞相、中書監、尚書令、太子太傅、司隸校尉，持節、常侍、將軍、侯如故。稍加都督中外諸軍事。猛表讓久之。堅曰：「卿昔螭蟠布衣，朕龍潛弱冠，屬世事紛紜，厲士之際，顛覆厥德。朕奇卿於暫見，擬卿為臥龍，卿亦異朕於一言，回《考槃》之雅志，豈不精契神交，千載之會！雖傅岩入夢，薑公悟兆，今古一時，亦不殊也。自卿輔政，幾將二紀，內厘百揆，外蕩群凶，天下向定，彝倫始敘。朕且欲從容於上，望卿勞心於下，弘濟之務，非卿而誰！」遂不許。其後數年，復授司徒。猛復上疏曰：「臣聞乾象盈虛，惟後則之；位稱以才，官非則曠。鄭武翼周，仍世載詠；王叔昧寵，政替身亡，斯則成敗之殷監，為臣之炯戒。竊惟鼎宰崇重，參路太階，宜妙盡時賢，對揚休命。魏祖以文和為公，貽笑孫後；千秋一言致相，匈奴吲之。臣何庸狷，而應斯舉！不但取嗤鄰遠，實令為虜輕秦。昔東野窮馭，顏子知其將弊。陛下不復料度臣之才力，私懼敗亡是及。且上虧憲典，臣何顏處之！雖陛下私臣，其如天下何！願回日月之鑒，矜臣後悔，使上無過授之謗，臣蒙覆燾之恩。」堅竟不從。猛乃受命。軍國內外萬機之務，事無巨細，莫不歸之。

soon summoning him to court as chancellor, secretariat overseer, and colonel while keeping his old titles, and added grand military command over all armies, Wang Meng long declined the added command, Fu Jian reminisced how they had met as obscure youths in chaotic times, calling their bond a once-a-millennium match like Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, likening them to King Wu's dream of Fu Yue and Jiang Ziya's omen, praising two dozen years of order at home and victory abroad, and begging Wang Meng to keep bearing the load, Fu Jian refused every demurral, and later pressed the minister of education title again, Wang Meng cited cosmic cycles and proper matching of talent to office, warning that titles without talent hollowed the state, praising Duke Wu of Zheng, contrasting the Western Zhou prince who fell from favor, arguing the minister of education required a worthier man, citing Cao Cao's controversial choice of Jia Xu, and Han's minister Zhang Qianqiu mocked by the steppe, protesting his own mediocrity, fearing Jin would mock Qin for over-promoting him, citing Confucius's parable of an over-driven chariot, and warning he would break like Dongye's horses, that accepting would shame the law, and that private favor could not answer the realm, asking Fu Jian to revoke the edict to protect both throne and minister, Fu Jian still refused, so Wang Meng accepted, and every civil and military decision passed through his hands,

猛宰政公平，流放屍素，拔幽滯，顯賢才，外修兵革，內綜儒學，勸課農桑，教以廉恥，無罪而不刑，無才而不任，庶績咸熙，百揆時敘。於是兵強國富，垂及升平，猛之力也。堅嘗從容謂猛曰：「卿夙夜匪懈，憂勤萬機，若文王得太公，吾將優遊以卒歲。」猛曰：「不圖陛下知臣之過，臣何足以擬古人！」堅曰：「以吾觀之，太公豈能過也。」常敕其太子宏、長樂公丕等曰：「汝事王公，如事我也。」其見重如此。

where he purged drones, promoted talent, balanced war and culture, enforced law and agriculture until the machinery of state ran clear, bringing Qin toward prosperity and peace through his effort, Fu Jian compared him to Jiang Taigong freeing a king to rest, Wang Meng demurred, but Fu Jian insisted he surpassed even Jiang Taigong, and ordered the princes to obey Wang Meng as they would the throne, such was the weight Fu Jian placed on him,

廣平麻思流寄關右，因母亡歸葬，請還冀州。猛謂思曰：「便可速裝，是暮已符卿發遣。」及始出關，郡縣已被符管攝。其令行禁整，事無留滯，皆此類也。性剛明清肅，于善惡尤分。微時一餐之惠，睚眦之忿，靡不報焉，時論頗以此少之。

When Ma Si of Guangping sought leave to bury his mother in Hebei, Wang Meng told him to pack at once because orders were already cut, and before Ma Si cleared the pass every county had the paperwork, a sample of how nothing stalled in his administration, He was rigidly fair and quick to judge character, yet he repaid every slight and favor, which some critics thought petty,

