Overview
Emperor Wenzong of Tang was a ruler.
IdentityHistorical · Male
Life and dates
Attested activity
AD 826 to AD 840 唐文宗在位
AD 828 陛下即位
Places and affiliations
- Polity Tang 唐 · Relation Ruled
Works and attributed material
Events and relationships
Since accession issued virtuous pronouncements that raised hopes across the seas
Political · Ruler
Urged to examine Tang Yu rise and Qin Han fall, employ worthies, remove favorites, and return civil and military authority
Political · Ruler
- Relation Successor of · Person Emperor Jingzong of Tang (唐敬宗)
Assessments and attributes
- Assessment has a heart of fatherly kindness but the people cannot believe it while channels are blocked · Mode quotation Speaker Liu Fen (劉蕡)
References in the histories
No matching passages.
New Book of Tang, Chapter 178Volume 178 Biographies 103: Liu Fen · 19 passages
伏惟陛下察唐、虞之所以興，而景行於前；
I beg Your Majesty to examine why Tang and Yu flourished and take their bright conduct as your model;
陛下無謂廟堂無賢相，庶官無賢士，今紀綱未絕，典刑猶在，人誰不欲致身為王臣，致時為升平？
Your Majesty must not say the court has no worthy chief minister or the offices no worthy scholar — the statutes are not yet severed and canonical punishments still exist; who among men does not wish to serve as your minister and bring the age to peace?
陛下何忽而不用邪？
Why do you suddenly not employ them?
又有居官非其能，左右非其賢，惡如四兇，詐如趙高，奸如恭、顯，陛下何憚而不去邪？
Moreover there are those in office beyond their ability, at your side not the worthy — wicked as the Four Evils, deceitful as Zhao Gao, treacherous as Gong and Xian — why do you shrink from removing them?
神器固有歸，天命固有分，祖宗固有靈，忠臣固有心，陛下其念之哉！
The sacred vessel has its rightful place, the mandate of Heaven has its allotment, the ancestors have their spirits, loyal ministers have their hearts — Your Majesty, think on these!
伏惟陛下深軫亡漢之憂，以杜其漸，則祖宗之洪業可紹，三五之遐軌可追矣。
I beg Your Majesty deeply to grieve Han's disaster and block its gradual advance — then the ancestors' great enterprise can be continued and the distant tracks of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors can be pursued.
臣前所謂陛下「心有所未達，以下情塞而不能上通；
What I said earlier — Your Majesty, "what you intend in the heart has not been realized because conditions below are blocked and cannot reach you;
且百姓有塗炭之苦，陛下無繇而知；
moreover the people suffer as if in fire and coals, yet you have no means to know;
陛下有子惠之心，百姓無繇而信。
Your Majesty has a heart of fatherly kindness, yet the people have no means to believe it.
夫百姓者，陛下之赤子，陛下宜令慈仁者視育之，如保傅焉，如乳哺焉，如師之教導焉。
The people are Your Majesty's infants; you should have the kind and benevolent regard and nurture them — as a guardian and tutor, as nursing with milk, as a teacher's instruction and guidance.
今或不然，陛下親近貴幸，分曹建署，補除卒吏，召致賓客，因其貨賄，假以聲勢；
Now it is perhaps not so: you draw near the honored and favored, divide offices and establish bureaus, appoint and dismiss clerks, summon guests — relying on their bribes and lending them reputation and power;
即不幸因之以病癘，繼之以兇荒，陳勝、吳廣不獨起於秦，赤眉、黃巾不獨生於漢，臣所以為陛下發憤扼腕、痛心泣血也。
If misfortune adds plague upon this, followed by fierce famine — Chen Sheng and Wu Guang did not arise only in Qin, the Red Eyebrows and Yellow Turbans did not arise only in Han; this is why I vent indignation for you, clutch my wrist in anguish, and grieve to the point of weeping blood.
如此則百姓有塗炭之苦，陛下何繇而知之乎？
If it is thus, the people suffer as if in fire and coals — how can you have means to know?
陛下有子惠之心，百姓安得而信之乎？
Your Majesty has a heart of fatherly kindness — how can the people obtain belief in it?
使陛下行有所未孚，心有所未達，固其然也。
That your conduct has not won trust and what you intend has not been realized — it is solidly so.
自陛下即位，憂勤兆庶，屢降德音，四海之內，莫不抗首而長息，自喜復生於死亡之中也。
Since your accession, worry and diligence for the myriad masses, repeatedly issuing virtuous pronouncements — throughout the four seas none failed to raise their heads and sigh with relief, rejoicing that they were reborn from among the dead.
伏惟陛下慎終如始，以塞四方之望。
I beg Your Majesty to be careful at the end as at the beginning, to satisfy the hopes of the four directions.
今陛下先之以身而政未必行，禦之以道而人未從化，豈立教之旨未盡其方邪？
Now you take the lead with your person yet government is not necessarily carried out, govern with the Way yet men have not followed transformation — is it that the aim of establishing teaching has not exhausted its methods?
陛下能斥奸邪而不私其左右，舉賢正而不遺其疏遠，則化浹朝廷矣。
If you can repel treacherous perversity without favoring those at your side, raise the worthy and upright without neglecting the distant — then transformation will soak the court.