1
馬郁，其先范陽人。 郁少警悟，有俊才智數，言辯縱橫，下筆成文。 乾寧末，為幽州府刀筆小吏。 李匡威為王鎔所殺，鎔書報其弟匡儔。 匡儔遣使於鎔，問謀亂本末，幕客為書，多不如旨。 郁時直記室，即起草，為之條列事狀，雲可疑者十，詞理俊贍，以此知名。 嘗聘王鎔於鎮州，官妓有轉轉者，美麗善歌舞，因宴席，郁累挑之。 幕客張澤亦以文章名，謂郁曰：「子能座上成賦，可以此妓奉酬。」 郁抽筆操紙，即時成賦，擁妓而去。 郁在武皇幕，累官至檢校司空、秘書監。 武皇與莊宗禮遇俱厚，給賜優異。 監軍張承業，本朝舊人，權貴任事，人士脅肩低首候之。 郁以滑稽侮狎，其往如歸，有時直造臥內。 每賓僚宴集，承業出珍果陳列於前，食之必盡。 承業私戒主膳者曰：「他日馬監至，唯以乾藕子置前而已。」 郁至，窺其不可啖； 異日，靴中出一鐵楇，碎而食之。 承業大笑曰：「為公設異饌，勿敗餘食案。」 其俊率如此。
Ma Yu came from a Fanyang family. From youth he was quick-witted and gifted with rare talent and resourcefulness; his speech was bold and fluent, and essays flowed from his brush as if unbidden. In the closing years of Qianning he was a low-ranking clerical officer in the Youzhou government. When Li Kuangwei was killed by Wang Rong, Rong sent a written report to Kuangchou, his brother. Kuangchou sent a messenger to Rong to ask how the conspiracy had unfolded; several secretaries drafted replies, yet most missed what he wanted. Yu, then serving in the records office, promptly drafted a memorial laying out the circumstances and ten suspicious points in elegant, forceful prose, and with that made his name. On an embassy to Wang Rong at Zhenzhou he took notice of an official courtesan named Zhuanzhuan, renowned for her beauty and dancing; during the feast Yu kept pressing his attentions on her. Zhang Ze, another celebrated writer on the staff, challenged him: "Compose a fu here at the banquet, and the girl is yours. Yu seized brush and paper, finished the piece on the spot, and walked off with the girl in his arms. In Li Keyong's service he rose through the ranks to honorary Minister of Works and Director of the Imperial Library. Li Keyong and his son Zhuangzong both honored him richly and showered him with exceptional rewards. The supervising commissioner Zhang Chengye, a veteran of the founding court, held real power; officials shrank before him and waited on him with bowed heads. Yu treated him with jesting familiarity, coming and going as freely as at home and sometimes walking straight into his bedchamber. At every banquet Chengye put out choice fruit before the guests, and Yu always ate every piece. Chengye quietly told the head cook that when Director Ma came again, he should be served nothing but dried lotus seeds. When Yu arrived he saw they were inedible; On another visit he produced an iron pestle from his boot, broke it into bits, and ate it. Chengye roared with laughter: "This is a special feast just for you—please don't spoil the rest of my table. Such was the measure of his wit and audacity.
2
郁在莊宗幕，寄寓他土，年老思鄉，每對莊宗欷歔，言家在范陽，乞骸歸國，以葬舊山。 莊宗謂之曰：「自卿去國已來，同舍孰在？ 守光尚不能容父，能容卿乎！ 孤不惜卿行，但卿不得死爾。」 郁既無歸路，衷懷嗚咽，竟卒於太原。
Under Zhuangzong, far from home and advanced in years, he often wept before the throne, pleading to return to Fanyang to die and be buried among his ancestral hills. Zhuangzong told him, "Since you left your homeland, who among your old companions still survives there? Liu Shouguang could not spare even his own father—do you think he would spare you?! I would not withhold your leave, but you must not go home to die. With no road home, his grief finally consumed him, and he died at Taiyuan.
