1
虞玩之
Yu Wanzhi
2
虞玩之字茂瑤，會稽餘姚人也。 祖宗，晉庫部郎。 父玫，通直常侍。
Yu Wanzhi, styled Maoyao, was a man of Yuyao in Kuaiji. His ancestor Zong had been a storeroom-department gentleman under the Jin. His father Mei had been regular attendant of unimpeded communication.
3
玩之少閒刀筆，汎涉書史，解褐東海王行參軍，烏程令。 路太后外親朱仁彌犯罪，依法錄治。 太后怨訴孝武，坐免官。 泰始中，除晉熙國郎中令，尚書起部郎，通直郎。
In youth Wanzhi mastered clerkly writing and ranged widely through books and histories; upon first office he became staff aide to the Prince of Donghai and magistrate of Wucheng. Empress Dowager Lu's maternal kin Zhu Renmi committed a crime; Wanzhi had him arrested and prosecuted by law. The empress dowager complained to Emperor Xiaowu; Wanzhi was dismissed from office. In the Taishi era he was named director of retainers for Jinxi, gentleman of the ministry of personnel's promotions section, and unimpeded-attendant gentleman.
4
元徽中，爲右丞。 時太祖參政，與玩之書曰：「張華爲度支尚書，事不徒然。 今漕藏有闕，吾賢居右丞，已覺金粟可積也。」 玩之上表陳府庫錢帛，器械役力，所懸轉多，興用漸廣，慮不支歲月。 朝議優報之。 遷安成王車騎錄事，轉少府。
In the Yuanhui era he served as right vice director. At the time the founding sovereign was directing affairs of state and wrote to Wanzhi: 「When Zhang Hua served as minister of revenue, his work was not in vain. Now the transport treasuries show gaps; with you, my worthy, as right vice director, I already sense gold and grain may begin to accumulate. 」Wanzhi memorialized that the palace treasury's cash, silk, equipment, and labor levies were ever more entangled in suspense, new outlays steadily widened, and he feared the year could not be sustained. Court deliberation returned him a favorable reply. He was moved to recorder on the Prince of Ancheng's chariot-and-cavalry staff, then to the lesser treasury.
5
太祖鎮東府，朝野致敬，玩之猶躡屐造席。 太祖取屐視之，訛黑斜銳，蒵斷，以芒接之。 問曰：「卿此屐已幾載？」 玩之曰：「初釋褐拜征北行佐買之，著已二十年，貧土竟不辦易。」 太祖善之，引爲驃騎諮議參軍。 霸府初開，賓客輻湊，太祖留意簡接，玩之與樂安任遐，俱以應對有席上之美，齊名見遇。 遐字景遠，好學，有義行，兼與太祖素游，褚淵、王儉竝見親愛。 官至光祿大夫，永元初卒。
When the founding sovereign held the eastern palace, court and countryside paid him homage; Wanzhi still wore clogs and came straight to his mat. The founding sovereign picked up the clogs to look at them—worn black, toes slanted and sharp, the vamp split and patched with straw. He asked: 「How many years have you had these clogs? 」Wanzhi said: 「When I first took office as northern-campaign staff aide I bought them; I have worn them twenty years, and this poor fellow never managed to replace them. 」The founding sovereign was pleased with him and brought him in as fierce-cavalry staff adviser. When the hegemon's office first opened, guests crowded in like wheel spokes; the founding sovereign took care whom he admitted. Wanzhi and Ren Xia of Le'an alike were famed for the grace of their table talk and were equally favored. Xia, styled Jingyuan, loved learning and had a sense of duty; he had long been the founding sovereign's companion, and Chu Yuan and Wang Jian alike held him dear. He reached grandee for splendid happiness and died at the opening of Yongyuan.
6
玩之遷驍騎將軍，黃門郎，領本部中正。 上患民間欺巧，及卽位，敕玩之與驍騎將軍傅堅意檢定簿籍。 建元二年，詔朝臣曰：「黃籍，民之大紀，國之治端。 自頃氓俗巧偽，爲日已久，至乃竊注爵位，盜易年月，增損三狀，貿襲萬端。 或戶存而文書已絕，或人在而反託死叛，停私而云隸役，身強而稱六疾。 編戶齊家，少不如此。 皆政之巨蠹，教之深疵。 比年雖卻籍改書，終無得實。 若約之以刑，則民偽已遠； 若綏之以德，則勝殘未易。 卿諸賢竝深明治體，可各獻嘉謀，以振澆化。 又臺坊訪募，此制不近，優刻素定，閒劇有常。 宋元嘉以前，茲役恆滿，大明以後，樂補稍絕。 或緣寇難頻起，軍蔭易多，民庶從利，投坊者寡。 然國經未變，朝紀恆存，相揆而言，隆替何速！ 此急病之洪源，晷景之切患，以何科算，革斯弊邪？」 玩之上表曰：「宋元嘉二十七年八條取人，孝建元年書籍，衆巧之所始也。 元嘉中，故光祿大夫傅隆，年出七十，猶手自書籍，躬加隱校。 隆何必有石建之愼，高柔之勤，蓋以世屬休明，服道脩身故耳。 今陛下日旰忘食，未明求衣，詔逮幽愚，謹陳妄說。 古之共治天下，唯良二千石，今欲求治取正，其在勤明令長。 凡受籍，縣不加檢合，但封送州，州檢得實，方卻歸縣。 吏貪其賂，民肆其姦，姦彌深而卻彌多，賂愈厚而答愈緩。 自泰始三年至元徽四年，揚州等九郡四號黃籍，共卻七萬一千餘戶。 于今十一年矣，而所正者猶未四萬。 神州奧區，尚或如此，江、湘諸部，倍不可念。 愚謂宜以元嘉二十七年籍爲正。 民惰法旣久，今建元元年書籍，宜更立明科，一聽首悔，迷而不反，依制必戮。 使官長審自檢校，必令明洗，然後上州，永以爲正。 若有虛昧，州縣同咎。 今戶口多少，不減元嘉，而板籍頓闕，弊亦有以。 自孝建已來，入勳者衆，其中操干戈衛社稷者，三分殆無一焉。 勳簿所領而詐注辭籍，浮遊世要，非官長所拘錄，復爲不少。 尋蘇峻平後，庾亮就溫嶠求勳簿，而嶠不與，以爲陶侃所上，多非實錄。 尋物之懷私，無世不有，宋末落紐，此巧尤多。 又將位旣衆，舉卹爲祿，實潤甚微，而人領數萬，如此二條，天下合役之身，已據其太半矣。 又有改注籍狀。 詐入仕流，昔爲人役者，今反役人。 又生不長髮，便謂爲道人，塡街溢巷，是處皆然。 或抱子幷居，竟不編戶，遷徙去來，公違土斷。 屬役無滿，流亡不歸，寧喪終身，疾病長臥。 法令必行，自然競反。 又四鎮戍將，有名寡實，隨才部曲，無辨勇懦，署位借給，巫媼比肩，彌山滿海，皆是私役。 行貨求位，其塗甚易，募役卑劇，何爲投補？ 坊吏之所以盡，百里之所以單也。 今但使募制明信，滿復有期，民無逕路，則坊可立表而盈矣。 爲治不患無制，患在不行，不患不行，患在不久。」 上省玩之表，納之。 乃別置板籍官，置令史，限人一日得數巧，以防懈怠。 於是貨賂因緣，籍注雖正，猶強推卻，以充程限。 至世祖永明八年，謫巧者戍緣淮各十年，百姓怨望。 世祖乃詔曰：「夫簡貴賤，辨尊卑者，莫不取信於黃籍。 豈有假器濫榮，竊服非分。 故所以澄革虛妄，式允舊章。 然釁起前代，過非近失，旣往之諐，不足追咎。 自宋昇明以前，皆聽復注。 其有謫役邊疆，各許還本。 此後有犯，嚴加翦治。」
Wanzhi was moved to rampant-cavalry general, gentleman of the yellow gate, and concurrently led his home-district rectifier. The emperor worried over popular fraud and trickery; upon his accession he ordered Wanzhi and rampant-cavalry general Fu Jianyi to examine and fix the registers. In the second year of Jianyuan he issued an edict the court ministers: 「The yellow register is the people's great charter and the state's hinge of order. Of late the common folk's cunning fraud has gone on long indeed—to the point of secretly entering noble ranks, stealing and altering birth years, adding or subtracting the three registers, and trading false entries by the myriad. Some households still exist while their documents are already dead; some men still live while they are recorded as dead or defected; they halt private service yet claim corvée duty; their bodies are