1
孔崇弼，初仕後唐，自吏部郎中授給事中，時族兄昭序繇給事中改左常侍，兄弟同居門下，時論榮之。 崇弼，天福中遷左散騎常侍。 無他才，但能談笑，戲玩人物，揚眉抵掌，取悅於人。 五年，詔令泛海使於杭越。 先是，浙中贈賄，每歲恒及萬緡，時議者曰：「孔常侍命奇薄，何消盈數，有命即無財，有財即無命。」 明年使還，果海中船壞，空手而歸。 〈（案：以下殘闕。）〉
Kong Chongbi began his career under Later Tang. Promoted from director in the Ministry of Personnel to supervising censor, he served at the same time as his older kinsman Zhaoxu, who had moved from supervising censor to left regular attendant. With both brothers holding posts in the Secretariat, contemporaries took it as a mark of family distinction. During the Tianfu era Chongbi was promoted to left regular attendant of the cavalry. He possessed no other ability, yet he could banter and jest, mock people to their faces, arch his brows and clap his hands in amusement, and win others' favor. In the fifth year of the reign he was ordered by imperial edict to go by sea as envoy to Hang and Yue. Before this, tribute gifts from Zhejiang routinely amounted to ten thousand strings of cash a year. People at court remarked, "Vice Censor Kong's fate is unusually meager—why should he need a fortune? Appointment and profit never come together for him: if he gets the post he will have no money, and if he has money he will not live to enjoy it." The following year, when the mission returned, the ships were indeed lost at sea, and he came home with nothing. (Editor's note: the passage below is missing.)〉
2
陳保極，閩中人也。 好學，善屬文，後唐天成中擢進士第，秦王從榮聞其名，辟為從事。 從榮素急暴，後怒保極不告出遊宰相門，以馬箠鞭之，尋出為定州推官。 從榮敗，執政知其屈，擢居三署，歷禮部、倉部員外郎。 初，桑維翰登第之歲，保極時在秦王幕下，因戲謂同輩曰：「近知今歲有三個半人及第。」 蓋其年收四人，保極以維翰短陋，故謂之半人也。 天福中，維翰既居相位，保極時在曹郎，慮除官差跌，心不自安，乃乞假南遊，將謀退跡。 既而襄、鄧長吏以行止入奏，維翰乃奏於高祖曰：「保極閩人，多狡，恐逃入淮海。」 即以詔追赴闕，將下臺鍛成其事，同列李崧極言以解之，因令所司就所居鞫之，貶為衛尉寺丞，仍奪金紫。 尋復為倉部員外郎，竟以銜憤而卒。
Chen Baoji was a native of Fujian. Fond of study and skilled in prose, he passed the jinshi examination in the Tiancheng era of Later Tang. When Prince of Qin Congrong heard of him, he took him on as a staff officer. Congrong was naturally violent and impulsive. He later flew into a rage because Baoji had visited the chief ministers without telling him, and lashed him with a riding crop. Baoji was soon transferred out to serve as investigating officer in Dingzhou. After Congrong's downfall the court recognized that Baoji had been treated unjustly and promoted him into the Three Bureaus, where he served successively as vice director in the ministries of rites and of granaries. When Sang Weihan took his degree, Baoji was still on the prince of Qin's staff. He joked to his colleagues, "I've just heard that three and a half men passed the examination this year." Four candidates had in fact passed that year, but because Weihan was short and plain-looking, Baoji counted him as only half a man. In the Tianfu era, once Weihan had become chief minister, Baoji was serving as a bureau secretary. Fearful of being demoted, he grew uneasy and asked leave to travel south, planning to retire from office. Soon the senior officials of Xiang and Deng reported his movements to court. Weihan then told Gaozu, "Baoji is a Fujian man and notoriously cunning; I fear he may flee to the Huaihai region." An edict immediately recalled him to the capital. The authorities were about to hand him over to the censorate and manufacture a criminal case, but his colleague Li Song argued forcefully on his behalf. The court then ordered an inquiry at his home. He was demoted to assistant director in the Court of Imperial Regalia and stripped of his gold seal and purple robe. He was soon restored as vice director in the ministry of granaries, but in the end died still brooding over the injustice.
