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卷一百六十二 列傳第一百十二: 潘孟陽 李翛 王遂 曹華 韋綬 鄭權 盧士玫 韓全義 高霞寓 高瑀 崔戎 陸亙 張正甫

Volume 162 Biographies 112: Pan Mengyang, Li Shu, Wang Sui, Cao Hua, Wei Shou, Zheng Quan, Lu Shimei, Han Quanyi, Gao Xiayi, Gao Yu, Cui Rong, Lu Gen, Zhang Zhengfu

Chapter 166 of 舊唐書 · Old Book of Tang
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Chapter 166
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1
Yuan Zhen, whose courtesy name was Weizhi, came from Henan. Emperor Zhaocheng of the Northern Wei was his tenth-generation forebear. His sixth-generation ancestor was Yan, who had served as Minister of War and been enfeoffed as Duke of Changping. His great-grandfather Yanjing had held the post of military aide in Qizhou. His grandfather Fei had served as magistrate of Nandun. His father Kuan had been a director in the Ministry of Justice and senior administrator of the Prince of Shu's household; when Zhen rose to prominence, Kuan was posthumously honored as Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat.
2
調
Zhen was only eight when his father died. His mother, Lady Zheng, was a woman of wisdom and virtue; Though the household was poor, she taught him the classics herself and trained him in letters. By the age of nine he could already compose prose. At fifteen he passed the civil service examinations in both of the Confucian Classics. At twenty-four he qualified at the fourth grade in the provincial assessment and was made a proofreader in the Palace Library. At twenty-eight he sat for the special "Outstanding Talent and Practical Understanding" examination; eighteen candidates passed, and Zhen took first place—in April of the first year of Yuanhe. The appointment edict followed, and he was named Right Reminder.
3
耀 調
Zhen was quick and incisive by nature, grasping affairs the moment they arose. Once installed in the remonstrance bureau, he refused to settle into routine obscurity; he spoke up on every matter and that very day submitted a memorial on the proper conduct of remonstrance officials. He also recalled how Wang Shuwen and Wang Pi—men of coarse character who had lingered at court awaiting summons—had won the crown prince's favor and, during the Yongzhen regency, had thrown government into turmoil. For this reason he argued that those who instructed the crown prince's household should be men of upright character. He accordingly submitted his "Book on the Foundations of Instruction," which began: This subject humbly observes that Your Majesty has issued a bright edict to restore abandoned schools, increase the crown prince's students, and select a director of studies. How great! When Yao was ruler, Boyi supervised the rites and Kui taught the crown prince's students—that is the deep meaning of this! Yet there are matters ten thousand times greater than this, and this subject dares speak of them presumptuously, at the risk of death. This subject has heard Jia Yi say: "The rulers of the Three Dynasties who were benevolent and long-lasting were so because of instruction." How true that saying is! King Cheng of Zhou, moreover, was a man of middling talent: near Guan and Cai, slander entered; with the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao, righteousness was heard. How can one say he was heaven-endowed with brilliance? Yet because he was able to complete the Way to the end, must one not say it was because of instruction? He was made to associate with Bo Qin and Uncle Tang; the Rites, Music, Poetry, and Documents were made his studies. His eyes were not allowed to view lewd and seductive sights; his ears were not allowed to hear jesters' laughter and disorderly music; his mouth was not allowed to practice manipulation, gambling, and gaming; in residence he was not allowed to approach flatterers and sinister men; in recreation he was not allowed to indulge in chasing birds and pursuing beasts; in playthings he was not allowed to possess rare exotic treasures from distant lands. Of all these matters, it is not that they are set before him yet he refrains from them; rather, he will not even be allowed to see them. When he grew up and became ruler, his vital energies were already settled and his habits of association already formed. Even if indulgences that pleased himself were daily set before him, they could not wrest away habits already formed and a heart already settled. Then words of loyalty, uprightness, and moral virtue were what he was accustomed to hearing; when they were set forth, there was means to instruct him; base and fawning words that violated the Way were what he had long accumulated fear of; when flattery was offered, there was means to distinguish it. In human nature, everyone wishes to display what he is capable of and take as his party those he is close to; if he is about to achieve his aim, he will surely give free rein to what he harbors within. The nature of things is likewise so. Thus fish obtain water and swim; horses loose the reins and run; birds obtain wind and soar; fire obtains fuel and blazes. All these are instances of things giving free rein to what they harbor within. What King Cheng harbored within was moral virtue; those he was close to were sages and worthies. Thus when he raised up those close to him, the Duke of Zhou was at his left and the Duke of Shao at his right; Bo Qin ruled Lu and Grand Duke Wang ruled Qi. Giving free rein to what he harbored within, he raised rites and music and received the feudal lords in audience, set aside punishments, and glorified instruction and transformation. Instruction at its utmost—can one not call this truly so! But when it came to Qin, it was not so. It abolished the learning of former kings, saying it would thereby keep all under Heaven ignorant; it dismissed the posts of teacher and protector, saying it would thereby clarify the roles of ruler and minister. When Huhai was born, he was not allowed to hear the Poetry and Documents, and sages and worthies were not allowed near him. That Zhao Gao was a castrated man of the fraudulent eunuch class; yet he was made his tutor in cruel and murderous arts, and it was said that to act wantonly over all under Heaven was esteemed, and that not seeing his face was honor. Thus though the people of all under Heaven were not yet entirely ignorant, Huhai was already unable to distinguish beasts from livestock. Zhao Gao's authority awed all under Heaven, and Huhai was already shut away in the deep palace. Li Si was Qin's favored chancellor. Because of slander he died unjustly with no means to clear himself—how much more so for distant and lowly ministers and commoners! If it was so, then Qin's fall had causes that brought it about. Emperor Gaozu of Han took it over by arms, and Emperor Wen guarded it with integrity and caution, yet in the end could not revive the great instruction. Thus Emperors Jing, Wu, Zhao, and Xuan, with very fine natural endowments, were able by their talent to escape calamity and disorder; but between Emperors Ai and Ping, they could not guard against usurpation and regicide. Yet when Emperor Hui was deposed and replaced, they still relied on supporting ministers to overcome wicked hearts. After this, rulers who possessed the state, when discussing instruction and transformation, all took promoting integrity and recommending filial piety, establishing schools and honoring Confucianism as their intent—yet they never knew that instruction failed because it began with the honored rather than the humble. Neglecting the honored and instructing only the lowly—is this not close to turning things upside down? When our Emperor Taizong was in the princely residence, and up to when he became crown prince, he selected eighteen men who understood moral virtue to associate and study with him. After he ascended the throne, even amid feasting and dining, those eighteen men were truly present. None of the ruler's faults went unspoken; none of the sentiments below went unreached. In less than three or four years his fame rose above the ancients—could one or two days have brought this about? It was the gradual effect of association and habit! From the Zhenguan era onward, teachers and tutors were all concurrently held by chancellors, and the other palace officials were also greatly honored. Ma Zhou, because his rank was high, regretted that he could not serve as director of deliberation—this is proof of it. After Emperor Taizong, they were gradually treated with distance and contempt. Matters reached the point where the empress dowager held court and the royal house was pruned and cast aside. When the two sage emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong labored diligently, though there were outspoken men of firm principle, since they could not hold posts of tending, protecting, and securing the heir, in the end they could not utter a single word of support and defense. Yet the physician An Jinzang was made to cut open his belly to prove his loyalty—is this not great sorrow! Since military campaigns arose, this abuse has been especially severe. The offices of teacher, protector, and tutor were filled either by men who were sick, disabled, dim-sighted, and deaf and unfit for duty, or by retired soldiers and dismissed generals who could not read. As for companions, advisers, and commentators, they were men so remote, superfluous, scattered, and base that the gentry were ashamed to hold such posts. A common scholar who loves his son still seeks a wise, clear, kind, and gracious teacher to instruct him and a straightforward, honest, and widely learned friend to complete his formation. How can the heir apparent of all under Heaven have as his teacher one who is sick, disabled, dim-sighted, deaf, and illiterate? Have as his friends men who are remote, superfluous, scattered, base, and unfit for use? How is this not far inferior to high antiquity! Under recent regulations, apart from palace officials, sunken, stagnant, eccentric, and aged Confucians are often used to fill the selections for attendance duty and lecturing; yet they are also neglected, cast aside, and expelled—for months on end they are not summoned to audience. How can they tutor moral virtue and nurture and preserve his person? This subject believes that those who have accumulated this abuse do so because Heaven favors and protects our Tang virtue; from Yao to Shun, down through Your Majesty's eleven sage emperors, none failed to be spiritually bright from birth and benevolent and sage in maturity—because of this they take it as mere petty ritual practice and do not examine it. This subject alone believes that for the plans of the successive sage emperors it may suffice, but when calculating the transmission to later generations it will not do. If perchance ten thousand generations hence there should be one of King Cheng's middling talent, yet born amid the deep palace and jesters' laughter, without the instruction of the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao to protect and assist, then he will not know whence joy, anger, sorrow, and delight come—how much less the hardships of planting and harvesting? Now Your Majesty, with the endowment of a supreme sage, has newly come to rule the realm—this is the day when the people of all under Heaven incline their ears and fix their hearts. This subject especially wishes that Your Majesty reflect on King Cheng's achievement in instruction and guidance, recall Emperor Taizong's gradual effect of association and habit, select weighty teachers and protectors, carefully choose palace officials, and employ broad, generous, and profound Confucians who are also clear and penetrating in practical affairs. Let them attend in rotation, advancing day by day and month by month. Thereby command the crown prince to gather the students, fix the ceremonies of ordering by age and cap for lecturing on studies, and perform the rites of a stern teacher inquiring into the Way. Use the utmost virtue and essential Way to complete him; withdraw meals and record faults to warn him. While vital energies are not yet settled, remove the diversions of birds and sensual pleasures to attend to study; when sage substance is already complete, then draw on the goodness of association and habit to enlarge virtue. This is what is called the transformation of "one man as the chief good, the myriad regions thereby upright." How can merely restoring abandoned schools and selecting a director of studies suffice to match its greatness? Moreover, make them models for the hundred kings, so that none fail to share teachers in youth and share methods in maturity, know that the ruler's Way is settled from the first, and know that heavenly relations are natural—then afterward select and employ the worthy and good and establish them as feudal screens. Going forth there would be the splendor of Jin, Zheng, Lu, and Wei; coming in there would be the strength of Dongmou and Zhuxu—this is what is called the momentum of clansmen as walls and interlocking teeth like bedrock. How can it be spoken of in the same breath as Wei and Jin onward, who imprisoned and debased their brothers and themselves pruned their own branches?
4
Emperor Xianzong read it with great satisfaction.
5
西
He also addressed northwestern frontier affairs, each a matter of central importance to the court. Xianzong summoned him for a private audience and questioned him on strategy. The chief ministers took offense, and he was transferred out to serve as magistrate of Henan County. After observing mourning for his mother and completing the requisite period, he was appointed investigating censor.