3
司空頲，貝州人。 唐僖宗時，舉進士不中，屬天子播遷，三輔大亂，乃還鄉里。 羅紹威為節度副大使，頲以所業幹之，幕客公乘億為延譽，羅宏信署為府參軍，辟館驛巡官。 張彥之亂，命判官王正言草奏，正言素不能文，不能下筆，彥怒詬曰：「鈍漢乃辱我！」 推之下榻。 問孰可草奏者，有言頲，羅王時書記，乃馳騎召之。 頲揮筆成文，詆斥梁君臣，彥甚喜，為判官。 及張彥復脅賀德倫降於唐，德倫遣頲先奉狀太原。 〈（《北夢瑣言》載其狀詞云：屈原哀郢，本非怨望之人； 樂毅歸燕，且異傾邪之行。）〉 莊宗仍以頲為判官，後以頲權軍府事。 頲有侄在梁，遣家奴以書召之，都虞候張裕擒其家奴，以謂通於梁，遂見殺。 〈（《通鑒》：晉王責頲曰：「自吾得魏博，庶事悉以委公，公何得見欺如是，獨不可先相示耶！」 揖令歸第，是日族誅於軍門。）〉
Si Kongting came from Beizhou. Under Emperor Xizong he failed the jinshi examinations; when the court fled the capital and the central plain collapsed into chaos, he went home. He sought patronage from Luo Shaowei, vice commissioner of the circuit; the staff member Gongcheng Yi vouched for him, and Luo Hongxin made him a staff adjutant and post-station inspector. When Zhang Yan rebelled he ordered his aide Wang Zhengyan to draft a memorial, but Wang, who had never mastered prose, could not write a word; Zhang Yan thundered, "You blockheaded oaf—how dare you disgrace me! He shoved him off the couch. Asked who could write the memorial, someone named Ting, formerly secretary to the Luo princes, and riders were sent at once to fetch him. Ting wrote at speed, the draft lashing out at Liang sovereign and ministers; Zhang Yan was delighted and kept him as his secretary. When Zhang Yan once more forced He Delun to surrender to Tang, Delun sent Ting ahead to Taiyuan with the formal submission. (According to the 《Beimeng Suoyan》, the memorial read: "Qu Yuan grieving for Ying was no man nursing resentment; Le Yi returning to Yan was still no act of treacherous defection.")〉 Zhuangzong kept him as secretary and later entrusted him with authority over the military headquarters. When he sent a household slave with a letter to summon a nephew serving in Liang, Chief Inspector Zhang Yu seized the slave on suspicion of treasonous contact, and Ting was put to death. (The 《Comprehensive Mirror》 records that the Prince of Jin rebuked him: "Since I took Weibo I have entrusted you with everything—how could you deceive me like this? Could you not have told me first?! He dismissed him to his quarters, and that same day Ting and his whole clan were executed at the army gate.")〉
4
曹廷隱，魏州人也，為本州典謁虞候。 賀德倫使西迎莊宗於晉陽，莊宗既得鄴城，擢為馬步都虞候，以其稱職，自是遷拜日隆。 天成初，除齊州防禦使。 下車嚴整，頗有清白之譽。 時有孔目吏範弼者，為人剛愎，視廷隱蔑如也。 弼監軍廩，鬻空乏以取貲； 又私貨官鹽，廷隱按之，遂奏其事。 弼家人訴於執政，並下御史府劾之。 弼雖伏法，廷隱以所奏不實，並流永州，續敕賜自盡，時人冤之。
Cao Tingyin, a native of Weizhou, served as reception officer and military inspector for that prefecture. When He Delun sent him west to welcome Zhuangzong at Jinyang, Zhuangzong, after taking Yecheng, made him chief inspector of horse and foot; his capable service brought ever higher appointments thereafter. Early in the Tiancheng era he was appointed defense commissioner of Qizhou. From the day he took office he ran a tight administration and earned a reputation for clean dealing. A chief clerk named Fan Bi, stubborn and overbearing, treated Tingyin with open contempt. Fan Bi oversaw the army granary and sold off empty storehouses for cash; he also trafficked illicitly in government salt; Tingyin investigated and reported him to the throne. Bi's family appealed to the chief ministers, and both men were referred to the Censorate for prosecution. Fan Bi was executed, but Tingyin was exiled to Yongzhou as well when his charges were ruled unfounded; a later edict ordered him to commit suicide, and contemporaries regarded it as a grave injustice.