3
保極無時才，有傲人之名，而性復鄙吝，所得利祿，未嘗奉身，但蔬食而已。 每與人奕棋，敗則以手亂其局，蓋拒所賭金錢不欲償也。 及卒，室無妻兒，帷囊中貯白金十鋌，為他人所有，時甚嗤之。
Baoji had no real talent for public life and was known for looking down on others, yet he was also miserly by nature. He never spent his salary on himself and lived on nothing but plain fare. Whenever he played chess and lost, he would sweep the pieces off the board with his hand, plainly to avoid paying what he had wagered. When he died he left no wife or children. In a pouch in his room were ten ingots of silver that belonged to someone else, and contemporaries mocked him roundly for it.
4
王瑜，其先范陽人也。 父欽祚，仕至殿中監，出為義州刺史。 瑜性兇狡，然雋辯驍果，騎射刀筆之長，亦稱於當代。 起家累為從事。 天福中，授左贊善大夫。 會濮郡秋稼豐衍，稅籍不均，命乘使車，按察定計。 既至郡，謂校簿吏胡蘊、惠鶚曰：「余食貧久矣，室無增資，為我致意縣宰，且求假貸。」 由是濮之部內五邑令長共斂錢五十萬，私獻於瑜。 瑜即以書上奏，高祖覽章嘆曰：「廉直清慎有如此者，誠良臣也。」 於是二吏五宰即時停黜，擢瑜為太府少卿。 杜重威之鎮東平也，瑜父欽祚為節度副使，及重威移鎮常山，瑜乃詭計於重威，使奏己為恒州節度副使，竟代其父位。 歲餘，入為刑部郎中。 丙午歲，父欽祚刺舉義州，瑜歸寧至郡。 會契丹據有中夏，何建以秦州歸蜀，瑜說欽祚曰：「若不西走，當屬契丹矣！」 厲色數諫，其父怒而不從。 因其臥疾涉旬，瑜仗劍而脅之曰：「老懦無謀，欲趨炮烙。 不即為計，則死於刃下。」 父不得已而聽之。 時隴東屯兵扼其川路，將北趣蕃部假途，而因與郡盜酋長趙徽歃血為約，以兄事之。 謂徽曰：「西至成都，余身為相，余父為將，爾當領一大郡，能遂行乎？」 徽曰：「諾。」 瑜慮為所賣，先致其妻孥，館於郡中。 行有期矣，徽潛召其黨，伺於郊外。 子夜，瑜舉族行，輜重絡繹十有餘里。 徽之所親，循溝澮而遁，至馬峽路隅，舉燧相應，其黨起於伏莽，斷欽祚之首，貫諸長矛。 平生聚蓄金幣萬計，皆為賊所掠，少長百口，殺之殆盡。 瑜尚獨戰千人，矢不虛發，手無射捍，其指流血。 及窘，乃夜竄山谷，落發為僧。 月餘，為樵人所獲，縶送岐州，為侯益所殺，時年三十九。
Wang Yu's family came from Fanyang. His father Qinhuo rose to director of the palace domestic service and was later posted as prefect of Yi. Yu was by nature violent and treacherous, yet he was quick-witted, eloquent, and bold in battle, and his skill at riding, archery, and administrative writing also won him a name in his day. He began his career as a series of staff appointments. In the Tianfu era he was appointed left mentor. When Pu prefecture had a bumper autumn harvest but uneven tax rolls, he was sent out in the envoy carriage to inspect the district and set the levies right. On reaching the prefecture he told the registry clerks Hu Yun and Hui E, "I have been poor for years and my household has no spare funds. Pass word to the county magistrates for me and ask them for a loan." The magistrates of the five counties in Pu then pooled five hundred thousand cash and secretly gave it to Yu. Yu then submitted a memorial. When Gaozu read it he exclaimed, "Such integrity, uprightness, purity, and caution—this is truly a fine minister." The two clerks and five magistrates were immediately dismissed, and Yu was promoted to vice director of the imperial storehouse. While Du Chongwei held Dongping, Yu's father Qinhuo served as his deputy. When Chongwei was transferred to Changshan, Yu persuaded him by a ruse to recommend him as deputy military governor of Hengzhou, and in the end took his father's place. After a little more than a year he was recalled to the capital as director in the ministry of punishments. In the bingwu year his father Qinhuo was posted as investigating commissioner of Yi prefecture, and Yu went to visit him there. The Khitans had seized the heartland, and He Jian had surrendered Qinzhou to Shu. Yu urged his father, "If we do not flee west, we shall end up under Khitan rule!" He remonstrated again and again with a fierce expression, but his father grew angry and refused. When his father had been bedridden for more than ten days, Yu drew his sword and threatened him: "You old fool without a plan—you are rushing straight toward the stake. If you do not act now, you die by this blade." His father had no choice but to yield. Garrison troops in eastern Long blocked the river routes, so they planned to head north through tribal territory and borrow a passage. Yu then swore a blood oath with Zhao Hui, a local bandit chieftain, and treated him as an elder brother. He told Hui, "When we reach Chengdu, I shall become chief minister and my father a general, and you shall govern a great prefecture. Will you go through with this?" Hui answered, "Agreed." Fearing betrayal, Yu first sent Hui's wife and children to stay in the prefectural seat as hostages. When the day of departure was fixed, Hui secretly gathered his men and waited in ambush outside the city. At midnight Yu set out with his entire clan, their baggage train stretching more than ten li along the road. Hui's men stole along ditches and canals until, at a bend on the Maxia road, they lit signal fires. His band sprang from the brush, cut off Qinhuo's head, and spitted it on a long spear. The gold and cash he had amassed over a lifetime—tens of thousands in all—were looted by the bandits, and of more than a hundred kin young and old, nearly all were slaughtered. Yu still fought on alone against a thousand men; every arrow he loosed found its mark. He had no archer's thumb guard, and his fingers ran with blood. When he was cornered, he fled by night into the hills, shaved his head, and took the tonsure. After more than a month woodcutters captured him and sent him bound to Qizhou, where Hou Yi had him executed. He was thirty-nine.