6
使使 使 西使 使使 宿
In the fourth year he was sent on mission to eastern Shu and impeached the former military governor of eastern Sichuan, Yan Li, for unauthorized levies in violation of regulations. He further documented the confiscation of property from eighty-eight households of officials and commoners—including Tu Shanfu—totaling 111 parcels of land, 27 bondservants, 1,500 bundles of forage, and 7,000 strings of cash. Yan Li was already dead, but the governors of seven prefectures were all called to account and penalized. Though Zhen had done his duty, certain powerful figures who had been on friendly terms with Yan Li turned against him. On his return he was assigned to share duties at the eastern office of the censorate. Han Gao, commissioner of Zhexi, had ordered Sun Xie, magistrate of Anji in Huzhou, beaten with the cudgel; Sun died within four days. When Meng Sheng, the army supervisor at Xuzhou, died, the military governor Wang Shao had his coffin sent to the capital with relay passes and even housed the coffin overnight at a postal station—both grave breaches of protocol. Zhen impeached both men on legal grounds. Fang Shi, intendant of the Henan metropolitan district, had engaged in unlawful conduct; when Zhen sought to summon him, Fang unilaterally suspended his office's operations. Fang rushed a memorial to court; Shi was fined one month's salary, and Zhen was recalled to the capital nonetheless. While staying at Fushui Post, he encountered the eunuch Liu Shiyuan, who had arrived later and contested possession of the reception hall. Shiyuan flew into a rage, forced the door open, and Zhen fled barefoot to the rear of the hall. Shiyuan pursued him and struck him across the face with a club. The chief ministers, deeming the young upstart bent on throwing his weight around, demoted him to staff officer in the Jiangling prefectural army.
7
Zhen was exceptionally quick-witted; even in youth he enjoyed a reputation for talent, and he formed a close friendship with Bai Juyi of Taiyuan. He excelled at verse and had a gift for capturing mood and scenery; contemporaries who discussed poetry paired "Yuan and Bai." From court gentlemen to common folk in the alleyways, everyone recited his poems; the style became known as the "Yuanhe manner." His brilliance and outspokenness had made him unwelcome at court, and he spent nearly ten years in exile in the Jingnan region. Before long Bai Juyi was demoted to marshal of Jiangzhou as well, while Zhen was transferred to the same post at Tongzhou. Though Tongzhou and Jiangzhou lay far apart, the two men exchanged visits and poems across the distance. Their poems ranged in length from thirty or fifty rhymes to as many as a hundred. Scholars in the south copied and recited them; the poems traveled to the capital, spread through every neighborhood, and drove up the price of paper. Readers found in them the ache of exile and displacement—every poem touched with sorrow.
8
姿 調 使
In the fourteenth year he was recalled from senior administrator of Guozhou and appointed vice director in the Bureau of Foodstuffs. Linghu Chu, the chief minister and a leading literary figure of the age, had long admired Zhen's literary gifts. He told him, "I have read your work before and regretted that there was not more of it; I have waited far too long. Bring out everything you have written and satisfy my wish at last." Zhen accordingly presented his collected writings, prefaced with an autobiographical note that read: At first I did not love literature; I merely had no other path in office and was forced through the civil service examination. After being condemned and cast aside for guilt, I considered myself discarded, stagnant, and ruined, and no longer expected my writings to become known among men. I never imagined that enthusiasts would pick out the fodder and weeds and defile what is honored. I have privately heard that the Chief Minister especially spoke of my poetic lines in the halls of state; yesterday I again received his face-to-face instruction to present my old writings. Trembling with sweat, startled and overwhelmed, I am ashamed beyond measure. Since my demotion from the Censorate, more than ten years have now passed. Leisurely and at ease with nothing to do, I then devoted myself to poetry. Day by day and month by month they increased; I have more than a thousand poems. Among them are some that respond to things and convey meaning, fit to supply instruction for the unenlightened. The wording is blunt and the tone rough; guilt is what I especially fear, so I truly do not dare display them before others. Only amid wine and cups have I often made small fragmentary pieces to chant for my own enjoyment. Yet I consider regulated verse base and cramped, its force and style not uplifted; without manner and bearing it falls into vulgar fashion. I constantly wished to attain deep thought and plain language, fresh rhyme and measure, flawless parallel couplets, and graceful feeling and style—but I have not yet overcome this failing. Along the rivers and lakes there are many newly advanced young men who do not know that literature has a master; they recklessly imitate one another and lose their way, until fragmentary, narrow, shallow phrasing is all called the Yuanhe poetic style. I was on friendly terms with my fellow student Bai Juyi. Juyi is elegantly skilled in poetry; among his works he especially loves mastering words and exhausting sound and rhyme; sometimes he sends me thousand-character or five-hundred-character regulated poems in exchange. Examining myself, I could not surpass him; I often playfully arranged old rhymes and created new wording, calling it matching rhymes in mutual response—intending to compete through difficulty. From then on, poets along the rivers and lakes again imitated one another; when their strength was insufficient, it reached inverted language, repeated beginnings and ends, identical rhymes and meaning no different from the previous piece—this too was called the Yuanhe poetic style. Yet those who oversee literature, examining the causes of the change in refined style, often lay blame on me. I once considered it a trifling matter of literary ornament, insufficient to clarify myself. When I first heard that the Chief Minister remembered me, for many days I have truly feared that a wall of dung and earth would be sheltered by a great hall so it would no longer crumble—forever becoming the error of those who lay boards and build. I have copied one hundred old-style songs and poems and one hundred regulated poems from hundred rhymes down to two rhymes, making five scrolls, which I respectfully present on my knees. Perhaps, after the great hall is built, you might once grant a reading and know that this humble student's rafter and ridgepole timber within lines and stanzas has all been measured—then more than ten years of wandering will not have been in vain.
9
Linghu Chu praised them extravagantly, declaring him the Bao Zhao and Xie Lingyun of their generation.
10
使
When the future Emperor Muzong was still crown prince, ladies of his household had sometimes sung Zhen's poems as songs; they knew his work and praised it, and within the palace he was called "the Yuan talent." Cui Tanjun, army supervisor in Jingnan, treated Zhen with exceptional respect rather than as a lowly clerk, and often asked for his poems to recite. Early in the Changqing reign Tanjun returned to the capital and presented to the throne more than a hundred of Zhen's works, including "Ballad of the Lianchang Palace." Muzong was delighted and asked where Zhen was serving. The answer came: "He is presently a junior gentleman of the Southern Palace." That same day he was transferred to director of the Sacrifices Bureau with charge of drafting edicts. The court looked down on the appointment because the edicts had not passed through the chancellor's office. Yet the edicts he drafted matched the ancients in grandeur and spread swiftly through the realm, and from this he won extraordinary favor. He composed dozens or hundreds of "Changqing Palace Lyrics," which the capital took up and sang in rivalry. Before long he was summoned to the Hanlin Academy as drafting academician and chief academician. Because of Tanjun, eunuchs vied to befriend Zhen, and Wei Hongjian of the Bureau of Military Affairs was especially close to him; Muzong valued him all the more. Pei Du, military governor of Hedong, submitted three memorials claiming that Zhen and Hongjian were sworn friends plotting to disrupt court governance, in fiercely accusatory language. Muzong, weighing opinion within and outside the court, stripped Zhen of his inner-court post and made him vice minister of Works. The emperor's favor had not yet waned. In the second year of Changqing he was appointed chief councilor. When the edict was promulgated, court and populace alike could scarcely suppress a smile.
11
便 使 使 使
At that time Wang Tingcou and Zhu Keyi had joined forces to besiege Niu Yuanji at Shenzhou; the court had pardoned their crimes and granted them military commissions, ordering them to withdraw, but both refused the edicts. Zhen, having been raised to office by an exceptional imperial favor, wished to accomplish something worthy in return. A prince's tutor named Yu Fang, son of the former Minister of Works Yu Di, pressed himself on Zhen seeking advancement. He spoke of two men of unusual ability, Wang Zhao and Wang Youming, who had sojourned in the Yan and Zhao region and were well acquainted with the rebel factions, and who might be turned through counter-intelligence to rescue Yuanji. He offered his family wealth to fund their mission and bribed clerks in the Ministry of War to issue twenty blank commissions for discretionary reward; Zhen approved all of this. A man named Li Shang, who knew of Fang's scheme and aware of the rift between Zhen and Pei Du, reported to Du: "Yu Fang is acting at Zhen's orders, recruiting Wang Zhao and others to assassinate you." Du kept silent and did not act on the report. When the director of the Divine Stratagem Army reported on Fang's affair, the three judicial offices under Han Gao and others were ordered to investigate; the plot against Pei could not be verified, but the earlier schemes were fully exposed. Both Zhen and Du were removed as chief councilors; Zhen was sent out as governor of Tongzhou while Du remained vice director. Remonstrance officials submitted memorials arguing that Du's punishment was too severe and Zhen's too lenient. The emperor, taking pity on Zhen, only stripped him of his commission as commissioner of the Everlasting Spring Palace.