5
蕭希甫，宋州人也。 少舉進士，為梁開封尹袁象先書記。 象先為青州節度使，以希甫為巡官，希甫不樂。 乃棄其母妻，變姓名，亡之鎮州，自稱青州掌書記，進謁王鎔。 鎔以希甫為參軍，尤不樂，居歲餘，又亡之易州，削髮為僧，居百丈山。 莊宗將建國，置百官，李紹宏薦為魏州推官。 同光初，有詔定內宴儀，問希甫樞密使得坐否，希甫以為不可。 樞密使張居翰聞之怒，謂希甫曰：「老夫曆事三朝天子，見內宴數百，子本田舍兒，安知宮禁事！」 希甫不能對。 初，莊宗欲以希甫知制誥，宰相豆盧革等附居翰，共排斥之，以為駕部郎中。 希甫失誌，尤怏怏。 莊宗滅梁室，遣希甫宣慰青、齊，希甫始知其母已死，妻袁氏亦改嫁。 希甫乃發哀服喪，居於魏州。 人有引漢李陵書以譏之曰：「老母終堂，生妻去室。」 天成初，欲召為諫議，豆盧革、韋說沮之。 明宗卒以希甫為諫議大夫，復為匭函使。 其後革、說為安重誨所惡，希甫希旨，誣奏革縱田客殺人，而說與鄰人爭井，井有寶貨。 有司推勘井中，惟破釜而已，革、說卒皆貶死。 希甫拜左散騎常侍，躁進尤甚，引告變人李筠夜扣內門，通變書云：「修堤兵士，欲取郊天日舉火為叛。」 安重誨不信之。 斬告變者，軍人訴屈，請希甫啖之。 既而詔曰：「左散騎常侍、集賢殿學士判院事蕭希甫，身處班行，職非警察，輒引凶狂之輩，上陳誣骫之詞，逼近郊禋，扇搖軍眾。 李筠既當誅戮，希甫寧免謫遷，可貶嵐州司戶參軍，仍馳驛發遣。」 長興中，卒於貶所。
Xiao Xifu came from Songzhou. As a young man he passed the jinshi examination and became secretary to Yuan Xiangxian, prefect of Kaifeng under Liang. When Xiangxian became military commissioner of Qingzhou he made Xifu a touring officer, a post Xifu disliked. He abandoned his mother and wife, changed his name, fled to Zhenzhou, presented himself to Wang Rong as chief secretary of Qingzhou, and sought an audience. Rong appointed him a staff adjutant, which he liked even less; after a year he fled to Yizhou, took the tonsure, and lived as a monk on Mount Baizhang. As Zhuangzong prepared to found his dynasty and fill the bureaucracy, Li Shaohong recommended him as investigating officer at Weizhou. Early in the Tongguang era, when court protocol for inner banquets was being set, he was asked whether the commissioner of military affairs should have a seat; Xifu said no. Commissioner Zhang Juhun flew into a rage: "I have served three emperors and attended hundreds of inner banquets—you're a country bumpkin; what do you know of palace protocol! Xifu had no answer. Zhuangzong had wanted to make him a drafter of edicts, but Chief Ministers Dou Luge and others, siding with Zhang Juhun, blocked him and gave him only a post as director in the Transport Department. Frustrated in his ambitions, he grew especially bitter. When Zhuangzong destroyed Liang he sent Xifu to console Qing and Qi; only then did he learn his mother was dead and his wife of the Yuan clan had remarried. He donned mourning and observed the rites while living at Weizhou. Someone mocked him with a line from Li Ling's letter to the Han: "His old mother died at home; his living wife abandoned their house. Early in the Tiancheng era he was to be recalled as remonstrating censor, but Dou Luge and Wei Shuo blocked the appointment. Emperor Mingzong at last made him Remonstrating Grand Master and restored him as commissioner of the suggestion box. When Luge and Shuo later fell afoul of An Chonghui, Xifu curried favor with false charges that Luge had let tenant farmers commit murder and that Shuo had fought a neighbor over a treasure-filled well. Officials searched the well and found only a broken pot; Luge and Shuo were demoted and died in exile. Promoted to Left Regular Attendant, he grew ever more reckless; he brought in an informer, Li Yun, who knocked at the inner gate by night with a report that dike-repair soldiers meant to rebel by fire on the day of the suburban sacrifice. An Chonghui did not believe him. The informer was executed; the soldiers protested their wrong and clamored to have Xifu torn apart. An edict followed: "Xiao Xifu, Left Regular Attendant and academician of the Hall of Assembled Worthies—though he stands in court ranks, policing is not his charge—yet he introduced violent men and submitted deceitful charges, stirring the troops on the eve of the suburban sacrifice. Li Yun was executed; Xifu could not escape demotion—to registrar of Lanzhou, dispatched at once by relay. He died in exile during the Changxing era.