strong yet they plead the six illnesses. Among registered households and ordered families, few are not like this. All are great worms in government and deep flaws in teaching. In recent years, though registers were rejected and books altered, in the end the truth was never obtained. If we bind them with punishments, the people's fraud is already far gone; if we soothe them with virtue, transforming the cruel is not easy. You worthies alike are deeply versed in the principles of rule—each may offer a fine plan to rectify shallow customs. Again, bureau-yard recruitment: this system is not near at hand; preferential carve-outs were long since fixed, and light and heavy duties have their constants. Before Liu Song's Yuanjia, this service was always full; after the Daming era, glad substitution gradually ceased. Sometimes because raids and troubles arose often, military shelter was easily multiplied; the people followed profit, and those who entered the yards were few. Yet the state's warp was unchanged and the court's warp still stood—measure them against each other: how swift the rise and fall! This is the great source of acute disease, the pressing ailment of the sundial's shadow—by what statute shall we reckon it and reform this abuse? 」Wanzhi memorialized: 「The Yuanjia year 27 eight-article levy of men and the Xiaojian year 1 book-register were where the crowd's tricks began. In the Yuanjia era the late grandee for splendid happiness Fu Long, though past seventy, still copied the registers by hand and personally added hidden verification. Did Long need Shi Jian's caution or Gao Rou's diligence? It was only that the age belonged to radiant peace and he cultivated the Way and his person. Now Your Majesty, the sun at the zenith yet forgetting food, seeks his robes before dawn—the edict reaches even this obscure fool; I venture my reckless counsel. In antiquity to govern the realm together, only good two-thousand-dan administrators mattered; now if we seek order and take the straight measure, it lies in diligent, clear magistrates. Whenever registers were received, the county did not add verification but only sealed and sent them to the province; only when the province's check found truth were they returned to the county. Clerks greedily took bribes, the people freely practiced fraud—the deeper the fraud, the more rejections; the thicker the bribe, the slower the reply. From Taishi year 3 to Yuanhui year 4, in nine commanderies of Yang province four rounds of yellow-register rejections totaled more than seventy-one thousand households. Eleven years have passed since, yet those corrected still fall short of forty thousand. In the sacred heartland it is still so; the Jiang and Xiang regions are doubly beyond reckoning. I humbly hold that the Yuanjia year 27 register should be taken as standard. The people have grown lax toward the law for many years; for the Jianyuan year-one register we should lay down clear statutes anew, grant a general amnesty to all who confess first, and execute without mercy those who persist in fraud. Magistrates should conduct their own thorough audits, scrub every entry clean, and only then forward the registers to the prefecture — and let that stand as the permanent rule. Any remaining concealment or falsification shall be punished alike in prefecture and county. Household counts today are no lower than under Yuanjia, yet the board registers have collapsed — and there are clear reasons for the rot. Since the Xiaojian era the merit rolls have swollen with names, yet of those entered scarcely one in three ever bore arms in defense of the realm. Men claim merit-book privileges while their household entries are forged, drift among the great families of the day, and escape magistrates' scrutiny — and their number is not small. After Su Jun's defeat, Yu Liang asked Wen Qiao for the merit rolls, but Qiao refused, saying Tao Kan's submissions were largely fictitious. Self-seeking has never been absent in any age; but when Song neared its fall the bonds loosened, and this sort of fraud flourished as never before. Generalships have multiplied, men claim mourning stipends as salary though the real gain is trifling, and thousands draw pay under each title — these two abuses alone already consume more than half the empire's conscriptable manpower. Registers are also altered wholesale. Men fraudulently enter the official class: yesterday they served others; today they command servants of their own. Men who never grow hair declare themselves Daoist priests and fill every street and alley — the same fraud in every district. Some live with wives and children yet never register a household, roaming from place to place in open defiance of the land-allotment laws. Conscripts fail to report for service; exiles refuse to return; some would rather die abroad than obey summons, others plead chronic illness and never rise. Enforce the statutes in earnest and men will rush to comply of their own accord. The four frontier garrison generals too keep grand titles and empty ranks, enroll retainers without testing courage or cowardice, lend out offices on paper, and surround themselves with shamans and sorceresses mountain-high and sea-wide — all private servants, every one. A bribe buys a commission with ease, while conscript duty is mean and brutal — why would anyone volunteer to fill the ward rolls? That is why ward clerks are run to exhaustion and districts lie stripped of men. Make the conscription system transparent and binding, set a fixed term for fulfillment and release, and close every loophole — then the wards can post full rosters once more. Good government is not undone by want of rules but by failure to enforce them; not by failure to enforce them but by failure to persevere. 