其年寢疾，堅親祈南北郊、宗廟、社稷，分遣侍臣禱河岳諸祀，靡不周備。猛疾未瘳，乃大赦其境內殊死已下。猛疾甚，因上疏謝恩，並言時政，多所弘益。堅覽之流涕，悲慟左右。及疾篤，堅親臨省病，問以後事。猛曰：「晉雖僻陋吳、越，乃正朔相承。親仁善鄰，國之寶也。臣沒之後，願不以晉為圖。鮮卑、羌虜，我之仇也，終為人患，宜漸除之，以便社稷。」言終而死，時年五十一。堅哭之慟。比斂，三臨，謂太子宏曰：「天不欲使吾平一六合邪？何奪吾景略之速也！」贈侍中，丞相余如故。給東園溫明秘器，帛三千匹，谷萬石。謁者僕射監護喪事，葬禮一依漢大將軍故事。諡曰武侯。朝野巷哭三日。

When Wang Meng fell ill Fu Jian prayed at every state cult, and issued a sweeping amnesty short of capital crimes, Wang Meng's deathbed memorial thanked the throne and offered policy advice, moving Fu Jian to tears that shook the whole court, At the last Fu Jian visited his bedside to ask for a final testament, Wang Meng began his deathbed counsel by declaring that the Jin court, however marginal, still held the legitimate succession of the calendar. Wang Meng urged Fu Jian to cherish good relations with neighbors as a state's greatest asset, and after his death begged him not to make Jin his objective, warning that Xianbei and Qiang settlers would remain a mortal threat and should be thinned out for Qin's safety, then fell silent and died at fifty-one. Fu Jian mourned him bitterly, visiting the bier thrice to ask the crown prince whether Heaven blocked his conquest, or only meant to rob him of Wang Meng, posthumously adding palace attendant to his old titles, with imperial-grade coffin fittings, three thousand bolts of silk, and ten thousand shi of grain, and a herald supervising rites modeled on Han grand generals, canonizing him as Marquis Martial, while capital and countryside keened for three days.

苻融

Fu Rong.

苻融，字博休，堅之季弟也。少而岐嶷夙成，魁偉美姿度。健之世封安樂王，融上疏固辭，健深奇之，曰：「且成吾兒箕山之操。」乃止。苻生愛其器貌，常侍左右，未弱冠便有台輔之望。長而令譽彌高，為朝野所屬。堅僭號，拜侍中，尋除中軍將軍。融聰辯明慧，下筆成章，至於談玄論道，雖道安無以出之。耳聞則誦，過目不忘，時人擬之王粲。嘗著《浮圖賦》，壯麗清贍，世咸珍之。未有升高不賦，臨喪不誄，硃彤、趙整等推其妙速。旅力雄勇，騎射擊刺，百夫之敵也。銓綜內外，刑政修理，進才理滯，王景略之流也。尤善斷獄，奸無所容，故為堅所委任。

Fu Rong, courtesy Bohou, was Fu Jian's youngest brother, precocious and strikingly handsome, refused a princedom under Fu Jian so Fu Jian could honor his Mount Ji purity, so the enfeoffment lapsed, Fu Sheng kept him at court from boyhood, already marked for high office, and his reputation grew until the realm looked to him, Fu Jian named him palace attendant then central-army general, brilliant at letters and metaphysics, the match of even Dao'an, with memory and recitation likened to Wang Can, and a Stupa rhapsody prized by the world, never omitting verse on heights or dirges at mourning—Zhu Tong and Zhao Zheng marveled at his speed, while in arms he rivaled a hundred soldiers, and in governance he ranked with Wang Meng, his legal insight so keen that Fu Jian relied on him utterly,

