1
韓滉，字太沖，太子少師休之子也。 少貞介好學，以廕解褐左威衛騎曹參軍，出為同官主簿。 至德初，青齊節度鄧景山辟為判官，授監察御史、兼北海郡司馬，以道路阻絕，因避地山南。 采訪使李承昭奏充判官，授通州長史、彭王府諮議參軍。 鄧景山移鎮淮南，又表為賓佐，未行，除殿中侍御史，追赴京師。 先是，滉兄法知制誥，草王玙拜官之詞，不加虛美，玙頗銜之。 及其秉政，諸使奏滉兄弟者，必以冗官授之。 玙免相，群議稱其屈，累遷至祠部、孝功、吏部三員外郎。
Han Huang, courtesy name Taichong, was the son of Xiu, who had served as Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince. As a young man he was upright and studious; through hereditary privilege he began his career as cavalry adjutant in the Left Weiming Guard and was later posted as registrar at Tongguan. Early in the Zhide era, Deng Jingshan, military governor of Qing and Qi, took him on as aide; he received appointment as investigative censor and concurrent militia marshal of Beihai commandery; when travel routes were cut off, he withdrew to the Shannan region. The investigation commissioner Li Chengzhao memorialized that he serve as aide; he was granted the posts of tongzhou administrator and staff adviser in the Prince of Peng's establishment. When Deng Jingshan moved his headquarters to Huainan, he again nominated Huang as a staff aide; before Huang could take up the post, he was appointed palace attendant censor and ordered to the capital. Earlier, Huang's elder brother Fa had been responsible for drafting edicts; when he composed the text appointing Wang Yu, he had not padded it with empty praise, and Yu took strong offense. Once Yu was in power, whenever memorials came in concerning the Huang brothers, he always assigned them to nominal posts. After Yu was removed from the chancellorship, opinion held that they had been treated unjustly; Huang rose in succession through external vacancies in the ministries of rites, filial achievement, and personnel.
2
滉公潔強直，明於吏道，判南曹凡五年，詳究簿書，無遺纖隱。 大曆中，改吏部郎中、給事中。 時盜殺富平令韋當，縣吏捕獲賊黨，而名隸北軍，監軍魚朝恩以有武材，請詔原其罪，滉密疏駁奏，賊遂伏辜。 遷尚書右丞。 五年，知兵部選。 六年，改戶部侍郎、判度支。 自至德、乾元已後，所在軍興，賦稅無度，帑藏給納，多務因循。 滉既掌司計，清勤檢轄，不容奸妄，下吏及四方行綱過犯者，必痛繩之。 又屬大曆五年已後，蕃戎罕侵，連歲豐稔，故滉能儲積穀帛，帑藏稍實。 然苛克頗甚，覆治案牘，勾剝深文，人多咨怨。
Huang had a reputation for integrity and firmness and was sharp in administrative matters; he handled judgments in the Southern Bureau for five years, scrutinizing registers down to the smallest detail. During the Dali reign he was transferred to director in the Ministry of Personnel and drafting attendant. At that time robbers killed Wei Dang, magistrate of Fuping county; county clerks seized the gang, but their names were registered with the northern armies; the army supervisor Yu Chaoen, citing their martial talent, asked for an edict to pardon them; Huang sent a confidential memorial arguing against this, and the criminals were put to death. He was promoted to vice director of the right secretariat. In the fifth year he took charge of military appointments. In the sixth year he became vice minister of revenue and commissioner of the treasury. From the Zhide and Qianyuan periods onward, wherever the state raised armies, levies knew no bounds, and treasury intake and disbursement mostly drifted along unchanged. Once Huang controlled the accounts, he worked diligently and audited strictly, brooking no fraud; junior clerks and traveling revenue agents from every circuit who violated regulations were always punished harshly. Moreover, after Dali 5 the frontier was quiet and harvests ran rich for years in a row, so Huang could build up stores of grain and silk and the treasury slowly regained substance. Yet he was harsh to a fault, reopening case files and pressing the law to its extremes, and complaints multiplied.
3
大曆十二年秋，霖雨害稼，京兆尹黎幹奏畿縣損田，滉執雲幹奏不實。 乃命御史巡覆，回奏諸縣凡損三萬一千一百九十五頃。 時渭南令劉藻曲附滉，言所部無損，白於府及戶部。 分巡御史趙計復檢行，奏與藻合。 代宗覽奏，以為水旱咸均，不宜渭南獨免，申命御史硃敖再檢，渭南損田三千餘頃。 上謂敖曰：「縣令職在字人，不損猶宜稱損，損而不問，豈有恤隱之意耶！ 卿之此行，可謂稱職。」 下有司訊鞫，藻、計皆伏罪，藻貶萬州南浦員外尉，計貶豐州員外司戶。 滉弄權樹黨，皆此類也。 俄改太常卿，議未息，又出為晉州刺史。 數月，拜蘇州刺史、浙江東西都團練觀察使。 尋加檢校禮部尚書、兼御史大夫、潤州刺史、鎮軍節度使。 滉既移鎮，安輯百姓，均其租稅，未及逾年，境內稱理。 及建中年冬，涇師之亂，德宗出幸，河、汴騷然，滉訓練士卒，鍛礪戈甲，稱為精勁。 李希烈既陷汴州，滉乃擇其銳卒，令裨將李長榮、王棲曜與宣武軍節度劉玄佐掎角討襲，解寧陵之圍，復宋、汴之路，滉功居多。
In the autumn of Dali 12, rains ruined the harvest; the metropolitan governor Li Gan reported damaged cropland in the capital districts; Huang insisted Gan's figures were false. He then sent censors to verify on the ground; they returned reporting that the counties had lost 31,195 qing of fields in all. The Weinan magistrate Liu Zao curried favor with Huang and claimed his district had suffered no loss, stating this to the prefectural office and the Revenue Ministry. The roving censor Zhao Ji reinspected the area and reported in line with Zao. The Daizong Emperor reviewed the report and judged that when flood and drought struck, no district should stand alone exempt; he had the censor Zhu Ao inspect again, and Weinan was found to have over 3,000 qing damaged. The emperor told Ao, "A magistrate's charge is to shelter the people; even if there were no loss he ought still to report loss—if damage exists and he stays silent, where is any sympathy for the people? On this mission you have done your office justice." The responsible offices questioned them; Zao and Ji both pleaded guilty; Zao was demoted to external wei at Nanpu in Wanzhou, Ji to external household registrar in Fengzhou. Huang's abuse of power and faction-building were all of this kind. Soon he was made director of rites; debate had not quieted, and he was posted out as prefect of Jinzhou. Several months later he received appointment as prefect of Suzhou and commissioner-over-all for training and observation in Zhejiang east and west. Soon additional titles followed: acting minister of rites, concurrent censor-in-chief, prefect of Runzhou, and military commissioner of Zhenjun. Once Huang had transferred his headquarters, he pacified the populace and balanced rents and taxes; within a year the circuit was said to be in good order. In the winter of Jianzhong, when the troops of Jing rebelled and Dezong fled the capital, the regions of the river and Bian were in uproar; Huang drilled his troops and honed weapons and armor until they were reckoned first-rate. After Li Xilie seized Bianzhou, Huang chose his best soldiers and had his deputies Li Changrong and Wang Qiyao coordinate with Liu Xuanzuo, military commissioner of Xuanwu, in a pincer attack that lifted the siege of Ningling and reopened the routes to Song and Bian; Huang's share of the credit was largest.