12
便 退 便
Soon after Zhen lost the chancellorship, before the three offices had concluded their report, the metropolitan intendant Liu Zungu sent ward officers to spy on Zhen's residence; Zhen memorialized in protest. The emperor was angered, punished Zungu, and dispatched a eunuch to console Zhen. On reaching Tongzhou he submitted a memorial of thanks to the throne, with a self-account that read: This subject Zhen has failed Your sage clarity, disgraced and burdened by favor and reward; I ought to seek my own place of death—how can I say I still undeservedly hold office and honor? This subject Zhen deserves death. This subject lost his father at eight; the family was poor and without livelihood. Mother and elder brother begged to supply sustenance. Clothes did not cover the body; food did not fill the belly. In the years of early study, I did not receive a teacher's instruction. Because I was moved that neighborhood children had fathers and elder brothers who opened schools, I wept and choked with indignation and wished to know the Poetry and Documents. My kind mother pitied me and personally taught me. At fifteen I obtained entry by the classics examination; from this I labored at writing with bitter effort and studied strenuously morning and night. At twenty-four I passed the Ministry of Personnel second class and was appointed collator. At twenty-eight I was honored with first selection in the special examination and was appointed left remonstrance official. From first pursuing study to ascending court, there were no friends to puff me up, no kinsmen to shield and protect me. All was through bitter effort on myself; truly not through others. Independent character was formed, and thus I had no associations. During my days as remonstrance official I repeatedly set forth current government affairs and was honored by the late emperor with summons and inquiry in Yanying. Soon I was hated by the chancellor and was sent out as marshal of Henan County. When I became investigating censor, again I did not evade or avoid but devoted my heart to impeachment and discipline. Again the chancellor was angry that my subordinates sheltered kin and partisans, and on another matter demoted me to aide in Jiangling. Abandoned for ten years, I allotted myself to die in ditch and drain. In Yuanhe 14, Emperor Xianzong opened release for the guilty and first appointed me vice director of the Board of Appointments. Those in the same ministry office with me were mostly men I had recommended when ascending court; those holding posts as ministers and chancellors were half remonstrance and supplementation officials from my days in the remonstrance courtyard. This foolish subject had not expected that Your Majesty's heavenly hearing was excessively humble, knowing my slight arts—vermilion writing appointed me to draft edicts, and Yanying summoned me to bestow crimson robes. The chancellor hated that I did not come from his gate; thereby a hundred slanders invaded and destroyed. Your Majesty examined me and found no guilt; favor and reward exceeded the deep. I was summoned and firmly appointed palace aide, dispatched to serve as drafting Hanlin academician; golden seal and purple robes adorned my humble body—the glory of human life, I also reached its utmost. Yet I increasingly suffered slander and day and night worried over peril. Only Your Majesty's sage mirror brightly oversaw, increasingly added protection and trust, and in the end set aside the multitude of opinions and promoted me to the censorate. This subject undeservedly possessed heart and liver—how could I be ranked with ordinary chancellors? Moreover, when the campaign forces had withdrawn and dispersed, and Niu Yuanji had not yet emerged, each time I heard Your Majesty's words of anxious concern, this foolish subject regretted that I was not first among the soldiers. What was asked about in plans and stratagems—dispatching Wang Youming and others to rescue and relieve Shen Prefecture—was surely to match Your sage sentiment; how could it be harboring another intent? I did not expect that wicked men suspected me of murdering Pei Du and falsely made accusations, dusting and defiling Your sage hearing—shame before Heaven and Earth. This subject originally waited to clarify the matter completely and then planned to give my life to answer the blame—who expected that Your sage compassion still added favor, lightly demoting me to Tong Prefecture. Though separated by less than a foot's distance, not far from the suburban domain, I humbly reckon it must be Your imperial heart's sole decision, granting me this office. If others had been sent to deliberate, they might for a time send me to a distant frontier command—but would they be willing to send me bowing near the court gate? What I regret is that on the third day of this month I still received summons for audience in Yanying. At that time I did not understand to weep blood and look up to decline Your countenance, and thus reached today's banishment and expulsion. Since I left the capital, my sight is severed and my soul is broken. Each time the fifth watch arrives for court audience, I truly restrain tears without end. If my remaining life is not yet ended and someday by chance I return, I dare not hope again to see Your countenance—only to hear once more the capital's bells and drums; though yellow earth covers my face, I would have no regret in the grave. This subject cannot bear self-reproach and self-shame, clinging in longing to Your utmost sage compassion.
13
使 使
After two years in the prefecture he was reassigned as governor of Yuezhou with concurrent appointment as grand censor and surveillance commissioner of Zhedong. The landscape of Kuaiji was wondrously beautiful; the staff he recruited were all leading literary men of the day, and he toured Mirror Lake and Mount Qinwang three or four times a month. The poems he composed on these outings often filled whole scrolls. His deputy Dou Gong, renowned throughout the realm for poetry, exchanged verses with Zhen more than any other; to this day their Lanting songs are called unmatched. Zhen gave himself over to pleasure and travel and paid little heed to personal decorum, gaining a reputation for corrupt enrichment. He remained in Yue for eight years in all.
14
使
In the early Taihe era he received an additional appointment as acting Minister of Rites. In the ninth month of the third year he entered the capital as Left Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat. He raised standards and regulations and removed seven bureau officials who had long fallen short of public consensus. Yet because Zhen had never been restrained in conduct, popular sentiment did not willingly accept him. When the chief minister Wang Bo died suddenly, Zhen went to great lengths along the road, maneuvering for the chancellorship. In the first month of the fourth year he received an additional appointment as acting Minister of Revenue with concurrent posts as governor of Ezhou, grand censor, and military commissioner of the Wuchang army. On the twenty-second day of the seventh month of the fifth year he was seized by sudden illness and died at his post within a day, at the age of fifty-three; he was posthumously enfeoffed as Right Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat. He left a son named Daohu, then three years old. Zhen's elder brother Ji, Vice Director of the Court of the Imperial Granaries, arranged the funeral. His collected poems, fu, edicts, inscriptions, eulogies, discourses, and miscellaneous prose fill one hundred scrolls, entitled Collected Writings of Master Yuan of the Changqing Era. He also compiled three hundred scrolls on penal administration ancient and modern, entitled Classified Compilations, and both works circulated widely in his age.
15
稿 使 使 使 使 西使 使 忿 西 使 歿
At the end of the Changqing era he edited and abridged his collected writings; his "Self-Account" read: Liu Xin said: Institutions must not be cut away. I believe there are some that may be cut away: presenting plans and counsel, restraining appetites and desires—if the ruler possesses them, praise returns to the sovereign; if ministers monopolize them, praise returns to those below. If they are kept, their usurpation is not the Way. Passing through institutions, clarifying benefit and harm, distinguishing the wicked and upright, discerning suspicion and confusion—if kept, affairs are divided and clear; if removed, right and wrong are obscured. If they are cut away, the fault is not the Way. At the beginning of Yuanhe, Emperor Muzong had newly ascended the throne, and among his subjects none yet spoke to cleanse his sight and hearing. At that time I had just entered service among the remonstrance officials by imperial examination response, and thereby presented more than ten memorials including the Book on Foundations of Instruction, On the Duties of Remonstrance, and On Affairs; I also joined Pei Du, Li Zhengchen, and Wei Xun in litigation over what was said to be correct, while the chancellor twisted the matter and reported upward. The sovereign was somewhat enlightened and summoned me to audience to inquire into the matter. The chancellor greatly hated this; within a month I was sent out as marshal of Henan. After several years I was appointed censor and dispatched to Dongchuan. In accordance with the Yuanhe amnesty edict, I impeached the military governor Yan Li for confiscating the property of Tu Shanfu and eighty-seven other households, over-taxing the people of Zi and Sui by several million. The court was astonished, stripped him of seven grades of censorial authority, and returned all confiscated property to the people. It happened that Pan Mengyang replaced Yan Li as military governor; he was greedier than Yan Li and moreover sought to curry favor. Though he did not dare wholly abolish the edict, he therefore ordered that all who should have received confiscated property must pay a fee to obtain it. The fees exceeded their worth; he monopolized firewood and stole taxes—nothing was left undone. He also submitted a secret memorial on Yan Li's behalf that he ought not receive a disgraceful posthumous title. When I returned from Dongchuan, Yan Li's partisans secretly ground their teeth in hatred. Before long I was assigned to oversee the Eastern Capital Censorate. The Son of Heaven had long been absent from the capital, and in the capital there were many lawless men. Every office was a prison; there were receiving clerks who shackled men for more than a year while the censorate could not know of it. I therefore submitted an urgent memorial to forbid every office from exclusive imprisonment. I impeached the Henan marshal's aide, offending the chancellor's intent. The supervisory commissioner of Xu died in the army; the Xu commander sent his coffin by post relay. When the coffin reached Luoyang, his subordinates beat and reviled the chief postal clerk. I ordered the clerks to move the coffin outside and forbade further use of post relay. The Zhexi observation commissioner sealed a staff and adjudged the magistrate of Anji to death; the Henan governor falsely memorialized that the scholar Yin Taijie requested death; the Feilong commissioner enticed a runaway slave of Zhao Shi's household to become an adopted son; Tian Ji'an secretly married a genteel woman of Luoyang; Bian Prefecture confiscated the money of a dead merchant, nearly ten million; Hua Prefecture levied a thousand from the people and handed over only eight hundred; the court supplied the eastern army; the chief accountant mistakenly ordered four thousand three hundred ox carts to rush fodder over the Taihang Mountains. Matters like these numbered in the dozens; whether by dispatch or memorial, I took charge of them all. Since the Zhenyuan era, people were unaccustomed to using written law; favored ministers within and without all roared and clamored. It happened that the Henan governor Fang Shi's fraud and false accusation came to light; I memorialized to take him into custody. Those who had previously roared and clamored now shouted and made an uproar. The chancellor had long harbored resentment over my impeachment of a rebellious official; seizing this opportunity he dismissed me to aide in Jiangling. After ten years I was at last made vice director of the Board of Appointments. At the beginning of Emperor Muzong's reign, chancellors alternated in wielding power. Chancellor Duan Wenchang one day alone obtained audience and thereupon requested the prompt appointment of Xue Cunqing, director of the Ministry of War, and Niu Sengru, vice director of the Ministry of Personnel examinations—I was also among those requested, and the sovereign approved. Within less than ten days I was next appointed drafting and palace aide; others who resented me day and night fabricated flying rumors. I feared punishment and repeatedly submitted memorials to clarify myself. The sovereign pitied me and thrice summoned me to speak. Our conversation reached military levies and northwestern border affairs, and he thereupon ordered me to manage them. After this, in written memorials and audiences I spoke of affairs under Heaven; those outside did not know and mostly speculated. Your Majesty all the more valued that I did not leak palace talk, summoned me into the Hanlin Academy, and wished to promptly appoint me chancellor. At that time Pei Du was in Taiyuan and also had prospects of chancellorship; the crafty plotted to abolish both together and therefore fabricated against Pei charges that I had not made. Pei's memorial arrived; upon verification all was untrue. The sovereign, because Pei was then holding troops, did not wish to judge right and wrong, and sent me out as vice minister of works; the prospect of Pei becoming chancellor also faded. Within not many months the sovereign fully obtained those who had fabricated; though he could not publicly expose them, he then fulfilled his original intent and in the end appointed both me and Pei as chancellors. Again someone bribed a mad commoner to report that I had borrowed a guest to assassinate Pei; upon interrogation again there was no substance, yet Pei and I were both dismissed for the old matter. From first seeing the sovereign in the eighth month of Yuanhe 15 to this time was not yet two years; presumptuously receiving favor and grace, none was so swift; suffering slander and blame, none was so severe. Thus heart and soul were consumed supporting and defending in peril of destruction with no leisure—how could there be leisure to manage what Your Majesty entrusted! Yet amid haste and hardship, the military levy and border defense reports submitted before and after, of which copies can be preserved, number one hundred fifteen. If they are cut away, this wounds the late emperor's employment of his servant. As for the chapters clarifying slander in full expression, if removed there would be no means to clarify myself before friends. The rest—county and prefecture memorials and requests, congratulatory rites—are also appended to the list of items. From the Book on Foundations of Instruction to miscellaneous memorials on behalf of others, there are twenty-seven scrolls, altogether two hundred twenty-seven memorials. To the end of my life I bequeath them to descendants as a model, thereby making clear how hard institutions are to carry out and how easily destruction arrives.
16
His self-account is as above; those who wish to know the author's intent will find it fully set forth in that piece.