」The emperor reviewed Wanzhi's memorial and adopted it. A separate board-register office was established with clerks, each required to expose a set quota of frauds per day lest they grow slack. Bribes soon bought exemption; even honest entries were forced back into dispute so clerks could meet their daily quota. In the eighth year of Yongming, Emperor Wu banished registry fraudsters to garrison the Huai frontier for ten years apiece, and popular resentment boiled over. The emperor then decreed: 「Rank and station rest on the yellow register; how could men borrow titles, abuse honors, and usurp rank beyond their due? We purge the false and restore the old statutes. Yet these abuses arose in earlier reigns, not in yesterday's lapse; past wrongs shall not be punished retroactively. All who registered before Song's Shengming era may re-enter the rolls. Those banished to frontier labor may each return home. Hereafter, offenders shall be punished without leniency.」
7
玩之以久宦衰疾，上表告退，曰：「臣聞負重致遠，力窮則困，竭誠事君，智盡必傾，理固然也。 四十仕進，七十懸車，壯則驅馳，老宜休息。 臣生於晉，長於宋，老於齊，世歷三代，朝市再易。 臣以宋元嘉二十八年爲王府行佐，於茲三十年矣。 自頃以來，衰耗漸篤。 爲性不懶惰，而倦怠頓來。 耳目本聰明，而聾矒轉積。 腳不支身，喘不緒氣。 景刻不推，朝晝不保。 大功兄弟，四十有二人，通塞壽夭，唯臣獨存。 朝露末光，寧堪長久！ 且知足不辱，臣已足矣。 稟命饑寒，不求富貴，銅山由命，臣何恨焉，久甘之矣。 直道事人，不免縲紲，屬遇聖明，知其非罪，臣之幸厚矣。 授命於道消之晨，效節於百揆之日，臣忠之效也。 降慶於文明之初，荷澤於天飛之運，臣命之偶也。 不謀巧宦而位至九卿，德慙李陵而忝居門下。 堯舜無窮，臣亦通矣。 年過六十，不爲夭矣。 榮期之三樂，東平之一善，臣俱盡之矣。 經昏踐亂，涉艱履危，仰聖德以求全，憑賢輔以申節，未嘗厭屈於勳權，畏溺於狐鼠，臣立身之本，於斯不虧。 在其壯也，當官不讓； 及其衰矣，豪露靡因。 伏願慈臨，賜臣骸骨。 非爲希高慕古，愛好泉林，特以丁運孤貧，養禮多闕，風樹之感，夙自纏心。 庶天假其辰，得二三年間，掃守丘墓，以此歸全，始終之報遂矣。」 上省玩之表，許之。
Wanzhi, worn out by long service and illness, asked to retire, writing: 「I have heard that a man who bears a heavy load on a long road is trapped when his strength fails; a man who serves his lord with all his heart must lean when his wit is spent — such is the way of things. At forty one takes office; at seventy one hangs up the carriage — youth may drive on, age should rest. I was born under Jin, grew up under Song, and grow old under Qi — three dynasties in one lifetime, two overturnings of throne and market. In Song's twenty-eighth year of Yuanjia I became staff aide to a princely household — thirty years have passed since. Of late my decline has grown steep. I am not lazy by nature, yet exhaustion has seized me all at once. My ears and eyes were once sharp; now deafness and dim sight mount day by day. My legs will not bear me; my breath comes in broken gasps. The sundial's shadow scarcely moves; I cannot count on seeing another noon. Of forty-two brothers who shared the deepest mourning bond, through fortune and ruin, long life and early death, I alone remain. I am morning dew at its last gleam — how could I endure? And he who knows when he has enough is not disgraced — I have had enough. Heaven gave me hunger and cold, not wealth; whether fate grants a copper mountain or not, I bear no grudge — I have been content long since. Serving others on the straight path I could not escape the halter; under a sage reign the court knew my innocence — my fortune was already great. I took office as the Jin Way faded, and served faithfully when the hundred offices were first assembled — that was my loyalty fulfilled. Blessing came at the opening of Wenming; I bore favor in the fortune of the dynasty's rise — that was my lot in fate. Without scheming for preferment I rose to the nine ministers; in virtue I am no Li Ling, yet I hold a post at the gate. Yao and Shun's blessings know no end — and I too have passed through them. Past sixty — that is no early death. Rongqi's three joys and Dongping's one good deed — I have attained them all. I passed through dark reigns and trampled chaos, forded hardship and walked on danger; I looked up to sage virtue to keep myself whole and leaned on worthy aides to hold my station. I never tired of bending before merit and power, never feared drowning among foxes and rats—yet the ground I stand on has not given way. In my strength I would not yield an office; in my waning years, swagger and show have nothing left to lean on. I bow low and beg your kindness to look upon me and grant me my bones. Not that I court loftiness or pine for forests and springs—only that fate left me solitary and poor, my rites of nurture much broken; the wind-and-tree grief has gnawed at me since long ago. May Heaven lend me a span—two or three years—to sweep and keep my parents' mound; thus I may return whole, and my debt from first to last be paid. 」The throne read Wan's memorial and granted it.