4
然自關中多難，滉即於所部閉關梁，築石頭五城，自京口至玉山，禁馬牛出境； 造樓船戰艦三十餘艘，以舟師五千人由海門揚威武，至申浦而還； 毀撤上元縣佛寺道觀四十餘所，修塢壁，建業抵京峴，樓雉相屬，以佛殿材於石頭城繕置館第數十。 時滉以國家多難，恐有永嘉渡江之事，以為備預，以迎鑾駕，亦申儆自守也。 城中穿深井十丈近百所，下與江平，俾偏將丘涔督其役。 涔酷虐士卒，日役千人，朝令夕辦，去城數十里內先賢丘墓，多令毀廢。 明年正月，追李長榮等戍軍還，以其所親吏盧復為宣州刺史、采石軍使，增營壘，教習長兵。 以佛寺銅鐘鑄弩牙兵器。 陳少遊時鎮揚州，以甲士三千人臨江大閱，滉亦以兵三千人臨金山，與少遊相應，樓船於江中，以金銀繒彩互相聘賚。 而自德宗出居，及歸京師，軍用既繁，道路又阻，關中饑饉，加之以災蝗，江南、兩浙轉輸粟帛，府無虛月，朝廷賴焉。
But once troubles in the Guanzhong multiplied, he closed the Liang passes within his jurisdiction, raised five stone-walled forts from Jingkou to Yushan, and barred cattle and horses from crossing his borders; constructed more than thirty decked war vessels, and sent five thousand sailors under his fleet to display force from Haimen, turning back when they reached Shenpu; tore down more than forty Buddhist temples and Daoist shrines in Shangyuan county, repaired walls and towers from Jiankang to the Jingxian ridge in an unbroken line, and used timbers from temple halls at Stone City to erect dozens of mansions. Huang thought the realm's troubles might repeat the flight across the Yangzi seen at Yongjia; he framed these measures as readiness to receive the emperor's progress, while also marking his own defences. Inside the city he sank nearly a hundred wells ten zhang deep down to the river level, with the adjutant Qiu Can supervising the work. Can tormented the troops, pressing a thousand men daily with orders due by nightfall; within tens of li of the city the graves of former worthies were largely torn up. In the first month of the following year he recalled Li Changrong and the frontier garrisons, made his intimate clerk Lu Fu prefect of Xuanzhou and commander at Shishi, expanded fortifications, and drilled long-handled weapons. Temple bronze bells were melted to cast crossbow fittings and other arms. Chen Shaoyou then governed Yangzhou and paraded three thousand armored men along the Jiang; Huang matched him with three thousand at Jinshan; their warships faced one another mid-river while gold, silver, and silks passed as gifts. From Dezong's flight from the capital until his return, military demands swelled while routes were blocked; Guanzhong starved under drought and locusts; grain and cloth streamed from Jiangnan and the two Zhes so the treasury never went a month bare—the court depended on it.
5
興元元年，就加檢校吏部尚書。 數月，又加檢校右僕射。 貞元元年七月，拜檢校左僕射、同平章事，使並如故。 二年春，特封晉國公。 其年十一月，來朝京師。 時右丞元琇判度支，以關輔旱儉，請運江淮租米以給京師。 上以滉浙江東西節度，素著威名，加江淮轉運使，欲令專督運務。 琇以滉性剛愎，難與集事，乃條奏滉督運江南米至揚子，凡一十八里，揚子以北，皆元琇主之。 滉深怒於琇。 琇以京師錢重貨輕，切疾之，乃於江東監院收獲見錢四十餘萬貫，令轉送入關。 滉不許，乃誣奏云：「運千錢至京師，費錢至萬，於國有害。」 請罷之。 上以問琇，琇奏曰：「一千之重，約與一斗米均。 自江南水路至京，一千之所運，費三百耳，豈至萬乎？」 上然之，遣中使賚手詔令運錢。 滉堅執以為不可。 其年十二月，加滉度支諸道轉運鹽鐵等使，遂逞宿怒，累誣奏琇，貶雷州司戶。 其責既重，舉朝以為非罪，多竊議者。 尚書左丞董晉謂宰臣劉滋、齊映曰：「元左丞忽有貶責，未知罪名，用刑一濫，誰不危懼？ 假有權臣騁誌，相公何不奏請三司詳斷之。 去年關輔用兵，時方蝗旱，琇總國計，夙夜憂勤，以贍給師旅，不增一賦，軍國皆濟，斯可謂之勞臣也。 今見播逐，恐失人心，人心一搖，則有聞雞起舞者矣。 竊為相公痛惜之。」 滋、映但引過而已。 給事袁高又抗疏申理之，滉誣以朋黨，寢而不行。
In Xingyuan 1 he received an added acting appointment as minister of personnel in place. Several months later he was further named acting vice director of the right. In the seventh month of Zhenyuan 1 he was made acting vice director of the left and associate chief counselor, retaining his commissioner authority. In the spring of year two he was specially enfeoffed as Duke of Jin. That November he came to the capital for audience. Yuan Xie, vice director, was judging the treasury; with drought and scarcity in the capital districts, he asked to ship Jiang-Huai rent grain to feed the capital. Because Huang as military governor of eastern and western Zhejiang already bore great authority, the emperor added him transport commissioner for Jiang-Huai, intending that he oversee shipments personally. Xie found Huang too stubborn for joint work and memorialized in detail: Huang would supervise Jiangnan grain only as far as Yangzi—eighteen li in all—while everything north of Yangzi remained under Xie. Huang was furious with Xie. Xie, troubled that cash weighed heavily against goods in the capital region, collected more than four hundred thousand strings of cash on hand at the Jiangdong depot and ordered them sent inland. Huang refused and lodged a false memorial: "Shipping a thousand cash to the capital costs ten thousand in fees—it injures the state." He asked that the plan be abandoned. The emperor questioned Xie; Xie replied, "A thousand cash in weight is roughly equal to one dou of rice. By water from Jiangnan to the capital, carriage for a thousand costs only three hundred—how could it rise to ten thousand?" The emperor accepted this and sent a palace envoy with a handwritten edict ordering the money shipped. Huang still insisted it could not be done. That December Huang was further made commissioner for revenue, transport, salt, iron, and the like for all circuits; he then unleashed old resentments, repeatedly denouncing Xie until Xie was demoted to household registrar in Leizhou. His authority weighed heavily now; much of the court held that Xie had done no crime, and private talk was widespread. Dong Jin, vice director of the left, told the chief counselors Liu Zi and Qi Ying, "Vice Director Yuan has been struck down without our knowing his offence; if penal power runs wild, who will not tremble? Suppose a powerful minister has had his way—ought you not ask the three offices to adjudicate the case fully? Last year when Guanfu sent armies, locusts and drought came together; Xie ran the national accounts, laboring day and night, feeding the armies without a single new levy—both armies and state were sustained; that is a minister who has toiled for the realm. Now that he is cast out, I fear the people's hearts will slip; when hearts waver, someone may yet "hear the cock and rise to dance." I grieve for you both in private, gentlemen." Zi and Ying could only apologize. Drafting attendant Yuan Gao sent a bold memorial in his defense; Huang smeared it as faction-mongering and the memorial died on the desk.
6
時兩河罷兵，中土寧乂，滉上言：「吐蕃盜有河湟，為日已久。 大曆已前，中國多難，所以肆其侵軼。 臣聞其近歲已來，兵眾浸弱，西迫大食之強，北病回紇之眾，東有南詔之防，計其分鎮之外，戰兵在河、隴五六萬而已。 國家第令三數良將，長驅十萬眾，於涼、鄯、洮、渭並修堅城，各置二萬人，足當守禦之要。 臣請以當道所貯蓄財賦為饋運之資，以充三年之費。 然後營田積粟。 且耕且戰，收復河、隴二十餘州，可翹足而待也。」 上甚納其言。 滉之入朝也，路由汴州，厚結劉玄佐，將薦其可任邊事，玄佐納其賂，因許之。 及來覲，上訪問焉，初頗稟命，及滉以疾歸第，玄佐意怠，遂辭邊任，盛陳犬戎未衰，不可輕進。 滉貞元三年二月，以疾薨，遂寢其事，年六十五。 上震悼久之，廢朝三日，贈太傅，賻布帛米粟有差。
As fighting in the two He regions wound down and the heartland quieted, Huang submitted: "The Tibetans have held the He-Huang region by theft for many years. Before Dali the central state was beset with troubles, which let them raid freely. I understand that in recent years their armies have weakened: hard-pressed on the west by the Abbasids, on the north by the Uyghurs, on the east by Nanzhao's defences; outside their scattered commands, fighting men on the He and Long frontier number only fifty or sixty thousand. Let the court assign three or four capable generals to drive a hundred thousand men on a long campaign; strengthen walled cities together at Liang, Shan, Tao, and Wei, twenty thousand men in each—enough to hold the defensive line. I propose funding the campaign from accumulated stores in each circuit, enough to cover three years of costs. Then open military farms and build grain reserves. Combine farming with fighting and recover more than twenty prefectures of the He and Long region—success could come within easy reach." The emperor was much pleased with this advice. Huang's road to court ran through Bianzhou, where he lavishly cultivated Liu Xuanzuo and meant to recommend him for frontier command; Xuanzuo took his bribes and promised support. At audience the emperor consulted him; at first Xuanzuo largely hewed to his promise; once Huang fell ill and went home, Xuanzuo's zeal cooled and he refused frontier service, insisting loudly that the northern tribes were not yet enfeebled and must not be provoked lightly. In the second month of Zhenyuan 3 Huang died of illness at sixty-five, and the campaign plan died with him. The emperor mourned him long in shock, closed court for three days, posthumously enfeoffed him grand tutor, and granted condolence gifts of cloth, silk, rice, and grain according to rank.