17
Of Zhen's literary friends, none was closer than Bai Juyi. Younger writers esteemed Pang Yan most highly, saying his style resembled Zhen's, and Zhen recommended him. Pang Yan came from Shouchun. His father was Jingzhao. Yan passed the jinshi in the Yuanhe era; in the first year of Changqing he entered the special examination for worthy and upright men able to speak blunt remonstrance, placing third in grade and ranking first among the special-examination candidates. That same month he was appointed Left Reminder. He was exceptionally intelligent, and his prose was sharp and elegant. The Hanlin academicians Yuan Zhen and Li Shen knew him well. In the second month of the following year he was summoned to the Hanlin Academy as academician. He was transferred to Left Supplementation Officer, then promoted to director of the Carriages Bureau with charge of drafting edicts. Yan and the Right Reminder Jiang Fang were both recommended by Zhen and Shen for remonstrance posts and inner-court offices.
18
殿使
In the fourth year, when Emperor Zhaomin ascended the throne, Li Shen was ousted by the chief minister Li Fengji and demoted to marshal of Duanzhou. Yan was implicated by association and sent out as governor of Jiangzhou. The Attendant-in-Ordinary Yu Ao had long been friendly with Yan; when the appointment edict was issued, Ao sealed it and returned it, and people at court looked at one another in alarm and said, "Attendant Yu has offended the chief minister's wrath for a friend's sake—is he not in peril?" When the revised edict appeared, it turned out Ao had rejected the draft as punishing Yan too lightly; court and populace alike mocked the affair and made it a byword. When Li Shen was first demoted, court officials all congratulated Fengji; only the Right Reminder Wu Si refused to join them. Fengji in anger transferred him to palace censor and appointed him envoy to announce mourning in a foreign land. Yan was recalled and made director of the Storehouses Bureau.
19
宿
In the second month of the second year of Taihe the emperor tested special-examination candidates and appointed Yan, together with the Left Regular Attendant Feng Su and Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices Jia Su, as examiners, with Pei Xiu ranking first in the top grade of the special examination. Among the candidates for blunt remonstrance was Liu Fen, whose itemized responses were fiercely incisive, running to several thousand words in all. He was not selected, and people widely regarded it as unjust. His policy essay circulated widely at the time, and some who had passed the examination offered to yield their fame to Fen. Yan was promoted again to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
20
In the fifth year he served as acting metropolitan intendant of Jingzhao, praised for being forceful and unafraid of powerful families, yet he lacked a gentleman-scholar's restraint and was greedy for power and profit. He died in a drunken stupor. Bai Juyi, whose courtesy name was Letian, came from Taiyuan. He was the great-grandson of Jian, Minister of the Five Armies under the Northern Qi. Jian begot Shitong, who served as military governor of Lizhou in the present dynasty. Shitong begot Zhishan, Attendant for Imperial Vestments. Zhishan begot Wen, acting director in the Ministry of Justice. Wen begot Huang, who served in turn as magistrate of Suozao and Gong counties. Huang begot Jigeng, who in the early Jianzhong era was magistrate of Pengcheng. At that time Li Zhengji held more than ten prefectures south of the Yellow River in rebellion. Zhengji's clansman Wei was military governor of Xuzhou; Jigeng persuaded Wei to return Pengmen to the state, and for this he was granted Grand Master of Splendid Happiness, Vice Director of the Court of Judicial Review, Xuzhou vice governor, a crimson fish bag, and concurrent appointment as administrative aide to the Xuzhou-Si surveillance commissioner. He served in turn as vice governor of Quzhou and Xiangzhou. From Huang down to Jigeng, the family cultivated Confucian learning for generations, all entering office through the Classics examinations. Jigeng begot Juyi. At first Jian had rendered meritorious service to the Northern Qi and was granted fields in Hancheng; the family settled there and later transferred their registry to Tongzhou. When Wen moved to Xiaji, the family settled there; today they are registered as men of Xiaji.
21
Juyi in youth was exceptionally intelligent, with a broad and expansive spirit. When he was fifteen or sixteen he tucked a literary manuscript under his sleeve and presented it to Gu Kuang, a native of Wu who was an editorial director. Kuang could write but was by nature frivolous; he found nothing satisfactory in the writings of junior scholars. Reading Juyi's essay, he could not help but go out to the gate to receive him with courtesy and said, "I thought this literary tradition had perished; I have found you again."
22
In the fourteenth year of Zhenyuan he first took the jinshi examination; Vice Director of Rites Gao Ying elevated him to the top grade, the Ministry of Personnel assessment placed him in grade, and he was appointed proofreader in the Palace Library. In the fourth month of the first year of Yuanhe Emperor Xianzong tested special-examination candidates; Juyi entered the examination for outstanding talent and practical understanding, his policy placing in the fourth grade, and he was appointed magistrate of Zhouzhi and collator in the Hall of Assembled Worthies.
23
便 使 使 便 便
Juyi's literary compositions were rich and gorgeous, and he was especially skilled in poetic writing. From proofreading through receiving his sash in the capital region, the songs and poems he composed numbered dozens or hundreds, all intending satirical expression, admonishing the ills of the age and repairing the gaps in governance. Gentlemen and scholars mostly approved of them, and they often reached the ears of the inner palace. Emperor Zhangwu, wishing to receive remonstrance and ponder governance, was eager to hear blunt counsel; in the eleventh month of the second year he summoned Juyi into the Hanlin Academy as academician. In the fifth month of the third year he was appointed Left Reminder. Juyi considered that he had encountered a sovereign who loved literature and had been raised out of turn; he wished to offer up what he had stored through his life to repay the grace of his elevation. On the day he received his appointment, he submitted a memorial on affairs of state, which read: Receiving your grace, you appointed me Left Reminder while continuing me as Hanlin academician; I have already submitted a joint memorial of thanks with Cui Qun. I spoke only of unworthy acceptance and did not express my inner sincerity. Now again intruding upon your imperial presence, I humbly beg your careful reading once more. I respectfully consult the Administrative Compendium: the Left and Right Reminders oversee attendance and admonition; whenever orders or undertakings are inconvenient to the times or not in accord with the Way, for small matters they submit sealed memorials, for great matters they remonstrate at court. Their selection is weighty, their rank low; there is indeed a reason for this. Generally speaking, when position is high one cherishes one's position, when status is exalted one loves one's person; cherish position and one steals agreement without speaking; love one's person and one is compliant without remonstrating—this is inevitable. Therefore the Reminders are given low rank so that position is not yet worth cherishing and person not yet worth loving. Their selection is made weighty so that subordinates cannot bear to betray their hearts and superiors cannot bear to betray grace. When position is not worth cherishing and grace cannot be betrayed, only then can one admonish wherever there are faults and remonstrate wherever there are violations. The court's gains and losses are all examined; the realm's benefits and harms are all spoken of. This is our dynasty's original intent in establishing the Reminders. From this perspective, how could it be a post fit for a petty minister as stupid, inferior, and timid as I? Moreover I was originally a village-school pedant and a runner-clerk in prefecture and county; my heart was cast into the mire, my hopes cut off from the clouds. Who would have thought your sagely kindness would raise me to a nearby post: at every feast I was first to attend, at every celebratory bestowal first to benefit; the imperial stable's horses bore my labor, the inner kitchen's meals supplied my food. Ashamed morning and wary evening for more than half a year, the dust of neglect grows deeper and my worry and shame grow keener. Before I had rendered the slightest service, I was again promoted to the pure ranks. Therefore, in the ten days since receiving office, I have eaten without tasting and slept without rest. I think only of giving my body to repay extraordinary favor, yet have not yet found the occasion to do so. Now you have newly ascended the throne and first received the great name; day and night anxious and diligent, seeking to bring order. Whenever you enact a policy or undertake an affair, none fails to accord with the Way and suit the times. If by chance there is an affair inconvenient to the times, would you not wish to hear of it? If by chance there is a policy not in accord with the Way, would you not wish to know of it? If in your words and actions, among edicts and orders, there are small omissions or slight matters bearing on benefit and harm, I will secretly set forth what I have seen and quietly present what I have heard—only awaiting your judgment. My duties are moreover within the forbidden precincts, unlike outer offices; wishing to exhaust my sincerity, I ought first to disclose it. I humbly hope for Heaven's discernment and deep perception of my sincerity.
24
Juyi was on friendly terms with Yuan Zhen of Henan; they had passed the special examination in the same year and their friendship was deep and thick. When Zhen was demoted from investigating censor to army staff officer of Jiangling prefecture, Hanlin academicians Li Jiang and Cui Qun spoke to the emperor's face arguing that Zhen was guiltless; Juyi submitted memorial after memorial in blunt remonstrance, saying:
25
使 使 使 使 便
Having examined the matter inwardly and listened to public discussion outwardly, I find three reasons Yuan Zhen's demotion must not stand. What are they? Everyone knows that Yuan Zhen is upright in office. Since his appointment as censor, he has not shied from power and influence in his impeachments; cases such as his memorial against Li Zuogong and others mostly involved court intimates and kin. Who is without private feeling? Resentment has been harbored; public discussion has been borrowed to settle private grudges, and slander has reached Your Majesty's ears. I fear that after Zhen's demotion, every official who wishes to perform his duties will first take him as a warning; no one will be willing to hold office and uphold the law for you, or to hate evil and restrain wrongdoing on your behalf. Powerful nobles and their kin, inside and outside the court, will only cover for one another no matter how grave their faults; from this you will have no way to learn of them. This is the first reason it must not stand. In yesterday's matter of Fang Shi, which Zhen pursued and investigated, his heart followed public duty, but the affair was somewhat excessive. He has already received heavy punishment, enough to chastise the offense; moreover, he had already thanked you for imperial grace, yet was again demoted. Although earlier matters were cited as grounds for reproach, public talk is loud: all believe Zhen was punished because he quarreled with the palace envoy Liu Shiyuan over quarters. The rights and wrongs of the quarrel over quarters have already been fully set forth in my previous memorial. Moreover I have heard that Shiyuan kicked through the relay station gate, seized a general's saddle and horse, and still demanded bow and arrows, terrifying and insulting court officials; nothing like this has ever occurred before. Now the palace official is guilty, yet no punishment has been heard of; yet the censor, though without fault, was demoted first. Near and far, all who hear of it know that it truly damages your sagely virtue. I fear that from now on, when palace officials go on missions, unrestrained violence will grow still worse; court officials who suffer insult will certainly not dare to speak out. Even those who are insulted and beaten will take Zhen as a warning and only swallow their voices. From this you will have no way to hear of it. This is the second reason it must not stand. I have also learned that since last year Zhen has memorialized that Yan Li, during his days in eastern Shu, violated the law and confiscated the property of more than eighty common households; he also memorialized that Wang Zhao illegally issued passes, ordering the military supervisor to escort the coffin and household members into the relay station; he also memorialized that Pei Bin violated an imperial order in levying fodder from the common people; he also memorialized that Han Gao had a military officer beat the county magistrate to death with a sealed staff. Such matters are very numerous; when the court applied the law, all received punishment. I reckon that the military governors throughout the realm are all angry at Zhen for upholding his office. Now that he is demoted to judicial adjutant at Jiangling, he is in effect delivered to the military governors; from this they can conveniently settle their grudges—how is the court to learn of it? I humbly recall that in Emperor Dezong's time Cui Shanzhen reported that Li Qi would certainly rebel; Dezong did not believe him and sent him to Li Qi, who dug a pit, kindled a fire, and burned Shanzhen to death. Within a few years Li Qi did rebel; to this day the realm grieves over it. I fear that with Zhen demoted, when military governors commit faults no one will dare speak, and you will have no way to learn of unlawful conduct. This is the third reason it must not stand. Were it not for these three reasons, a mistaken demotion of one censor would be a small matter—how would I dare trouble your imperial ear again and again! Truly, because the harm is deep and the stakes are great, with this in mind I must speak to the utmost!