8
玩之於人物好臧否。 宋末，王儉舉員外郎孔襜使虜，玩之言論不相饒，襜、儉竝恨之。 至是玩之東歸，儉不出送，朝廷無祖餞者。 玩之歸家起大宅，數年卒。 其後員外郎孔瑄就儉求會稽五官，儉方盥，投皂莢於地，曰：「卿鄉俗惡。 虞玩之至死煩人。」
Wan was keen to judge men, for good or ill. Late in Song, Wang Jian recommended Outer Court Gentleman Kong Can as envoy to the north; Wan's remarks showed no mercy, and Can and Jian both hated him for it. When Wan went home east, Jian would not come out to see him off; the court held no farewell for him. Wan raised a great house at home and died within a few years. Later Outer Court Gentleman Kong Xuan asked Jian for the Five Offices in Kuaiji; Jian was at his washstand and flung his soap pod to the floor, saying: 「The ways of your homeland are foul. Yu Wanzhi was a pest to the very end.」
10
同郡孔襜
Same commandery: Kong Can
12
孔襜字世遠，玩之同郡人，好典故學。 與王儉至交。 昇明中爲齊臺尚書儀曹郎，太祖謂之曰：「卿儀曹才也。」 儉爲宰相，襜嘗謀議帷幕，每及選用，頗失鄉曲情。 儉從容啓上曰：「臣有孔襜，猶陛下之有臣也。」 永明中爲太子家令，卒。 時人呼孔襜、何憲爲王儉三公。
Kong Can, styled Shiyuan, was Wan's fellow townsman and doted on statutes and precedent. He and Wang Jian were fast friends. In Shengming he served the Qi headquarters as Director of Ceremonial in the Secretariat; the Grand Ancestor told him: 「You are Ceremonies Office talent.」 When Jian was chief minister, Can often counseled behind the curtain; whenever appointments arose, he often slighted hometown ties. Jian calmly told the throne: 「Your servant has Kong Can, as Your Majesty has your servant.」 In Yongming he was Heir Apparent Household Steward; he died. Men of the day called Kong Can and He Xian the three dukes at Wang Jian's side.
14
附何憲
Appended: He Xian
15
憲字子思，廬江人也。 以強學見知。 母鎮北長史王敷之女，聰明有訓識。 憲爲本州別駕。 永明十年，使于虜中。
He Xian, styled Zisi, was of Lujiang. He was known for forceful, wide learning. His mother was a daughter of Pacification Army Chief Clerk Wang Fu—bright, and trained in judgment. He held Vice Prefect of his home province. In the tenth year of Yongming he was sent as envoy among the barbarians.
16
劉休
Liu Xiu
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劉休字弘明，沛郡相人也。 祖徽，正員郎。 父超，九眞太守。
Liu Xiu, styled Hongming, came from Xiang in Pei commandery. His grandfather Hui was Regular Attendant. His father Chao was Administrator of Jiuzhen.
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休初爲駙馬都尉，奉朝請，宋明帝湘東國常侍。 好學諳憶，不爲帝所知。 襲祖封南鄉侯。 友人陳郡謝儼同丞相義宣反，休坐匿之，被繫尚方七年，孝武崩，乃得出。 隨弟欽爲羅縣。 泰始初，諸州反，休筮明帝當勝，靜處不預異謀。 數年，還投吳喜爲輔師府錄事參軍。 喜稱其才，進之明帝，得在左右。 板桂陽王征北參軍。
Xiu first served as Commandant of the Horse Fleet, Court Attendant for Imperial Audiences, and regular attendant in Prince Xiangdong's establishment under Emperor Ming of Song. He loved learning and had a retentive memory, yet the emperor did not know him. He inherited his grandfather's fief as Marquis of Nanxiang. His friend Xie Yan of Chen joined Chancellor Yixuan's rebellion; Xiu was convicted of hiding him and held in the Imperial Workshop seven years, coming out only when Emperor Xiaowu died. He followed his younger brother Qin to Luo county. In early Taishi, when the provinces rose in revolt, Xiu divined that Emperor Ming would prevail and kept apart, taking no part in the plotters. After several years he returned and entered Wu Xi's staff as recorder in the Supporting Army headquarters. Xi praised his gifts and recommended him to Emperor Ming; he won a place at the sovereign's side. He was commissioned Northern Campaign aide to the Prince of Guiyang.
19
帝頗有好尚，尤嗜飲食。 休多藝能，爰及鼎味，問無不解。 後宮孕者，帝使筮其男女，無不如占。 帝素肥，痿不能御內，諸王妓妾懷孕，使密獻入宮，生子之後，閉其母於幽房，前後十數。 順帝，桂陽王休範子也。 蒼梧王亦非帝子，陳太妃先爲李道兒妾，故蒼梧微行，嘗自稱爲李郎焉。 帝憎婦人妒，尚書右丞榮彥遠以善棊見親，婦妒傷其面，帝曰：「我爲卿治之，何如？」 彥遠率爾應曰：「聽聖旨。」 其夕，遂賜藥殺其妻。 休妻王氏亦妒，帝聞之，賜休妾，敕與王氏二十杖。 令休於宅後開小店，使王氏親賣掃帚皂莢以辱之。 其見親如此。
The emperor had many pursuits, above all food and drink. Xiu had many arts, down to cauldrons and flavors—ask him anything, and he answered. When women of the rear palace were with child, the emperor had him divine boy or girl; he never missed. The emperor was by nature stout and impotent, unable to attend the inner quarters; when princes' singing girls and concubines grew with child, he had them smuggled into the palace, and after the birth walled the mothers in secluded rooms—a dozen such cases and more. Emperor Shun was the son of the Prince of Guiyang, Xiu Fan. The Prince of Cangwu was also not the emperor's son: Grand Consort Chen had first been Li Dao'er's concubine, and so the Prince of Cangwu, in private dress, once called himself Lord Li. The emperor detested jealous wives; Vice Director of the Secretariat Rong Yanyuan was prized for skill at chess, and his wife's jealousy marred his face. The emperor said: 「I shall cure that for you—how would you like it? 」Yan Yuan answered without thinking, 「As Your Majesty wills.」 」That very night the emperor sent poison and had his wife killed. Xiu's wife Wang was jealous too; when the emperor heard, he gave Xiu a concubine and ordered Wang beaten twenty times. He had Xiu open a little shop behind the house and made Wang sell brooms and soap pods herself, to shame her. That was how close he stood to the throne.