6
子士明，仕周，終於邑宰。
His son Shiming served under the Zhou and ended his days as a district magistrate.
7
賈馥，故鎮州節度使王鎔判官也。 家聚書三千卷，手自刊校。 張文禮殺王鎔，時莊宗未即尊位，文禮遣馥至鄴都勸進，因留鄴下，棲遲郵舍。 莊宗即位，授鴻臚少卿。 後以鴻臚卿致仕，復歸鎮州，結茅於別墅，自課兒孫耕牧為事。 馥初累為鎮、冀屬邑令，所蒞有能政，性恬澹，與物無競，乃鎮州士人之秀者也。
Jia Fu had served as secretary to Wang Rong, the former military commissioner of Zhenzhou. His family library held three thousand scrolls, which he collated and proofread with his own hand. After Zhang Wenli killed Wang Rong, while Zhuangzong had not yet taken the throne, Wenli sent Fu to Yedu to urge his accession; Fu stayed on there, lodging at the post station. When Zhuangzong ascended the throne he appointed Fu Vice Director of the Court of State Ceremonial. He later retired as Director of the Court of State Ceremonial, returned to Zhenzhou, built a thatched cottage on his estate, and taught his sons and grandsons to farm and herd. He had served repeatedly as magistrate in counties under Zhen and Ji, governing capably wherever he went; tranquil by nature and free of worldly striving, he was counted among the finest scholars of Zhenzhou.
8
馬縞，少嗜學儒，以明經及第，登拔萃之科。 仕梁，為太常修撰，累曆尚書郎，參知禮院事，遷太常少卿。 梁代諸王納嬪，公主下嫁，皆於宮殿門庭行揖讓之禮，縞以為非禮，上疏止之，物議以為然。 〈（案：以下有闕文。）〉 長興四年，為戶部侍郎。 縞時年已八十，及為國子祭酒，八十餘矣，形氣不衰。 於事多遺忘，言元稹不應進士，以父元魯山名進故也，多如此類。 又上疏：「古者無嫂叔服，文皇創意，以兄弟之親，不宜無服，乃議服小功。 今令文省服制條為兄弟之妻大功，不知何人議改，而置於令文。」 諸博士駁云：「律令，國之大經。 馬縞知禮院時，不曾論定，今遽上疏駁令式，罪人也。」
Ma Gao loved Confucian learning from youth; he passed the Classics examination and also gained entry through the Outstanding Selections category. Under Liang he served as compiler in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, rose through Secretariat posts, helped manage the Bureau of Rites, and became Vice Director of that court. When Liang princes took brides and princesses married down, bowing and yielding rites were performed in the palace gates and courtyards; Gao held this improper and memorialized to stop it, and public opinion agreed. (Note: the text below is missing.)〉 In the fourth year of Changxing he was appointed Vice Minister of Revenue. He was already eighty when appointed Rector of the Imperial University, and past eighty by then, yet his bearing and vigor had not faded. He often forgot things; he claimed Yuan Zhen should never have taken the jinshi because his father Yuan Lushan had entered through the name Jin—errors of that sort were common with him. He also memorialized: "In antiquity there was no mourning dress for relations between brother's wife and husband's brother; Emperor Wen innovated, arguing that such close kin among brothers should not go unmourned, and lesser merit mourning was adopted. Yet the current statutes prescribe great merit mourning for a brother's wife—I do not know who changed it, but it stands in the code. The erudites rebutted: "Statutes and ordinances are the great foundation of the state. When Ma Gao managed the Bureau of Rites he never raised this; now he rashly memorializes against the statutes—he is guilty of a crime."