7
滉，宰相子，幼有美名，其所結交，皆時之俊彥，非公直者不與之親密。 性持節儉，志在奉公，衣裘茵衽，十年一易，居處陋薄，才蔽風雨。 弟洄常於裏宅增修廊宇，滉自江南至，即命撤去之，曰：「先公容焉，吾輩奉之，常恐失墜，所有摧圮，葺之則已，豈敢改作，以傷儉德。」 自居重位，愈清儉嫉惡，彌縫闕漏，知無不為，家人盜產，未嘗在意。 入仕之初，以至卿相，凡四十年，相繼乘馬五匹，皆及敝帷。 尤工書，兼善丹青，以繪事非急務，自晦其能，未嘗傳之。 好《易象》及《春秋》，著《春秋通例》及《天文事序議》各一卷。 然以前輩早達，稍薄後進。 晚歲至京師，丞郎卿佐，接之頗倨，眾不能平。 其在浙右也，政令明察，未年傷於嚴急，巡內婺州傍縣有犯其令者，誅及鄰伍，死者數十百人。 又俾推覆官分察境內，情涉疑似，必置極法，誅殺殘忍，一判即剿數十人，且無虛日。 雖令行禁止，而冤濫相尋。 議者以滉統制一方，頗著勤績，自幼立名貞廉，晚途政甚苛慘，身未達則飾情以進，得其志則本質遂彰。 子群、臯。 群，官至考功員外郎。
Huang was born to a chancellor's house, won a fine name early, and befriended only the day's best men—he kept close company with those of upright character alone. He lived frugally in spirit and cleaved to public duty; furs and cushions he renewed once a decade; his house was mean, barely keeping out wind and rain. His brother Hui had enlarged the family compound with new corridors and halls; when Huang came back from the south he had them torn down, saying, "Our father dwelt here—we maintain it in fear of letting it fall; we mend what crumbles—how dare we rebuild and ruin our thrift?" In high office he grew still sterner against waste and graft, plugging every leak and doing all he knew needed doing; he paid no mind when kin pilfered family goods. From first appointment through chief minister, forty years in all, he used five horses in succession, each worn to tatters. He excelled at calligraphy and painted well too; because painting was no pressing statecraft he kept that gift hidden and never circulated works. He loved the Changes and the Spring and Autumn Annals and wrote one scroll each of General Patterns of the Spring and Autumn and Discourse on the Order of Astronomical Affairs. Yet having risen among an older generation, he looked down a little on juniors who came after. In his last years at court he treated vice-directors and aides with marked arrogance; colleagues seethed at it. In the Zhe region his rule was lucid and exacting; late on he turned harsh—when a neighboring county in Muzhou broke his orders, punishment spilled into adjoining hamlets and dozens to hundreds died. He set investigating officers across the circuit; wherever suspicion touched a case, the harshest penalty followed; executions ran cruel—one sentence could take dozens of lives, and scarcely a day passed without killings. Orders were obeyed, but wrongful deaths piled up in their wake. Commentators held that Huang's rule of a region showed real merit, that he had been known for integrity since youth, yet that his late rule turned brutal—before he gained his ends he dressed his manner to advance; once he had what he wanted, his true colors showed. He left sons Qun and Gao. Qun rose to external vacancy in the ministry of rites for merit review.
8
臯字仲聞，夙負令名，而器質重厚，有大臣之度。 由雲陽尉擢賢良科，拜右拾遺，轉左補闕，累遷起居郎、考功員外郎。 俄丁父艱，德宗遣中人就第慰問，仍宣令論譔滉之事業，臯號泣承命，立草數千言，德宗嘉之。 及免喪，執政者擬考功郎中，御筆加知制誥。 遷中書舍人、御史中丞、尚書右丞、兵部侍郎，皆稱職。 改京兆尹，奏鄭鋒為倉曹，專掌錢穀。 鋒苛刻剝下為事，人皆咨怨。 又勸臯搜索府中雜錢，折糴百姓粟麥等三十萬石進奉，以圖恩寵。 臯納其計。 尋奏鋒為興平縣令。
Gao, courtesy name Zhongwen, had long borne a fine reputation; his character was weighty and measured, with a great minister's breadth. Promoted from Cloud-Yang wei through the eminent-talent examination, he became right reminder, then left collator, rising in turn through attendance gentleman and external vacancy in the ministry of rites for merit review. Soon he mourned his father; Dezong sent a palace envoy to condole at his home and ordered a discourse on Huang's career; Gao received the command through tears, drafted several thousand words at once, and the emperor praised it. When mourning ended, those in power nominated him director in the ministry of merit review; the emperor's own brush added charge of edict drafting. He rose through secretariat drafter, censor-in-chief, vice director of the right, and vice minister of war—at each post he was said to perform well. He was appointed metropolitan prefect and memorialized that Zheng Feng serve as granary clerk with exclusive charge of funds and grain stores. Feng made his business the harsh extortion of subordinates, and everyone groaned with resentment. He also urged Gao to scrape together every spare coin in the prefecture, buy up three hundred thousand shi of grain and wheat from the people at depressed prices, and present it as tribute in hopes of winning imperial favor. Gao adopted the plan. Before long he had Feng promoted to magistrate of Xingping County.
9
及貞元十四年，春夏大旱，粟麥枯槁，畿內百姓，累經臯陳訴，以府中倉庫虛竭，憂迫惶惑，不敢實奏。 會唐安公主女出適右庶子李愬，內官中使於愬家往來，百姓遮道投狀，內官繼以事上聞。 德宗下詔曰：「京邑為四方之則，長吏受親人之寄，實系邦本，以分朕憂，茍非其才，是紊於理。 正議大夫、守京兆尹、賜紫金魚袋韓臯，比踐清貫，頗聞謹恪，委之尹正，冀效公忠。 乃者邦畿之間，粟麥不稔，朕念茲黎庶，方議蠲除，自宜悉心，以副勤恤。 臯奏報失實，處理無方，致令閭井不安，囂然上訴。 及令覆視，皆涉虛詞，壅蔽頗深，罔惑斯甚。 宜加懲誡，以勖守官。 可撫州司馬，員外置同正員，馳驛發遣。」。 鋒亦尋出為汀州司馬。 臯無幾移杭州刺史，復拜尚書右丞。
In the fourteenth year of Zhenyuan, drought in spring and summer shriveled the millet and wheat. The people of the capital district appealed to Gao again and again, but with the prefecture granaries empty he grew anxious and unsettled, and dared not report the situation honestly. It happened that a daughter of Princess Tang'an was marrying Li Su, right associate of the heir apparent. Eunuch envoys were passing in and out of Su's household, and commoners blocked the road to lodge petitions; the eunuchs in turn reported the affair to the throne. Dezong issued an edict: "The capital sets the standard for the realm. Its chief magistrate is entrusted with the welfare of the people and bears on the foundations of the state, sharing my burdens. If he is not equal to the task, governance is thrown into disorder. Han Gao—Right Grand Master of Remonstrance, acting metropolitan prefect, granted the purple-gold fish pouch—had lately held office in the purer ranks and was reputed to be diligent and careful. We entrusted him with the capital in the hope he would serve with public loyalty. Recently the crops have failed in the capital region. Mindful of the people there, I was already considering tax relief—he should have devoted himself wholeheartedly to that humane care. Gao's reports were false, his handling inept, and the neighborhoods grew restless until people cried out in protest to the throne. On reinvestigation, everything proved false; the cover-up ran deep, and the deception was egregious. Let him be punished as a warning to officials who hold their posts. He is demoted to supernumerary secretary at Fuzhou with equal rank to a regular appointee, and dispatched by imperial courier." Feng was soon sent out as well, appointed secretary at Tingzhou. Before long Gao was transferred to prefect of Hangzhou and again appointed vice director of the right in the ministry of works.