20
尋除員外郎，領輔國司馬、中書通事舍人，帶南城令。 除尚書中兵郎，給事中，舍人、令如故。 除安成王撫軍參軍，出爲都水使者，南康相。 休善言治體，而在郡無異績。 還爲正員郎，邵陵王南中郎錄事、建威將軍、新蔡太守。 隨轉左軍府，加鎮蠻護軍，將軍、太守如故。 遷諮議，司馬，進寧朔將軍，鎮蠻護軍、太守如故。 徙尋陽太守，將軍、司馬如故。 後遷長史。 沈攸之難，世祖挾晉熙邵陵二王軍府鎮盆城，休承奉軍費，事寧，仍遷邵陵王安南長史，除黃門郎，寧朔將軍，前軍長史，齊臺散騎常侍。
Before long he was made an aide, with concurrent posts as Pacification Army aide, secretariat communication attendant, and intendant of Southern City. He was made secretariat central troops officer and attendant at the bureau; his attendant and intendant posts were unchanged. He was made staff officer on the Prince of Ancheng's pacification army, then sent out as commissioner of waters and chancellor of Nankang. Xiu talked fluently about how states should be run, yet in office he left no mark worth naming. He came back as a regular officer, recorder on the Prince of Shaoling's southern staff, Jianwei general, and grand administrator of Xincai. He moved with the left army headquarters and was given the added title protector-general for pacifying the barbarians; his generalship and grand administration stayed the same. He was promoted to adviser and military aide and advanced to Ningshuo general; his barbarian-pacification and grand administration posts were unchanged. He was transferred to grand administrator of Xunyang; his generalship and military aide post remained. Later he was made chief aide. When Shen Youzhi rose, Emperor Xiaowu took the joint army headquarters of the princes at Pencheng; Xiu handled military funds. After peace returned he became the Prince of Shaoling's pacification-of-the-south chief aide, then yellow gate officer, Ningshuo general, front-army chief aide, and Qi platform regular attendant.
21
建元初，爲御史中丞。 頃之，休啓曰：「臣自塵榮南憲，星晷交春，謬聞弱奏，劾無空月。 豈唯不能使蕃邦斂手，豪右屏氣，乃遣聽已暴之辜，替網觸羅之鳥。 而猶以此，里失鄉黨之和，朝絕比肩之顧，覆背騰其喉唇，武人厲其觜吻。 怨之所聚，勢難久堪； 議之所裁，孰懷其允？ 臣竊尋宋世載祀六十，歷職斯任者五十有三，校其年月，不過盈歲。 于臣叨濫，宜請骸骨。」 上曰：「卿職當國司，以威裁爲本，而忽憚世誚。 卿便應辭之事始，何可獲惰晚節邪？」
When Jianyuan began he was made censor-in-chief. Soon after, Xiu memorialized: 「Since I took this southern censor's seat, a year has turned; feeble denunciations were credited, and not one month passed without an impeachment. I could not even make the borderlands stand down or the great houses quail; I only turned loose men who heard out crimes already plain, and birds that had touched the net in someone else's stead. Even so, villages lost the peace of the lane, the court lost the glance of equals; back-turners filled the air with accusation, and soldiers sharpened their tongues for attack. Where hatred pools, no man can stand it for long; where judgment falls, who believes it just? I have looked back through the Song's sixty reign-years: fifty-three men held this post, and none of them, by the count of years and months, lasted more than one. For my own presumption, I ought to ask leave to go home. 」The emperor said, 「Your post is the state's inspector; its root is awe and judgment—yet now you flinch at the world's mockery. You should have quit when you began. How can you coast into a soft old age?」
22
宋末，上造指南車，以休有思理，使與王僧虔對共監試。 元嘉世，羊欣受子敬正隸法，世共宗之，右軍之體微古，不復見貴。 休始好此法，至今此體大行。 四年，出爲豫章內史，加冠軍將軍。 卒，年五十四。
Late in Song the throne built a south-pointing carriage; finding Xiu thoughtful, the emperor set him with Wang Sengqian to oversee the test together. Under Yuankang, Yang Xin took up Zi Jing's standard clerical hand and the world bowed to it; the Right General's manner, a little old-fashioned, was no longer valued. Xiu was the first to favor that school; even now it rules the field. In the fourth year he went out as intendant of Yuzhang, with champion general added to his name. He died at fifty-four.
23
沈沖
Shen Chong
24
沈沖字景綽，吳興武康人也。 祖宣，新安太守。 父懷文，廣陵太守。 沖解褐衛尉五官，轉揚州主簿。 宋大明中，懷文有文名，沖亦涉獵文義。 轉西陽王撫軍法曹參軍，尋舉秀才，還爲撫軍正佐，兼記室。 及懷文得罪被繫，沖兄弟行謝，情哀貌苦，見者傷之。 柳元景欲救懷文，言于帝曰：「沈懷文三子塗炭不可見，願陛下速正其罪。」 帝竟殺之。 元景爲之嘆息。 沖兄弟以此知名。
Shen Chong, styled Jingchuo, came from Wukang in Wuxing commandery. His grandfather Xuan had been grand administrator of Xin'an. His father Huaiwen had been grand administrator of Guangling. Chong entered service as five officials under the guard commandant, then became Yangzhou chief clerk. In Song's Daming reign Huaiwen won a name for letters, and Chong too dipped into literary studies. He became law-cao staff officer on the Prince of Xiyang's pacification army, was soon nominated as xiucai, and came back as the army's principal aide, doubling as secretary. When Huaiwen fell into guilt and was bound, Chong and his brothers went to beg mercy, grief in their voices and ruin on their faces, and all who saw them wept. Liu Yuanjing tried to save Huaiwen and told the emperor, 「Shen Huaiwen's three sons are in the fire—no eye can bear them; let Your Majesty settle his case at once. 」The emperor killed him all the same. Yuanjing mourned it in silence. Chong and his brothers won their fame from that hour.
