1
楊佐，字公儀，本唐靖恭諸楊後，至佐，家於宣。 及進士第，為陵州推官。 州有鹽井深五十丈，皆石也，底用柏木為幹，上出井口，垂綆而下，方能及水。 歲久幹摧敗，欲易之，而陰氣騰上，入者輒死； 惟天有雨，則氣隨以下，稍能施工，晴則亟止。 佐教工人以木盤貯水，穴竅灑之，如雨滴然，謂之「雨盤」。 如是累月，井幹一新，利復其舊。
Yang Zuo, courtesy name Gongyi, was descended from the Jinggong line of the Tang Yang clan; by his generation the family had made its home in Xuan. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as judicial assistant in Ling Prefecture. The prefecture had a salt well fifty zhang deep, cut entirely through rock. At the bottom a cypress-wood lining formed the shaft, rising above the mouth; only by lowering ropes could workers reach the water. After many years the lining rotted away and they tried to replace it, but noxious vapors welled up from below and anyone who went down died on the spot; only when it rained would the vapors sink with the moisture so that a little work could be done; as soon as the sky cleared they had to stop at once. Zuo taught the workers to hold water in wooden trays and sprinkle it through holes like falling rain, a device they called the "rain tray." In this way, over many months, they renewed the shaft completely and restored the well to its former yield.
2
累遷河陰發運判官，幹當河渠司。 皇祐中，汴水殺溢不常，漕舟不能屬。 佐度地鑿瀆以通河流，於是置都水監，命佐以鹽鐵判官同判。 京城地勢南下，涉夏秋則苦霖潦，佐開永通河，疏溝澮出野外，自是水患息。 又議治孟陽河，議者謂不便。 佐言：「國初歲轉京東粟數十萬，今所致亡幾，儻不浚復舊跡，後將廢矣。」 乃從其策。
He rose through several posts to become transport commissioner-assessor at Heyin and superintendent of the Office for Rivers and Canals. During the Huangyou period the Bian River's current ran erratically and floods were unpredictable, so grain barges could not be chained in convoy. Zuo surveyed the ground and cut canals to link the river's course; the Directorate-General of Water Control was then created, and Zuo was appointed its associate director while retaining his post as salt-and-iron commissioner-assessor. The capital sloped southward, and through summer and autumn it suffered from torrential rains and flooding. Zuo opened the Yongtong River and dredged channels out into the countryside, and from then on the water troubles subsided. He also proposed restoring the Mengyang River, but critics argued that the project was impractical. Zuo said, "In the early dynasty several hundred thousand piculs of grain were shipped each year from Jingdong; today almost nothing gets through. If we do not dredge and reopen the old channel, the route will be lost for good." His plan was adopted.
3
出為江、淮發運使。 孟陽之役，調民七、八千，夷丘墓百數，怨聲盈塞。 詔開封鞫治，官吏獨舍佐不問。 糾察刑獄劉敞請加貶黜，不聽。 召為鹽鐵副使，拜天章閣待制，復判都水，知審官院，權發遣開封府。
He was sent out as transport commissioner for the Yangzi and Huai circuits. The Mengyang project conscripted seven or eight thousand laborers and leveled several hundred tombs; grievances filled the land. An edict directed Kaifeng to investigate and punish those responsible; of all the officials involved, only Zuo was left untouched. Liu Chang, the inspector of penal affairs, asked that Zuo be further demoted, but the court did not agree. He was recalled as vice commissioner of salt and iron, made Hanlin academician-attendant at the Tianzhang Pavilion, again served as associate director of the Directorate of Water Control, directed the Office for Examination of Officials, and was temporarily assigned to dispatch affairs for Kaifeng Prefecture.
4
嘗使契丹，虜饋以方物，書獨稱名。 英宗升遐，奉遺留物再往使，卒於道，年六十一。 詔護喪歸，賻以黃金，恤其家。
On one mission to the Khitan, the Liao presented local products, but the accompanying documents listed only personal names. When Emperor Yingzong died, he was sent again to deliver the bequest gifts and died on the journey, aged sixty-one. An edict ordered his coffin escorted home, granted gold as funeral compensation, and extended relief to his family.
5
李兌，字子西，許州臨潁人。 登進士第，由屯田員外郎為殿中侍御史。 按齊州叛卒，獄成，有欲夜篡囚者，兌以便宜斬之，人服其略。
Li Dui, courtesy name Zixi, was a native of Linjing in Xu Prefecture. After passing the jinshi examination, he rose from outer-section vice director of the Directorate of Agriculture to palace censor. While investigating mutinous soldiers in Qi Prefecture, when the case was closed someone plotted a nighttime rescue of the prisoners; Dui had him summarily executed on his own authority, and people admired his decisiveness.
6
張堯佐判河陽，兌言堯佐素無行能，不宜以戚里故用。 改同知諫院。 狄青宣撫廣西，入內都知任守忠為副，兌言以宦者觀軍容，致主將掣肘，非計，仁宗為罷守忠。 太常新樂成，王拱辰以為十二鍾磬一以黃鍾為律，與古異，胡瑗及阮逸亦言聲不能諧。 詔近臣集議，久而不決。 兌言：「樂之道，廣大微妙，非知音入神，詎容輕議。 願參新舊，但取諧和近雅者，合而用之。」 進侍御史知雜事，擢天章閣待制、知諫院。 轉運使制祿與郡守殊，時有用彈劾奪節及老疾請郡者，一切得仍奉稍。 兌言非所以勸沮，乃詔悉依所居官格。 兌在言職十年，凡所論諫，不自表襮，故鮮傳世。
When Zhang Yaozhuo was assigned to Heyang, Dui argued that Yaozhuo had long lacked both character and competence and should not be appointed merely because he was an imperial in-law. He was transferred to serve as associate director of the Remonstrance Bureau. When Di Qing was military commissioner for Guangxi, the Inner Palace Director Ren Shouzhong was made his deputy. Dui argued that placing a eunuch over military affairs would hamstring the chief commander and was a poor policy; Emperor Renzong removed Shouzhong on that account. When the Court of Imperial Sacrifices completed its new music, Wang Gongchen argued that all twelve bells and chime-stones were tuned to the yellow bell alone, diverging from ancient practice; Hu Yuan and Ruan Yi also said the tones could not be brought into harmony. The emperor ordered senior officials to meet and deliberate, but for a long time no decision could be reached. Dui said, "The art of music is vast and subtle; unless one has attained true understanding and entered its spirit, how can it be debated lightly? I ask that the new and old be compared, and only what is harmonious and close to elegance be selected and used together." He was promoted to chief supervising censor and elevated to Hanlin academician-attendant at the Tianzhang Pavilion and director of the Remonstrance Bureau. Transport commissioners were paid on a different scale from prefects; at the time, officials who lost their ceremonial baton through impeachment or sought a prefectural post because of age or illness still received their former stipends in full. Dui argued that this was no way to reward merit or deter misconduct, and an edict ordered that all salaries follow the rank scale of the office actually held. Dui held remonstrance office for ten years; because he never publicized his own memorials and remonstrances, few of them have been handed down.
7
出知杭州，帝書「安民」二字以寵。 徙越州，加龍圖閣直學士、知廣州，南人謂自劉氏納土後，獨兌著清節。 還知河陽，帝又寵以詩。 徙鄧州。 富人榜僕死，繫頸投井中而以縊為解。 兌曰：「既赴井，復自縊，有是理乎？ 必吏受賕教之爾。」 訊之果然。
Sent out as prefect of Hangzhou, the emperor honored him by inscribing the two characters "Pacify the People." Transferred to Yue Prefecture, he was given the additional title of academician-expositor at the Longtu Pavilion and appointed prefect of Guangzhou; southerners said that since the Liu clan surrendered their territory, Dui alone had maintained an incorruptible reputation. When he returned to serve as prefect of Heyang, the emperor again honored him with a poem. He was transferred to Deng Prefecture. A wealthy man posted notice that his servant had died by hanging, but had in fact strangled him and thrown the body into a well. Dui said, "Having gone into a well, could he then have hanged himself? Does that make any sense? The clerks must have taken bribes and coached him in this story." On interrogation, this proved exactly true.
8
兌歷守名郡，為政簡嚴，老益精明。 自鄧歸，泊然無仕宦意。 對便殿，力丐退，英宗命無拜，以為集賢院學士、判西京御史臺。 積官尚書右丞，轉工部尚書致仕。 卒，年七十六，諡曰「莊」。 從弟先。
Dui successively governed renowned prefectures, administering them with simplicity and severity; in old age he grew keener still. After returning from Deng, he was at peace and had no further appetite for office. At audience in the side hall he pressed hard to retire; Emperor Yingzong excused him from bowing and appointed him academician of the Hall of Assembled Literati and judge of the Western Capital Censorate. Rising through the ranks to vice director of the right in the Ministry of Revenue, he was transferred to minister of works and retired. He died at seventy-six; his posthumous title was "Zhuang." His younger cousin Xian.
9
從弟先
Younger cousin: Xian
10
先，字淵宗，起進士，為虔州觀察推官，攝吉州永新令。 兩州俗尚訟，先為辨枉直，皆得其平。
Xian, courtesy name Yuanzong, passed the jinshi examination and served as judicial assistant under the surveillance commissioner of Gan Prefecture, acting as magistrate of Yongxin in Ji Prefecture. Both prefectures were prone to litigation; Xian distinguished right from wrong and in every case achieved a fair outcome.
11
知信州、南安軍，撫楚州，歷利、梓、江東、淮南轉運使。 壽春民陳氏施僧田，其後貧弱，往丐食僧所而僧逐之，取僧園中筍，遂執以為盜。 先詰其由，奪田之半以還之。 所至治官如家，人目以俚語：在信為「錯安頭」，謂其無貌而有材也； 在楚為「照天燭」，稱其明也。 楚有民迫於輸賦，殺牛鬻之。 里胥白於官，先愍焉，但令與杖。 通判孫龍舒以為徒刑，毀其桉。 明日龍舒來，先引囚曰：「汝罪應杖，以通判貸汝矣。」 遣之出。
He served as prefect of Xin Prefecture and military commissioner of Nan'an, as pacification commissioner of Chu Prefecture, and successively as transport commissioner of the Li, Zi, Jiangdong, and Huainan circuits. A Chen family of Shouchun had once donated fields to a monastery; later, reduced to poverty, they went to beg food there and were driven away. They took bamboo shoots from the monastery garden and were arrested as thieves. Xian investigated the matter and confiscated half the donated fields to return to the family. Wherever he served he ran his office as he would his own household. People nicknamed him in local slang: in Xin he was called "Misplaced Head," meaning he lacked imposing looks but possessed real ability; in Chu he was called "Candle Illuminating Heaven," praising his clarity of judgment. In Chu a commoner, hard pressed to meet his tax quota, slaughtered an ox and sold the meat. The village clerk reported the case to the authorities; Xian took pity on the man and ordered only a beating with the rod. The vice-prefect Sun Longshu reclassified the offense as penal servitude and destroyed the case file. The next day, when Longshu arrived, Xian brought out the prisoner and said, "Your crime warrants the rod, but the vice-prefect has spared you. He sent him away.