9
羅貫，不知何許人。 進士及第，累曆台省官，自禮部員外郎為河南令。 貫為人強直，正身奉法，不避權豪。 時宦官伶人用事，凡請托於貫者，其書盈閣，一無所報，皆以示郭崇韜，因奏其事，由是左右每言貫之失。 先是，梁時張全義專製京畿，河南、洛陽僚佐，皆由其門下，事全義如廝仆。 及貫授命，持本朝事體，奉全義稍慢，部民為府司庇護者，必奏正之。 全義怒，因令女使告劉皇后從容白於莊宗，宦官又言其短，莊宗深怒之。 會莊宗幸壽安山陵，道路泥濘，莊宗訪其主者，宦官曰：「屬河南縣。」 促令召貫至，奏曰：「臣初不奉命，請詰稟命者。」 帝曰：「卿之所部，反問他人，何也？」 命下府獄，府吏榜笞，促令伏款。 翌日，傳詔殺之。 郭崇韜奏曰：「貫別無贓狀，橋道不修，法未當死。」 莊宗怒曰：「母後靈駕將發，天子車輿往來，橋道不修，是誰之過也？」 崇韜奏曰：「貫縱有死罪，俟款狀上奏，所司議讞，以朝典行之，死當未晚。 今以萬乘之尊，怒一縣令，俾天下人言陛下使法不公矣！」 莊宗曰：「既卿所愛，任卿裁決。」 因投袂入宮。 崇韜從而論列，莊宗自闔殿門，不得入。 即令伏法，曝屍於府門，冤痛之聲，聞於遠邇。
Luo Guan was a man of unknown origin. A jinshi graduate, he rose through central ministries from Vice Director in the Ministry of Rites to magistrate of Henan. Guan was forceful and upright, held himself to the law, and never shrank from the powerful. Eunuchs and actor-favorites held power; pleas to Guan filled his office, yet he answered none and showed them all to Guo Chongtao, who reported them to the throne; from then on the emperor's intimates constantly denounced Guan. Under Liang, Zhang Quanyi had monopolized the capital region; staff in Henan and Luoyang all entered through his patronage and served him like bond servants. Once Guan took office he upheld the proper forms of the new dynasty, treated Quanyi with less deference, and whenever locals were shielded by Quanyi's staff he reported them to the throne. Quanyi, furious, had a female attendant ask Empress Liu to speak to Zhuangzong on his behalf; the eunuchs added their complaints, and Zhuangzong grew deeply angry. When Zhuangzong visited the Shou'an tombs the roads were muddy; asked who was responsible, a eunuch said, "That is Henan County's charge. He ordered Guan summoned at once; Guan replied, "I never received the order in the first place—question whoever reported it." The emperor said, "This is your jurisdiction—why are you asking someone else?" He was sent to the prefectural prison, beaten by the clerks, and pressed to confess. The next day an edict ordered his execution. Guo Chongtao argued, "Guan shows no other sign of corruption; neglected roads and bridges are not a capital offense. Zhuangzong raged, "The late empress's funeral procession is about to set out, and the emperor's carriages must pass—whose fault is it that the roads are ruined?" Chongtao urged, "Even if Guan deserves death, let him confess, let the proper offices judge, and execute him by statute—it is not yet too late to kill him. For the ruler of an empire to vent his wrath on a county magistrate will make the realm say you pervert justice!" Zhuangzong said, "Since he is your man, you decide." With that he flung his sleeve and stalked into the palace. Chongtao followed, arguing each point; Zhuangzong shut the hall doors himself and could not get in. Guan was executed at once; his body was exposed at the prefectural gate, and cries of injustice rang far and wide.