25
泰始初，以母老家貧，啓明帝得爲永興令。 遷巴陵王主簿，除尚書殿中郎。 元徽中，出爲晉安王安西記室參軍，還爲司徒主簿，山陰令，轉司徒錄事參軍。 世祖爲江州，沖爲征虜長史、尋陽太守，甚見委遇。 世祖還都，使沖行府、州事。 遷領軍長史。 建元初，轉驃騎諮議參軍，領錄事，未及到任，轉黃門郎，仍遷太子中庶子。 世祖在東宮，待以恩舊。 及卽位，轉御史中丞，侍中。 冠軍廬陵王子卿爲郢州，以沖爲長史、輔國將軍、江夏內史，行府、州事。 隨府轉爲安西長史、南郡內史，行荊州府事，將軍如故。 永明四年，徵爲五兵尚書。
When Taishi began, his mother was old and his house was poor; he petitioned Emperor Ming and was given Yongxing magistrate. He became the Prince of Baling's chief clerk, then secretariat hall attendant. Under Yuankang he went out as secretary on the Prince of Jin'an's pacification of the west, came back as Situ chief clerk and magistrate of Shanyin, then became Situ recorder. While Emperor Xiaowu held Jiangzhou, Chong served as pacification-of-the-distant-foe chief aide and grand administrator of Xunyang, and was deeply trusted. When Xiaowu came back to the capital he left Chong to run headquarters and provincial business. He was promoted to chief aide of the army leader. When Jianyuan opened he was made rapid-cavalry adviser and put in charge of recording; before he took up the post he was made yellow gate officer, then crown prince central attendant. While Xiaowu was still heir, he treated Chong as an old friend of the house. Once enthroned, the emperor moved Chong to censor-in-chief and attendant-in-ordinary. When the crown prince's son of Luling held Yingzhou, Chong served as his chief clerk, assisting-state general, and Jiangxia interior minister, running headquarters and provincial business. He followed the headquarters west, became Anxi chief clerk and Nan commandery interior minister, and ran Jingzhou headquarters affairs; his general's title was unchanged. In Yongming's fourth year he was recalled as minister of the five arms.
26
沖與兄淡、淵名譽有優劣，世號爲「𦝫鼓兄弟。」 淡、淵竝歷御史中丞，兄弟三人皆爲司直，晉、宋未有也。 中丞案裁之職，被憲者多結怨。 淵永明中彈吳興太守袁彖，建武中彖從弟昂爲中丞，到官數日，奏彈淵子繢父在僦白幰車，免官禁錮。 沖母孔氏在東，鄰家失火，疑爲人所焚爇，大呼曰：「我三兒皆作御史中丞，與人豈有善者！」
Chong and his elder brothers Dan and Yuan won unequal renown; the age nicknamed them 「the Leather-Drum Brothers. 」Dan and Yuan had both been censor-in-chief; never under Jin or Song had three brothers all worn the straight investigator's seal. The censor's bench cuts deep: most men the statutes touched nursed a grudge afterward. In Yongming, Yuan impeached Yuan Yi, grand administrator of Wu; in Jianwu, Yi's cousin's son Ang took the censor's seat and, within days, struck at Yuan's son Hui for letting his father travel in a hired white-canopy carriage—Hui was cashiered and barred from office. Chong's mother Kong lived in the east. When a neighbor's house burned she cried arson: 「All three of my sons have been censor-in-chief—do you think this family ever did anyone a kindness?」
27
世祖方欲任沖，沖西下至南州而卒。 時年五十一。 上甚惜之。 喪還，詔曰：「沖喪柩至止，惻愴良深。 以其昔在南蕃，特兼憫悼。」 車駕出臨沖喪，詔曰：「沖貞詳閒理，志局淹正。 誠著蕃朝，績彰出守。 不幸早世，朕甚悼之。」 追贈太常，諡曰恭子。
The emperor was on the verge of giving Chong greater trust when Chong went west toward the southern provinces and died on the journey. He was fifty-one. The throne mourned him deeply. When the coffin came home, an edict ran: 「Now that Chong's bier has halted, my grief cuts deep. He once held the southern marches, and I grant him a further measure of pity.」 The emperor went in person to Chong's mourning; the edict said: 「Chong was upright and exact in principle, his vision wide and his bearing straight. Loyalty marked him in the southern court; achievement marked him in posts beyond the capital. To lose him young is bitter grief, and I mourn him deeply.」 He was posthumously made grand minister of ceremonies, with the posthumous name Gongzi, the Reverent.
28
庾杲之
Yu Gaozhi
29
庾杲之字景行，新野人也。 祖深之，雍州刺史。 父粲，司空參軍。
Yu Gaozhi, styled Jingxing, came from Xinye. His grandfather Shenzhi had been governor of Yong. His father Can had served as an aide in the ministry of works.
30
杲之少而貞立，學涉文義。 起家奉朝請，巴陵王-{征}-西參軍。 郢州舉秀才，除晉熙王鎮西外兵參軍，世祖徵虜府功曹，尚書駕部郎。 清貧自業，食唯有韭菹、𤅢韭、生韭雜菜，或戲之曰：「誰謂庾郎貧，食鮭常有二十七種。」 言三九也。 仍爲世祖撫軍中軍記室，遷員外散騎常侍，正員郎，遷中書郎，領荊、湘二州中正。
From youth Gaozhi stood upright and unbending, and he ranged through letters and moral argument. He entered service as a court gentleman and staff officer on the Prince of Baling's west-expedition army. Yingzhou nominated him as xiucai; he became outer military aide on the Prince of Jinxi's army-protector staff, merit recorder on the heir apparent's pacification headquarters, and gentleman of the chariot-and-horse bureau. He lived in poverty by choice; his table held only chive pickle, vinegared chives, raw chives, and humble greens. A wit said: 「Who calls Minister Yu poor? When he dines on salmon he still has twenty-seven kinds. 」—three dishes, three nines. He became recorder on the heir apparent's pacification and central armies, rose to supernumerary regular cavalier attendant, then full attendant, was moved to secretariat gentleman, and held the rectifier posts for Jing and Xiang.