12
積官至秘書監致仕。 兄兌尚無恙，事之彌篤。 以子敘封，得太中大夫，閑居一紀卒，年八十三。 子庭玉，年六十即棄官歸養。 人賢其家法云。
Rising through the ranks to director of the Palace Library, he retired from office. His elder cousin Dui was still living; Xian attended him with ever greater devotion. Ennobled through his son's rank, he received the title Grandee of Palace Attendance, lived in retirement for twelve years, and died at eighty-three. His son Tingyu, at the age of sixty, immediately resigned office to return home and care for his parents. People praised the family's standards of conduct.
13
沈立，字立之，歷陽人。 舉進士，簽書益州判官，提舉商胡埽。 采摭大河事跡、古今利病，為書曰《河防通議》，治河者悉守為法。 遷兩浙轉運使。 蘇、湖水，民艱食，縣戒強豪民發粟以振，立亟命還之，而勸使自稱貸，須歲稔，官為責償。 茶禁害民，山場、榷場多在部內，歲抵罪者輒數萬，而官僅得錢四萬。 立著《茶法要覽》，乞行通商法，三司使張方平上其議。 後罷榷法，如所請； 立召為戶部判官。
Shen Li, courtesy name Lizhi, was a native of Liyang. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as signing clerk and prefectural aide in Yi Prefecture and as supervisor of the Shanghu embankment. He gathered records of Yellow River works and the benefits and failures of past and present policy, and compiled a book entitled Comprehensive Discussion on River Defense, which all river administrators thereafter treated as their standard. He was transferred to transport commissioner of the Two Zhe circuits. When floods struck Su and Hu and the people faced food shortages, the counties ordered powerful families to release grain for relief. Li immediately ordered the grain returned and instead urged the wealthy to lend under their own names, with the government guaranteeing repayment once the harvest came in. The tea monopoly oppressed the people; mountain depots and monopoly markets lay mostly within his jurisdiction, and each year tens of thousands were punished while the government collected only forty thousand in cash. Li wrote Essentials of the Tea Law and petitioned to allow free trade in tea; the finance commissioner Zhang Fangping submitted his proposal to the throne. Later the monopoly was abolished, as he had urged; and Li was recalled as commissioner-assessor in the Ministry of Revenue.
14
奉使契丹，適行冊禮，欲令從其國服，不則見於門。 立折之曰：「往年北使講見儀，未嘗令北使易冠服，況門見邪？」 契丹愧而止。
On a mission to the Khitan, it happened that investiture rites were under way; they demanded that he wear Liao dress, threatening otherwise to receive him only at the gate. Li rebutted them: "In past years, when northern envoys negotiated audience protocol, they were never required to change cap and robes. How much less should we accept audience at the gate?" The Khitan were shamed into backing down.
15
遷京西北轉運使。 都水方興六塔河，召與議，立請止修五股等河及漳河，分殺水勢以省役，從之。 加集賢修撰、知滄州，進右諫議大夫、判都水監，出為江淮發運使。 居職辦治，加賜金，數詔嘉之。 知越州、杭州、審官西院、江寧府。
He was transferred to transport commissioner for the northwestern capital region. The Directorate of Water was then pushing the Six Pagodas River project; Li was summoned to consult. He urged halting work on the Wugu and other channels and the Zhang River, dividing the current to reduce flood force and spare labor, and the court agreed. He was given the additional post of compiler at the Hall of Assembled Literati and appointed prefect of Cang Prefecture, promoted to right remonstrance grandee and associate director of the Directorate of Water, then sent out as Yangzi-Huai transport commissioner. In office he handled affairs efficiently, received additional grants of gold, and was repeatedly commended by imperial edict. He served as prefect of Yue and Hangzhou, as director of the Western Hall for Examination of Officials, and as prefect of Jiangning.
16
初，立在蜀，悉以公粟售書，積卷數萬。 神宗問所藏，立上其目及所著《名山水記》三百卷。 徙宣州，提舉崇禧觀。 卒，年七十二。
Earlier, while serving in Shu, Li spent all his official grain allowance on books and amassed tens of thousands of volumes. When Emperor Shenzong inquired about his library, Li submitted its catalog along with his own Record of Famous Mountains and Waters in three hundred juan. He was transferred to Xuan Prefecture and made supervisor of the Chongxi Abbey. He died at seventy-two.
17
張掞，字文裕，齊州歷城人。 父蘊，咸平初，監淄州兵。 契丹入寇，遊騎至淄、青間，州人將棄城，蘊拔刀遮止於門，力治守備，遊騎為之引去。 郡守愧，始謀掠為己功，反陷以罪，蘊受而不校。
Zhang Shan, courtesy name Wenyu, was a native of Licheng in Qi Prefecture. His father Yun, in the early Xianping period, supervised the troops of Zi Prefecture. When the Khitan invaded, scouting parties reached the border between Zi and Qing; the townspeople were about to abandon the city. Yun drew his sword and blocked them at the gate, threw himself into organizing the defenses, and the scouts withdrew. The prefect, ashamed, at first plotted to claim the credit for himself, then instead framed Yun with a crime. Yun accepted the charge without protest.
18
掞幼篤孝，蘊病，刲股肉以療。 舉進士，知益都縣。 當督賦租，置里胥弗用，而民皆以時入。 石介獻《息民論》，請以益都為天下法。 丁內艱，時隆寒，徒跣舉柩，叩首流血，與兄揆廬墓左。
Shan was deeply filial from childhood; when Yun fell ill, he cut flesh from his own thigh to prepare a remedy. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as magistrate of Yidu County. When it came time to collect taxes, he set the village clerks aside and did not employ them, yet the people all paid on schedule. Shi Jie submitted On Pacifying the People and asked that Yidu be made the model for the entire realm. During mourning for his mother, in bitter cold he went barefoot bearing the coffin, knocking his forehead until blood ran, and with his elder brother Kui kept vigil beside the tomb.
19
明道中，京東饑，盜起，以御史中丞范諷薦，知萊州掖縣。 民訴旱於州，拒之，掞自為奏聞，詔除登、萊稅。 通判永興軍，為集賢校理，四遷為龍圖閣直學士、知成德軍。 宦者閻士良為鈐轄，多撓帥權，用危法中軍校，掞直之，而劾士良。 英宗登極，朝廷使來告，士良辭疾居家，宴客自若，奏抵其罪。 入判太常、司農寺，累官戶部侍郎致仕。 熙寧七年，卒，年八十。
During the Mingdao period, when Jingdong suffered famine and banditry broke out, on the recommendation of vice censor-in-chief Fan Feng he was appointed magistrate of Ye County in Lai Prefecture. When the people petitioned the prefecture about drought and were turned away, Shan memorialized on his own authority; an edict followed remitting taxes in Deng and Lai. He served as vice prefect of Yongxing Circuit, then as a Hanlin collator, and after four promotions was made Hanlin associate at the Longtu Pavilion and prefect of Chengde Circuit. The eunuch Yan Shiliang held the post of military overseer and frequently encroached on the commander's authority, applying harsh laws against mid-level officers. Shan spoke up directly and impeached Shiliang. When Emperor Yingzong took the throne, envoys arrived from court with the announcement. Shiliang pleaded illness and remained at home, entertaining guests as if nothing had happened. Shan memorialized to have him charged. He entered the capital as vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and the Directorate of Agriculture, eventually rose to vice minister of revenue, and retired from office. In the seventh year of the Xining era he died, at the age of eighty.
20
掞忠篤誠愨，既老益康寧。 少從劉潛、李冠遊，及其死，率里人葬之，置田贍其孥。 事揆如父，理家必諮而行，為鄉黨矜式。
Shan was loyal, sincere, and upright; in old age he grew only more vigorous and serene. In his youth he kept company with Liu Qian and Li Guan. When they died, he led the villagers in burying them and endowed fields to provide for their families. He treated his elder brother Kui as he would a father, and in household affairs never acted without consulting him first, becoming a model for the local community.
21
張燾，字景元，樞密直學士奎之子也。 舉進士，通判單州。 州卒謀亂，期有日，燾得告者，徐詣營取首惡，置諸法。 知沂、濰二州。 沂產布，濰產絹，而有司科賦相反，燾始革之。 濰多圭田，率計畝徵絹，而蠲河役，燾不肯踵例，廢法還其役，入損於舊五之四，且命吏曰：「吾知守己而已，無妨後人，汝勿著為式。」
Zhang Dao, courtesy name Jingyuan, was the son of Zhang Kui, Hanlin academician-attendant at the Bureau of Military Affairs. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as vice prefect of Shan Prefecture. The garrison soldiers plotted a mutiny for a set day. Dao received a tip, went calmly to the camp, seized the ringleaders, and dealt with them under the law. He governed Yi and Wei prefectures. Yi produced cloth and Wei produced silk, yet the tax assessments imposed by officials had them reversed. Dao was the first to correct the practice. Wei had many tax-exempt estates; customarily silk was levied by the acre while river corvée was waived. Dao refused to follow suit, revoked the exemption and restored corvée duty, cutting revenue to four-fifths of what it had been. He told his staff: "I know only how to keep my own conscience clear. Do not make things harder for those who follow — do not set this down as a model."