10
淳於晏， 〈（案：以下有闕文。）〉 以明經登第，自霍彥威為小校，晏寄食於門下。 彥威嘗因兵敗，獨脫其身，左右莫有從者，惟晏杖劍從之，徒步草莽，自是彥威高其義，相得甚歡。 及曆數鎮，皆為從事，軍府之事，至於私門，事無巨細，皆取決於晏； 雖為幕賓，有若家宰。 爾後公侯門客，往往效之，時謂之「效淳」。 故彥威所至稱治，由晏之力也。
Chunyu Yan (Note: the text below is missing.)〉 A Classics examination graduate, he had lived as a dependent in Huo Yanwei's household since Yanwei was a junior officer. Once, after a defeat, Yanwei escaped alone with no attendants—only Yan followed on foot through the wilds, sword in hand; from then on Yanwei prized his loyalty and they grew very close. Through successive commands Yan served as staff officer; from military headquarters down to the private household, nothing great or small was decided without him; though nominally a staff guest, he was like the master of the house. Later retainers of great lords often imitated him, and the age spoke of "imitating Chun." Wherever Yanwei went he was praised for good governance, and it was Yan's doing.
11
張格，字承之，故宰相浚之子也。 浚為梁祖所忌，潛遣人害於長水。 格易姓名，流轉入蜀。 〈（《舊唐書·張浚傳》：永寧縣吏葉彥者，張氏待之素厚，告格曰：「相公之禍不可免，郎君宜自為計。」 浚曰：「留則並命，去或可免，冀存後嗣。」 格拜辭而去，葉彥率義士三十人送渡漢江而旋。 格由荊江上峽入蜀。）〉 王建僭號，以格為宰相。 格所生母，當浚之遇害，潛匿於民間，落發為尼，流浪於函、洛。 王建聞之，潛使人迎之入蜀，賜紫，加號慈福大師。 及建卒，蜀人以格為山陵使，格有難色。 未幾得罪，出為茂州刺史，偽製責詞云：「送往辭命，不忠也； 喪母匿喪，非孝也。」 王衍嗣偽位後數年，復用為宰相。 同光末，蜀平，格至洛陽， 〈（《舊唐書》：任圜攜格還洛，格感葉彥之惠，訪之，身已歿，厚恤其家。 又考張浚第三子仕吳，改名李儼，見《九國志》。）〉 授太子賓客。 任圜愛其才，奏為三司副使，尋卒於位。 格有文章，明吏事，時頗稱之。
Zhang Ge, styled Chengzhi, was the son of the former chief minister Zhang Jun. Jun was hated by the Liang founder, who secretly had him killed at Changshui. Ge changed his name and made his way into Shu. (The Old Book of Tang, biography of Zhang Jun: Ye Yan, a Yongning county clerk whom the Zhangs had long favored, told Ge, "Your father's doom cannot be avoided—you must save yourself. Jun said, "If you stay we die together; if you go you may live—I hope our line survives." Ge took his leave; Ye Yan led thirty volunteers to see him across the Han River and then turned back. Ge entered Shu through the Yangtze gorges.)〉 When Wang Jian declared himself emperor, he made Ge his chief minister. When Jun was killed, Ge's mother went into hiding among the people, took the tonsure, and wandered between the Hangu Pass and Luoyang. Wang Jian heard of it and secretly had her brought to Shu, granted her the purple robe, and gave her the title Great Master Cifu. When Jian died, Shu made Ge commissioner for the imperial tombs, and Ge looked uneasy. Soon he fell from favor and was sent out as prefect of Maozhou; a forged reprimand charged, "Sent on an errand yet refusing the commission—disloyalty; concealing his mother's death and hiding mourning—unfilial. Several years after Wang Yan took the throne, he was again made chief minister. When Shu fell at the end of Tongguang, Ge came to Luoyang, (The Old Book of Tang: Ren Yuan brought Ge back to Luoyang; remembering Ye Yan's kindness, Ge sought him out, found him dead, and generously provided for his family. It also records that Zhang Jun's third son served Wu under the name Li Yan, as noted in the Jiuguo Zhi.)〉 The court made him Mentor of the Heir Apparent. Ren Yuan admired his talent and had him made deputy commissioner of the Three Offices; he soon died in office. Ge was a capable writer and administrator, and his contemporaries spoke well of him.