31
轉尚書左丞，常侍、領中正如故。 出爲王儉衛軍長史，時人呼入儉府爲芙蓉池。 儉謂人曰：「昔袁公作衛軍，欲用我爲長史，雖不獲就，要是意向如此。 今亦應須如我輩人也。」 乃用杲之。 遷黃門郎，兼御史中丞，尋卽正。
He was made left vice director of the ministry of works while keeping his regular attendant and rectifier posts. He went out as chief clerk on Wang Jian's guard-army staff; contemporaries called service in Jian's house 「the Lotus Pond.」 Jian told others: 「When Yuan Gong ran the guard army he wanted me as chief clerk; I never took the post, but the wish was plain. Now he ought to have men of our stamp again.」 So Gaozhi was chosen. He was made gentleman at the Yellow Gate and acting censor-in-chief; before long the censorate was his in full.
32
杲之風範和潤，善音吐。 世祖令對虜使，兼侍中。 上每嘆其風器之美，王儉在座，曰：「杲之爲蟬冕所照，更生風采。 陛下故當與其卽眞。」 帝意未用也。 永明中，諸王年少，不得妄與人接，敕杲之與濟陽江淹五日一詣諸王，使申游好。 尋又遷廬陵王中軍長史，遷尚書吏部郎，參大選事。 轉太子右衛率，加通直常侍。
Gaozhi's manner was mild and harmonious, and his speech was beautifully clear. The heir apparent had him receive the barbarian envoys, with added rank as attendant-in-ordinary. The emperor often sighed over the grace of his person; Wang Jian, seated beside him, said: 「Set Gaozhi's cicada crown under the throne's radiance and his bearing only grows brighter. Your Majesty should give him the full post at last.」 The emperor had not yet made up his mind. In Yongming the princes were still young and might not receive visitors freely; the court ordered Gaozhi and Jiang Yan of Jiyang to call on them every five days and keep cordial ties alive. Soon he became chief clerk on the Prince of Luling's central army, then director of the ministry of personnel, sharing charge of the great selection. He was made right commander of the heir apparent's guard, with added rank as unimpeded regular attendant.
33
九年，卒。 臨終上表曰：「臣昨夜及旦，更增氣疾，自省綿痼，頃刻危殆，無容復臥。 任居隆顯，玷塵明世，乞解所忝，待終私庭。 臣以凡庸，謬徼昌運，獎擢之厚，千載難逢。 且年逾知命，志事榮顯，脩夭有分，無所厝言。 若天鑒微誠，暫借餘歷，傾宗殞元，陳力無遠。 仰違庭闕，伏枕鯁戀。 送貂蟬及章。」 詔不許。 杲之歷在上府，以文學見遇。 上造崇虛館，使爲碑文。 卒時年五十一，上甚惜之。 諡曰貞子。
In the ninth year he died. On his deathbed he submitted a memorial: 「Last night and this dawn my breath-sickness worsened; I know this chronic ailment, and moment by moment I edge toward death—I can no longer keep to my couch. I hold a lofty, glaring post and soil a bright reign; I beg release from my offices and leave to meet the end in my own hall. I am a common mediocrity who stumbled into a prosperous age; the favor the throne has shown me comes once in a thousand years. I have already passed the age of knowing Heaven's mandate; I sought honor and a shining name; life and death have their measure, and I have no further plea. If Heaven reads my slight sincerity and grants me a little more time, I would spend house and kin and lay down my life, serving with all my strength and never at a distance. I look up and leave the palace gate behind; pillow-bound, my throat knots with longing. He sent in his cicada crown and seal of office. 」The throne would not allow it. Gaozhi had risen through the great households and won notice for letters. The emperor raised the Chongxu Pavilion and set him to write the stone. He died at fifty-one, and the throne mourned him deeply. His posthumous title was Zhenzi, Master Upright.
34
時會稽孔廣，字淹源，亦美姿制。 歷州治中，卒。
About then Kong Guang of Kuaiji, styled Yanyuan, was likewise praised for his looks. He held a provincial chief clerkship and died.
35
王諶
Wang Chen
36
王諶字仲和，東海郯人也。 祖萬慶，員外常侍。 父元閔，護軍司馬。
Wang Chen, styled Zhonghe, came from Tan in Donghai. His grandfather Wanging served as outer regular attendant. His father Yuanmin was marshal of the guard army.
37
宋大明中，沈曇慶爲徐州，辟諶爲迎主簿，又爲州迎從事，湘東王國常侍，鎮北行參軍，州、國、府主皆宋明帝也。 除義陽王征北行參軍，又除度明帝衛軍府。 諶有學義，累爲帝蕃佐。 及卽位，除司徒參軍，帶薛令，兼中書舍人，見親遇，常在左右。 諶見帝所行慘僻，屢諫不從，請退，坐此見怒，繫尚方，少日出。 尋除尚書殿中郎，徙記室參軍，正員郎，薛令如故。 遷兼中書郎，晉平王驃騎板諮議，出爲湘東太守，秩中二千石，未拜，坐公事免。 復爲桂陽王驃騎府諮議參軍，中書郎。
Under Song's Daming reign Shen Tanqing held Xuzhou and called Chen in as reception chief clerk, then reception staff officer, constant attendant in the Prince of Xiangdong's household, and northern-campaign staff officer—province, kingdom, and princely seat alike belonged to Emperor Ming of Song. He became staff officer on the Prince of Yiyang's northern campaign, then entered Emperor Ming's guard-army staff. Chen was learned and upright and for years was the emperor's man in the princely establishment. When Ming ascended, Chen was made a secretariat staff officer with concurrent magistrate of Xue and secretariat gentleman, kept close and favored at the throne's side. Chen watched the emperor grow cruel and strange; he pleaded again and again and was not heard, asked to leave office, and for it was thrown into the Imperial Workshop for a few days before release. Soon he was hall attendant in the Masters of Writing, then recorder, regular officer, still magistrate of Xue. He rose to concurrent secretariat officer and staff adviser on the Prince of Jinping's rapid-cavalry command, then was sent out as grand administrator of Xiangdong at two-thousand-shi rank; before he took the seal he was removed for an official fault. He returned as staff adviser on the Prince of Guiyang's rapid-cavalry staff and as secretariat officer.