5
始瑜有姑寡居，來歸其家，以前夫遺腹有子，經數年不產，每因事預告人吉兇，無不驗者。 時契丹入中闕，前月餘謂瑜曰：「暴兵將至，宜速去之，茍不去，亂必及矣。」 後瑜果死，此謂「天作孽，猶可違； 自作孽，不可逭」也。
Yu had an aunt, a widow, who came to live in his household. She was said to be carrying her late husband's posthumous child, yet for years she bore none; still, whenever she foretold good or ill fortune, her predictions always came true. When the Khitans entered the capital, more than a month beforehand she told Yu, "Violent soldiers are coming—you must leave at once. If you stay, calamity will overtake you." Yu did indeed die afterward. This was a case of the saying, "When Heaven sends disaster, one may still escape it; but when a man brings disaster on himself, there is no escaping it."
6
張繼祚，故齊王全義之子也。 始為河南府衙內指揮使，全義卒，除金吾將軍，旋授蔡州刺史，累官至檢校太保。 明宗郊天，充供頓使，復除西衛上將軍。 唐清泰末，丁母憂。 天福初，喪制未闋，會張從賓作亂，發兵迫脅，取赴河陽，令知留守事。 從賓敗，與二子詔戮於市。 始繼祚與範延光有舊，嘗遣人以馬遺之。 屬朝廷起兵，將討鄴城，為巡兵所獲，奏之，高祖深忌之。 及敗，宰臣桑維翰以父珙早事齊王，奏欲雪之，高祖不允， 〈（《通鑒》：史館修撰李濤上言：張全義有再造洛邑之功，乞免其族。 遂止誅繼祚妻子。）〉 遂止罪繼祚一房，不累其族。
Zhang Jizuo was a son of the former prince of Qi, Quanyi. He began as commander of the Henan prefectural guard. After Quanyi's death he was made a general of the golden crow guard, soon received appointment as prefect of Cai, and eventually rose to honorary grand guardian. When Emperor Mingzong sacrificed to Heaven at the suburbs, Jizuo served as provisioning commissioner and was again appointed general of the western guard. At the end of Tang's Qingtai era he went into mourning for his mother. Early in the Tianfu era, before his mourning period had ended, Zhang Congbin rebelled, raised troops, and forced him along. He was taken to Heyang and put in charge of the regency. When Congbin was defeated, he and his two sons were executed by imperial order in the marketplace. Jizuo had earlier been on friendly terms with Fan Yanguang and once sent him horses as a gift. When the court marched to attack Ye, patrol troops seized the gift and reported it, and Gaozu took deep offense. After the defeat, chief minister Sang Weihan—whose father Gong had long served the prince of Qi—memorialized to clear the family's name, but Gaozu refused, (Comprehensive Mirror: Li Tao of the historiography institute memorialized that Zhang Quanyi had restored Luoyang and asked that his clan be spared. The execution of Jizuo's wife and children was then halted.)〉 Punishment was thus limited to Jizuo's own household and did not extend to his wider clan.