22
提點河北刑獄，攝領澶州，七日而商胡決。 燾拯溺救饑，所全活者十餘萬，猶坐免。 數年，復提點河東、陝西、京西刑獄，為鹽鐵判官、淮南轉運使、江淮發運副使。 泗州水，城且壞，燾悉力營護，詔寵其勞。 入為戶部副使。 京師賦麴於酒，人有常籍，毋問售不售，或蹶產以償。 燾請罷歲額，嚴禁令，隨所用麴多寡以售，自是課增溢。 官修睦親宅，議取民居，燾言：「芳林園有餘地，宗室足自處，無庸起民居。」 從之。 孝嚴殿成，請圖乾興以來文武大臣像於壁。
While serving as intendant of penal affairs for Hebei, he was temporarily placed in charge of Dan Prefecture; seven days later the Shanghu levee burst. Dao saved people from drowning and famine, preserving more than a hundred thousand lives, yet he was still removed from office. Several years later he again served as intendant of penal affairs for Hedong, Shaanxi, and Jingxi, and also as salt and iron commissioner-assessor, Huainan transport commissioner, and vice commissioner for Yangzi-Huai grain transport. When Si Prefecture was inundated and its walls threatened to collapse, Dao threw all his strength into repairs. An edict commended his exertions. He was recalled to the capital as vice commissioner of the Ministry of Revenue. In the capital, brewer's yeast was taxed on wine sellers by fixed registration, whether or not they actually sold wine, and some ruined their estates trying to pay. Dao asked that the annual quota be abolished, enforcement tightened, and yeast sold according to actual need. Revenue thereafter rose sharply. When the court planned to renovate the Mujin Residence and proposed seizing private homes, Dao said: "Fanglin Garden still has unused land, and the imperial clan have ample room — there is no need to tear down people's houses." The court accepted his advice. After the Xiaoyan Hall was completed, he asked that portraits of civil and military ministers since the Qianxing reign be painted on its walls.
23
遷天章閣待制、陝西都轉運使。 蒲津浮橋壞，鐵牛皆沒水中，燾以策列巨木於岸以為衡，縋石其秒，挽出之，橋復其初。 保安二土豪善騎射，為邊人所憚，故縱善馬誘使取之，而強以漢法。 燾按得其狀，俱以隸軍。 加龍圖閣直學士、知成都府。 蜀人苦多盜，燾嚴保伍，使不得隱，而申其捕限。 南蠻寇黎、雅，討走之，罷磨刀崖戍卒。 改知瀛州。
He was promoted to Hanlin attendant-at-large at the Tianzhang Pavilion and appointed chief transport commissioner for Shaanxi. When the floating bridge at Pujin broke and the iron oxen sank, Dao had massive logs lined up on the bank as levers, stones hung from their ends, and the oxen winched out. The bridge was restored to its former condition. Two local magnates in Bao'an were expert riders and archers whom border people feared. They would deliberately release fine horses to lure men into taking them, then trap them under Han law. Dao investigated and established the facts; both men were conscripted into the army. He was made Hanlin associate at the Longtu Pavilion and prefect of Chengdu. The people of Shu were plagued by bandits. Dao strictly enforced the mutual-responsibility system so offenders could not be hidden, and shortened the deadlines for apprehension. When southern tribes raided Li and Ya, he drove them back and then disbanded the garrison at Madao Cliff. He was transferred to govern Ying Prefecture.
24
母喪服闋。 故事，起執政以詔，近臣以堂帖； 神宗特命賜詔。 判太常寺，知鄧、許二州，復判太常，知通進銀臺司，提舉崇福宮，由給事中易通議大夫。 卒，年七十。
After the mourning period for his mother had ended. By established practice, grand councillors returning from mourning were reappointed by edict, and close ministers by chancellery memo; Emperor Shenzong specially issued an edict to recall him. He served as vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and prefect of Deng and Xu, again as vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, then as director of the Office for Memorials and Documents and superintendent of Chongfu Palace, and was promoted from Supervising Censor to Grandee of Manifest Counsel. He died at the age of seventy.
25
燾才智敏給，常從范仲淹使河東。 至汾州，民遮道數百趨訴，仲淹以付燾，方與客弈，局未終，處決已竟。 英宗時，三司前奏事，帝詰鑄錢本末，皆不能對，燾悉論無隱。 帝是之，顧左右識其姓名，後欲以為觀察使守邊，曰：「卿家世事也。」 燾對曰：「臣叔父亢有大才，臣愚不可繼。」 遂止。
Dao was clever and quick-witted, and often accompanied Fan Zhongyan on missions to Hedong. At Fen Prefecture, hundreds of people blocked the road with petitions. Fan Zhongyan turned them over to Dao, who was playing chess with a guest; before the game was finished, every case had been settled. Under Emperor Yingzong, when the Directorate of Three Departments presented its business, the emperor questioned them on the full history of coin casting. No one could answer, but Dao explained every detail without reserve. The emperor was pleased and told his attendants to remember Dao's name. Later, intending to appoint him military commissioner to guard the frontier, he said: "Border service runs in your family." Dao replied: "My uncle Kang has far greater ability. I am too dull to follow in his footsteps." The appointment went no further.
26
俞充，字公達，明州鄞人。 登進士第。 熙寧中為都水丞，提舉沿汴淤泥溉田，為上腴者八萬頃。 檢正中書戶房，加集賢校理、淮南轉運副使，遷成都路轉運使。 茂州羌寇邊，充上十策禦戎。 神宗遣內侍王中正同經制，建三堡，復永康為軍，因詐殺羌眾以為中正功，與深相結，至出妻拜之。 中正還闕，舉充可任。 召判都水監，進直史館。 中書都檢正御史彭汝礪論其媚事中正，命遂寢。
Yu Chong, courtesy name Gongda, was a native of Yin in Ming Prefecture. He passed the jinshi examination. During the Xining era he served as vice director of water control, overseeing the use of Bian River silt to irrigate fields and creating eighty thousand qing of prime farmland. He served as inspector-reviser in the Secretariat's Household Section, was made Hanlin collator and Huainan vice transport commissioner, and was promoted to transport commissioner of Chengdu Circuit. When the Qiang of Maozhou raided the frontier, Chong submitted ten plans for border defense. Emperor Shenzong dispatched the eunuch Wang Zhongzheng as co-commissioner. They built three forts and restored Yongkang as a military prefecture. Chong staged killings of Qiang people to burnish Zhongzheng's record, formed a close alliance with him, and even had his wife pay obeisance to Zhongzheng. When Zhongzheng returned to court, he recommended Chong as fit for higher office. Chong was summoned to serve as vice director of the Directorate of Water Control and promoted to academician in the Historiography Institute. Chief inspector-reviser and censor Peng Ruli charged that Chong had curried favor with Zhongzheng, and the appointment was shelved.
27
河決曹村，充往救護，還，陳河防十餘事，概論「水衡之政不修，因循苟且，浸以成習。 方曹村決時，兵之在役者僅十餘人，有司自取敗事，恐未可以罪歲也。」 加集賢殿修撰、提舉市易，歲登課百四十萬。 故事當賜錢，充曰：「奏課，職也，願自今罷賜。」 詔聽之。
When the Yellow River burst at Caocun, Chong went to the scene to help. On his return he submitted more than ten proposals on river defense, arguing in general that "water-control administration has fallen into neglect; delay and shoddy work have slowly hardened into custom. When Caocun broke, there were barely a dozen soldiers on corvée duty. The officials courted disaster themselves — one can hardly blame the year's ill fortune alone." He was made Hanlin compiler and superintendent of the Market Monopoly system, and annual revenue reached 1.4 million. By custom he was due a cash reward for his performance. Chong said: "Reporting revenue is simply one's duty. I ask that such rewards be abolished from now on." An edict granted his request.
28
擢天章閣待制、知慶州。 慶陽兵驕，小繩治輒肆悖，充嚴約束，斬妄言者五人於軍門。 聞有病苦則巡撫勞餉，死不能舉者出私財以周其喪，以故莫不畏威而懷惠。 環州田與夏境犬牙交錯，每獲必遭掠，多棄弗理，充檄所部復以時耕植。 慕家族山夷叛，舉戶亡入西者且三百，充遣將張守約耀兵塞上，夏人亟反之。
He was promoted to Hanlin attendant at the Tianzhang Pavilion and appointed prefect of Qing Prefecture. The Qingyang garrison was unruly and rebelled at the slightest correction. Chong enforced strict discipline and beheaded five men for reckless talk at the camp gate. When he learned of sickness he went to comfort the men and supply them; when soldiers died and families could not afford funerals he paid from his own purse. All feared his sternness yet felt his kindness. Fields in Huan Prefecture interlocked with Xia territory, and every harvest brought raids, so many farmers had abandoned their land. Chong ordered his subordinates to restore cultivation on schedule. When the Muzhu clan's mountain tribes rebelled and nearly three hundred households fled west, Chong sent General Zhang Shouyue to show force on the border, and the Xia promptly returned them.
29
充之帥邊，實王珪薦，欲以遏司馬光之入。 充亦知帝有用兵意，屢倡請西征，後言：「夏酋秉常為母梁所戕，或云雖存而囚，不得與國政。 其母宣淫凶恣，國人怨嗟，實為興師問罪之秋也。 秉常亡，將有桀黠者起，必為吾患。 今師出有名，天亡其國，度如破竹之易。 願得乘傳入覲，面陳攻討之略。」 詔令掾屬入議，未及行，充暴卒，年四十九。
Chong's appointment to command the frontier had in fact been Wang Gui's recommendation, meant to keep Sima Guang from returning to court. Chong also knew the emperor favored military action and repeatedly urged a western campaign. Later he said: "The Xia ruler Bingchang was slain by his mother Lady Liang — or so some say; others hold that he still lives but is imprisoned and barred from governing. She indulges in debauchery and rules with brutal arrogance, and her people groan with resentment. This is truly the moment to march and call her to account. If Bingchang is gone, some fierce and cunning man will rise and become a threat to us. Our campaign now has just cause, and Heaven itself is destroying their state. Conquest should be as effortless as splitting bamboo. I ask leave to ride post-horses to court and lay out the plan of attack in person." An edict ordered his staff to come to court for consultation, but before he could depart Chong died suddenly, at forty-nine.