10
臯恃前輩，頗以簡倨自處。 順宗時，王叔文黨盛，臯嫉之，謂人曰：「吾不能事新貴。」 臯從弟曄，幸於叔文，以告之，因出為鄂州刺史、嶽鄂蘄沔等州觀察使。 入為東都留守。 元和八年六月，加檢校吏部尚書，兼許州刺史，充忠武軍節度等使。 以陳、許二州水潦之後，賜臯綾絹布葛十萬端疋，以助軍資宴賞。 所理以簡儉稱。 入為吏部尚書，兼太子少傅，判太常卿事。 元和十一年三月，皇太后王氏崩，以臯充大明宮使。 十五年閏正月，充憲宗山陵禮儀使。 三月，穆宗以師保之舊，加檢校右僕射。 十二月，以銓司考科目人失實，與刑部侍郎知選事李建罰一月俸料。 長慶元年正月，正拜尚書右僕射。 二年四月，轉左僕射，赴尚書省上事，命中使宣賜酒饌，及宰臣百僚送上，皆如近式。 其年，以本官東都留守，行及戲源驛暴卒，年七十九。 贈太子太保。 大和元年，謚曰貞。
Gao, counting on his senior standing, carried himself with a certain aloof reserve. During Shunzong's reign, Wang Shuwen's faction was ascendant. Gao resented them and told others, "I cannot serve these newly risen men." Gao's younger cousin Ye enjoyed Shuwen's favor and reported what Gao had said; Gao was therefore sent out as prefect of Ezhou and observation commissioner over Yue, E, Qi, Mian, and the other prefectures. He was recalled to serve as intendant of the eastern capital. In the sixth month of the eighth year of Yuanhe he was given the additional title of acting minister of civil office, made concurrent prefect of Xuzhou, and commissioned military governor of the Zhongwu army and related posts. Because Chen and Xu prefectures had been ravaged by flood, Gao was granted one hundred thousand bolts of silk, brocade, cloth, and ramie to support military expenses and feasts and rewards. His administration was praised for its simplicity and frugality. He was recalled as minister of civil office, concurrently junior tutor of the heir apparent, and given charge of the court of imperial sacrifices. In the third month of the eleventh year of Yuanhe, Empress Dowager Wang died, and Gao was appointed commissioner of Daming Palace. In the intercalary first month of the fifteenth year he was appointed commissioner for the ceremonial rites at Xianzong's tomb. In the third month, Muzong, remembering their old tutor-student bond, added the title of acting right vice director. In the twelfth month, because the ministry's review of examination candidates was found to be false, he and Li Jian, vice minister of justice in charge of selections, were fined one month's salary. In the first month of the first year of Changqing he was formally appointed right vice director of the ministry of works. In the fourth month of the second year he was transferred to left vice director, went to the ministry of works to assume office, and was granted wine and a feast by imperial emissary, with chief ministers and the full bureaucracy escorting him—all according to recent custom. That year, while serving as eastern capital intendant in his existing rank, he died suddenly at Xiyuan post station on the road, at the age of seventy-nine. He was posthumously granted the title grand preceptor of the heir apparent. In the first year of Dahe he was given the posthumous name Zhen, "Upright."
11
臯生知音律，嘗觀彈琴，至《止息》，嘆曰：「妙哉！ 嵇生之為是曲也，其當晉、魏之際乎！ 其音主商，商為秋聲。 秋也者，天將搖落肅殺，其歲之晏乎！ 又晉乘金運，商，金聲，此所以知魏之季而晉將代也。 慢其商弦，與宮同音，是臣奪君之義也，所以知司馬氏之將篡也。 司馬懿受魏明帝顧托後嗣，反有篡奪之心，自誅曹爽，逆節彌露。 王陵都督揚州，謀立荊王彪； 毋丘儉、文欽、諸葛誕前後相繼為揚州都督，咸有匡復魏室之謀，皆為懿父子所殺。 叔夜以揚州故廣陵之地，彼四人者，皆魏室文武大臣，咸敗散於廣陵，《散》言魏氏散亡，自廣陵始也。 《止息》者，晉雖暴興，終止息於此也。 其哀憤躁蹙，憯痛迫脅之旨，盡在於是矣。 永嘉之亂，其應乎！ 叔夜撰此，將貽後代之知音者，且避晉、魏之禍，所以托之神鬼也。」
Gao had an innate understanding of pitch and musical law. Once, watching someone play the zither, when the player reached "Stopping and Resting," he sighed, "Marvelous! When Master Ji composed this piece, must it not have been at the turning point between Jin and Wei! Its tone is dominated by the shang mode, and shang is the sound of autumn. Autumn is when heaven shakes the leaves down in bleak severity—is it not the year's decline! Jin, moreover, rode the fortune of metal, and shang is the sound of metal—by this one knows that Wei was in its last days and Jin was about to replace it. Loosen the shang strings until they match the palace tone, and that is the image of a subject seizing his lord—by this one knows the Sima clan was about to usurp the throne. Sima Yi had received Wei Emperor Ming's deathbed charge to protect the successor, yet harbored thoughts of usurpation; from the killing of Cao Shuang onward, his treasonous intent showed ever more plainly. Wang Ling, governor of Yang province, plotted to install Prince Jing Biao; Wuqiu Jian, Wen Qin, and Zhuge Dan served in succession as governors of Yang province, each with plans to restore the house of Wei, and each was killed by Yi and his sons. Jiye took Yangzhou's old territory of Guangling—those four men were all great civil and military ministers of Wei, all defeated and scattered at Guangling; "Scatter" means the dispersal and ruin of Wei, beginning at Guangling. "Stopping and Resting" means that though Jin rose violently, it would in the end come to rest here. Its grief, rage, agitation, compression, bitter pain, and sense of forced constraint—all of that intent is contained in this piece. The Yongjia disaster—is this its fulfillment! Jiye composed this to bequeath it to later generations who would understand, and also to avoid the disasters of Jin and Wei—therefore he entrusted it to spirits and ghosts."
12
洄以廕緒受任，劉晏判鹽鐵度支，辟為屬吏，累官至諫議大夫、知制誥。 與元載善，載誅，以累貶邵州司戶同正員。 建中元年二月，復諫議大夫。 先以劉晏兼領度支，晏既罷黜，令天下錢穀各歸尚書省。 本司廢職罷事，久無綱紀，徒收其名而莫綜其任，國用出入，未有所統，故轉洄戶部侍郎、判度支。 洄上言：「江淮七監，歲鑄錢四萬五千貫，輸於京師，度工用轉送之費，每貫計錢二千，是本倍利也。 今商州有紅崖冶，出銅益多，又有洛源監，久廢不理。 請增工鑿山以取銅，興洛源故監，置十爐鑄之。 歲計出錢七萬二千貫，度工用轉送之費，貫計錢九百，則利浮本矣。 其江淮七監，請皆罷之。」 復以「天下銅鐵之冶，是曰山澤之利，當歸於王者，非諸侯方嶽所有。 今諸道節度都團練使皆占之，非宜也，總隸鹽鐵使」。 皆從之。
Hui received office through inherited privilege. Liu Yan, commissioner of salt-iron and revenue, recruited him as a staff officer, and he rose through the ranks to remonstrating adviser and drafter of edicts. He was on good terms with Yuan Zai; when Zai was executed, Hui was implicated and demoted to supernumerary registrar of Shaozhou. In the second month of the first year of Jianzhong he was restored to remonstrating adviser. Liu Yan had previously held concurrent charge of revenue; once Yan was dismissed, the court ordered that money and grain affairs throughout the empire revert to the ministry of works. The ministry had long ceased to function in earnest and lacked discipline—it kept the title but did not actually manage the work, and state revenue had no unified oversight—so Hui was transferred to vice minister of revenue with charge of revenue affairs. Hui submitted a memorial: "The seven mints of the Jiang-Huai region cast forty-five thousand strings of cash each year and send them to the capital. Counting labor and transport costs, each string costs two thousand cash—double the principal. Now Shangzhou has the Hongya smeltery, which yields ever more copper, and there is also the Luoyuan mint, long abandoned and left unmanaged. He asked to add workers to mine the mountains for copper, revive the old Luoyuan mint, and set up ten furnaces to cast coin there. By his estimate the mint would produce seventy-two thousand strings of cash each year; counting labor and transport, each string would cost nine hundred cash—profit would then exceed cost. He asked that all seven Jiang-Huai mints be abolished." He added: "Copper and iron smelteries throughout the empire are profits of the mountains and marshes—they should belong to the sovereign, not to regional lords and frontier commissioners. Now the military governors and regimental commissioners of every circuit have seized them, which is improper; let them all be placed under the salt-iron commissioner." The court approved all of it.
13
洄與楊炎善，炎得罪，常不自安。 無何，兄子臯抗疏理炎罪，德宗意洄令為之，尋貶蜀州刺史。 興元元年三月，入為兵部侍郎。 六月，為京兆尹。 七月，加御史大夫。 貞元二年正月，刑部侍郎劉太真黨於宰相盧杞得罪，以洄代太真為刑部侍郎，尋復兵部侍郎。 貞元七年十一月，為國子祭酒。
Hui was on good terms with Yang Yan; when Yan fell from favor, Hui was often ill at ease. Before long his nephew Gao submitted a bold memorial defending Yan; Dezong suspected Hui had put him up to it, and soon demoted Hui to prefect of Shuzhou. In the third month of the first year of Xingyuan he was recalled as vice minister of war. In the sixth month he became metropolitan prefect. In the seventh month he was given the additional title of censor-in-chief. In the first month of the second year of Zhenyuan, Liu Taizhen, vice minister of justice and ally of chief minister Lu Qi, fell from favor; Hui replaced Taizhen as vice minister of justice and was soon restored to vice minister of war. In the eleventh month of the seventh year of Zhenyuan he became chancellor of the directorate of education.