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許寂，字閑閑。 祖秘，名聞會稽。 寂少有山水之好，泛覽經史，窮三式，尤明《易》象。 〈（《太平廣記》云：寂學《易》於晉徵君。）〉 久棲四明山，不幹時譽。 昭宗聞其名，征赴闕，召對於內殿。 會昭宗方與伶人調品篳篥，事訖，方命坐賜果，問《易》義。 既退，寂謂人曰：「君淫在聲，不在政矣。 寂聞君人者，將昭德塞違，以臨照百官，百官或象之。 今不厭賤事，自求其工，君道替矣。」 尋請還山，寓居於江陵，以茹芝絕粒，自適其性。 天祐末，節度使趙匡凝昆季深禮遇之，師授保養之道。 唐末，除諫官，不起，漢南謂之徵君。 梁攻襄陽，匡凝兄弟棄鎮奔蜀，寂偕行。 歲餘，蜀主王建待以師禮，位至蜀相。 同光末，平蜀，與王衍俱從於東，授工部尚書致仕，卜居於洛。 時寂已年高，精彩猶健，衝漠寡言，時蜀語云「可怪可怪」，人莫知其際。 清泰三年六月卒，時年八十餘。 子孫位至省郎。
Xu Ji, styled Xianxian. His grandfather Mi was renowned in Kuaiji. From youth he loved landscape; he read widely in the classics and histories, mastered the Three Styles of divination, and was especially versed in the imagery of the Book of Changes. (The Taiping Guangji records that Ji studied the Changes under the Jin Recluse.)〉 He lived long on Mount Siming and shunned worldly renown. Emperor Zhaozong heard of him, summoned him to court, and received him in the inner hall. Zhaozong happened to be tuning a pipe with his actor-favorites; when they finished, he had Ji seated, gave him fruit, and questioned him on the Changes. After leaving audience he told others, "The ruler's excess lies in music, not in government. He had heard that a ruler should display virtue and restrain wrongdoing to oversee his officials, and that officials would mirror him. Now he does not disdain petty tasks but pursues his own skill in them—the way of rulership is failing. He soon asked to return to the mountains, settled at Jiangling, lived on fungus and abstained from grain, and followed his own inclinations. At the end of Tianyou the Zhao brothers, military commissioners of the region, honored him deeply and studied the arts of nurturing life under him. Late in Tang he was offered a remonstrating post but declined; south of the Han they called him the Recluse. When Liang attacked Xiangyang, the Kuangning brothers abandoned their post and fled to Shu, and Ji went with them. Within a year Wang Jian of Shu treated him as a teacher and raised him to chief minister. When Shu fell at the end of Tongguang he followed Wang Yan east, retired as Minister of Works, and settled at Luoyang. By then he was old, yet still vigorous and remote, saying little. In Shu they said "how strange, how strange," and no one knew what he meant. He died in the sixth month of Qingtai 3, past eighty years old. His descendants rose to posts as Secretariat directors.
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同光時，以方術著者，又有僧誠惠。 誠惠初於五台山出家，能修戒律，稱通皮、骨、肉三命，人初歸向，聲名漸遠，四方供饋，不遠千里而至者眾矣。 自雲能役使毒龍，可致風雨，其徒號曰降龍大師。 京師旱，莊宗迎至洛下，親拜之，六宮參禮，士庶瞻仰，謂朝夕可致甘澤。 禱祝數旬，略無征應。 或謂官以祈雨無驗，將加焚燎，誠惠懼而遁去。 及卒，賜號法雨大師，塔曰「慈雲之塔。」
In the Tongguang era another figure famed for occult arts was the monk Chenghui. Chenghui first took orders on Mount Wutai, kept the precepts strictly, and was said to master the three fates of skin, bone, and flesh; disciples gathered, his fame spread, and donors came from a thousand li and more. He claimed he could command poisonous dragons and summon rain; his disciples called him the Dragon-Subduing Master. When the capital suffered drought, Zhuangzong brought him to Luoyang, bowed to him in person, the inner court paid homage, and the people looked to him for rain at any moment. After weeks of prayer there was no sign of rain. Some said the authorities would burn him for failing to bring rain; Chenghui fled in fear. After his death he was given the title Great Master Fayu, and his stupa was named the Kind Clouds Stupa.