30
劉瑾，字元忠，吉州人，沆之子也。 第進士，為館閣校勘。 沆亡，得褒贈。 知制誥張瓌草詞，語涉譏貶，瑾泣涕不能食，闔門衰絰，邀宰相自言。 朝廷為改書命，黜瓌為州，瑾亦坐衰服入公門罷職。 沒喪不就官，丐守墳墓。 王素為請，以伸孝子之志。 詔復職，遷集賢校理、通判睦州，為淮南轉運副使。 召修起居注，加史館修撰、河北轉運使，拜天章閣待制、知瀛州。 坐與世居通問，徙明州。 未行，改鎮廣州。 與樞密院論戍兵不合，改虔州。 戰棹都監楊從先奉旨募兵不至，擅遣其子懋糾諸縣巡檢兵集郡下，瑾怒責之，遽發悖謬語，懋訴瑾於朝，遂廢於家。 逾年，復待制、知江州，歷福州、秦州、成德軍，卒。
Liu Jin, courtesy name Yuanzhong, was a native of Ji Prefecture and the son of Liu Hong. He passed the jinshi examination and served as a collator in the palace archives. When Hong died, Jin received posthumous honors on his father's behalf. When document drafter Zhang Gui drafted the eulogy in language that seemed to mock and belittle his father, Jin wept until he could not eat. His whole household donned mourning dress, and he asked the chief councillor to hear him out in person. The court revised the text, demoted Gui to a prefectural post, and dismissed Jin as well for entering the government offices while still in mourning dress. After his father's death he refused appointment and begged only to guard the tomb. Wang Su interceded for him so that he might fulfill a filial son's wish. An edict restored him to office. He was promoted to Hanlin collator and vice prefect of Mu Prefecture, and later served as Huainan vice transport commissioner. He was summoned to compile the Veritable Records, made historiography compiler and Hebei transport commissioner, and appointed Hanlin attendant and prefect of Ying. He was punished for corresponding with Wang Shiju and transferred to Ming Prefecture. Before he could leave, he was reassigned to govern Guang Prefecture. After clashing with the Bureau of Military Affairs over garrison troops, he was moved to Gan Prefecture. Naval commander Yang Congxian, ordered to raise troops, failed to report on time and on his own authority sent his son Mao to assemble county patrol forces at the prefectural seat. Jin rebuked him sharply; Mao suddenly spoke in wild and seditious terms and then accused Jin at court. Jin was dismissed and returned home. A year later he was restored as Hanlin attendant and prefect of Jiang Prefecture, later served Fuzhou, Qin Prefecture, and Chengde Circuit, and died in office.
31
瑾素有操尚，所蒞以能稱，然御下苛嚴，少縱舍，好面折人短，以故多致訾怨。
Jin had always been a man of principle and was regarded as capable wherever he served, yet he ruled subordinates with harsh severity and little mercy, and liked to expose others' faults to their faces — for which he earned much resentment.
32
閻詢，字議道，鳳翔天興人。 少時以學問著聞，擢進士第，又中書判拔萃科。 累遷秘書丞，為監察御史裏行。 詔治王素獄，坐有姻嫌不以聞，降監河陽酒稅，累遷為鹽鐵判官。 使契丹。 詢頗諳北方疆理，時契丹在靴淀，迓者王惠導詢由松亭往，詢曰：「此松亭路也，胡不徑蔥嶺而迂枉若是，豈非誇大國地廣以相欺邪？」 惠慚不能對。 加直龍圖閣、知梓州。 徙河東轉運使，言：「三路土兵疲老者，聽其族以強壯者代。」 從之。 進集賢殿修撰、知河中府。 大河漲，壞浮橋，詢易為長橋。 拜天章閣待制、知廣州，不即赴，罷職知商州。 神宗轉右諫議大夫，改邠、同二州，提舉上清太平宮，卒，年七十九。
Yan Xun, courtesy name Yidao, was a native of Tianxing in Fengxiang. Known from youth for his scholarship, he passed the jinshi examination and also won the Zhongshu exceptional-talent selection. He rose to the post of secretary and served as acting investigating censor. When ordered to investigate Wang Su's case, he failed to disclose a marriage tie and was demoted to supervisor of the Heyang wine tax. He eventually rose again to salt and iron commissioner-assessor. He served as envoy to the Khitan. Xun was well versed in northern geography. The Khitan court was at Xueyan, and the escort Wang Hui led him by way of Songting. Xun said: "This is the Songting road. Why not go straight by Congling, but take such a roundabout path? Are you not trying to impress us with how vast your realm is?" Hui was abashed and had no answer. He was made Hanlin associate at the Longtu Pavilion and prefect of Zi Prefecture. After he was transferred to Hedong transport commissioner, he proposed: "For aged and worn-out local militia on the three frontier circuits, let their clans replace them with stronger young men." The court approved. He was promoted to Hanlin compiler and appointed prefect of Hezhong. When the Yellow River swelled and wrecked the floating bridge, Xun rebuilt it as a long fixed bridge. He was appointed Hanlin attendant and prefect of Guang Prefecture, but did not report promptly and was removed from that appointment and made prefect of Shang. Emperor Shenzong promoted him to Right Remonstrance Officer. He governed Bin and Tong prefectures, served as superintendent of Shangqing Taiping Palace, and died at seventy-nine.
33
葛宮，字公雅，江陰人。 舉進士，授忠正軍掌書記。 善屬文，上《太平雅頌》十篇，真宗嘉之，召試學士院，進兩階。 又獻《寶符閣頌》，為楊億所稱。 知南充縣，東川饑，民艱食，部使者檄守資、昌兩州，以惠政聞。 知南劍州。 土豪彭孫聚黨數百，憑依山澤為盜，出害吏民，不可捕，宮遣沙縣尉許抗諭降之。 並溪山多產銅、銀，吏挾奸罔利，課歲不登，宮一變其法，歲羨餘六百萬。 三司使聞於朝，論當賞。 宮曰：「天地所產，吾顧盜之，又可為功乎？」 卒不言。
Ge Gong, courtesy name Gongya, was a native of Jiangyin. After passing the jinshi examination, he was appointed recorder of Zhongzheng Circuit. Skilled in prose, he presented ten scrolls of the Taiping Elegant Eulogies. Emperor Zhenzong was pleased, had him examined at the Hanlin Academy, and advanced him two ranks. He also submitted the Ode to the Bao Fu Pavilion, which won praise from Yang Yi. While serving as magistrate of Nanchong County, famine struck Eastern Chuan and food grew scarce. The circuit commissioner dispatched him to hold Zi and Chang prefectures, where his humane administration won wide renown. He was appointed prefect of Southern Jianzhou. A local magnate named Peng Sun rallied several hundred men, made his base in the hills and marshes, and raided officials and commoners alike; no one could take him. Gong dispatched Xu Kang, assistant magistrate of Shaxian, to talk the band into surrender. The hills around Bing Creek were rich in copper and silver, but corrupt officials had skimmed the profits and annual levies routinely fell short. Gong overhauled the system at a stroke, and within a year the treasury showed a surplus of six million cash. The fiscal commissioner reported the matter to court and argued that Gong deserved a reward. Gong said, "These are gifts of heaven and earth—how could I simply plunder them and call it achievement?" In the end he never spoke of it again.
34
徙知滁、秀二州，秀介江湖間，吏為關涇瀆上，以征往來，間有昏葬，趨期者多不克，宮命悉毀之。 積官秘書監、太子賓客。 治平中，轉工部侍郎。 熙寧五年，卒，年八十一。 宮性敦厚，恤錄宗黨，撫孤嫠，賴以存者甚眾。
He was transferred to Chu and Xiu prefectures. Xiu stood amid rivers and lakes, where officials had erected toll stations on streams and canals to tax travelers. Late burials often forced mourners to race deadlines they could not meet. Gong ordered every such barrier torn down. By accumulated rank he rose to Director of the Secretariat and Guest of the Heir Apparent. During the Zhiping reign he was promoted to Vice Minister of Works. He died in the fifth year of the Xining era, at the age of eighty-one. Gong was warm and generous by nature. He looked after his kinsmen, supported orphans and widows, and a great many people owed their livelihood to him.
35
宮弟密，亦以進士為光州推官。 豪民李新殺人，嫁其罪於邑民葛華，且用華之子為證。 獄具，密得其情，出之。 法當賞，密白州使勿言。 仕至太常博士。 天性恬靖，年五十，忽上章致仕，姻黨交止之，笑曰：「俟罪疾、老死不已而休官者，安得有餘裕哉。」 即退居，號「草堂逸老」，年八十四乃終。 平生為詩慕李商隱，有西昆高致。
Gong's younger brother Mi also earned the jinshi degree and served as judicial assistant in Guang Prefecture. A local magnate named Li Xin committed murder and pinned the crime on a townsman, Ge Hua, even forcing Hua's own son to testify against him. Once the case was closed, Mi uncovered the truth and freed Ge Hua. The law entitled him to a reward, but Mi asked the prefectural commissioner to say nothing of it. He rose in office to Erudite of the Grand Sacrifices. Tranquil and retiring by nature, at fifty he suddenly petitioned to retire. Relatives and friends urged him to reconsider. He smiled and said, "Those who wait until they are guilty, sick, or dying before they quit office—what leisure will they have left then?" He withdrew at once, took the style Hermit Elder of the Thatched Hall, and did not die until he was eighty-four. He wrote poetry all his life in admiration of Li Shangyin and achieved the refined elegance of the Xikun style.