14
張延賞，中書令嘉貞之子。 幼孤，本名寶符，開元末，玄宗召見，賜名延賞，取「賞延於世」之義，特授左司禦率府兵曹參軍。 博涉經史，達於政事，侍中、韓國公苗晉卿見而奇之，以女妻焉。 肅宗在鳳翔，擢拜監察御史，賜緋魚袋，轉殿中侍御史。 關內節度使王思禮請為從事，思禮領河東，又為太原少尹，兼行軍司馬、北都副留守。
Zhang Yanshang was the son of Grand Counselor Jiazhen. He was orphaned in youth; his original name was Baofu. At the end of the Kaiyuan era, Xuanzong summoned him, granted him the name Yanshang—"reward extending through generations"—and specially appointed him assistant in the left guard command military staff. He was broadly versed in the classics and histories and skilled in state affairs. Miao Jinqing, attendant-in-chief and duke of Han, saw him and was impressed, and gave him his daughter in marriage. When Suzong was at Fengxiang, Yanshang was promoted to investigating censor, granted the scarlet fish pouch, and then transferred to palace censor. Wang Sil, military governor of Guannei, asked him to serve on his staff; when Sil took charge of Hedong, Yanshang became vice prefect of Taiyuan, concurrently acting army marshal and deputy intendant of the northern capital.
15
代宗幸陜，除給事中，轉御史中丞、中書舍人。 大曆二年，拜河南尹，充諸道營田副使。 河洛久當兵沖，閭井丘墟，延賞勤身率下，政尚簡約，疏導河渠，修築宮廟，數年間流庸歸附，邦畿復完，詔書褒美焉。 時罷河南、淮西、山南副元帥，以其兵鎮東都，延賞權知東都留守以領之，理行第一，入朝拜御史大夫。 初，上封人李少良潛以元載陰事聞，載黨知之，奏少良狂妄，下御史臺訊鞫，欲有所屬。 延賞不承其意，尋出為揚州刺史、淮南節度觀察等使。 屬歲旱歉，人有亡去他境者，吏或拘之。 延賞曰：「夫食，人之所恃而生也，此居而坐斃，適彼而可生，得存吾人，又何限於彼也。」 乃具舟楫而遣之，俾吏修其廬室，已其逋債，而歸者增於其舊。 邊江之瓜洲，舟航湊會，而縣屬江南，延賞奏請以江為界，人甚為便。 尋以母憂去職，終制授授檢校禮部尚書、江陵尹、兼御史大夫、荊南節度觀察使。
When Daizong visited Shan, Yanshang was appointed drafting attendant, then transferred to vice censor-in-chief and secretariat drafter. In the second year of Dali he was appointed prefect of Henan and commissioned deputy commissioner of agricultural colonies for all circuits. The He-Luo region had long been on the front lines of war; neighborhoods lay in ruins. Yanshang worked diligently and led by example, governing with simplicity, dredging rivers and canals and repairing palaces and temples. Within a few years displaced laborers returned, the capital region was restored, and an edict praised his work. When the deputy marshals of Henan, Huai-Xi, and Shannan were abolished and their troops were stationed at the eastern capital, Yanshang was made acting eastern capital intendant to command them. His administration ranked first, and he was recalled to court as censor-in-chief. Earlier, Li Shaoliang, who had submitted a sealed memorial, secretly reported Yuan Zai's hidden misconduct. Zai's faction learned of it, memorialized that Shaoliang was reckless, and had him interrogated by the censorate, intending to fix blame on someone. Yanshang would not go along with their intent and was soon sent out as prefect of Yangzhou and military governor and observation commissioner of Huainan. That year brought drought and poor harvests, and some people fled to other regions; officials sometimes detained them. Yanshang said, "Food is what people rely on to live. Here they sit and starve; there they may survive. If we can preserve our people, why confine them to this place?" He then provided boats and sent them off, had officials repair their homes and settle their overdue debts, and those who returned eventually exceeded the original population. Guazhou on the river border was a gathering point for shipping, but the county fell under Jiangnan jurisdiction; Yanshang memorialized that the river serve as the boundary, which people found greatly convenient. Soon he left office to mourn his mother; when mourning ended he was appointed acting minister of rites, prefect of Jiangling, concurrently censor-in-chief and military governor and observation commissioner of Jingnan.
16
數年，改檢校兵部尚書、成都尹、劍南西川節度觀察使，依前兼御史大夫，尋就加吏部尚書。 建中四年十一月，部將西山兵馬使張朏以兵入成都為亂，延賞奔漢州鹿頭，戍將叱幹遂等討之。 其月，斬朏及同惡者，復歸成都。 先是兵革屢擾，自天寶末楊國忠用事南蠻，三蜀疲弊，屬車駕遷幸； 其後郭英乂淫崔寧之室，遂縱崔寧、楊琳交亂； 及崔寧得志，復極侈靡，故蜀土殘弊，蕩然無制度。 延賞薄賦約事，動遵法度，僅至庶富焉。 建中末，駕在山南，延賞貢奉供億，頗竭忠力焉。 駕在梁州，倚劍南蜀川為根本。
After several years he was transferred to acting minister of war, prefect of Chengdu, and military governor and observation commissioner of Jiannan West Circuit, still concurrently censor-in-chief; soon afterward he was further given the title minister of civil office. In the eleventh month of the fourth year of Jianzhong, Zhang Fei, a subordinate general of the Xishan army, entered Chengdu with troops and raised a rebellion. Yanshang fled to Lutou in Hanzhou, and garrison generals including Chigan Sui put the revolt down. That same month Fei and his accomplices were executed, and Yanshang returned to Chengdu. Earlier the region had been repeatedly ravaged by war. From the end of the Tianbao era, when Yang Guozhong wielded power over the southern frontier, the Three Shu were exhausted and depleted, and then the court fled the capital; Afterward Guo Yingyi violated Cui Ning's wife, then allowed Cui Ning and Yang Lin to plunge the region into mutual disorder; When Cui Ning gained power he again lived in extreme extravagance, so the land of Shu was left ruined and depleted, with institutions swept away entirely. Yanshang kept taxes light and administration restrained, always following the law, and brought the region to a modest prosperity. At the end of the Jianzhong era, when the emperor was in Shannan, Yanshang sent tribute and supplies and exerted himself loyally on the court's behalf. When the emperor was at Liangzhou, the court relied on Jiannan and Shu as its foundation.