7
胡饒，大梁人也。 少事本鎮連帥為都吏，歷馬步都虞候。 會唐明宗鎮其地，與部將王建立相善，明宗即位，建立領常山，奏饒為真定少尹。 饒本憸人，既在府幕，無士君子之風。 嘗因事趙郡，有平棘令張鵬者獻策，請建立於境內每縣所管鄉置鄉直一人，令月書縣令出入行止，饒乃導而薦焉。 建立行之彌年，詞訟蜂起，四郡大擾。 天成末，王都構亂，陰使結建立為兄弟之國。 時饒又曾薦梁時右庶子張澄為判官，建立亦狎之。 澄素不知書，每座則以《陰府》、《鬼谷》為己任。 建立時密以王都之盟告之，澄與饒俱贊成其事，會王師圍中山，其事遂寢，而饒之兇戾如此。 清泰初，馮道出鎮同州，饒時為副使，道以重臣，稀於接洽，饒忿之，每乘酒於牙門詬道，道必延入，待以酒肴，致敬而退。 道謂左右曰：「此人為不善，自當有報，吾何怒焉。」 饒後閑居河陽。 天福二年夏，會張從賓作亂，饒謁於麾下，請預其行。 從賓敗，饒以王建立方鎮平盧，走投之，建立延入城，斬之以聞，聞者快焉。
Hu Rao was a native of Daliang. In youth he served the circuit military governor as chief clerk and later held the post of combined cavalry and infantry commandant. When Emperor Mingzong of Tang governed the region, Rao was on good terms with the staff general Wang Jianli. After Mingzong took the throne, Jianli governed Changshan and recommended Rao as vice prefect of Zhending. Rao was crafty by nature, and once he joined the governor's staff he showed none of a gentleman's conduct. On a mission to Zhao commandery he met Zhang Peng, magistrate of Pingji, who proposed that Jianli appoint one village overseer in every township under each county, with monthly reports on each magistrate's movements. Rao promoted the scheme. Jianli enforced the plan for a full year, lawsuits multiplied, and all four commanderies were thrown into turmoil. Late in the Tiancheng era Wang Du plotted rebellion and secretly sent envoys to win Jianli into a pact of allied states. Rao had also recommended Zhang Cheng, former right assistant to the heir apparent under Liang, as administrative aide, and Jianli was on familiar terms with him. Cheng was barely literate and at every gathering treated the Yin Fu and Guiguzi as his specialties. Jianli secretly disclosed Wang Du's alliance to them, and both Cheng and Rao urged it on. When imperial troops besieged Zhongshan the plot came to nothing, but Rao's brutality and perversity were of this sort. Early in the Qingtai era Feng Dao was posted to govern Tongzhou with Rao as his deputy. As a senior minister Feng Dao rarely received callers, and Rao resented it. Drunk, he would abuse Feng Dao at headquarters, but Feng Dao always invited him in, served wine and food, paid his respects, and let him go. Feng Dao told his attendants, "This man does wrong; retribution will come to him in its own time—why should I grow angry?" Rao later lived in retirement at Heyang. In the summer of the second Tianfu year, when Zhang Congbin rebelled, Rao came to his camp and asked to march with him. When Congbin was defeated, Rao fled to Wang Jianli, who was then military governor of Pinglu. Jianli had him brought into the city, beheaded him, and reported it to court; all who heard of it were glad.