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周元豹者，本燕人，世為從事。 元豹少為僧，其師有知人之鑒，從遊十年餘，苦辛無憚，師知其可教，遂以袁、許之術授之。 大略狀人形貌，比諸龜魚禽獸，目視臆斷，鹹造其理。 及還鄉，遂歸俗。 初，盧程寄褐遊燕，與同志二人謁焉。 元豹謂鄉人張殷袞曰：「適二君子，明年花發，俱為故人。 惟彼道士，他年甚貴。」 至來歲，二子果卒。 又二十年，盧程登庸於鄴下。 元豹歸晉陽，張承業信重之，言事數中。 承業俾明宗易衣列於諸校之下，以他人詐之，而元豹指明宗於末綴言曰：「骨法非內衙太保歟！」 鹹伏其異。 或問明宗之福壽，惟云末後為鎮州節度使，時明宗為內衙都校，才兼州牧而已。 昭懿皇后夏氏方侍巾櫛，偶忤旨，大為明宗檟楚。 元豹見之曰：「此人有藩侯夫人之位，當生貴子。」 明宗赫怒因解，後其言果驗。 太原判官司馬揆謁元豹，謂揆曰：「公五日之中，奉使萬里，未見回期。」 揆數日後，因酒酣，為衣領扼之而卒。 莊宗署元豹北京巡官。 明宗即位之明年，一日，謂侍臣曰：「方士周元豹，昔曾言朕諸事有征，可詔北京津置赴闕。」 趙鳳奏曰：「袁、許之事，元豹所長者，以陛下貴不可言，今既驗矣，餘無可問。 若詔赴闕下，則奔競之徒，爭問吉凶，恐近於妖惑。」 乃止。 令以金帛厚賜之，授光祿卿致仕。 尋卒於太原，年八十餘。
Zhou Yuanbao came from Yan; for generations his family had served as staff officers. As a youth Yuanbao became a monk; his teacher, skilled at reading men, trained him for more than ten years of hard service and then taught him the physiognomy of Yuan Tian gang and Xu Fu. He compared people's features to turtles, fish, birds, and beasts, judged at a glance, and always found a rationale. When he returned home he returned to lay life. Early on Lu Cheng, traveling in Yan in plain robes, visited him with two companions. Yuanbao told his townsman Zhang Yingun, "Those two visitors—when the flowers bloom next year they will both be dead. Only that Daoist will rise very high one day. The next year the two men died as he had said. Twenty years on, Lu Cheng indeed reached high office at Yedu. Yuanbao returned to Jinyang, where Zhang Chengye trusted him and found his predictions often accurate. Chengye had Mingzong change clothes and stand among the junior officers, substituting another man to test him; Yuanbao pointed to Mingzong at the rear and said, "Isn't that the bone-structure of the Inner Palace Grand Guardian?! All were awed by his uncanny skill. Asked about Mingzong's fortune, he said only that in the end he would be military commissioner of Zhenzhou—though Mingzong was then merely chief inspector of the inner barracks with a prefect's title. Empress Zhaoyi of the Xia clan, then attending Mingzong, once offended him and was beaten severely. Yuanbao saw it and said, "This woman is destined to be a feudal lord's wife and will bear an exalted son. Mingzong's rage cooled, and later events proved him right. Sima Kui, secretary at Taiyuan, visited Yuanbao, who told him, "Within five days you will go on a mission ten thousand li away, with no return in sight. Days later, drunk, Kui was strangled by his collar and died. Zhuangzong appointed him touring officer of the Northern Capital. The year after Mingzong took the throne he told his attendants, "The adept Zhou Yuanbao once predicted many things about me that came true—summon him from the Northern Capital to court. Zhao Feng objected, "Yuanbao excels at the arts of Yuan and Xu; he said Your Majesty's destiny was beyond words, and that has been proved—there is nothing left to ask. If he comes to court, the scrambling crowd will pester him for omens, and that will verge on sorcery." The summons was dropped. He sent generous gifts of gold and silk and appointed him Grand Master for Splendid Happiness in retirement. He died soon after at Taiyuan, past eighty years old.