17
貞元元年，以宰相劉從一有疾，詔征延賞為中書侍郎、同中書門下平章事。 與鳳翔節度使李晟不協，晟表論延賞過惡，德宗重違晟意，延賞至興元，改授左僕射。 初，大曆末，吐蕃寇劍南，李晟領神策軍戍之，及旋師，以成都官妓高氏歸。 延賞聞而大怒，即使將吏令追還焉。 晟頗銜之，形於詞色。 三年正月，晟入朝，詔晟與延賞釋憾，德宗註意於延賞，將用之。 會浙西觀察使韓滉來朝，嘗有德於晟，因會宴說晟使釋憾，遂同飲極歡，且請晟表薦為相，晟然之，於是復加同中書門下平章事。 及延賞當國用事，晟請一子聘其女，固情好焉，延賞拒而不許。 晟謂人曰：「武人性快，若釋舊惡於杯酒之間，終歡可解。 文士難犯，雖修睦於外，而蓄怒於內，今不許婚，釁未忘也，得無懼焉！」 無幾，延賞果謀罷晟兵權。 初，吐蕃尚結贊興兵入隴州，抵鳳翔，無所虜掠，且曰：「召我來，何不持牛酒勞軍？」 徐乃引去，持是以間晟。 晟令牙將王佖選銳兵三千設伏汧陽，大敗吐蕃，結贊僅免，自是數遣使乞和。 晟朝於京師，奏曰：「戎狄無信，不可許。」 宰相韓滉又扶晟議，請調軍食以繼之，上意將帥生事邀功。 會滉卒，延賞揣上意，遂行其志，奏令給事中鄭雲逵代之。 上不許，且曰：「晟有社稷之功，令自舉代己者。」 於是始用邢君牙焉。 拜晟太尉、兼中書令，奉朝請而已。 是年五月，吐蕃果背約以劫渾瑊。 及冊晟太尉，故事，臨軒冊拜三公，中書令讀冊，侍中奉禮，如闕，即以宰相攝之。 延賞欲輕其禮，始令兵部尚書崔漢衡攝中書令讀冊，時議非之。
In the first year of Zhenyuan, because chief minister Liu Congyi was ill, an edict summoned Yanshang to serve as vice grand counselor and associate director of the secretariat-chancellery. He did not get along with Li Sheng, military governor of Fengxiang. Sheng memorialized listing Yanshang's faults, and Dezong, reluctant to go against Sheng, reassigned Yanshang to left vice director when he reached Xingyuan. Earlier, at the end of the Dali era, Tibetans raided Jiannan. Li Sheng led the Shence Army to garrison the region, and when the army withdrew he brought home Lady Gao, a Chengdu courtesan. Yanshang was furious when he heard of it and immediately sent officers to order her returned. Sheng deeply resented this and showed it plainly in word and manner. In the first month of the third year Sheng came to court. An edict ordered Sheng and Yanshang to set aside their grievances. Dezong had his eye on Yanshang and intended to use him. It happened that Han Huang, observation commissioner of Zhexi, came to court. Huang had once done Sheng a kindness, and at a banquet he persuaded Sheng to set aside his grievance with Yanshang. They drank together in great harmony, and Huang asked Sheng to recommend Yanshang for chief minister in a memorial. Sheng agreed, and Yanshang was again appointed associate director of the secretariat-chancellery. Once Yanshang gained control of the government, Sheng asked to betroth one of his sons to Yanshang's daughter, intending to firm up their friendship. Yanshang refused. Sheng told others, "Soldiers are quick-tempered. If old grudges can be cleared over a few cups of wine, enmity can always be put to rest. Scholars are another matter. They may act friendly on the surface while nursing anger inside. He has refused the marriage match, so the quarrel is clearly not forgotten. Should I not be afraid? Before long, Yanshang did in fact move to strip Sheng of his military command. Earlier, the Tibetan commander Shang Jiezan had marched into Long Prefecture and reached Fengxiang without looting anything, saying, "You summoned us here—why have you not brought cattle and wine to reward our troops? Then they withdrew at leisure, and Yanshang used the incident to sow discord against Sheng. Sheng ordered his staff general Wang Ji to choose three thousand crack troops and lay an ambush at Qianyang. The Tang forces routed the Tibetans; Jiezan barely escaped. After that the Tibetans repeatedly sent envoys suing for peace. When Sheng came to court in the capital, he memorialized, "The barbarians are untrustworthy. We must not agree to peace. Chief Minister Han Huang again backed Sheng's position and asked that army provisions be sent to support him. The emperor, however, suspected that his generals were manufacturing trouble to win credit for themselves. When Huang died, Yanshang read the emperor's mind and got his way, memorializing that Supervising Secretary Zheng Yunkui replace Sheng. The emperor refused and said, "Sheng has rendered great service to the dynasty. Let him nominate his own replacement. Xing Junya was then appointed. Sheng was given the titles of Grand Tutor and concurrent director of the secretariat, with ceremonial attendance at court but no real power. That May the Tibetans broke their pact as Sheng had predicted and raided Hun Zhen. When Sheng was invested as Grand Tutor, precedent held that the director of the secretariat should read the patent and the palace attendant perform the ritual at the imperial porch. If either office was vacant, a chief minister would stand in. Yanshang wanted to slight the ceremony and had Minister of War Cui Hanheng read the patent as acting director of the secretariat, which contemporaries condemned.
18
延賞奏議請省官員，曰：「為政之本，必先命官。 舊制官員繁而且費，州縣殘破，職此之由。 臣在荊南、劍南，所管州縣闕官員者，少不下十數年，吏部未嘗補授，但令一官假攝，公事亦理。 以此言之，員可減無疑也。 請減官員，收其祿俸，資幕職戰士，俾劉玄佐復河湟，軍用不乏矣。」 上然之。 初，韓滉入朝，至汴州，厚結劉玄佐，將薦其可委邊任，玄佐亦欲自效，初稟命，及滉卒，玄佐以疾辭，上遣中官勞問，臥以受命。 延賞知不可用，奏用李抱真，抱真亦辭不行。 時抱真判官陳曇奏事京師，延賞俾曇勸抱真，竟拒絕之。 蓋以延賞挾怨罷李晟兵柄，由是武臣不附。 自建議減員之後，物議不平。 延賞懼，量留其官，下詔曰：「諸州府停減及所留官，並合厘務。 其中有先考滿及充職掌，遇停減或恐公務有闕，宜委長吏於合停官中取考淺人清白幹舉者，留填闕官，差攝訖聞奏。 但取才堪，不限資序。 如當州官少，任以鄰州官充。 其州縣諸色部送，準舊例以當州官及本土寄客有資產幹了者差遣。」 及減員人眾，道路怨嘆，日聞於上。 侍中馬燧奏減員太甚，恐不可行； 太子少保韋倫及常參官等各抗疏以減員招怨，並請復之； 浙西觀察使白誌貞亦以疏論。 時廷賞疾甚，在私第； 李泌初為相，采於群情，由是官員悉復。
Yanshang submitted a memorial proposing to cut the official roster, arguing, "The foundation of government is appointing officials in the first place. Under the old system posts had proliferated and grown costly, and it was for this reason that prefectures and counties had fallen into ruin. In Jingnan and Jiannan, which I administered, some counties and prefectures had gone without appointed officials for ten years or more. The Ministry of Personnel never filled the posts; a single acting official was enough to keep affairs in order. That proves beyond doubt that the roster can be trimmed. I propose cutting posts, redirecting the salaries saved to support military staff, and enabling Liu Xuanzuo to recover the He-Huang region, so that military supplies will not run short. The emperor agreed. Earlier, when Han Huang came to court he stopped at Bian Prefecture and cultivated a close tie with Liu Xuanzuo, intending to recommend him for a frontier command. Xuanzuo was willing to serve and had initially accepted the appointment. After Huang died, Xuanzuo pleaded illness to decline. The emperor sent a palace eunuch to console him, and he accepted the commission while still abed. Yanshang saw that Xuanzuo could not be relied on and memorialized to appoint Li Baozhen instead, but Baozhen too refused to take the post. Baozhen's aide Chen Tan was then in the capital on official business; Yanshang had Tan urge Baozhen to accept, but Baozhen still refused. Because Yanshang had used a personal grudge to strip Li Sheng of command, the military men would not rally to him. Public opinion turned against him after his proposal to cut posts. Alarmed, Yanshang partially walked back the cuts and issued an edict: "Officials whose posts were abolished or retained in the various prefectures must all fulfill their duties. Where abolitions might leave gaps in official business, senior officials should select capable, upright men of lesser seniority from among those slated for removal to fill vacant posts on a provisional basis and report when done. Merit alone should govern the choice, not rank or seniority. If a prefecture has too few officials, men from neighboring prefectures may be assigned. For the various relay and transport duties at the prefectural and county level, the old practice of assigning local officials or resident merchants of means and ability should be followed. Displaced officials filled the roads with complaints that soon reached the emperor daily. Palace Attendant Ma Sui argued that the cuts had gone too far and would not work; Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince Wei Lun and other regular attendees at court all submitted opposing memorials warning that the cuts were stirring resentment, and asked that the posts be restored; Bai Zhizhen, observation commissioner of Zhexi, also weighed in by memorial. Yanshang was by then seriously ill and confined to his private residence; Li Bi had just become chief minister. Reading the mood of the court, he restored all the abolished posts.
19
貞元三年七月薨，年六十一，廢朝三日，贈太保，賻禮加等，謚曰成肅。
He died in the seventh month of Zhenyuan 3, at the age of sixty-one. Court mourning was observed for three days. He was posthumously honored as Grand Guardian, his funeral gifts were increased by one grade, and he was given the posthumous title Chengsu.