8
劉遂清，字得一，青州北海人，梁開封尹鄩之猶子也。 父琪，以鴻臚卿致仕。 遂清少敏惠，初仕梁為保鑾軍使，歷內諸司使，莊宗入汴，不改其職。 明宗即位，加檢校尚書僕射，委以西都監守。 逾歲，以中山王都有不臣之跡，除遂清為易州刺史，俾遏其寇沖，既至郡，大有禦侮之略，境內賴焉。 王都平，加檢校司空，遷棣州刺史。 天成、長興中，歷典淄、興、登三郡，咸有善政。 〈（《通鑒潞王紀》：帝之起鳳翔也，召興州刺史劉遂清，遲疑不至。 聞帝入洛，乃悉集三泉、西縣、金牛、桑林戍兵以歸，自散關以南，城鎮悉棄之，皆為蜀人所有。 入朝，帝欲治罪，以其能自歸，乃赦之。）〉 高祖即位之二年，授鳳州防禦使，加檢校司徒，會丁母憂，起復，授內客省使、右監門衛大將軍。 六年，駕幸鄴都，轉宣徽北院使兼判三司，加檢校太保。 七年，少帝嗣位，加右領軍衛上將軍，仍賜竭誠翊戴保節功臣。 八年，出領鄭州，加檢校太傅。 開運二年，遷安州防禦使。 未幾，上表稱疾，詔許就便，回至上蔡，終於郵舍，時三年四月也。
Liu Suiqing, styled Deyi, was from Beihai in Qingzhou and was a nephew by marriage of Zheng, Liang's chief minister of Kaifeng. His father Qi had retired as minister of the court of imperial entertainments. Suiqing was clever from youth. He first served Liang as commissioner of the palace guard, then held a series of posts as commissioner of the inner bureaus; when Zhuangzong entered Bian his offices were left unchanged. When Mingzong took the throne he was given the honorary title of vice director of the masters of writing and charged with guarding the western capital. A year later, when Wang Du of Zhongshan showed signs of rebellion, Suiqing was appointed prefect of Yi to block his raids. On reaching the prefecture he devised strong defenses, and the region came to rely on him. After Wang Du was pacified he was given the honorary title of minister of works and transferred to prefect of Di. During the Tiancheng and Changxing eras he governed in turn Zi, Xing, and Deng, and in each place earned a reputation for good government. (Comprehensive Mirror, Annals of the Prince of Lu: When the emperor rose at Fengxiang he summoned Liu Suiqing, prefect of Xing, but Suiqing hesitated and did not come. On hearing that the emperor had entered Luoyang, he gathered the garrisons of Sanquan, Xixian, Jinniu, and Sanglin and withdrew. From Sanguan Pass southward he abandoned every town and fort, and all fell to Shu. When he presented himself at court the emperor wished to punish him, but because he had come back of his own accord he was pardoned.)〉 In the second year of Gaozu's reign he was made defense commissioner of Fengzhou and given the honorary title of minister of education. When his mother died he was recalled from mourning and appointed commissioner of the inner guests bureau and great general of the right gate guard. In the sixth year, when the emperor visited Yedu, he was made commissioner of the northern bureau of the palace secretariat with concurrent charge of the three bureaus and given the honorary title of grand guardian. In the seventh year, when the young emperor succeeded, he was made general of the right army guard and granted the title of meritorious minister for devoted loyalty in supporting the throne and preserving integrity. In the eighth year he was posted to govern Zhengzhou and given the honorary title of grand tutor. In the second Kaiyun year he was transferred to defense commissioner of Anzhou. Before long he memorialized that he was ill; the court allowed him to retire where he pleased. On his way back to Shangcai he died at a courier station in the fourth month of the third year.
9
遂清性至孝，牧淄川日，自北海迎其母赴郡，母既及境，遂清奔馳路側，控轡行數十里，父老觀者如堵，當時榮之。 遂清素不知書，但多計畫，判三司日，每給百官俸料，與判官議曰：「斯輩非盡有才能，多世祿之家，宜澄其汙而留其清者。」 或對曰：「昔唐朝渾、郭、顏、段，每一赦出，以一子出身，率為常制，且延賞垂裕，為國美譚，未有因月給而欲沙汰，恐未當也。」 群論由此減之。
Suiqing was deeply filial by nature. While governing Zichuan he went to Beihai to bring his mother to his post. When she reached the prefectural border he ran out to the road, took the reins of her carriage, and walked beside her for miles. The local elders lined the route, and contemporaries praised him for it. Suiqing was barely literate but full of schemes. While in charge of the three bureaus, whenever salaries were issued he would tell his aide, "These men are not all capable—many come from hereditary salary families. We ought to sift out the corrupt and keep the honest." Someone objected, "Under Tang, the Hun, Guo, Yan, and Duan families—each amnesty let one son enter office, which became standard practice. Rewarding merit so that bounty reached later generations was counted a national virtue. No one has tried to purge officials over monthly salaries; I fear that would be wrong." The proposal was dropped after this exchange.