後為司隸校尉。京兆人董豐遊學三年而返，過宿妻家，是夜妻為賊所殺。妻兄疑豐殺之，送豐有司。豐不堪楚掠，誣引殺妻。融察而疑之，問曰：「汝行往還，頗有怪異及卜筮以不？」豐曰：「初將發，夜夢乘馬南渡水，返而北渡，復自北而南，馬停水中，鞭策不去。俯而視之，見兩日在於水下，馬左白而濕，右黑而燥。寤而心悸，竊以為不祥。還之夜，復夢如初，問之筮者，筮者云：'憂獄訟，遠三枕，避三沐。 '既至，妻為具沐，夜授豐枕。豐記筮者之言，皆不從之。妻乃自沐，枕枕而寢。」融曰：「吾知之矣。《周易》《坎》為水，馬為《離》，夢乘馬南渡，旋北而南者，從《坎》之《離》。三爻同變，變而成《離》。《離》為中女，《坎》為中男。兩日，二夫之象。《坎》為執法吏。吏詰其夫，婦人被流血而死。《坎》二陰一陽，《離》二陽一陰，相承易位。《離》下《坎》上，《既濟》，文王遇之囚牖裏，有禮而生，無禮而死。馬左而濕，濕，水也，左水右馬，馮字也。兩日，昌字也。其馮昌殺之乎！」於是推檢，獲昌而詰之，昌具首服，曰：「本與其妻謀殺董豐，期以新沐枕枕為驗，是以誤中婦人。」在冀州，有老母遇劫于路，母揚聲唱盜，行人為母逐之。既擒劫者，劫者返誣行人為盜。時日垂暮，母及路人莫知孰是，乃俱送之。融見而笑曰：「此易知耳，可二人並走，先出鳳陽門者非盜。」既而還入，融正色謂後出者曰：「汝真是盜，何以誣人！」其發奸摘伏，皆此類也。所在盜賊止息，路不拾遺。堅及朝臣雅皆嘆服，州郡疑獄莫不折之於融。融觀色察形，無不盡其情狀。雖鎮關東，朝之大事靡不馳驛與融議之。

later making him colonel of the capital, When Dong Feng visited his in-laws and his wife was murdered overnight, her brother accused Dong Feng, who confessed under torture, Fu Rong reopened the case, asking about dreams and omens, Dong Feng described a dream of a horse stalled between waters, with twin suns under the ford and a two-colored horse, which had unnerved him, and a diviner's warning against fresh pillows and baths, yet his wife offered both, which Dong Feng had tried to refuse, until she took the new bath and pillow herself, Fu Rong declared he saw the solution, citing hexagrams Kan and Li, and their moving lines, as middle daughter and middle son, reading two suns as two husbands, Kan as law officer, predicting bloodshed for the wife, and yin-yang swaps, likening the case to King Wen at Youli, decoding wet white as the surname Feng, two suns as the given name Chang, pointing to Feng Chang as killer, Feng Chang confessed he had meant to kill Dong Feng but killed the wife by mistake, In another case an old woman cried thief, but the captured man accused his rescuers, and at dusk Fu Rong received both parties, ordering a race out Fengyang Gate, then denounced the slower runner as the true bandit, such was his knack for exposing hidden guilt, under him theft vanished and lost goods stayed put, until every doubtful case in the provinces came to Fu Rong, reading faces and facts with uncanny completeness, and even while holding the eastern front he advised every capital crisis by courier,

性至孝，初屆冀州，遣使參問其母動止，或日有再三。堅以為煩，月聽一使。後上疏請還侍養，堅遣使慰喻不許。久之，徵拜侍中、中書監、都督中外諸軍事、車騎大將軍、司隸校尉、太子太傅、領宗正、錄尚書事。俄轉司徒，融苦讓不受。融為將善謀略，好施愛士，專方征伐，必有殊功。

sending thrice-daily couriers to his mother when he first took Ji, until Fu Jian limited him to one a month, his request to go home denied, before a raft of summons brought him to grand tutor, colonel, and recorder, though he refused the minister of education title, as a commander he was generous, beloved of troops, and always distinguished in the field,

堅既有意荊、揚，時慕容垂、姚萇等常說堅以平吳封禪之事，堅謂江東可平，寢不暇旦。融每諫曰：「知足不辱，知止不殆，窮兵極武，未有不亡。且國家，戎族也，正朔會不歸人。江東雖不絕如綖，然天之所相，終不可滅。」堅曰：「帝王歷數豈有常哉，惟德之所授耳！汝所以不如吾者，正病此不達變通大運。劉禪可非漢之遺祚，然終為中國之所並。吾將任汝以天下之事，奈何事事折吾，沮壞大謀！汝尚如此，況於眾乎！」堅之將入寇也，融又切切諫曰：「陛下聽信鮮卑、羌虜諂諛之言，採納良家少年利口之說，臣恐非但無成，亦大事去矣。垂、萇皆我之仇敵，思聞風塵之變，冀因之以逞其凶德。少年等皆富足子弟，希關軍旅，苟說佞諂之言，以會陛下之意，不足采也。」堅弗納。及淮南之敗，垂、萇之叛，堅悼恨彌深。

When Murong Chui and Yao Chang flattered Fu Jian with talk of conquering Wu and Feng-Shan rites, Fu Jian burned to march south, Fu Rong answered that greed and endless war destroyed states, and that a tribal Qin could not inherit the mandate forever, while Jin, however feeble, still enjoyed Heaven's favor, Fu Jian retorted that dynastic fate followed virtue, not pedigree, blaming Fu Rong's lack of vision, citing Liu Shan's absorption by Wei, and accusing Fu Rong of sabotaging his world conquest, asking how worse the crowd must be, On the eve of the southern invasion Fu Rong warned that Xianbei, Qiang, and brash youths would ruin the campaign, Murong Chui and Yao Chang, he said, prayed for Qin's collapse, and the noble youths were useless flatterers, Fu Jian ignored him, until Feishui and the Murong-Yao revolts deepened Fu Jian's regret,

苻朗

Fu Lang.

