Overview
Emperor Renzong was a ruler.
IdentityHistorical · Male
Life and dates
Attested activity
Places and affiliations
- Polity Song 宋 · Relation Ruled
Works and attributed material
Events and relationships
Anxious during Western Xia troubles
AD 1038 to AD 1048 寶元、慶曆之間 · Military
· Ruler
· Mode quotation
Speaker Su Zhe (蘇轍) Refused to discard frank speech
AD 1052 to AD 1063 仁宗即位三十餘年 · Political
· Ruler
· With Su Zhe (蘇轍) Set aside vigilance for twenty years after western peace
AD 1052 to AD 1063 仁宗即位三十餘年 · Political
· Ruler
· Mode quotation
Speaker Su Zhe (蘇轍)
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment as anxiously careful as King Wen of Zhou during the Baoyuan and Qingli troubles · Mode hearsay Speaker Su Zhe (蘇轍)
References in the histories
No matching passages.
History of Song, Chapter 339Volume 339 Biographies 98: Su Zhezu and Grandson: Yuanlao · 12 passages
仁宗春秋高，轍慮或倦於勤，因極言得失，而於禁廷之事，尤為切至。
Renzong was growing old, and Zhe worried that the emperor might slacken in his diligence. He therefore spoke at length about what had gone right and wrong, and was especially blunt about matters within the inner court.
「陛下即位三十餘年矣，平居靜慮，亦嘗有憂於此乎，無憂於此乎？
"Your Majesty has reigned for more than thirty years. In your quiet moments, have you ever brooded over this—or have you never brooded at all?
臣伏讀制策，陛下既有憂懼之言矣。
Reading the examination topics, your subject sees that Your Majesty has already expressed concern and apprehension there.
然臣愚不敏，竊意陛下有其言耳，未有其實也。
Yet in my dull inadequacy I venture to suspect that Your Majesty has the words, but not yet the deed.
往者寶元、慶曆之間，西夏作難，陛下晝不安坐，夜不安席，天下皆謂陛下憂懼小心如周文王。
Formerly, when Xi Xia rose in revolt during the Baoyuan and Qingli years, Your Majesty could not sit easy by day or rest easy by night; the empire took you for a ruler as anxiously careful as King Wen of Zhou.
然自西方解兵，陛下棄置憂懼之心，二十年矣。
But since peace returned to the west, Your Majesty has set aside such vigilant anxiety for twenty years.
今陛下無事則不憂，有事則大懼，臣以為憂樂之節易矣。
Now Your Majesty is unworried when all is calm yet terrified when trouble comes—I believe worry and complacency have been reversed.
近歲以來，宮中貴姬至以千數，歌舞飲酒，優笑無度，坐朝不聞咨謨，便殿無所顧問。
In recent years the palace's favored consorts have numbered in the thousands; there is endless singing, feasting, and laughter; at court Your Majesty does not hear counsel debated, and in the privy chambers no one is questioned.
三代之衰，漢、唐之季，女寵之害，陛下亦知之矣。
Your Majesty knows as well how female favor ruined the Three Dynasties and brought down the late Han and Tang.
陛下無謂好色于內，不害外事也。
Your Majesty must not suppose that fondness for beauty within the palace does no harm to affairs outside it.
國家內有養士、養兵之費，外有契丹、西夏之奉，陛下又自為一阱以耗其遺餘，臣恐陛下以此得謗，而民心不歸也。」
Within we spend on scholars and soldiers, without we pay Khitan and Xi Xia—and Your Majesty has added a pit of your own to swallow what is left. I fear Your Majesty will earn reproach on this account and the people's hearts will turn away."
仁宗曰：「以直言召人，而以直言棄之，天下其謂我何？」
Renzong said, "If I summon men for frank speech and then discard them for frank speech, what will the world say of me?"