26
The memorial entered and received no response.
27
使 殿
Also the military governor of Ziqing, Li Shidao, presented silk to ransom the residence of Wei Zheng's descendants. Juyi remonstrated, saying, "Wei was a chief minister of Your Majesty's former reign; Taizong once bestowed hall timber to complete his main hall, and it was especially unlike the mansions of other families. The descendants pawned it; the sum was not large and the court itself could redeem it, yet to let Shidao seize the credit is in truth not fitting." The emperor deeply agreed.
28
使
The emperor also wished to add Wang E of Hedong as chief councilor; Juyi remonstrated, saying, "The chief councilor is Your Majesty's assisting minister; only the worthy and good should hold this post. E strips the people's wealth to purchase favor; it must not be allowed that people in the four directions say Your Majesty received Wang E's tribute offerings and gave him the chancellorship—this is deeply without benefit to the holy court." And so it was stopped.
29
使
Wang Chengzong defied orders; the emperor appointed the director of the Divine Stratagem Army, Tuoba Chenghuan, as campaign commissioner, and remonstrance officials submitted memorials numbering seventeen or eighteen. Juyi argued face to face, his words urgent and sincere. Afterward he again requested withdrawal of troops in Hebei; in all several thousand words, all things difficult for others to speak, and the emperor mostly listened and accepted. Only on the matter of remonstrating against Chenghuan was the emperor somewhat displeased, and he said to Li Jiang, "Bai Juyi the youngster is one I raised and elevated to fame and position, yet he is without propriety toward me—I truly find it hard to bear." Jiang replied, "The reason Juyi does not avoid the punishment of death and speaks on matters great and small is that he is repaying Your Majesty's special elevation of him by force—it is not light speech. Your Majesty wishes to open the path of blunt remonstrance; you should not obstruct Juyi's words." The emperor said, "Your words are correct." From this Juyi was often heard and accepted.
30
便 退
In the fifth year, when his term for office change came due, the emperor said to Cui Qun, "Juyi's office is low and his salary thin; constrained by seniority he cannot be promoted beyond grade—his office may be reported as he himself wishes." Juyi memorialized, saying, "I have heard that Jiang Gongfu, holding an inner post, requested appointment as administrative aide in the capital prefecture for the sake of supporting his parents. I have an aged mother; our household is poor and support is thin—I beg to follow Gongfu's example." Thereupon he was appointed army staff officer in the metropolitan prefecture's revenue section. In the fourth month of the sixth year he entered mourning for his mother Lady Chen and retired to Xiaji. In the winter of the ninth year he entered court and was appointed Left Mentor to the Heir Apparent.
31
In the seventh month of the tenth year bandits killed the chief minister Wu Yuanheng; Juyi was first to submit a memorial on his injustice and urgently requested capture of the assassins to wash away the national shame. The chief ministers held that a palace official was not a remonstrance post and ought not speak before remonstrance officials. There happened to be one who had long disliked Juyi; he seized on Juyi and said he was frivolous and without conduct—that his mother had died from falling into a well while viewing flowers, yet Juyi composed "Viewing Flowers" and "The New Well," gravely injuring moral teaching, and was unfit to stand among the court ranks. Those in power at the time detested his remonstrances and memorialized that he be demoted to prefect south of the Yangtze. When the edict was issued, Drafting Academician Wang Ya submitted a memorial on the matter, saying that given the nature of Juyi's offenses he was unfit to govern a prefecture; the edict was recalled and he was appointed marshal of Jiangzhou instead.
32
西 竿 滿
Beyond Confucian learning Juyi was especially versed in Buddhist scriptures and often took forgetting cares and accepting circumstances as his practice, not minding exile and demotion at all. At Xuncheng he established a hermitage at the Jian'ai Temple on Mount Lu and once wrote to someone, saying, "Last autumn I first traveled Mount Lu; between the eastern and western forests at the foot of Incense Burner Peak I saw clouds, trees, springs, and rocks surpassing all else in excellence. I loved it and could not leave; therefore I built a thatched hall. Before it were more than ten tall pines, more than a thousand bamboo poles, green silk for a wall enclosure, white stone for a bridge path, flowing water circling below the lodge, flying springs falling between the eaves, red pomegranate and white lotus growing thick around the pool ledge." Juyi with the four Chan masters Cou, Man, Lang, and Hui pursued the traces of Yong, Yuan, Zong, and Lei and formed friendships outside the world of men. They often urged one another to travel and chant, climbing peril and ascending heights, reaching the utmost seclusion of forests and springs. When they arrived at a state of free and easy accord, they nearly forgot their own bodies. Sometimes they did not return for a whole season, or returned only after more than a month; the prefect treated them as court nobility and did not hold them accountable.
33
仿 穿 宿 便 宿 使 使 西 使 退 退 退
At that time Yuan Zhen was in Tongzhou; poems exchanged in gift and response traveled back and forth, not considering several thousand li distant. He once wrote to Zhen discussing the great principles of composition, saying: Writing is exalted indeed; heaven, earth, and humanity each have their own literature. Heaven's literature is headed by the sun, moon, and stars; earth's literature is headed by the five elements; human literature is guided by the Six Classics. Among the Six Classics, the Odes come first. Why is this? The sage moves people's hearts, and the realm is at peace. What moves the heart begins with feeling, starts with words, is sharpened by sound, and is grounded in meaning. Poetry has feeling for its root, words for its shoot, sound for its blossom, and meaning for its fruit. It ranges from sages and worthies down to fools and dullards, reaching subtly even to pigs and fish and darkly even to ghosts and spirits. Though classes are many, the vital breath is one; though forms differ, feelings are the same. Never does sound enter the ear without response, nor feelings meet without mutual stirring. Knowing this, the sage took people's words and threaded them with the six principles; and following their sounds, wove them with the five tones. Sound has rhyme; meaning has category. When rhyme harmonizes, words flow smoothly; when words flow, sound enters easily; when categories are set forth, feeling shows; when feeling shows, mutual stirring comes easily. Thus it bears the great and holds the deep, penetrates the subtle and threads the dense; above and below communicate and the two breaths are at peace, sorrow and joy unite and the hundred aims flourish. The Two Emperors and Three Kings could walk the straight path and govern with folded arms because they raised this as the great handle and opened this as the great gateway. Thus hearing the song "The head is bright, the arms are good," one knows the way of Yu flourished. Hearing the song of the Five Sons at Luorui, one knows the government of Xia was in disorder. The speaker bears no guilt; the hearer takes warning—speaker and hearer alike give their full hearts. When Zhou declined and Qin rose, the poetry-gathering office was abolished; above, poetry no longer supplemented and examined government; below, songs no longer vented and guided human feeling. Flattery and complacency took hold, and the way of remedying loss was lost. Then the six principles were first cut away. The Airs of the States became Sao verse; five-character poetry began with Su Wu and Li Ling. The authors of the Odes and Sao were all men who met with no favor; each clung to his own aim and, giving vent, produced writing. Thus the lines at River Bridge stop at grieving parting; the chant beside the marsh returns to resentful brooding. Wandering and depressed, they had no leisure for anything else. Yet they were not far from the Odes; the rough outline still remained. Thus in treating parting they cited paired ducks and a single goose as metaphor; in satirizing gentleman and petty man they cited fragrant herbs and evil birds as comparison. Though the categories of meaning were not complete, they still preserved two or three out of ten of the Airs. Then the six principles were first lacking. From Jin and Song onward, those who attained it were few indeed. In Xie Lingyun's profundity and breadth, many drowned in landscape; in Tao Yuanming's lofty antiquity, many were set loose in fields and gardens. The stream of Jiang Yan and Bao Zhao was narrower still. Cases like Liang Hong's "Five Sighs" were not one or two in a hundred. By then the six principles were gradually fading! Decline reached Liang and Chen, when as a rule poetry was no more than mocking wind and snow and toying with flowers and grasses. Alas! Are wind, flowers, snow, and grass absent from the three hundred pieces? It depends on how they are used. Take "The north wind is cold"—wind is borrowed to satirize cruel oppression; "The snow falls thickly"—through snow to pity conscript labor; "The cherry-apple in flower"—moved by blossom to satirize brothers; "Gathering plantain"—praising the herb to rejoice in having sons. All rise from this and meaning returns to that. To do the opposite—can that be allowed! Then pieces like "Leftover glow scatters into brocade; the clear river is smooth as silk" and "Returning flowers first shed dew; parting leaves suddenly leave the wind" are lovely indeed, but I do not know what they satirize. This is what I mean by mocking wind and snow and toying with flowers and grasses. By then the six principles were entirely gone. Tang has risen for two hundred years; poets in that time are beyond counting. Those who may be cited: Chen Zi'ang had twenty "Poems on Encountering Feeling"; Bao Fang had fifteen "Poems Stirred by Feeling." Again, the mighty in poetry—the age calls them Li and Du. Li Bai's works—talented indeed! Strange indeed! Men cannot reach him! Search for elegance, Airs, comparison, and stirring—not one in ten. Du Fu's poems are most numerous; those that can be transmitted number more than a thousand. In penetrating past and present, threading through rules and forms, and achieving utmost craft and goodness, he surpasses Li Bai. Yet gather his chapters "Xin'an," "Shihao," "Tong Pass Officer," "Luzi Pass," and "Flower Gate," and the line "Vermilion gates reek of wine and meat; on the road lie bones of the frozen dead"—these too are no more than thirteen or fourteen out of a hundred. If Du Fu is still like this, how much more those who do not reach Du Fu? I have often grieved that the way of poetry was collapsing; suddenly, in angry agitation, I would abandon eating or stop sleeping, not measuring my talent and strength, wishing to raise it up again. Alas! There are great errors in affairs that cannot be told one by one, yet I also cannot fail to set them out roughly before you. When I was six or seven months old, my wet nurse held me playing beneath a book screen; someone pointed out the characters "zhi" and "wu" to me; though my mouth could not yet speak, my heart had already silently recognized them. Later, when asked about these two characters, though tested a hundred or ten times, I pointed without error. Then I knew that the bond of my former learning was already within writing. By five or six I was already learning to write poetry. At nine I was thoroughly versed in rhyme. At fifteen or sixteen I first learned of the jinshi degree and studied books with bitter discipline. From twenty onward, by day I studied fu, by night books; in between I also studied poetry, with no leisure for sleep and rest. It reached the point where my mouth and tongue formed sores and my hands and elbows formed calluses. Though grown, my skin and flesh were not full; though not yet old, my teeth and hair whitened early; dazed as though flies hanging beads in the pupils, numbering in the tens of thousands—this was caused by bitter study and forcing writing! Again I grieved that my family was poor and full of troubles; only at twenty-seven did I set out for the provincial examination. After passing, though I specialized in the civil examinations, I did not abandon poetry. By the time I was appointed collator, I already had three or four hundred pieces. Sometimes I showed them to friends like you; all who saw them called them skilled, but in truth I had not yet glimpsed the domain of the true author. Since entering court, my years gradually lengthened and affairs I witnessed gradually grew. Whenever I