36
子書思，踵登第，調建德主簿。 時密已老，欲迎以之官，密難之。 書思曰：「曾子不肯一日去親側，豈以五斗移素志哉？」 遂投劾歸養十年餘。 近臣表其志行，以為泗州教授，弗就。 密不得已，許以他日偕行，始乞監新市鎮。 居父喪，哀毀骨立，盛暑不釋苴麻，終禫不忍去塚舍。 累年，乃出仕，歷封丘主簿、漣水。 時兄書元為望江令，同隸淮南監司，有舍兄而薦己者，移書乞改薦兄，不許，則封檄還之。 其篤行類皆若此。 仕至朝奉郎，亦告老，父子歸休皆不待年。 卒，年七十三，特諡曰「清孝」。 子勝仲，孫立方，皆以學業至侍從，世為儒家。 勝仲自有傳。
His son Shu Si followed in his footsteps, passed the examinations, and was appointed chief clerk of Jiande. By then Mi was already elderly, and Shu Si wanted to bring him along to his new post, but Mi was reluctant. Shu Si said, "Zengzi would not leave his parents' side for a single day—how could a petty salary change a lifelong resolve?" He resigned his post and returned home to care for his father for more than ten years. A court intimate recommended his character and conduct, and he was offered the post of professor at Sizhou, but he declined. Mi could hold out no longer and agreed they would travel together on some later day; only then did Shu Si accept appointment as supervisor of Xinshi Town. During mourning for his father he grieved until he was skin and bone; even in midsummer he would not lay aside his mourning garb, and after the final rites he still could not bring himself to leave the grave-side lodge. Only after several years did he return to office, serving in turn as chief clerk of Fengqiu and of Lianshui. His elder brother Shu Yuan was then magistrate of Wangjiang, and both brothers served under the same Huainan supervisory commissioner. When someone passed over Shu Yuan to recommend Shu Si instead, he wrote asking that the recommendation be redirected to his brother. When that was refused, he sealed the commission and sent it back unopened. His steadfast integrity was everywhere of this sort. He rose to Court Gentleman for Attending and likewise petitioned to retire; both father and son left office before the customary age. He died at seventy-three and was posthumously granted the title Qingxiao, "Pure and Filial." His son Shengzhong and grandson Lifang both rose through learning to become palace attendants; for generations the Ge were a scholar-official family. Shengzhong has a separate biography of his own.
37
論曰：佐、立擅水衡之政，為時所稱。 兌居官論諫，無所表襮，先克承之。 掞之孝，燾之智，瑾之苛嚴，詢之辭令，皆著一時，自致顯官。 俞充制軍禁暴，足為能臣，而希時相之意，倡請西征，使其不死，邊陲之禍，其可既乎？ 葛氏自宮以下，簪纓相繼，盛哉！
The historians comment: Zuo and Li distinguished themselves in fiscal administration and won praise in their own day. Dui counseled and remonstrated in office without parading his virtue; earlier generations had already embodied that same restraint. Shan's filial devotion, Dao's shrewdness, Jin's harsh severity, and Xun's eloquence each made its mark in the age, and each won high office through his own merits. Yu Chong kept the army in order and checked violence—he might well have been counted a capable minister—yet he curried favor with the chief minister and urged a western expedition. Had he lived, would the disasters on the frontier ever have ceased? From Gong's generation onward, the Ge clan produced one capped and girdled official after another—what a flourishing house!
38
張田，字公載，澶淵人。 登進士第，知應天府司錄。 歐陽修薦其才，通判廣信軍。 夏竦、楊懷敏建策增七郡塘水，詔通判集議，田曰：「此非禦敵策也，壞良田，浸塚墓，民被其患，不為便。」 因奏疏極論，謫監郢州稅。
Zhang Tian, courtesy name Gongzai, was a native of Chanyuan. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as registrar of Yingtian Prefecture. Ouyang Xiu recommended his ability, and he was appointed vice prefect of Guangxin Circuit. Xia Song and Yang Huaimin proposed enlarging the pond-water defenses of seven prefectures. The throne ordered the vice prefect to convene a discussion. Tian said, "This is no way to repel an enemy. It will ruin fertile fields, flood graves, and bring misery to the people—it is no improvement at all." He submitted a memorial arguing the point at length and was demoted to supervisor of the Yingzhou tax office.
39
久之，通判冀州。 內侍張宗禮使經郡，酣酒自恣，守貳無敢白者，田發其事，詔配西陵灑掃。 攝度支判官。 祫享太廟，又請自執政下差減賚費，唐介論其虧損上恩，出知蘄州。 俄提點湖南刑獄，介與司馬光又狀其傾險，改知湖州，徙廬州，治有善跡。
After some time he was appointed vice prefect of Jizhou. The eunuch Zhang Zongli passed through the prefecture on imperial business, drank freely, and did as he pleased, yet neither the prefect nor his deputy dared report him. Tian exposed the affair, and an edict assigned Zhang to menial labor at Xiling. He served as acting revenue-section judge. During the winter ancestral sacrifice at the Imperial Temple, he again asked that reward gifts be cut, starting with the chief ministers and working down. Tang Jie argued that this slighted imperial favor, and Tian was sent out to govern Qizhou. Soon afterward he was appointed judicial intendant of Hunan, but Tang Jie and Sima Guang again reported him as treacherous and dangerous. He was reassigned to Huzhou, then transferred to Luzhou, where his administration left a record of solid achievement.
40
移桂州。 異時蠻使朝貢假道，與方伯抗禮，田獨坐堂上，使引入拜於庭，而犒賄加腆。 土豪劉紀、廬豹素為邊患，訖田去，不敢肆。 京師禁兵來戍，不習風土，往往病於瘴癘，田以兵法訓峒丁而奏罷戍。 或告交阯李日尊兵九萬，謀襲特磨道，諸將請益兵，田曰：「交阯兵不滿三萬，必其國有故，張虛聲以嚇我耳。」 諜既得實，果其兄弟內相殘，懼邊將乘之也。 宜州人魏利安負罪亡命西南龍蕃，從其使入貢，凡十反，至是龍以烈來，復從之。 田因其入謁，詰責之，梟其首，欲並斬以烈，叩頭流血請命。 田曰：「汝罪當死，然事幸在新天子即位赦前，汝自從朝廷乞恩。」 乃密請貸其死。
He was transferred to Guizhou. In earlier days, tribal envoys bearing tribute who passed through treated the regional governor as an equal. Tian alone remained seated in the hall and had the envoys brought in to bow in the courtyard—yet he rewarded them with gifts all the more generously. The local magnates Liu Ji and Lu Bao had long plagued the frontier, but by the time Tian departed they no longer dared make trouble. Capital garrison troops were sent to hold the frontier, but unused to the local climate they often sickened and died of miasmic fever. Tian drilled the cave militia by military methods and memorialized to end the garrison deployment. Someone reported that Li Rizun of Jiaozhi had ninety thousand men and planned to strike along the Temó route. The generals asked for reinforcements. Tian said, "Jiaozhi cannot field even thirty thousand soldiers. Something must be wrong at home—they are bluffing to scare us." When his scouts confirmed the facts, it proved that rival brothers were tearing the kingdom apart from within, and Li had inflated his numbers for fear our border commanders would exploit the chaos. Wei Li'an of Yizhou, a fugitive guilty of capital crime, had fled to the Long Fan tribes in the southwest and accompanied their tribute missions ten times in all. When Long Yilie came on this occasion, he followed him once again. When Wei came to audience, Tian interrogated and rebuked him, then displayed his severed head. He was about to execute Yilie as well, but Yilie knocked his forehead bloody on the ground, begging for mercy. Tian said, "Your crime deserves death, but fortunately the offense came before the new emperor's accession amnesty. You must plead for mercy from the court yourself." He then secretly petitioned to spare Yilie's life.
41
熙寧初，加直龍圖閣、知廣州。 廣舊無外郭，民悉野處，田始築東城，環七里，賦功五十萬，兩旬而成。 初，役人相驚以白虎夜出，田跡知其偽，召戒邏者曰：「今夕有白衣人出入林間者，謹捕之。」 如言而獲。 城既就，東南微陷，往視之，暴卒，年五十四。
At the start of the Xining era he was granted direct appointment to the Hall of Dragon Designs and made prefect of Guangzhou. Guangzhou had long lacked an outer wall, and the people lived scattered in the open countryside. Tian built the eastern wall first, a circuit of seven li, mobilizing five hundred thousand work units and finishing in twenty days. At first the laborers panicked one another with rumors of a white tiger abroad at night. Tian investigated and saw through the hoax. He summoned the night patrol and warned them, "If you see a man in white moving through the woods tonight, seize him at once." It happened just as he said, and the man was caught. When the wall was finished, a section on the southeast sank slightly. He went to inspect it and died suddenly, at the age of fifty-four.
42
田為人伉直自喜，好嫚罵，氣陵其下，故死無哀者。 然臨政以清，女弟聘馬軍帥王凱，欲售珠犀於廣，顧曰：「南海富諸物，但身為市舶使，不欲自汙爾。」 作欽賢堂，繪古昔清刺史像，日夕師拜之。 蘇軾嘗讀其書，以侔古廉吏。
Tian was blunt, proud, and fond of hurling contempt at others; he browbeat his subordinates, and so when he died no one grieved for him. Yet in office he was incorruptible. His younger sister had married the cavalry commander Wang Kai, who wanted to sell pearls and rhinoceros horn in Guangzhou. Tian told him, "The Southern Sea has every luxury, but I am maritime trade commissioner and have no wish to corrupt myself." He built the Hall for Revering the Worthy, painted portraits of incorruptible prefects of antiquity, and morning and evening bowed to them as his teachers. Su Shi once read his writings and judged him the equal of the incorruptible officials of antiquity.
43
榮諲，字仲思，濟州任城人。 父宗範，知信州鉛山縣。 詔罷縣募民采銅，民散為盜，宗範請復如故。 真宗嘉異，擢提點江、浙諸路銀銅坑冶，歷官九年。
Rong Yin, courtesy name Zhongsi, was a native of Rencheng in Jizhou. His father Zongfan served as magistrate of Qianshan County in Xin Prefecture. When an edict abolished the county's system of recruiting commoners to mine copper, the people dispersed and turned to banditry. Zongfan petitioned to restore the former arrangement. Emperor Zhenzong was greatly impressed and promoted him to intendant of silver and copper mines and smelters on the Jiang and Zhe circuits, where he served nine years.
44
諲舉進士，至鹽鐵判官。 晉州產礬，京城大豪歲輸鐵五萬緡，顓其利，諲請榷於官，自是數入四倍。 為廣東轉運使。 廣有板步古河路絕險，林箐瘴毒。 諲開真陽峽，至洸口古徑，作棧道七十間抵清遠，趨廣州，遂為夷塗。
Yin passed the jinshi examination and rose to salt and iron judge. Jin Prefecture produced alum, and a great monopolist of the capital paid fifty thousand strings of cash in iron each year while keeping the profits to himself. Yin petitioned for a state monopoly, and thereafter revenue increased fourfold. He served as transport commissioner of Guangdong. In Guangdong the ancient Banbu River route was treacherous in the extreme, running through dense forest and bamboo groves thick with miasmic poison. Yin cut through Zhenyang Gorge to the ancient track at Guangkou, built seventy sections of plank road as far as Qingyuan, and opened a smooth route on to Guangzhou.