20
子弘靖，字元理，雅厚信直。 少以門廕授河南府參軍，調補藍田尉。 東都留守杜亞辟為從事，奏改監察御史裏行，轉殿中侍御史、內供奉。 留守將令狐運逐賊出郊，其日有劫轉運絹於道者，亞以運豪家子，意其為之，乃令判官穆員及弘靖同鞫其事。 員與弘靖皆以運職在牙門，必不為盜，堅請不按。 亞不聽，遂以獄聞，仍斥員及弘靖出幕府，有詔令三司使雜治之，後果於河南界得賊。 無何，德陽公主下嫁，治第將侵弘靖家廟。 弘靖拜表陳情，具述祖考之德，德宗慰撫之，不令毀廟。 又獻賦美二京之制，德宗嘉其文，擢授監察御史。 轉殿中侍御史、禮部員外郎； 遷兵部郎中、知制誥、中書舍人、知東都選事； 拜工部侍郎，轉戶部侍郎、陜州觀察、河中節度使； 拜刑部尚書、同中書門下平章事。
His son Hongjing, courtesy name Yuanli, was refined, generous, trustworthy, and upright. Through hereditary privilege he began as an aide in Henan Prefecture and was later transferred to captain of Lantian. Du Ya, intendant of the Eastern Capital, took him on as a staff aide and had him appointed probationary investigative censor, then transferred him to palace censor with inner-attendant status. When intendant general Linghu Yun drove bandits beyond the suburbs, transport silk was robbed on the road that same day. Du Ya, believing that Yun, as the son of a powerful family, was responsible, ordered his aides Mu Yuan and Hongjing to investigate jointly. Yuan and Hongjing argued that Yun's post at headquarters made it impossible he had committed the robbery, and they firmly refused to proceed with the inquiry. Du Ya ignored them, reported the case to the throne, and expelled Yuan and Hongjing from his staff. An edict ordered a joint trial by the Three Offices; the real robbers were later caught on the Henan border. Not long after, when Princess Deyang was given in marriage, work on her new residence threatened to encroach on the Hong family ancestral shrine. Hongjing submitted a memorial pleading his case and recounting his ancestors' virtues. Emperor Dezong consoled him and forbade the destruction of the shrine. He also submitted a rhapsody praising the institutions of the Two Capitals. Dezong admired the piece and promoted him to investigative censor. He was transferred to palace censor and then deputy director in the Ministry of Rites; he rose to bureau director in the Ministry of War, took charge of drafting edicts, became a secretariat drafter, and oversaw civil-service selection in the Eastern Capital; he was appointed vice minister of works, then vice minister of revenue, observation commissioner of Shaan Prefecture, and military governor of Hezhong; and finally minister of justice and associate director of the secretariat-chancellery.
21
吳少陽死，其子元濟擅主留務，憲宗怒，欲下詔誅之。 弘靖請先命吊贈使，待其不恭，然後加兵，憲宗從其議。 尋加中書侍郎平章事。 盜殺宰相武光衡，京師索賊未得。 時王承宗邸中有鎮卒張晏輩數人，行止無狀，人多意之，詔錄付御史陳中師按之，皆附致其罪，如京中所說。 弘靖疑其不直，驟於上前言之，憲宗不聽，竟殺張晏輩。 及田弘正入鄆，按簿書，亦有殺元衡者，但事暖味，互有所說，卒未得其實。 又殺張晏後，憲宗欲遂伐承宗。 弘靖以為戎事並興，鮮有濟者，不如併攻元濟，待淮西平，然後悉師河朔。 憲宗業已北討，不為之止，然亦重違其言。 弘靖知終不聽用，遂自陳乞罷政事。 俄檢校吏部尚書、同中書門下平章事，充太原節度使。 行未及鎮，果下詔誅承宗。 弘靖以驟諫不行，宜用自效，大閱軍實，請躬討承宗。 詔許出軍，不許自往。 俄而魏博、澤潞悉為承宗所敗，有詔賞其前言。 弘靖即間道發使懇喻承宗，承宗因亦款附。 旋徵拜吏部尚書，遷檢校右僕射、宣武軍節度使，時韓弘入覲之後也。 弘靖用政寬緩，代弘之理。 俄以劉總累求歸闕，且請弘靖代己，制加檢校司空平章事，充幽州、盧龍等軍節度使。
When Wu Shaoyang died, his son Yuanji seized control of the garrison affairs. Emperor Xianzong was furious and wanted to issue an edict calling for his execution. Hongjing advised sending a condolence envoy first and waiting until Yuanji showed disrespect before committing troops. Xianzong accepted the plan. He was soon further appointed vice director of the secretariat and chief minister. Assassins killed Chief Minister Wu Yuanheng, and the capital's search for the killers came up empty. Several garrison soldiers under Wang Chengzong's household, including a man named Zhang Yan, had been acting suspiciously, and many suspected them. An edict ordered their arrest and investigation by Censor Chen Zhongshi, who implicated them all exactly as rumor in the capital had it. Hongjing doubted the case was sound and abruptly raised the matter before the emperor. Xianzong refused to listen, and Zhang Yan and the others were executed. When Tian Hongzheng later entered Yun and examined the records, he also found references to Yuanheng's killers, but the matter remained murky and the accounts conflicted; the truth was never established. After Zhang Yan's execution, Xianzong wanted to march immediately against Chengzong. Hongjing argued that fighting on two fronts rarely succeeded. Better to concentrate on Yuanji, wait until Huaixi was pacified, and then commit the full army to Hebei. Xianzong had already set the northern campaign in motion and would not halt it, though he did give serious weight to Hongjing's counsel. Seeing that he would not be heeded, Hongjing asked to leave the government. Shortly afterward he was made acting minister of personnel and associate director of the secretariat-chancellery, with appointment as military governor of Taiyuan. Before he reached his post, the edict condemning Chengzong was issued as he had feared. Since his urgent advice had been ignored, Hongjing sought to redeem himself, mustered his forces, and asked to lead the campaign against Chengzong in person. The emperor authorized him to dispatch troops but refused to let him go in person. Soon after, the forces of Weibo and Zelu were defeated by Chengzong, and an edict commended Hongjing for his earlier counsel. Hongjing then sent envoys by a back route to urge Chengzong to submit, and Chengzong did capitulate. He was soon recalled as minister of personnel and appointed acting right vice director and military governor of the Xuanwu Army, after Han Hong had come to court. Hongjing governed with a mild, unhurried hand, succeeding Han Hong. When Liu Zong repeatedly petitioned to return to court and asked that Hongjing replace him, Hongjing was appointed acting grand master of works and chief minister, and made military governor of Youzhou and the Lulong armies.
22
弘靖之入幽州也，薊人無老幼男女，皆夾道而觀焉。 河朔軍帥冒寒暑，多與士卒同，無張蓋安輿之別。 弘靖久富貴，又不知風土，入燕之時，肩輿於三軍之中，薊人頗駭之。 弘靖以祿山、思明之亂，始自幽州，欲於事初盡革其俗，乃發祿山墓，毀其棺柩，人尤失望。 從事有韋雍、張宗厚數輩，復輕肆嗜酒，常夜飲醉歸，燭火滿街，前後呵叱，薊人所不習之事。 又雍等詬責吏卒，多以反虜名之，謂軍士曰：「今天下無事，汝輩挽得兩石力弓，不如識一丁字。」 軍中以意氣自負，深恨之。 劉總歸朝，以錢一百萬貫賜軍士，弘靖留二十萬貫充軍府雜用。 薊人不勝其憤，遂相率以叛，囚弘靖於薊門館，執韋雍、張宗厚輩數人，皆殺之。 續有張徹者，自遠使回，軍人以其無過，不欲加害，將引置館中。 徹不知其心，遂索弘靖所在，大罵軍人，亦為亂兵所殺。 明日，吏卒稍稍自悔，悉詣館，請弘靖為帥，願改心事之。 凡三請，弘靖卒不對。 軍人乃相謂曰：「相公無言，是不赦吾曹必矣，軍中豈可一日無帥！」 遂取硃洄為兵馬留後。 朝廷既除洄子克融為幽州節度使，乃貶弘靖為撫州刺史。 未幾，遷太子賓客、少保、少師。 長慶四年六月卒，年六十五。
When Hongjing entered Youzhou, the people of Ji, young and old, men and women, lined both sides of the road to watch. Hebei generals usually shared hardship with their troops and did not ride under parasols in sedan chairs. Hongjing, long accustomed to wealth and rank and unfamiliar with local ways, entered Yan carried in a sedan chair amid the army columns, which alarmed the people of Ji. Because the rebellions of An Lushan and Shi Siming had originated in Youzhou, Hongjing wanted to uproot the old ways from the start. He opened An Lushan's tomb and destroyed the coffin, which disappointed the people all the more. Several of his staff, including Wei Yong and Zhang Zonghou, were arrogant and heavy drinkers. They often came home drunk at night with torches lighting the streets and attendants shouting ahead and behind—customs foreign to Ji. Yong and his fellows also abused the clerks and soldiers, calling them rebel bandits. They told the troops, "The empire is at peace now. What good is drawing a two-stone bow if you cannot read a single character? The soldiers, proud of their martial spirit, deeply resented this. When Liu Zong returned to court, one million strings of cash were granted to reward the troops, but Hongjing kept two hundred thousand for miscellaneous military expenses. The people of Ji could endure no more. They rose in rebellion, imprisoned Hongjing at the Jimen inn, seized Wei Yong, Zhang Zonghou, and several others, and killed them all. Zhang Che was returning from a distant mission. The mutineers, seeing no fault in him, meant to bring him safely to the inn. Che did not understand their intentions. He demanded to know where Hongjing was and cursed the soldiers loudly. The mutineers killed him too. The next day the clerks and soldiers began to regret their actions. They all came to the inn, asked Hongjing to be their commander, and pledged to serve him faithfully. Three times they asked. Hongjing never answered. The soldiers said among themselves, "The minister's silence means he will never forgive us. An army cannot go a day without a leader! They then installed Zhu Hui as acting military commander. After the court appointed Zhu Kerong, Zhu Hui's son, military governor of Youzhou, Hongjing was demoted to prefect of Fuzhou. Not long after, he was transferred to the posts of guest of the crown prince, junior guardian, and junior preceptor. He died in the sixth month of Changqing 4, at the age of sixty-five.