spoke with others, I often inquired about current affairs; whenever I read books and histories, I often sought the way and its principles. I then knew that writing should be composed for the age, and songs and poems should be made for affairs. At that time the emperor had just taken the throne; the chief ministers had upright men; repeatedly imperial edicts were sent down, inquiring into people's urgent ills. On that day I was promoted to the Hanlin; my person was remonstrance official; monthly I requested remonstrance paper. Between memorials and reports, when there was something that could relieve people's ills, supplement and repair current lacks, yet was hard to speak of directly, I would chant and sing it, wishing gradually to advance it to the emperor's hearing. Above, to broaden the imperial ear and assist anxious diligence; next, to repay favor and reward and fulfill the duty of speech; below, to fulfill my lifelong aim. Who would have thought that before the aim was achieved regret was already born, before the words were heard slander was already formed! Again I ask to speak to the end before you. Whenever people heard my "Poem on Congratulating the Rain," mouths were all abuzz, thinking it improper; when they heard my "Poem on Mourning Kong Kan," faces were all stern, entirely displeased; when they heard "Chants of Qin," then powerful families and the noble and near exchanged glances and changed color; when they heard the poem "Ascending Leyou Garden" sent to you, then those who held the reins of government clenched their wrists; when they heard the poem "Lodging at Zige Village," then those who grasped military power gnashed their teeth! Mostly it was like this; it cannot all be cited. Those not on good terms with me called it seeking reputation, called it slander, called it ridicule. If on good terms, then like Niu Sengru's admonition. It reached the point that flesh and bone, wife and children—all regarded me as wrong. Those who did not regard me as wrong—in the whole realm were no more than two or three. There was Deng Fang, who saw my poems and rejoiced; before long Fang died. There was Tang Qu, who saw my poems and wept; before long Qu died. The rest is you. You too have been thwarted like this for ten years. Alas! Is the wind of the six principles and four beginnings of heaven about to be destroyed, beyond support? Or again, does one not know whether heaven's intent is unwilling to let the suffering of those below be heard above? If not, why are those who aspire to poetry so greatly disadvantaged! Yet I again reflect that I am but a man of east of the Pass; apart from reading books and composing writing, in other things I am blankly ignorant—even calligraphy, painting, chess, and gambling, which can join the pleasure of group living, I have not one that I understand; from this my foolish awkwardness can be known! When I first answered the jinshi examination, in the central court I had no relative within the mourning-garment bond; among high officials I had no acquaintance of half a face; I urged lame steps on the path of swift feet and brandished empty fists on the battlefield of literary combat. Within ten years I thrice passed the examinations; my name fell on many ears, my track rose to the clear roster; going out I associated with worthy and eminent men, entering I attended the imperial crown. At first I gained name through writing; in the end I offended through writing—it is fitting. Recently I heard from among kin and friends that the Ministries of Rites and Personnel, in selecting candidates, often took my private examination fu and judgments as the standard. The rest of the poetic lines too are often on people's lips. I was ashamed and doubted it myself, not believing it. When I came again to Chang'an, I also heard that Military Commissioner Gao Xiayu wished to hire a singing girl; the girl greatly boasted, saying: "I can recite Academician Bai's 'Song of Everlasting Sorrow'—how can I be like the others?" and thereby raised her price. Again your letter says: On reaching Tongzhou, I saw on a pillar of the river lodge someone had inscribed my poem. Who was it? Again yesterday, passing Hannan, I happened to meet the host gathering the crowd for entertainment; other guests and singing girls, seeing me come, pointed and looked at one another, saying: This is the master of "Chants of Qin" and "Song of Everlasting Sorrow." From Chang'an to Jiangxi, three or four thousand li—everywhere in village schools, Buddhist temples, inns, and boats on the road, there are often inscriptions of my poems; from the mouths of commoners and gentry, monks, widows, and maidens, there are often those who chant my poems. This is truly the sport of carving and inlay—not enough to count for much; yet what the present age values lies just in this. Though former worthies like Tao Yuanming and Xie Lingyun, and elders like Li Bai and Du Fu, also could not forget feeling in this. The ancients said: "Fame is a public vessel; one must not take too much of it." What sort of man am I, that I have already stolen more than my share of fame of the age? Having already stolen the age's name, I also wish to steal the age's wealth and honor—if I were the Creator, would He grant both together? Today's hardship and obstruction—by principle it is surely so. Moreover poets mostly meet with obstruction; like Chen Zi'ang and Du Fu, each was granted a remonstrance post and yet met hardship and stripping unto death. Men like Meng Haoran did not reach even one appointment and ended their lives in poverty and emaciation. Recently Meng Jiao at sixty finally passed the Harmonizing Office examination; Zhang Ji at fifty had still not left the post of grand libationer. What sort of men were they! Moreover my talent again does not reach them. Though now demoted as assistant in a distant commandery, my official rank reaches the fifth grade, monthly salary four or five myriad; in cold I have clothes, in hunger food; beyond supplying my person, it extends to my family. One may also say I have not failed the son of the Bai clan. Zhen, Zhen! Do not think of me! For several months I have examined satchels and folders, obtaining old and new poems, each sorted by category into fascicle titles. From remonstrance officer onward, all that I encountered and felt, relating to praise, satire, stirring, and comparison; again from Wude to Yuanhe, setting titles according to affairs, titled "New Ballads"—altogether one hundred fifty pieces, called satirical-remonstrance poems. Again, whether leaving office or lying ill in leisure residence, content and preserving harmony, chanting and savoring one's nature—one hundred pieces, called leisurely-contentment poems. Again, when external things pull and inner principle stirs, following encounter and feeling and taking form in sighing chant—one hundred pieces, called poems of stirred feeling. Again, five-character, seven-character, long lines, and quatrains, from one hundred rhymes down to two rhymes—more than four hundred pieces, called miscellaneous regulated poems. Altogether fifteen fascicles, about eight hundred pieces. When we meet another time, I shall present them all to you. Zhen, the ancients said: "In obstruction, cultivate the self alone; in attainment, benefit all under heaven together." Though I am unworthy, I constantly take this saying as teacher. What a great man keeps is the Way; what he awaits is the time. When the time comes, he becomes cloud and dragon, wind and peng, suddenly bursting forth and offering his strength; when the time does not come, he becomes mist leopard, dark swan, silent and sparse, withdrawing his person. Advancing, retreating, going out, staying—wherever he goes he is not without self-sufficiency! Thus my aim lies in benefiting all together; my conduct lies in cultivating the self alone; keeping it from beginning to end is the Way; speaking and making it clear is poetry. Calling them satirical-remonstrance poems is the aim of benefiting all together; calling them leisurely-contentment poems is the meaning of cultivating the self alone. Thus those who read my poems know my Way. The rest of the miscellaneous regulated poems—sometimes tempted by one time or one thing, arising from one laugh or one chant, composed on the spur of the moment, not what I esteem in life—are only for the moment when kin and friends gather or part, taking them to release resentment and assist pleasure; in present selection and ordering I have not been able to delete them. If another time someone compiles this writing for me, he may omit them. Zhen, to honor the ear and despise the eye, to glorify the old and despise the present—this is the great feeling of men. I cannot go far to cite antiquity; take in recent years Wei Yingwu's song-lines—beyond talent and beauty, they are quite near stirring satire; his five-character poems again are lofty, elegant, leisurely, and plain, forming a style of their own—among those who wield the brush today, who can reach him? Yet when Suzhou was alive, people also did not greatly love and esteem him; it had to wait until after his death before people began to value him. Today what people love in my poems is entirely no more than miscellaneous regulated poems and "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" and below. What the age values is what I lightly esteem. As for satirical-remonstrance poems, the intent is sharp and the words plain; as for leisurely-contentment poems, the thought is bland and the diction circuitous. Plain joined with circuitous—it is fitting that people do not love them. Those who love them now, born in the same age—only you. Yet a hundred or a thousand years hence, who knows whether again someone like you will appear and know to love my poems? Thus from eight or nine years ago, with you when slightly in accord I admonish through poetry, when slightly in hardship I encourage through poetry, when living apart I console through poetry, when together I delight through poetry. Knowing me or blaming me—in all cases it is through poetry. Like this spring when touring south of the city, with you jesting on horseback, we each recited new and gorgeous short regulated pieces, not mixing other pieces; from Prince's Mound returning to Zhaoguo Ward, chanting and singing in turn, the sound unbroken for more than twenty li. Pan and Li were at the side, with no place to put their mouths. Those who knew me called me poetry immortal; those who did not know me called me poetry demon. Why? Toiling the mind and spirit, enslaving breath and sound, connecting morning to evening, not knowing one's own suffering—is that not demon? By chance with companions amid fine scenery, or when the flower-season banquet ends, or when on a moonlit night the wine is deep, one chant and one recitation—before one knows it old age is near. Though the ease of riding paired cranes or roaming Penglai cannot be added to beyond this—again, is that not immortal? Zhen, Zhen! This is why I with you shed bodily form, cast off tracks, disdain regalia and tripods, and lightly esteem the human realm—again for this reason. At that time you still had surplus energy and also wished with me to search thoroughly all the poems exchanged back and forth, take the especially fine among them—like Zhang Eighteen's old ballads, Li Twenty's new song-lines, Secretaries Lu and Yang's regulated poems, Dou Seven and Yuan Eight's quatrains—search broadly, select finely, compile and arrange them, and title them "Collection of Yuan and Bai's Exchanges." The gentlemen who obtained a place to discuss this were all leaping with joy, taking it as a great event. Alas! Before the words were finished you were transferred left; within a few months I followed in going; the heart's expectation was desolate—what day would it be achieved? Again one may sigh deeply over this! I have often told you: for any person composing writing, he is partial to his own work, unwilling to cut and trim, or errs in being too numerous. Among them the beautiful and ugly—further he himself is confused. One must wait for a friend who has fair judgment without indulgence, discuss and pare away, and only then whether prolix or concise is appropriate can reach the mean. Moreover I with you, in writing especially fear its being too much. I myself still find it sickening—how much more others? For now let each compile poetic drafts, roughly into fascicles; wait until the day we meet face to face, each bring out what he has, and fulfill the former aim. Again I do not know in what year we will meet, in what place we will see each other; if suddenly it comes, then what is to be done? Zhen knows my heart! Xunyang, twelfth month; river wind bitter cold; year's end with little joy; night long and little sleep. I draw the brush and spread paper, quietly before the lamp; when there is a thought I write; the words are without order of selection. Do not weary at prolixity; let it stand in place of one evening's conversation.