38
明帝好圍棊，置圍棊州邑，以建安王休仁爲圍棊州都大中正，諶與太子右率沈勃、尚書水部郎庾珪之、彭城丞王抗四人爲小中正，朝請褚思庄、傅楚之爲清定訪問。
Ming loved weiqi and set up a weiqi province with its own ranks; he named the Prince of Jian'an, Xiuren, grand rectifier of Weiqi Province, with Chen, the crown prince's right leader Shen Bo, waters-section officer Yu Guizhi, and Pengcheng aide Wang Kang as lesser rectifiers, and court gentlemen Chu Sizhuang and Fu Chuzhi to settle disputes.
39
出爲臨川內史，還爲尚書左丞。 尋以本官領東觀祭酒，卽明帝所置總明觀也。 遷黃門，轉正員常侍，輔國將軍，江夏王右軍長史，冠軍將軍。 轉給事中，廷尉卿，未拜。 建元中，武陵王曄爲會稽，以諶爲征虜長史行事，冠軍如故。 永明初，遷豫章王太尉司馬，將軍如故。
He went out as interior administrator of Linchuan and came back as left vice director of the Masters of Writing. Soon, keeping his post, he headed the Eastern Lodge sacrifice office, the Zongming Observatory Ming had raised. He became yellow gate officer, then regular attendant, aide to the state, staff officer on the Prince of Jiangxia's right army, and champion general. He was made attendant within the gates and minister of justice, but never took the seal. In Jianyuan, when the Prince of Wuling, Ye, governed Kuaiji, Chen was acting chief staff officer on the pacify-the-barbarians command, still champion general. When Yongming began he became grand marshal staff officer to the Prince of Yuzhang, his generalship unchanged.
40
世祖與諶相遇於宋明之世，欲委任，爲輔國將軍、晉安王南中郎長史、淮南太守，行府、州事。 五年，除黃門郎，領驍騎將軍，遷太子中庶子，驍騎如故。 諶貞正和謹，朝廷稱爲善人，多與之厚。 八年，轉冠軍將軍、長沙王車騎長史，徙廬陵王中軍長史，將軍如故。 西陽王子明在南兖州，長史沈憲去職，上復徙諶爲征虜長史，行南兖府、州事，將軍如故。
Emperor Wu of Qi had known Chen in Emperor Ming of Song's reign and meant to use him well: aide to the state, chief staff officer to the Prince of Jin'an's southern center, grand administrator of Huainan, running headquarters and province. In year five he was yellow gate officer with added valiant cavalry general, then crown prince central attendant, valiant cavalry unchanged. Chen was upright, even-tempered, and careful; the court named him a good man, and many kept him near. In year eight he became champion general and chief staff officer to the Prince of Changsha's chariot-and-cavalry command, then staff officer on the Prince of Luling's central army, his generalship unchanged. The Prince of Xiyang, Ziming, held Southern Yanzhou; when chief staff officer Shen Xian quit, the emperor set Chen again as pacify-the-barbarians chief staff officer, acting for headquarters and province, generalship unchanged.
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諶少貧，嘗自紡績，及通貴後，每爲人說之，世稱其志達。 九年，卒。 年六十九。
In youth Chen was poor and spun thread with his own hands; even after he grew rich he still told the story, and men praised him for ambition that had crossed poverty. In year nine he died. He was sixty-nine.
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【評】
Appraisal
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史臣曰：鶉居鷇飲，裁樹司牧，板籍之起，尚未分民，所以愛字之義深，納隍之意重也。 季世以後，務盡民力，量財品賦，以自奉養。 下窮而上不卹，世澆而事愈變。 故有竊名簿閥，忍賊肌膚，生濫死乖，趨避繩網。 積虛累謬，已數十年，欺蔽相容，官民共有，爲國之道，良宜矯革。 若令優役輕徭，則斯詐自弭； 明糾羣吏，則茲偽不行。 空閱舊文，徒成民幸。 是以崔琰之譏魏武，謝安之論京師。 斷民之難，豈直遠在周世哉？
The historiographer writes: In the age when men nested like quail and drank like unfledged birds, they only then set boundary trees and named overseers; when board registers began, the people were not yet carved into classes—so the duty to cherish them ran deep, and the heart to pull the drowning from the moat weighed heavy. After the dynasty declined, rulers drained the people's strength, tallied goods and graded taxes, to keep their own tables full. The poor sank lower while the throne looked away; the world thinned out and fraud changed shape year by year. So men stole names on the household rolls, bore the cost of skinning the people, let the living swell the lists while the dead went astray, and dodged through holes in the law. Lies had stacked for decades; fraud covered fraud, and magistrate and commoner played the same trick—for a state's health, this must be cut back hard. Ease the labor and lighten the tax, and the trickery dies on its own; discipline the clerks in the open, and the forgery cannot stand. To leaf through old papers and do nothing only teaches the people to gamble on luck. That is why Cui Yan reproached Cao Cao, and Xie An argued over the capital. The pain of drafting and draining the people—was it only the Zhou dynasty that knew it?
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贊曰：玩之止足，爲論未光。 劉休善筮，安臥南湘。 沖獲時譽，杲信圭璋。 諶惟舊序，並用興王。
The encomium runs: Wanzhi knew when he had enough—yet his argument never caught the light. Liu Xiu read the yarrow well and slept easy in south Xiang. Chong drew the age's praise; Gaozhi stood in trust like jade tablet and scepter. Chen by long standing—all alike helped lift the throne.
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=注===
[=] Section divider in the source text.