苻朗，字元達，堅之從兄子也。性宏達，神氣爽邁，幼懷遠操，不屑時榮。堅嘗目之曰：「吾家千里駒也。」徵拜鎮東將軍、青州刺史，封樂安男，不得已起而就官。及為方伯，有若素士，耽玩經籍，手不釋卷，每談虛語玄，不覺日之將夕；登涉山水，不知老之將至。在任甚有稱績。

Fu Lang, courtesy Yuanda, was Fu Jian's nephew, open-minded and aloof from vulgar ambition, so Fu Jian called him the family's thousand-li colt, then summoned to Qingzhou despite his reluctance, governing like a scholar, lost in books and abstruse talk until nightfall, hiking mountains unaware of age, and earning praise in office,

後晉遣淮陰太守高素伐青州，朗遣使詣謝玄于彭城求降，玄表朗許之，詔加員外散騎侍郎。既至揚州，風流邁于一時，超然自得，志陵萬物，所與悟言，不過一二人而已。驃騎長史王忱，江東之俊秀，聞而詣之，朗稱疾不見。沙門釋法汰問朗曰：「見王吏部兄弟未？」朗曰：「吏部為誰？非人面而狗心、狗面而人心兄弟者乎？」王忱醜而才慧，國寶美貌而才劣于弟，故朗雲然。汰悵然自失。其忤物侮人，皆此類也。

surrendering Qing to Jin's Gao Su via Xie Xuan and receiving a Jin sinecure, he cut a singular figure in Yangzhou, condescending to almost everyone, snubbing even the brilliant Wang Chen, until monk Fatuo asked if he had met the Wang brothers, Fu Lang replied, 'Which personnel director?', calling them men with dogs' hearts and dogs with men's faces, mocking ugly clever Wang Chen and handsome dull Wang Guobao, leaving Fatuo speechless, such insults typified his arrogance,

謝安常設宴請之，朝士盈坐，並機褥壺席。朗每事欲誇之，唾則令小兒跪而張口，既唾而含出，頃復如之，坐者為不及之遠也。又善識味，咸酢及肉皆別所由。會稽王司馬道子為朗設盛饌，極江左精肴。食訖，問曰：「關中之食孰若此？」答曰：「皆好，惟鹽味小生耳。」既問宰夫，皆如其言。或人殺雞以食之，既進，朗曰：「此雞棲恆半露。」檢之，皆驗。又食鵝肉，知黑白之處。人不信，記而試之，無豪厘之差。時人咸以為知味。

when Xie An feasted him amid packed ministers and floor mats. Fu Lang turned every habit into a spectacle: he made boys kneel with mouths open to receive his spit, then spit again, leaving guests unable to rival his outrageousness, and claimed he could taste the provenance of salt, vinegar, and every cut of meat, when Sima Daozi laid a banquet of Jiangzuo's finest, he asked how Guanzhong cuisine compared, Fu Lang allowed that everything was excellent but the salt tasted a shade under-cured, and kitchen staff confirmed each detail, tasting a chicken, he declared its coop had been half open to the weather, and inspection proved him right, with goose he could map every patch of dark and light meat, skeptics who marked cuts found him exact to a hair, so contemporaries hailed him as a connoisseur,

後數年，王國寶譖而殺之。王忱將為荊州刺史，待殺朗而後發。臨刑，志色自若，為詩曰：「四大起何因？聚散無窮已。既過一生中，又入一死理。冥心乘和暢，未覺有終始。如何箕山夫，奄焉處東市！曠此百年期，遠同嵇叔子。命也歸自天，委化任冥紀。」著《苻子》數十篇行於世，亦《老》《莊》之流也。

until Wang Guobao's slander brought his execution, Wang Chen delayed his Jingzhou posting until Fu Lang was dead, At the block he stayed composed, composing verse on Buddhist themes, on gathering and scattering without end, on leaving one life for death's realm, on resting in equanimity beyond beginnings and ends, lamenting that a recluse like Mount Ji's sage should die at the execution ground, likening his fate to Ji Shao's, and resigning fate to Heaven's dark ledger, His collected essays, the Master Fu, circulated in the Zhuangzi tradition.

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