34
Juyi's self-account is as above; literary men regarded it as trustworthy.
35
西 漿
In the winter of the thirteenth year he was transferred in grade to governor of Zhongzhou. From Xunyang he floated upriver on the Yangtze into the gorges. In the third month of the fourteenth year Yuan Zhen met Juyi at the gorge mouth and moored their boats at Yiling for three days. At the time his younger brother Xingjian was traveling with him; the three men at a stone cave twenty li west of Yiling at the mouth of Yellow Ox Gorge set out wine and composed poems, reluctant to part and unable to take leave. Nanbin prefecture lies at the deepest peril of the gorge route, and its flowers and trees are mostly extraordinary. While in the prefecture Juyi composed "Illustrations of Magnolia and Lychee" and sent them to kin and friends at court, each recording their forms, which read, "The lychee grows between Ba and the gorges; its form is round like a canopy. Its leaves are like cassia, evergreen in winter; Its blossoms resemble the orange, opening in spring; Its fruit is like cinnabar, ripening in summer. Clusters hang like grapes; the pit resembles a loquat; the shell is red silk gauze, the membrane purple gauze; the flesh gleams white as snow; the juice is sweet-sour as cultured curds. That is the general picture—and the fruit itself surpasses it. If separated from its branch, in one day its color changes, in two days its fragrance changes, in three days its flavor changes, and beyond four or five days its color, fragrance, and flavor are all gone." "The magnolia grows as tall as four or five zhang; Ba people call it the yellow-heart tree and it never sheds in winter. Its trunk is like green poplar, with white markings. Its leaves are like cassia, thick and large without a midrib. Its flowers are like the lotus; fragrance, color, and lush beauty are all the same, only the calyx and solitary pistil differ. It first opens in the fourth month; from opening until fading is only twenty days. In the summer of the fourteenth year of Yuanhe he ordered the Daoist priest Wuqiu Yuanzhi to paint them. Pitying their remote seclusion, he therefore composed a fu in three parts on them." Among its lines was "Heaven cast them off deep in the mountains," which swept through the capital until enthusiasts clamored to copy it.
36
That winter he was summoned back to the capital and appointed vice director of the Gate Office. The following year he was transferred to director of the Guests Bureau with charge of drafting edicts, granted Grand Master of Splendid Happiness, and for the first time wore crimson. At that time Yuan Zhen was also summoned back as director in a ministry with charge of drafting edicts, and both were together in the drafting pavilion. In the third month of the first year of Changqing he received an edict together with Drafting Academician Wang Qi to review the fourteen men including Zheng Lang whom Vice Director of Rites Qian Hui had passed in the lower examination. In the tenth month he was transferred to drafting academician. In the eleventh month Emperor Muzong personally tested special-examination candidates, and Juyi again served with Jia Su and Chen Hu as policy examiners. Of all court posts for written composition, none failed to place him first in selection, yet he was often ostracized and could not employ his talents.
37
使 滿 殿 宿
At that time the Son of Heaven was dissolute and lawless, those in power were not the right men, regulation and control were misaligned, and Hebei again fell into turmoil. Juyi submitted memorial after memorial discussing these matters; the Son of Heaven could not employ them, and Juyi then sought an outer appointment. In the seventh month he was appointed governor of Hangzhou. Before long Yuan Zhen was removed as chief councilor and transferred from Fengyi to surveillance commissioner of Zhedong. Their bond of friendship had always been deep; Hang and Yue were neighboring jurisdictions, and poems exchanged in gift and response came without a break of ten days. They once met on the border and parted after several days. When his term expired he was appointed Left Mentor to the Heir Apparent with duty at the eastern capital. In the Baoli era he was again sent out as governor of Suzhou. When Emperor Wenzong ascended the throne, Juyi was summoned as Director of the Palace Library and granted the gold-purple seal. On the imperial birthday in the ninth month he summoned Juyi together with the monk Weicheng and the Daoist Zhao Changying to lecture before the throne in the Qinde Hall. Juyi's rebuttals flashed like spears and his eloquence poured forth; the emperor suspected prepared answers and marveled at his mastery. In the first month of the second year of Taihe he was transferred to vice minister of Punishments, enfeoffed as Baron of Jinyang with a fief of three hundred households. In the third year he claimed illness and returned east, requesting a duty-at-large post, and soon was appointed Mentor to the Heir Apparent.
38
When Juyi first topped the policy examination and entered the Hanlin, an enlightened sovereign singled him out for favor and he burned to repay it—hoping to reach the council chamber and benefit the people at once. His intent never ripened; those in power read the wind and crowded him out until he drifted on rivers and lakes. Within four or five years he nearly succumbed to miasma in the southern wilds. From this his official ambition declined and he had no mind for advancement or withdrawal, taking only free roaming and self-contentment and chanting to express his nature as his affairs. After Taihe, the factional affairs of Li Zongmin and Li Deyu arose; right and wrong were used to entrap one another, and men were elevated at dawn and demoted at dusk—the Son of Heaven likewise could do nothing about it. Yang Yingshi and Yang Yuqing were friendly with Zongmin; Juyi's wife was Yingshi's cousin on the father's side. Juyi grew all the more ill at ease, fearing rejection as a faction member, and sought to place himself in a scattered post, hoping to escape harm from afar. In every office he held he never completed a full term, generally leaving on grounds of illness, firmly requesting duty-at-large posts—those who understood approved of this. In the fifth year he was appointed metropolitan intendant of Henan. In the seventh year he was again appointed Mentor to the Heir Apparent with duty at large.
39
西西退 西 西 竿
At first, when Juyi left Hangzhou, he returned to Luoyang. At Lüdao Lane he obtained the former residence of the Regular Attendant Yang Ping, with bamboo, trees, ponds, and lodges possessing the charm of forests and springs. His household entertainers Fansu and Manzi could sing and dance well. After leaving office as capital intendant and returning home, he would often drink alone and compose verses in his boat; he therefore wrote his "Essay on the Pool," which read: In the Eastern Capital, the finest scenery of land and water lay in the southeast; the choicest part of the southeast was Lüdao Ward; and the choicest spot in the ward was the northwest corner—the first mansion on the western lane and northern wall, where the Bai clansman Juyi lived out his retirement. The estate covered seventeen mu: a third in buildings, a fifth in water, a ninth in bamboo, with islands, trees, bridges, and paths distributed throughout. When Juyi first took possession, he said happily, "Though one has pools and terraces, without grain one cannot keep them up," and built a granary east of the pool. He also said, "Though one has sons and kin, without books one cannot teach them." and built a library north of the pool. He added, "Though one has guests and friends, without zither and wine one cannot entertain," and built a zither pavilion west of the pool, with stone wine vessels added. After leaving his post as prefect of Hangzhou, Juyi brought home one stone from Tianzhu and two cranes from Huating. He then built West Flat Bridge and opened a circuit road around the pool. When he left the prefecture of Suzhou, he returned with five Taihu stones, white lotuses, bent-neck water chestnuts, and a blue-planked boat, and built Middle High Bridge to connect a path to the three islands. When he stepped down as vice minister of justice, he had a thousand hu of grain, a cartload of books, and about a hundred household servants skilled in pipes, chimes, strings, and song. Earlier Chen Xiaoxian of Yingchuan had taught him a brewing method of excellent flavor; Cui Huishu of Boling had given him a zither of very clear tone; the Shu visitor Jiang Fa had taught him "Autumn Thoughts," its sound very subdued; and Yang Zhenyi of Hongnong had given him three blue stones, square, long, and smooth enough to sit or lie upon. In the summer of Taihe 3, Juyi was at last permitted to serve as guest of the heir apparent, drew his stipend at Luoyang, and rested at his poolside estate. Everything accumulated across three offices, bestowed by four friends, together with my own unworthy self—all are now part of the pool estate. Whenever spring breezes stirred over the pool or autumn moonlight bathed it—on mornings when the water smelled sweet and lotuses opened, or evenings when dew lay clear and cranes called—he would brush the Yang stones, pour Chen's wine, take up Cui's zither, and play "Autumn Thoughts," sinking into contentment and forgetting everything else. When wine ran deep and the zither fell silent, he would have young musicians climb Middle Island Pavilion to perform the "Prelude to Rainbow Skirts"; the sound drifted on the wind, now lingering, now scattering, rising and falling long among bamboo, mist, waves, and moonlight. Before the piece ended, Juyi had already drifted contentedly asleep on the stones. On waking he improvised a piece—neither quite poem nor prose—and A'gui took up the brush and inscribed it on the stones. Seeing the rough rhymed piece complete, he titled it "On the Pool": A ten-mu dwelling, a five-mu garden, one pool of water, and a thousand bamboo shoots. Call not the ground too narrow or the spot too remote—it is room enough for one's knees and rest enough for one's shoulders. Hall and pavilion, bridge and boat, books and wine, song and strings. An old man dwells at the center, white beard stirring in the breeze; knowing his place and content, he desires nothing more. Like a bird choosing a tree, he seeks only a secure nest; like a frog digging its hollow, he knows nothing of the sea's vastness. Spirit magpies, curious rocks, purple water chestnuts, white lotuses—all that I love lies spread before me. Sometimes I lift a cup; sometimes I chant a verse. Wife and children are happy; chickens and dogs are tranquil. At ease, at leisure—I shall grow old within this place.
40
He also modeled Tao Qian's "Biography of the Five-Willow Gentleman" and composed "Biography of the Drunken Chanting Gentleman" to portray himself. His writing was free and far-reaching—all of this kind.
41
At the end of Taihe, Li Xun engineered disaster; the gentry were trampled in blood and scholars grieved deeply; Juyi's official ambition declined all the more. In the first year of Kaicheng he was appointed governor of Tongzhou but declined on grounds of illness. Soon he was appointed Junior Tutor to the Heir Apparent and advanced to enfeoffment as Marquis of Fengyi with an opening fief. In the winter of the fourth year he contracted wind illness and lay on his pillow for months; he then released the entertainers Fan and Man and others, and even composed his own epitaph, chanting without cease even in illness. He said to himself, "I am sixty-eight years old and have first contracted wind-block illness; my body is bent and my head droops, and my left foot cannot support me. It is that old age and illness multiply, and sometimes arrive together. I have set my mind on Buddhist teaching and wandered in the tracks of Laozi and Zhuangzi; through illness I have observed the body and truly gained something. How so? Outwardly I discard the bodily form and inwardly forget worry and calamity; first Chan contemplation and afterward compliance with medical treatment. Within a month or so the illness abated somewhat; I shut the gate and lay on a high pillow, calm and at ease. When the urge to compose returned he could not check it, and wrote fifteen "Poems in Illness" as self-admonition."