10
劉繼勛，衛州人也。 唐天成中，高祖鎮鄴都，繼勛時為客將，高祖愛其端謹，籍其名於帳下，從歷數鎮。 及即位，擢為閣門使，出為淄州刺史，遷澶州防禦使，俄改鄭州，自宣徽北院使拜華州刺史。 歲餘，鎮同州。 始少帝與契丹絕好，繼勛亦預其謀，及契丹主至闕，繼勛自鎮來朝，契丹責之。 時馮道在側，繼勛事急，指道曰：「少帝在鄴，道為首相，與景延廣謀議，遂致南北失歡。 臣位至卑，未嘗措言，今請問道，道細知之。」 契丹主曰：「此老子不是好鬧人，無相牽引，皆爾輩為之。」 繼勛不敢復對。 繼勛時有疾，契丹主因令人候其疾狀，雲有風痹，契丹主曰：「北方地涼，居之此疾可愈。」 乃命鎖繼勛。 尋解之，以疾終於家。 〈（《通鑒》：契丹主聞趙在禮死，乃釋繼勛，繼勛憂憤而卒。）〉 漢高祖入汴，贈太尉。
Liu Jixun was a native of Weizhou. During Tang's Tiancheng era, when Gaozu governed Yedu, Jixun served as a guest officer. Gaozu admired his steady, careful manner, kept him on his staff register, and took him through several provincial postings. After Gaozu took the throne, Jixun was made gate commissioner, then prefect of Zi, defense commissioner of Chan, and soon of Zheng; from commissioner of the northern palace secretariat bureau he was appointed prefect of Hua. After a little more than a year he was posted to govern Tongzhou. When the young emperor broke with the Khitans, Jixun had helped plan it. When the Khitan ruler reached the capital, Jixun came from his post to court, and the Khitans rebuked him. Feng Dao stood nearby. In his panic Jixun pointed at him and said, "When the young emperor was at Ye, Dao was chief minister and plotted with Jing Yanguang, which is what ruined relations between north and south. My rank was too low for me to speak then. Question Dao—he knows every detail." The Khitan ruler said, "This old man is no troublemaker—do not implicate him. You people did it yourselves." Jixun did not dare answer further. Jixun was ill at the time, and the Khitan ruler sent someone to inquire; he was told Jixun had rheumatic paralysis. The Khitan ruler said, "The north is cool—live there and the illness will pass." He then ordered Jixun shackled. He was soon released and died of illness at home. (Comprehensive Mirror: When the Khitan ruler heard of Zhao Zaili's death, he released Jixun, who then died of grief and resentment.)〉 When Han Gaozu entered Bian, Jixun was posthumously made grand commandant.
11
鄭受益， 〈（《新唐書·宰相世系表》：字謙光。）〉 唐宰相餘慶之曾孫也。 余慶生浣，浣生從讜，兩為太原節度使，再登相位。 從讜兄處誨，為汴州節度使。 家襲清儉，深有士風，中朝禮法，以鄭氏為甲。 處誨生受益。 受益亦以文學致身，累歷臺閣，自尚書郎遷右諫議大夫。 天福七年夏，以張彥澤數為不道，上章請行國典，旬日不報。 又貢表切言，訐直無所忌，執政稍惡之。 俄而以病請告，歸長安。 高祖晏駕，以不赴國哀停任，會赦，拜京兆少尹。 宰相趙瑩出鎮鹹秦，以受益朝班舊僚，眷待甚至。 屬天下率借金谷，乃謂瑩曰：「京兆戶籍登耗，民力虛實，某備知之矣，品而定之，可使平允。」 瑩信之，因使與王人同掌其事。 受益既經廢棄，薄於仕宦，遂阿法射利，冀為生生之資； 又素恃門望，陵轢同幕，內奸外直，群情無相洽者。 及贓汙事發，騰於眾口，瑩不得已，遂按之，其直百萬。 八年冬，賜死於家。 受益數世公臺，一朝自棄，士君子皆惜之。
Zheng Shouyi, (New Book of Tang, Tables of Chief Ministers' Lineages: styled Qianguang.)〉 He was a great-grandson of Yuqing, a Tang chief minister. Yuqing's son was Huan; Huan's son was Congdan, who twice served as military governor of Taiyuan and twice rose to chief minister. Congdan's elder brother Chuhui was military governor of Bianzhou. The family was known for austerity and integrity and for true scholarly bearing; at court the Zheng were regarded as foremost in ritual propriety. Chuhui was Shouyi's father. Shouyi likewise rose through scholarship, served in a series of central offices, and was promoted from director in the masters of writing to right remonstrance adviser. In the summer of the seventh Tianfu year, citing Zhang Yanzhe's repeated outrages, he memorialized that the law be enforced against him; for ten days the court gave no answer. He submitted another memorial speaking bluntly and without fear, and the chief ministers grew to dislike him. Soon he asked leave for illness and returned to Chang'an. When Gaozu died he was suspended for failing to attend the state mourning; after an amnesty he was appointed vice prefect of the capital district. When chief minister Zhao Ying was posted to Xian and Qin, he treated Shouyi, an old court colleague, with exceptional favor. When the empire levied grain and cash loans, he told Ying, "I know the capital district's household registers, gains and losses, and the people's real capacity. Grade them properly and the levies can be made fair." Ying believed him and put him in charge of the work together with Wang Ren. Having already been cast aside, Shouyi cared little for office and bent the law for profit, hoping to secure a living; he also relied on his family's prestige, bullied colleagues on the staff, was treacherous within and upright in appearance, and won the goodwill of none around him. When the bribery scandal broke and public outcry mounted, Ying had no choice but to investigate; the sum involved reached a million cash. In the winter of the eighth year he was ordered to take his own life at home. For generations his family had held the highest offices, yet in a single stroke he ruined himself, and men of worth all lamented it.