45
復入為開封府判官。 太康民事浮屠法，相聚祈禳，號「白衣會」，縣捕數十人送府。 尹賈黯疑為妖，請殺其為首者而流其餘，諲持不從，各具議上之。 中書是諲議，但流其首而杖餘人。 加直史館、知澶州。
He returned to the capital as judge of Kaifeng Prefecture. The people of Taikang practiced Buddhist rites, gathering to pray for blessings in a group called the White Robe Society. The county arrested several dozen members and sent them to the prefectural court. Prefect Jia An suspected sorcery and asked that the ringleaders be executed and the rest banished. Yin dissented, and each man submitted his own recommendation to the throne. The Central Secretariat sided with Yin: only the ringleaders were banished, and the rest were flogged. He was granted direct appointment to the Historical Archives and made prefect of Chan Prefecture.
46
改京東轉運使。 萊陽產銀砂，民有私采者，事露，安撫使欲論以劫盜。 諲曰：「山澤之利，人得有之，所盜者豈民財耶？」 貸免甚眾。 又使成都府路，召為戶部副使，以集賢殿修撰知洪州。 以疾故，徙舒州，未至而卒。 累官秘書監，年六十五。
He was appointed transport commissioner of Jingdong. Laiyang produced silver-bearing sand, and some commoners had been mining it illicitly. When the affair came to light, the pacification commissioner wanted to prosecute them as armed robbers. Yin said, "The bounty of hills and marshes is there for anyone to take—what they took was not private property stolen from the people, was it?" A great many were pardoned as a result. He was again dispatched to the Chengdu circuit, then recalled as Vice Commissioner of the Household Department and appointed prefect of Hongzhou with the title Academician of the Hall for Cultivating Talent. Illness forced his transfer to Shuzhou, but he died before he could take up the post. By accumulated rank he had risen to Director of the Secretariat; he was sixty-five.
47
李載，字伯熙，黎陽人。 少苦學，隆暑讀書，置足於水，雖得疾，不舍去。 登進士第，調冀州推官。 知大名冠氏縣，府守呂夷簡入相，薦其材，知齊州。 鈐轄趙瑜使酒毆載，乃扃戶避逸。 瑜得罪，載坐不舉劾，黜為信陽軍。 安撫使錢明逸等為之申理，改常州。 知祥符縣，有巫以井泉飲人，云可愈疾，趨者旁午，載杖巫，堙其井。 歷知虢州、漣水軍。
Li Zai, courtesy name Boxi, was a native of Liyang. As a youth he studied with fierce dedication. Even in midsummer he kept his feet in a basin of water while he read, and when illness came he still would not lay his books aside. After passing the jinshi examination, he was assigned as judicial assistant in Jizhou. While serving as magistrate of Guanshi County in Daming Prefecture, he was recommended for his ability by the prefect Lu Yijian after Lu entered the chief ministership, and was appointed prefect of Qi Prefecture. The garrison commander Zhao Yu, drunk, assaulted Zai, who bolted his door to escape him. When Zhao Yu was punished, Zai was demoted to Xinyang Circuit for failing to impeach him. The pacification commissioner Qian Mingyi and others interceded on his behalf, and he was reassigned to Chang Prefecture. While magistrate of Xiangfu County, he encountered a shaman who gave people water from a well, claiming it could cure disease; the crowds came in an unbroken stream. Zai had the shaman beaten with the staff and the well filled in. He later served as prefect of Guo Prefecture and of Lianshui Circuit.
48
載性篤孝，侍母病不解帶，至病亟不能食，載亦不食，母知之，為強食。 六為州，一以寬厚稱。 以光祿卿提舉仙源觀，卒，年七十四。
Li Zai was profoundly filial. While nursing his ailing mother he never loosened his belt for rest; when she grew so ill she could no longer eat, he refused food as well. Learning of this, she made him eat by force. Across the six prefectures he governed, he was known throughout for his gracious, lenient rule. He held the post of Director of the Palace Office for Imperial Sacrifices and supervised the Xianyuan Monastery, then died at seventy-four.
49
姚渙，字虛州，世家長安。 隋開皇中，有景徹者，以討平瀘夷，策功為普州刺史，卒，子孫遂家普州。 渙第進士，監益州交子務，發奸隱萬緡，主吏皆當死，渙曰：「戮人以干澤，非吾志也，義不蔽奸而已。」 請於使者，願不受賞，於是全活者眾。 知峽州。 宜都民為盜所殘，縣執囚訊服，以獄上。 渙移劾於他有司，居亡何，真盜獲。 大江漲溢，渙前戒民徙儲積、遷高阜，及城沒，無溺者。 因相地形築子城、埽臺，為木岸七十丈，繚以長堤，楗以薪石，厥後江漲不為害，民德之。 徙知涪州，賓化夷多犯境，渙施恩信拊納，酋豪爭羅拜廷下，訖渙去無警。 終光祿卿，年六十七。
Yao Huan, courtesy name Xuzhou, was from an eminent clan of Chang'an. During the Kaihuang reign of the Sui dynasty, an ancestor named Jing Che, commended for putting down the Lu tribes, was made prefect of Puzhou. After his death his line settled there for good. After taking his jinshi degree, Huan supervised the Jiaozi Office in Yizhou and uncovered concealed fraud worth ten thousand strings of cash. The senior clerks were all liable for execution. Huan said, "Slaughtering men to curry favor at court is not my intent—I mean only not to cover up crime." He asked the imperial envoy to let him refuse any reward, and in this way many lives were spared. He was appointed prefect of Xia Prefecture. When bandits massacred people in Yidu, the county arrested a man who confessed under torture and forwarded the case to higher authority. Huan referred the indictment to another office; not long afterward the real culprits were caught. When the Yangzi rose in flood, Huan had already warned the people to move their stores to high ground. When the city went under, no one drowned. He then studied the lie of the land and built an inner wall and flood-control platform—a seventy-zhang timber revetment ringed by a long levee, shored up with brush and stone. After that the river's rise no longer brought disaster, and the people blessed his name. Transferred to Fu Prefecture, he found the Binhua Yi frequently crossing the border. Huan treated them with kindness and good faith, and tribal chiefs thronged his hall to prostrate themselves in submission. For the rest of his tenure the frontier stayed quiet. He died in office as Director of the Palace Office for Imperial Sacrifices at sixty-seven.
50
朱景，字伯晦，河南偃師人。 舉進士，調滎澤簿。 西方用兵，詔侍從館閣舉縣令，景預選，知隴州汧源縣。 累遷知汝州。 葉驛道遠，隸囚為送者所虐，多死，俗傳為「葉家關」，景重禁以絕其患。 擢知壽州，秩祿視提點刑獄。 始至，亟發廩振給，以勸富者出積穀，所活數萬。 城西居民三千室，建請築外郭環入之，公私稱便。 再遷光祿卿。
Zhu Jing, courtesy name Bohui, came from Yanshi in Henan. After passing the jinshi examination, he was posted as registrar of Rongze. During the western campaigns, the throne ordered court attendants and Hanlin scholars to nominate county magistrates; Jing was chosen and appointed magistrate of Qianyuan in Longzhou. He rose through several postings to become prefect of Ru Prefecture. The Ye relay route was long and arduous; prisoners drafted as escorts were mistreated by the runners, and many died—people called it the "Ye Family Pass." Jing enforced stern prohibitions and ended the scourge. Promoted to prefect of Shouzhou, he held rank and salary equivalent to a circuit judicial commissioner. On arrival he immediately opened the public granaries and distributed relief, urging the wealthy to release hoarded grain as well; tens of thousands of lives were saved. Three thousand households west of the city asked that a new outer wall be built to take them in; officials and commoners alike praised the convenience. He was promoted again to Director of the Palace Office for Imperial Sacrifices.
51
熙寧初，病革，自占遺表，呼其子光庭操筆書之。 其略云：「切聞河北水災、地震，陛下當減膳避殿，齋居加省，召二府大臣朝夕諮訪闕失，思所以弭咎。」 凡數百言，無一語求恩。 卒，年七十一。 詔加賻贈，錄其子以官。
Early in the Xining era, as his illness turned fatal, he dictated his final memorial and had his son Guangting write it out. In substance it said: "I have learned with alarm of flooding and earthquakes in Hebei. Your Majesty should take simpler meals and retire from the main palace halls, live in abstinent seclusion, and summon the chief ministers of both councils daily to discuss what has gone wrong and how to turn aside Heaven's displeasure." The whole ran to several hundred words, and not a single line asked any favor for himself or his family. He died at seventy-one. The throne ordered additional funeral gifts and granted his son an official appointment.
52
子光庭
His son was Guangting.
53
光庭，字公掞，十歲能屬文。 辭父蔭擢第，調萬年主簿。 數攝邑，人以「明鏡」稱。 歷四縣令。 曾孝寬以才薦，神宗召見，問欲再舉安南之師。 光庭對曰：「願陛下勿以人類畜之。 蓋得其地不可居，得其民不可使，何益於廣土辟地也。」 又問治何經，對曰：「少從孫復學《春秋》。」 又問：「今中外有所聞乎？」 對曰：「陛下更張法度，臣下奉行或非聖意，故有便有不便。 誠能去其不便，則天下受福矣。」 帝以其言為疏闊，不用。 簽書河陽判官，從呂大防於長安幕府。 五路出師討西夏，雍為都會，事倚以辦，調發期會甚急，光庭每執不從。 使者怒，將加以乏興罪，光庭求免去，大防為之解。
Guangting, courtesy name Gongshan, was composing essays by the age of ten. Refusing the privilege of his father's rank, he passed the examinations on his own and was appointed chief clerk of Wannian County. Having served repeatedly as acting county magistrate, people nicknamed him the "Bright Mirror." He held magistracies in four counties in turn. Recommended for his ability by Zeng Xiaokuan, Guangting was summoned before Emperor Shenzong, who asked whether he favored another campaign against Annam. Guangting answered, "I would ask Your Majesty not to treat human beings as beasts of burden. Even if you take their land, you cannot live there; even if you take their people, you cannot govern them. What good is conquest when the land cannot be settled and the people cannot be ruled?" Asked which classic guided his statecraft, he replied, "In my youth I studied the Spring and Autumn Annals under Sun Fu." The Emperor asked further, "Have you heard anything of concern inside or outside the court?" He answered, "Your Majesty has changed the laws and institutions. When officials carry them out imperfectly, some measures work and others do not. Remove what does not work, and the realm will be the better for it." The Emperor judged his counsel too vague and did not appoint him to office. As signing aide to the prefect of Heyang, he served on Lü Dafang's staff in the Chang'an headquarters. During the five-route campaign against Western Xia, Yongzhou served as the main supply hub and everything depended on its speed of delivery. Deadlines were brutal, but Guangting repeatedly refused to go along. The imperial envoy threatened to charge him with dereliction of supply duty; Guangting asked to be dismissed, and Dafang pleaded his case.