42
滿輿
In the Huichang era he requested removal as Junior Tutor to the Heir Apparent and retired as Minister of Punishments. He formed a incense-and-fire fellowship with the Xiangshan monk Ruman; each went back and forth in a shoulder carriage, white robe and dove staff, calling himself the Xiangshan Recluse.
43
使 退 仿
In the first year of Dazhong he died at the age of seventy-six and was posthumously enfeoffed as Right Vice Director of the Imperial Secretariat. He had a collection of writings of seventy-five scrolls and Classified Matters from the Classics and Histories of thirty scrolls, and both circulated in his age. At the end of the Changqing era, as surveillance commissioner of Zhedong, he wrote a preface to Juyi's collected works, which read: Juyi at first did not speak; when tested by pointing to the characters "zhi" and "wu," he could do so without error. Once he began to speak, in reading he was diligent and quick, different from other children. At five or six he knew tonal patterns; at fifteen he aspired to rhapsodies and fu; at twenty-seven he passed the presented scholar examination. At the end of Zhenyuan, presented scholars still valued rushing competition and did not value literature; among them the Six Classics were especially cast aside. Vice Minister of Rites Gao Ying first used classical arts as the criterion for advancement and demotion; Juyi in one attempt was promoted to the top rank. The next year he passed the selected outstanding first class; thereby his fu such as On Nature and Habit Near and Far, Mysterious Pearl, and Sword That Slew the White Serpent, together with a hundred-section judgment, were competitively transmitted among new presented scholars in the capital. It happened that Emperor Xianzong by examination summoned scholars of all under Heaven; his examination response matched the intent, and again he passed the top class. Before long he was selected into the Hanlin Academy to manage drafting of edicts. Repeatedly he submitted memorials speaking of gains and losses; thereby he composed several tens of chapters such as Ode Congratulating Rain and Chants of Qin, pointing out affairs under Heaven—men of the time compared them to the Airs and Elegies. I first served together with Juyi in the Secretariat; before and after we often exchanged poems as gifts and replies. When I was banished to aide in Jiangling, Juyi was still in the Hanlin Academy and sent me regulated verse of a hundred rhymes and mixed forms—several tens of poems before and after. After this we each served in Jiangling and Tong Prefecture and again exchanged poems in reply. Among Ba, Shu, Jiang, and Chu, down to the youths of Chang'an, they successively imitated one another, competing to compose new lyrics, calling themselves Yuanhe poetry. Yet Juyi's Chants of Qin, Ode Congratulating Rain, admonitory, leisurely, and other pieces were rarely known by men of the time. Yet within twenty years, writing covered the walls of the palace offices, temples, and postal stations; in the mouths of kings, dukes, concubines, ox boys, and horse runners, there was none who did not speak of them. Their copying and carving, flaunted and sold in the market streets, or used to exchange wine and tea—everywhere it was so. In the extreme there were even those who stole names and surnames, seeking by any means to sell themselves, jumbled among privies—with nothing to be done. I once in Pingshui market saw village schoolchildren competing to practice songs and chants; I summoned and asked them, and all replied: "The teacher teaches us the poems of Juyi and Zhen." They did not even know that I was Zhen. Again merchants of Goguryeo sought to buy with great urgency and said: "Our country's chancellor exchanges one piece of gold for each piece; even very false ones, the chancellor can at once distinguish them." Since writings and chapters began, there has never been such wide circulation. In the fourth year of Changqing, Juyi was recalled from Hangzhou prefect to right vice director of the crown prince's household; I was then prefect of Kuaiji and thereby was able to gather all his writings, personally arranging and compiling them into fifty scrolls, altogether two thousand two hundred fifty-one pieces. Former generations mostly named them former collection and middle collection; I believed Your Majesty next year would change the era name and Changqing would end at this point, and therefore titled it Collected Works of Bai of Changqing. Generally speaking, each man's writings has what it excels in; Juyi's excellences can be said to be many. Admonitory poems excel in stirring; leisurely pieces excel in releasing; sentimental poems excel in cutting close; five-character regulated verse of more than a hundred words excels in fullness; five- and seven-character verse of less than a hundred words excels in feeling; fu, encomia, admonitions, and warnings excel in fitness; steles, records, narratives, and drafted edicts excel in substance; memorials, reports, and petitions excel in directness; letters, proclamations, documents, and judgments excel in completeness. Speaking of them in sum, are they not also many!
44
People regarded Zhen's preface as exhausting his powers in the task.
45
西 滿 退 使 退 殿
Juyi once copied his collected works and sent them to the eastern and western forest temples of Jiangzhou and to the Xiangshan Shenshan and other temples of Luoyang, circulating them like Buddhist scriptures and miscellaneous transmissions. He had no son and made his nephew's grandson his heir. His final instructions were not to return to Xiaji but to be buried beside Master Ruman's pagoda on Xiangshan, and the family followed the command in burying him. His younger brother Xingjian, whose courtesy name was Zhitui. At the end of Zhenyuan he passed the jinshi examination and was appointed proofreader in the Palace Library. In the Yuanhe era Lu Tan governed eastern Shu and recruited him as recorder. When the prefecture was dissolved he returned to Xunyang. Juyi was appointed marshal of Jiangzhou and Xingjian accompanied him to the prefecture. In the fifteenth year Juyi entered court as a director in a ministry and Xingjian was also appointed Left Reminder. He was promoted in turn to vice director of the Gate Office and director of the Guests Bureau. At the end of Changqing Zhenwu reported that the water-transport garrison-field commissioner Heba Zhiyan's garrison-field figures greatly exceeded reality; an edict ordered Xingjian to investigate and verify. The report proved false; in alarm Zhiyan stabbed himself to death. Xingjian died of illness in the winter of the second year of Baoli, leaving collected works of ten scrolls. Xingjian's brush had his elder brother's manner, and his fu were especially praised as refined and close; literary men all took him as a model. Juyi's fraternal affection surpassed others; the brothers treated one another like guests. Xingjian's son Guier was largely taught by Juyi himself and thereby achieved fame. At the time none matched them in fraternal devotion. His younger cousin Minzhong, whose courtesy name was Yonghui, was Juyi's cousin on the father's side. His grandfather Lian ended his career as recorder of Yang prefecture. His father Jikang was magistrate of Liyang. Minzhong was orphaned young and was trained through experience by his elder brothers. In the early Changqing era he passed the jinshi examination, served Li Ting as aide, and in turn was recorder under the military governors of Hedong, Zheng-Hua, and Binning, and tested as reviewer in the Court of Judicial Review. In the seventh year of Dahe he entered mourning for his mother and retired to Xiaji. In the early Huichang era he was palace censor with duty at the eastern capital. Soon he was appointed vice director in the Ministry of Revenue and returned to the capital.
46
祿使 使 西使 使 使 便耀 調
Emperor Wuzong had long heard Juyi's name, and when he ascended the throne wished to summon and employ him. The chief minister Li Deyu said Juyi was aged and ill and unfit for court audience, and therefore spoke of his cousin Minzhong, whose literary arts resembled Juyi's; that same day Minzhong received charge of drafting edicts, was summoned into the Hanlin Academy as academician, was transferred to drafting academician. He was promoted in turn to vice minister of War and chief academician. At the end of Huichang he was appointed chief councilor with concurrent posts as Minister of Punishments and Grand Academician of the Hall of Assembled Worthies and History Office. When Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, he was added as Right Vice Director, Grand Master of Splendid Happiness with golden seal, commissioner of the Great Pure Palace, Duke of Taiyuan with an opening fief of two thousand households. When Li Deyu was banished again to the southern mountains, Minzhong led the four chief ministers and chimed in with the attack, never speaking a word in his defense—a fault for which he was specially censured. In the fifth year he was removed as chief councilor, appointed acting Minister of Works, and sent out as governor of Binzhou with military commission over Binning, commissioner for pacifying the Tangut, and overall disposition. In the seventh year he advanced to Special Grand Master, metropolitan intendant of Chengdu, deputy military commissioner of Sword-South West with charge of military affairs. In the second month of the eleventh year he was appointed acting Minister of Works, chief councilor, metropolitan intendant of Jiangling, and military commissioner of Jingnan. When Emperor Yizong took the throne, Minzhong was summoned as Minister of Works, Vice Director of the Gate Department, and chief councilor, returning to assist at court. He was soon made Palace Attendant as well. In the third year he left the chancellorship and became metropolitan intendant of Hezhong and military commissioner of Hezhong-Jin-Jiang. He rose in turn to drafting director. He retired as Junior Tutor to the Heir Apparent and died in office. The evaluating historian writes: Methods for raising talent and choosing scholars are very old indeed! From the Han examination of worthy men through the Sui addition of poetry and fu, the impartial-evaluation system was abandoned and selection entrusted to the examination offices. Candidates then strove for ornamental craft and rarely attended the lecture hall; all craned their necks toward Qu Yuan and Song Yu and marched shoulder to shoulder after the "Airs" and "Elegies." Some matched pieces admonishing the throne, others imitated lines mending what was lost. Each hoped to measure up to "Gathering Mugwort," sift chaff from "Lament for Huai," rival the green cock in ornament, and outdo the white phoenix in novelty. Once copied on bamboo and spread through pipes and strings, they still could not escape Ji Xu's censure—who could expect the praise accorded "Sir Fantasy"? A thousand years on, writers have never been scarce; yet surveying the source of the Six Principles and comparing their three transformations, how few have equaled the two Bans, how many resemble the Seven Masters? Pan and Lu wrote with feeling; Bao and Xie wrote with clarity and ease; by Xu and Yu splendor piled on splendor—brocade woven and studded with pearls, jade terraces framed in gold and azure. At the dynasty's founding the Literary Hall opened; under Gaozong eminent talent was honored; Yu and Xu set the standard early, Su and Li carried fame later. Some reached the highest offices with learning that touched heaven and man; their polishing compositions were gathered into collections. Those who looked to antiquity grew too eccentric; those who chased ornament sometimes left the canon; the cramped were trapped by pitch and mode, the unrestrained drifted into Zheng and Wey music. If one grades tone and measure and weighs past and present so that worthy and unworthy alike prize the writing, none has matched the ascendancy of Yuan and Bai. In Jian'an, literary talent first crowned Cao and Liu; in Yongming, the literary masters first yielded pride of place to Shen and Xie. In the Yuanhe literary league, only Weizhi and Letian held the field. This subject finds that Zhen's policy essays and Bai's memorials reach the innermost chamber of letters and lay bare the roots of order and disorder. These were not mere snatches of praise-song or little allegories on platters. Judging conduct by their writing, Juyi is the finer: he rested his heart where contentment lives and set his vessel on ground that must hold—passing his years at ease; is that not the better part?
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The eulogy reads: New literary forms arose in Jian'an and Yongming. After Shen and Xie, Yuan and Bai stood forth. Metal and stone alone remain; "Stalk and Blossom" endures. Without studying Sun and Wu, how could one know the use of arms?
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