12
程遜，字浮休，壽春人。 〈（案：此下有闕文。）〉 召入翰林充學士，自兵部侍郎承旨授太常卿。 天福三年秋，命使吳越， 〈（《十國春秋》云：禮部尚書程遜為加恩使。）〉 母羸老雙瞽，遜未嘗白執政以辭之。 將行，母以手捫其面，號泣以送之。 仲秋之夕，陰暝如晦，遜嘗為詩曰：「幽室有時聞雁叫，空庭無路見蟾光。」 同僚見之，訝其詩語稍異。 及使回，遭風水而溺焉。
Cheng Xun, styled Fuxiu, was from Shouchun. (Editor's note: the passage below is missing.)〉 He was summoned to the Hanlin as an academician and promoted from vice minister of war with drafting duties to minister of imperial sacrifices. In the autumn of the third Tianfu year he was ordered as envoy to Wu and Yue, (Ten States Spring and Autumn records that Minister of Rites Cheng Xun served as grace-bestowing envoy.)〉 His mother was frail, elderly, and blind in both eyes, yet Xun never asked the chief ministers to excuse him from the mission. When he was about to leave, his mother stroked his face with her hands and wept as she sent him off. One mid-autumn evening the sky was dark as dusk. Xun once wrote a poem: "In a secluded room wild geese sometimes cry; in an empty courtyard no path leads to the moonlight." Colleagues who read it were struck by how odd the lines sounded. On the return journey he was lost in wind and waves and drowned.
13
李郁，字文緯，唐之宗屬也。 少歷宗寺官，天成、長興中，累遷為宗正卿。 性平允，所歷無愛憎毀譽。 高祖登極，授光祿卿。 一日晝寢，夢食巨棗，覺而有疾，謂其親友曰：「嘗聞『棗』字重『來』，呼魂之象也。 余神氣逼抑，將不免乎！」 天福五年夏卒。 贈太子太保。 馬重績，字洞微。 少學數術，明太一、五紀、八象、三統大歷，居於太原。 仕晉，拜太子右贊善大夫，遷司天監。 天福三年，重績上言：「歷象，王者所以正一氣之元，宣萬邦之命，而古今所記，考審多差。 《宣明》氣朔正而星度不驗，《崇元》五星得而歲差一日。 以《宣明》之氣朔，合《崇元》之五星，二歷相參，然後符合。 自前世諸歷，皆起天正十一月為歲首，用太古甲子為上元，積歲愈多，差闊愈甚。 臣輒合二歷，創為新法，以唐天寶十四載乙未為上元，雨水正月中氣為氣首。」 詔下司天監趙仁琦、張文皓等考核得失，仁琦等言：「明年庚子正月朔，用重績歷考之，皆合無舛。」 乃下詔班行之，號《調元曆》。 行之數歲輒差，遂不用。 重績又言：「漏刻之法，以中星考晝夜為一百刻，八刻六十分刻之二十為一時，時以四刻十分為正，此自古所用也。 今失其傳，以午正為時始，下侵未四刻十分而為午，由是晝夜昏曉，皆失其正，請依古改正。」 從之。 重績卒年六十四。
Li Yu, styled Wenwei, was a member of the Tang imperial clan. In youth he served in the clan temple offices; during Tiancheng and Changxing he rose step by step to director of the imperial clan court. He was even-tempered and fair-minded; in every post he aroused neither special favor nor hostility, neither praise nor blame. When Gaozu took the throne he was appointed minister of imperial entertainments. One afternoon he napped and dreamed of eating huge jujubes. When he woke he fell ill and told his friends, "They say the character for 'jujube' contains the character for 'come'—a sign that one's soul is being summoned back. My spirit feels crushed—I shall not escape death!" He died in the summer of the fifth Tianfu year. He was posthumously made grand tutor of the heir apparent. Ma Zhongji, styled Dongwei. From youth he studied numerology and mastered the Great One, Five Registers, Eight Images, and Great Calendar of the Three Unifications; he lived at Taiyuan. Under Jin he was appointed right mentor of the heir apparent and then director of the astronomy bureau. In the third Tianfu year Zhongji memorialized, "Calendars and celestial observations are how kings set the origin of cosmic order and proclaim the mandate to all states, yet records ancient and modern, when examined closely, contain many errors. The Xuanming calendar's qi phases and new moons are correct, but its star positions fail verification; the Chongyuan tracks the five planets correctly but the year is off by a day. Combine the Xuanming calendar's qi phases and new moons with the Chongyuan's planetary tables; only when the two calendars are cross-checked do they agree. Earlier calendars all began the year in the eleventh month of the celestial standard and used