54
河北饑，遣持節行視，即發廩振民； 而議者以耗先帝積年兵食之蓄，改左司員外郎。 遷太常少卿，拜侍御史。 論蔡確怨謗之罪，確貶新州。 拜右諫議大夫、給事中。 乞補外，除集賢殿修撰、知亳州。 數月召還，復為給事中。
When famine struck Hebei, he was sent with imperial credentials on an inspection tour and at once opened the granaries to feed the people. Critics complained that he had drawn down stores of grain amassed for the military under the previous emperor, and he was reassigned as Outer Section Member of the Left Secretariat. He rose to Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and was appointed investigating censor. He prosecuted Cai Que for slander and malice, and Que was banished to Xinzhou. He was made Right Remonstrance Grandee and Chief Reviser of Drafts. He asked for a provincial post and was appointed Compiler in the Hall of Worthies and prefect of Bozhou. Within a few months he was recalled and restored as Chief Reviser of Drafts.
55
坐封還劉摯免相制，復落職守亳。 歲餘，徙潞州，加集賢院學士。 鄰境旱饑，流民入境者踵接，光庭日為食以食之，常至暮，自不暇食，遂感疾，猶自力視事。 出禱雨，拜不能興，再宿而卒，年五十八。 紹聖中，追貶柳州別駕。 元符初，又停錮其諸子。
For returning Liu Zhi's dismissal edict unapproved, he lost his central post and was left to govern Bozhou alone. After a year he was transferred to Luzhou and given the additional title of Hanlin Academician of the Hall of Worthies. Neighboring circuits suffered drought and famine, and refugees poured across the border. Every day Guangting had food prepared for them, often working until dusk without eating himself. He fell ill but continued to carry on his duties. He went out to pray for rain, collapsed while bowing, and died two days later at fifty-eight. During the Shaosheng reign he was posthumously demoted to assistant prefect of Liuzhou. At the start of the Yuanfu reign his sons were barred from office as well.
56
光庭始學於胡瑗，瑗告以為學之本在於忠信，故終身行之。 徽宗立，復其官。
Guangting had begun his studies with Hu Yuan, who taught that loyalty and good faith were the foundation of learning; he lived by that teaching all his life. When Huizong succeeded to the throne, Guangting's official titles were restored.
57
李琮，字獻甫，江寧人。 登進士第，調寧國軍推官。 州庾積穀腐敗，轉運使移州散於民，俾至秋償新者。 守將行之，琮曰：「穀不可食，強與民責而償之，將何以堪。」 持不下，守愧謝而止。
Li Cong, courtesy name Xianfu, came from Jiangning. After passing the jinshi examination he was posted as judicial assistant in Ningguo prefecture. Grain in the prefecture granaries had spoiled, and the transport commissioner ordered it distributed to the people on the understanding they would repay with fresh grain in autumn. The prefect was ready to comply when Cong objected: "This grain is unfit to eat. If you force it on the people and still demand repayment, how can they endure it?" He blocked the order from being issued; the prefect, ashamed, apologized and dropped the plan.
58
呂公著尹開封，薦知陽武縣。 役法初行，琮處畫盡理，旁近民相率撾登聞鼓，願視以為則。 徽宗召對，擢利州路、江東轉運判官。 行部至宣城，按民田詭稱逃絕者九千戶，他縣皆然。 言於朝，命以戶部判官使江、浙，選強明吏立賞剔抉。 吏幸賞，以多為功，琮亦因是希進，民患苦之，得緡錢百餘萬。 進度支判官，頒職式於諸道。 淮南賦入甲它部，以為轉運副使，徙梓州路。
While serving as prefect of Kaifeng, Lü Gongzhu recommended him as magistrate of Yangwu County. When the labor-service law first took effect, Cong's implementation was so fair that people from neighboring districts thronged the palace gate beating the Denunciation Drum, asking that their counties follow Yangwu's example. Summoned to audience by Huizong, he was promoted to transport commissioner-assessor for Lizhou and Jiangdong circuits. Touring his jurisdiction he found nine thousand households in Xuancheng alone whose land had been falsely declared abandoned, and the same pattern repeated in county after county. He reported this to court and was dispatched as a Ministry of Revenue commissioner to Jiangsu and Zhejiang with orders to appoint sharp officials and offer rewards for exposing concealed land. Greedy officials inflated their numbers to win rewards, and Cong used the drive to advance his career. The people were crushed by it, yet more than a million strings of cash were extracted. Promoted to commissioner-assessor in the Revenue Section, he issued uniform regulations to every circuit. Because Huainan's tax revenue led all regions, he was made vice transport commissioner, then transferred to Zizhou Circuit.
59
元祐初，言者論其括隱稅之害，黜知吉州。 御史呂陶又言巴蜀科折已重，琮復強民輸稅，且無得以奇數併合，人尤咨怨。 於是凡以括田受賞者悉奪之。 歷相、洪、潞三州。 潞有謀亂者，為書期日揭道上，部使者聞之懼，檄索奸甚亟。 琮置不問，以是日置酒高會，訖無他。 入為太府卿，遷戶部侍郎，以寶文閣待制知杭州、永興軍、河南、瀛州。 卒，年七十五。
Early in the Yuanyou reign critics denounced his hidden-land tax campaign, and he was demoted to prefect of Jizhou. Censor Lü Tao added that Sichuan's tax quotas and grain conversion were already crushing, yet Cong again forced payment and refused to let people combine odd sums—all of which stirred deep resentment. As a result, everyone rewarded for the land-registration drive had their honors stripped. He governed three prefectures in turn: Xiang, Hong, and Lu. At Luzhou conspirators posted a letter on the road setting a date for revolt. The circuit intendant panicked and issued urgent orders to hunt them down. Cong ignored the alarm, held a grand feast on the very day named in the letter, and nothing happened. Called to the capital, he became Grand Director of the Office of Imperial Manufactories and Vice Minister of Revenue, then served as Pavilion Drafting Gentleman-at-Large in Hangzhou, Yongxing, Henan, and Yingzhou. He died at seventy-five.
60
琮長於吏治，而所至主於掊克，為士論嗤鄙。 子回，紹興初參知政事。
Though adept at administration, Cong was known everywhere for squeezing the people, and men of learning held him in contempt. His son Hui became vice grand councilor early in the Shaoxing reign.
61
朱壽隆
Zhu Shoulong.
62
朱壽隆，字仲山，密州諸城人。 以蔭知九隴縣。 吏告民一家七人以火死，壽隆曰：「寧有盡室就焚無一脫者，殆必有奸。」 逾月獲盜，果殺其人而縱火也。 知宿州，宿多劇盜，至白晝被甲剽攻，郡縣不能制。 壽隆設方略耳目，捕斬千餘人。
Zhu Shoulong, courtesy name Zhongshan, came from Zhucheng in Mizhou. He entered office by hereditary privilege as magistrate of Jiulong County. When a clerk reported that seven members of one family had died in a fire, Shoulong said, "No whole household burns to ash without a single survivor—someone must be hiding murder behind the flames." Within a month the culprit was caught: he had murdered the family and set the fire to cover it up. As prefect of Suzhou he found the region overrun by ruthless bandits who raided in broad daylight in armor, beyond the reach of local officials. Shoulong built a network of agents and traps, capturing and executing more than a thousand men.
63
擢提點廣西刑獄。 嶺外新經儂寇，修營城障，貴州虐用其人，不能聊生。 壽隆馳詣州，械守送獄，奏黜之。 老稚婦女遭亂，流轉不能自還者，檄所在資送其還。 舊制，溪蠻侵暴羈縻州，雖殺人無得仇報，壽隆請聽相償，蠻始畏戢。
He was promoted to circuit judicial commissioner for Guangxi. The far south had just been ravaged by the Nong rebellions. While rebuilding walls and fortifications, Guizhou worked its people so brutally they could barely live. Shoulong raced to Guizhou, had the prefect arrested, and memorialized for his removal. For elders, children, and women displaced by the fighting who could not find their way home, he ordered local officials to provide funds and send them back. Under old rules, when tribal peoples from the streams attacked the frontier prefectures, even murder went unpunished. Shoulong obtained permission for blood compensation, and only then did the tribes begin to fear restraint.
64
歷鹽鐵度支判官、夔路轉運使。 巴峽地隘，民困於役，免其不應法者千五百人。 復為鹽鐵判官、京東轉運使，賜三品服。 歲惡民移，壽隆諭大姓富室畜為田僕，舉貸立息，官為置籍索之，貧富交利。 以少府監知揚州，卒，年六十八。
He served in turn as commissioner-assessor in the Salt and Iron and Revenue Sections and as transport commissioner of Kuizhou Circuit. The Ba Gorge country was cramped and its people crushed by labor levies; he exempted fifteen hundred men who had been drafted in violation of the law. He returned to service as salt and iron commissioner-assessor and transport commissioner of Jingdong, receiving third-rank court robes. During a failed harvest year, as people drifted away in search of work, Shoulong urged wealthy landowners to take them on as farm hands, lend at fixed interest, and keep official registers of the loans so debts could be recovered—benefiting both rich and poor. He served as director of the Office of Imperial Manufactories while governing Yangzhou, and died at sixty-eight.
65
壽隆為人和厚，接談怡怡，必當於理，而不屈於權貴。 狄青討賊，欲殺裨將不用命者數人，壽隆極論罪不當死。 孫沔在坐，曰：「儂賊害民萬計，此何足惜。」 壽隆曰：「王師之來以除民害，顧可效賊為暴邪？」 青感其言而止。
Shoulong was warm and generous by nature. In conversation he was gentle and courteous, always spoke to the point, and never yielded to power or wealth. While Di Qing was campaigning against the rebels, he intended to put several insubordinate subordinate generals to death. Shoulong argued strenuously that their offenses did not warrant capital punishment. Sun Mian, who was present, said, "The Nong rebels slaughtered tens of thousands of our people—why should we spare these men?" Shoulong replied, "The imperial army came to deliver the people from harm—are we to imitate the rebels and become tyrants ourselves?" Moved by his words, Qing abandoned the plan.