23
元和初，王承宗阻兵，劉總父濟備陳征討之術，請身先之。 及出軍，累拔城邑。 總既繼父，願述先誌，且欲盡更河朔舊風。 長慶初，累表求入朝，兼請分割理之地，然後歸朝。 其意欲以幽、涿、營州一道，請弘靖理之； 瀛州為一道，盧士玫理之； 平、薊、媯、檀為一道，請薛平理之。 仍籍軍中宿將，盡薦於闕下，因望朝廷升獎，使幽、薊之人，皆有希美爵祿之意。 及疏上，穆宗且欲速得范陽，宰臣崔植、杜元穎又不為遠大經略，但欲重弘靖所授而省其事局。 唯瀛、莫兩州許置觀察使，其他郡縣悉命弘靖統之。 時總所薦將校俱在京師旅舍中，久而不問，硃克融輩僅至假衣丐食，日詣中書求官，不勝其困。 及除弘靖，命悉還本軍。 克融輩雖得復歸，皆深懷觖望，其後因為叛亂。 初，總以平、薊、媯、檀請薛平，於分裂之中尤為上策，而朝廷不能行之，竟致後患，人到於今惜之。
Early in the Yuanhe era, when Wang Chengzong was in revolt, Liu Zong's father Ji laid out a full plan for the campaign and volunteered to lead it himself. Once the army marched, it captured city after city. After Zong succeeded his father, he wished to carry out his father's intentions and thoroughly reform the old ways of Hebei. Early in the Changqing era he repeatedly petitioned to come to court, asking to divide the territory under his command before surrendering his post. He intended to set You, Zhuo, and Ying prefectures apart as one circuit under Hongjing; Ying Prefecture as another under Lu Shimei; and Ping, Ji, Gui, and Tan as a third under Xue Ping. He also listed the army's senior commanders for recommendation to the court, hoping that rewards and promotions would give the people of You and Ji reason to aspire to official rank and salary. When the memorial reached the throne, Emperor Muzong wanted to secure Fanyang quickly. Chief ministers Cui Zhi and Du Yuanying lacked a long-term strategy; they simply wanted to expand Hongjing's authority while simplifying the administrative structure. Only Ying and Mo were allowed separate observation commissioners; all other prefectures and counties were placed under Hongjing's sole authority. Meanwhile every officer Liu Zong had recommended languished in capital lodgings with no word from the court; Zhu Kerong and his companions scraped by on borrowed clothes and alms, trudging daily to the Secretariat to beg for posts until they were at their wits' end. Once Hongjing was dismissed, the court ordered them all sent back to their home commands. Kerong's party did return, but nursed bitter grievances and later broke into revolt. Zong had wanted Ping, Ji, Gui, and Tan placed under Xue Ping—the wisest cut in a partition plan—but the court never acted on it, inviting the troubles that followed; people still mourn the lost chance.
24
子文規、景初、嗣慶、次宗。
He left sons Wengui, Jingchu, Siqing, and Cizong.
25
文規，歷拾遺、補闕、吏部員外郎。 開成三年十一月，右丞韋溫彈劾文規：長慶中父弘靖陷在幽州，文規徘徊京師，不尋赴難，不宜塵汙南宮，乃出為安州刺史。 累遷右散騎常侍、兼御史中丞、桂管都防禦觀察使。
Wengui rose through remonstrance officer, collator, and external vacancy in the Ministry of Personnel. In November 838 Vice Director Wei Wen impeached Wengui: during Changqing his father Hongjing was trapped in Youzhou while Wengui idled in the capital instead of rushing to help—unfit, said Wen, to pollute the inner court—and Wengui was posted out as prefect of Anzhou. He rose in turn to right regular attendant of the cavalry, concurrent censor-in-chief, and commissioner-over-all for defense and observation in Guiguan.
26
景初，歷職使府，官止殿中侍御史。
Jingchu served in various commissioner staffs and rose no higher than palace attendant censor.
27
嗣慶，位終河南少尹。
Siqing ended his career as vice intendant of Henan.
28
次宗最有文學，稽古履行。 開成中，為起居舍人。 文宗復故事，每入閣，左右史執筆立於螭頭之下，宰相奏事，得以備錄。 宰臣既退，上召左右史更質證所奏是非，故開成政事，詳於史氏，次宗尤稱奉職。 改禮部員外郎，以兄文規為韋溫不放入省出官，次宗堅辭省秩，改國子博士兼史館修撰。 出為舒州刺史，卒。
Cizong was the most learned, grounding his conduct in classical precedent. During Kaicheng he served as attendance gentleman. Wenzong revived the old custom: on each entry to the council hall the left and right recorders stood with brushes below the hornless dragon frieze so they could capture everything the chief counselors reported. After the counselors left, the emperor called the recorders back to verify their accounts, so Kaicheng politics are unusually full in the histories—and Cizong was singled out for dutiful service. Promoted to external vacancy in the Ministry of Rites, he refused provincial rank when his brother Wengui was driven from the Secretariat by Wei Wen and took instead an erudite post at the Directorate of Education with a concurrent compiler's title at the History Office. He was posted out as prefect of Shuzhou and died in office.
29
文規子彥遠，大中初由左補闕為尚書祠部員外郎。 景初子天保，嗣慶子彥修，次宗子曼容。 延賞東都舊第在思順裏，亭館之麗，甲於都城，子孫五代，無所加工，時號「三相張氏」云。
Wengui's son Yanyuan, early in Dazhong, rose from left collator to external vacancy in the secretariat shrine office. Jingchu left son Tianbao; Siqing left Yanxiu; Cizong left Manrong. Yanshang's old mansion in the eastern capital stood in Sishun Lane, its pavilions unrivaled in the city; five generations left it untouched, and the clan was known as "the Zhangs of three chancellors."
30
史臣曰：君民足則國富，將相和則國安，反是道焉非得人者。 滉殺元琇，奏瑞鹽，逞斡運之能，非貞純之士，刻下罔上，以為己功。 幸逢多事之朝，例在姑息之地，幸而獲免，余無可稱。 延賞以私害公，罷李晟兵柄，使武臣不陳其力矣； 惡直醜正，擠柳渾相位，致賢者不進其才矣。 象恭僝功，皆四凶之跡也，雖以廕繼世，以才進身，蹈非道者，實小人哉！ 延賞歷典名籓，皆稱善政，及登大位，乃彰飾情。 臯叠處大僚，徒稱舊德； 弘靖輕傲邊事，欺減軍資； 洄附元載、楊炎，繼及累貶，俱非守正中立者也。 《書》云：「世祿之家，鮮克由禮。」 不其是歟！
The historiographer writes: When ruler and people prosper, the state grows rich; when generals and ministers work in harmony, the state stays secure—turn that path upside down and you will surely lose the men the realm needs. Huang destroyed Yuan Xie, touted miraculous salt, and flaunted his transport empire—no upright man, but one who ground down subordinates, deceived superiors, and called it achievement. He lived in turbulent times when indulgence was the rule and narrowly escaped ruin—nothing else worth praise. Yanshang let private spite harm the public good, stripped Li Sheng of command, and left martial men unwilling to give their full strength; he hated the upright and drove Liu Hun from the chancellorship so worthy men could not bring their talents forward. Outward deference masking selfish gain—the marks of the Four Evils; born to privilege and promoted for talent, yet walking unrighteous paths—they were small men indeed! Yanshang's terms in famous circuits won praise for good government; at the summit of power his true colors showed. Gao piled up high offices while resting on old reputation alone; Hongjing treated the frontier with contempt and shortchanged the troops; Hui clung to Yuan Zai and Yang Yan and suffered repeated demotions—none of them stood upright at the center. The Documents says, "Houses that live on hereditary stipends seldom keep to ritual." Is that not exactly the case!
31
贊曰：韓滉刻下，延賞害公。 臯、洄繼世，弘靖興戎。
In praise: Han Huang ground down his subordinates; Yanshang injured the public good. Gao and Hui inherited rank; Hongjing stirred war.