the primordial jiazi cycle as the superior origin; the more years accumulated, the wider the error grew. I have combined the two calendars into a new method, taking the yiwei year (Tang Tianbao 14) as the superior origin and the mid-qi of the first month of Rain Water as the start of the qi cycle." The court ordered Zhao Renqi, Zhang Wenhao, and others at the astronomy bureau to review it. They reported, "On the new year's day of the coming gengzi year, Zhongji's calendar matches observation in every respect." An edict was issued to promulgate it under the title Calendar for Adjusting the Origin. After a few years in use it began to drift, and the court abandoned it. Zhongji also argued, "The clepsydra method divides day and night into one hundred marks by observing culmination stars; eight marks plus twenty sixtieths make one double-hour, with the fourth mark and ten parts as the standard—this is the ancient practice. That tradition is now lost: noon is taken as the start of the hour, pushing true noon down into the fourth mark and ten parts of the wei period, so day, night, dusk, and dawn are all wrong. I ask that the ancient method be restored." The court agreed. Zhongji died at sixty-four.
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陳元，京兆人也。 家世為醫，初事河中王重榮。 乾符中，後唐武皇自太原率師攻王行瑜，路出於蒲中，時元侍湯藥，武皇甚重之。 及還太原，日侍左右。 武皇性剛暴，樂殺人，無敢言者。 元深測其情，每有暴怒，則從容啟諫，免禍者不一，以是晉人深德之，勛貴賂遺盈門。 性好酒樂施，隨得而無私積。 明宗朝，為太原少尹，入為太府卿。 長興中，集平生所驗方七十五首，並修合藥法百件，號曰《要術》，刊石置於太原府衙門之左，以示於眾，病者賴焉。 天福中，以耄期上表求退，以光祿卿致仕，卒於晉陽，年八十餘。
Chen Yuan was a native of the capital district. His family had practiced medicine for generations; he first served Wang Chongrong of Hezhong. During Qianfu, Later Tang's martial emperor marched from Taiyuan against Wang Xingyu and passed through Pu. Yuan attended him with medicines, and the martial emperor held him in high regard. When the emperor returned to Taiyuan, Yuan attended him daily. The martial emperor was fierce and violent by nature and delighted in killing; no one dared remonstrate with him. Yuan read his moods well; whenever rage seized him, Yuan would calmly remonstrate and save many from death. The people of Jin were deeply grateful, and gifts from nobles filled his gate. He loved wine and delighted in giving away whatever came to hand, keeping nothing for himself. Under Mingzong he served as vice prefect of Taiyuan, then entered the capital as minister of the imperial storehouse. During Changxing he compiled seventy-five prescriptions he had tested in life and a hundred compounding methods under the title Essential Methods, had them carved on stone and set to the left of the Taiyuan government gate for all to see; the sick benefited from them. In his old age during Tianfu he memorialized to retire and left office as minister of imperial entertainments; he died at Jinyang in his eighties.
15
史臣曰：夫彰善癉惡，《麟史》之為義也； 瑜不掩瑕，虹玉之為德也。 故自崇弼而下，善者既書之，其不善者亦書之，庶使後之君子見善如不及，見惡如探湯也。 至如重績之曆法，陳元之醫道，亦不可漏其名而弗紀也。
The historian writes: To make virtue plain and vice hateful is the purpose of the Spring and Autumn Annals; not to hide a flaw in jade is the virtue of a true gem. Therefore from Chongbi onward, virtues are recorded and faults are recorded as well, so that later gentlemen may strive toward good as if they cannot catch it and shrink from evil as from scalding water. As for Zhongji's calendrical science and Chen Yuan's medical art, their names too must not be omitted from the record.