66
盧士宏
Lu Shihong.
67
盧士宏，字子高，新鄭人。 以父任屢更州縣，所至著清名。 知信陽軍。 官捕為妖術者，餘黨懼及，群聚山谷間，士宏請減其罪招之，即相率歸命。 徙知漢州，校實民產，使力役不濫，人德之。 又知洋州。 先是，圭田多虛籍。 士宏考校，令隨實以輸，自部使者而下，皆十損七八。 文彥博、包拯以廉能薦，由三司開拆司擢夔州路轉運使，遂知廣州。 或傳安南舟數百泊海中，將為寇，嶺徼驚搖。 士宏灼其非，是日，從賓客宴遊為樂，民賴以安。 受代還，引疾丐便郡，知鄭州。 未幾，以光祿卿致仕。 卒，年七十三。 凡衣衾棺槨之制，皆有遺命，戒諸子勿為銘誌。
Lu Shihong, courtesy name Zigao, came from Xinzheng. Entering service through his father's privilege, he served in one prefecture and county after another, earning a reputation for clean government wherever he went. He served as military prefect of Xinyang. When officials began arresting practitioners of sorcery, the remaining followers feared they would be swept up and fled into the hills. Shihong petitioned to reduce their penalties as an inducement to surrender, and they came forward one after another to submit. Transferred to Han Prefecture, he audited household property so that labor levies were not excessive, and the people were deeply grateful. He later governed Yang Prefecture. Previously, many top-grade private landholdings had been falsely registered. Shihong audited the registers and required payments to match actual holdings. From the circuit commissioner on down, everyone lost seven or eight tenths of what they had claimed. Recommended by Wen Yanbo and Bao Zheng for integrity and competence, he rose from the open-and-check office of the Three Sections to transport commissioner of Kuizhou Circuit and then became prefect of Guangzhou. Rumors spread that several hundred Annamese ships lay at anchor offshore, poised to raid the coast, and the Lingnan frontier was thrown into panic. Shihong saw at once that the report was false. That very day he went out feasting and sightseeing with his guests, and the people took heart from his calm and felt secure again. After completing his term he returned home, then cited illness to request a less demanding post and was appointed prefect of Zheng Prefecture. Before long he retired with the rank of Grandee for Splendid Happiness. He died at seventy-three. He left detailed instructions for his burial garments, bedding, coffin, and inner casket, and forbade his sons to commission an epitaph or memorial inscription.
68
單煦，字孟陽，平原人。 舉進士，知洛陽縣。 民以妖幻傳相教授，煦跡捕戮三十餘人，當得上賞，不肯言。 轉知昌州，時詔城蜀治，煦以蜀地負山帶江，一旦毀籬垣而興板築，其費巨萬，非民力所堪，請但築子城。 轉運使即移諸郡如其議。
Dan Xu, courtesy name Mengyang, came from Pingyuan. After passing the jinshi examination, he served as magistrate of Luoyang County. When the people began teaching one another sorcery and trickery, Xu tracked down and executed more than thirty offenders—an achievement that merited a high commendation, but he never mentioned it. Transferred to Chang Prefecture during an edict to fortify the Shu region, Xu argued that with its mountains behind and rivers before it, tearing down existing walls to build new ramparts would cost a fortune the people could not sustain. He asked instead to build only an inner citadel. The transport commissioner immediately circulated orders to every prefecture adopting his plan.
69
徙清平軍使。 有二盜殺人，捕治不承，煦縱使之食，甲食之既，乙不下咽，執而訊之，果殺人者。 為御史臺推直官，江南人誣轉運使呂昌齡以賄，中丞張訊而論之。 鞫未就，敕煦往治，煦不肯阿其長，卒直昌齡。 乞外遷，知濮、合二州。 合居涪、漢間，夏秋患於淫潦，煦築東堤以禦之。 赤水縣鹽井涸，奏蠲其賦。 累官光祿卿，卒，年七十七。
He was transferred to serve as military commissioner of Qingping. Two thieves had committed murder but would not confess under interrogation. Xu let them eat together: the first finished his meal, but the second could not swallow a bite. Xu seized the second and questioned him, and he proved to be the killer. Serving as investigating officer of the Censorate, he took up a case in which a man from Jiangnan had falsely accused transport commissioner Lü Changling of bribery. Vice Censor-in-Chief Zhang had already begun the prosecution. Before the trial was complete, an edict assigned the case to Xu. He refused to defer to his superior and ultimately cleared Changling of all charges. He requested a provincial appointment and served as prefect of Pu and He Prefectures in succession. He Prefecture lay between the Fu and Han Rivers and suffered chronic summer and autumn flooding. Xu built an eastern dike to hold the waters back. When the salt well in Chishui County ran dry, he memorialized for a remission of its tax levy. He eventually reached the rank of Grandee for Splendid Happiness and died at seventy-seven.
70
煦友愛兄熙，兄嘗毆人至死，未有知者。 煦曰：「家貧親老，仰兄以養，義當代之死。」 即趨詣鬥所以待捕。 已而死者蘇，驚問之，煦以情告。 其人感歎，遂輟訟。
Xu was deeply devoted to his elder brother Xi, who had once beaten a man to death without anyone discovering it. Xu said, "Our family is poor and our parents are old. We depend on my brother to support them—it is my duty to die in his place." He immediately went to the scene of the fight and waited to be taken into custody. Before long the victim revived. Astonished, he asked what had happened, and Xu told him the whole story. Deeply moved, the man dropped his suit.
71
楊仲元
Yang Zhongyuan.
72
楊仲元，字舜明，管城人。 第進士，調宛丘主簿。 民訴旱，守拒之，曰：「邑未嘗旱，狡吏導民而然。」 仲元白之曰：「野無青草，公日宴黃堂，宜不能知，但一出郊可見矣。 狡吏非他，實仲元也。」 竟免其稅。 知澤州沁水縣，民持物來輸者，視其價稍增之，餘則下其估。 官有所須，不強賦民，聽以所有與官為入，度相當則止，率常先辦。 河外用兵，督餫轉西界，夕宿洪谷口。 仲元相其地，乃寇所由徑路，亟命去之。 民以困乏為辭，不聽，寇果夜出劫諸部，沁水獨免。 後二十年，其子過縣，父老拜泣曰：「河西之役，非公無今日矣。」
Yang Zhongyuan, courtesy name Shunming, came from Guancheng. After passing the jinshi examination, he was appointed chief clerk of Wanqiu. When the people petitioned about drought, the prefect refused them, saying, "This district has never known drought—a scheming clerk put the people up to this." Zhongyuan reported to him, "There is no green grass in the fields. You feast daily in the hall of office and could hardly know—but walk outside the walls and you will see it for yourself. The scheming clerk is none other than myself." In the end the tax was remitted. As magistrate of Qinshui County in Ze Prefecture, when people brought goods for official delivery he slightly raised the price paid for those items and lowered the assessed value of everything else. When the government needed supplies, he never forced levies on the people. He let them contribute whatever they had until the required value was met, and he usually fulfilled quotas well ahead of deadline. During the campaign beyond the Yellow River he supervised grain transport to the western frontier. One evening the convoy camped at Honggu Pass. Zhongyuan surveyed the terrain and saw it lay on a bandit route. He immediately ordered the convoy to move on. The people pleaded exhaustion, but he would not listen. Bandits did raid neighboring prefectures that night, and Qinshui alone was spared. Twenty years later, when his son passed through the county, the elders bowed and wept, saying, "Had it not been for your father in the campaign west of the River, we would not be alive today."
73
初，軍期尚緩，而仲元督行良急。 至則芻糧有不集者皆可賤市，後期者物數倍其價，民始知其為利。 州買羊，斂民差出錢帛滋蔓，病民為甚，仲元更其令，戶才費錢百。 又遣吏市羔於他所，明年以供州，不科一錢。 徙知鄖鄉縣，宰相張士遜先塋隸境內，將屬之，召不往。 至則按籍均役之，雖堂帖求免，不為減。
At first the army's deadline was still lenient, but Zhongyuan drove the transport crews relentlessly. When they arrived, uncollected fodder and grain could be bought at bargain prices, while latecomers paid several times as much. Only then did the people understand that his urgency had worked to their advantage. The prefecture's practice of buying sheep had spawned ever-growing corvée levies in cash and silk, crushing the people. Zhongyuan revised the order so that each household paid only a hundred cash. He also sent clerks to buy lambs elsewhere so that the following year the prefecture would be supplied without levying a single cash from the people. Transferred to Yunxiang County, he was summoned when Grand Councilor Zhang Shisun's ancestral tomb within the district was to be placed under special jurisdiction—but he refused to go. Once in office he assigned corvée labor evenly according to the registers. Even when letters from the grand councilor's office sought exemption, he would not reduce the assessment.
74
歷知光、虔、虢三州，官光祿卿，改中散大夫。 戒諸子曰：「吾入官五十年，未嘗以私怒加人，雖杖刑之微，苟有兩比，不敢與輕法，以是為報國耳。」 卒，年七十五。
He served in turn as prefect of Guang, Qian, and Guo Prefectures, rose to Grandee for Splendid Happiness, and was promoted to Grandee for Miscellaneous Uses. He admonished his sons, "In fifty years of office I never let private anger dictate my judgments. Even for the lightest bamboo punishment, if both sides had a case, I never applied the lenient penalty. That is how I have served the state." He died at seventy-five.
75
餘良肱
Yu Lianggong.
76
餘良肱，字康臣，洪州分寧人。 第進士，調荊南司理參軍。 屬縣捕得殺人者，既自誣服，良肱視驗屍與刃，疑之曰：「豈有刃盈尺傷不及寸乎？」 白府請自捕逮，未幾，果獲真殺人者。 民有失財物逾十萬，逮平民數十人，方暑，搒掠號呼聞於外； 或有附吏耳語，良肱陰知其為盜，亟捕詰之，贓盡得。
Yu Lianggong, courtesy name Kangchen, came from Fenning in Hong Prefecture. After passing the jinshi examination, he was appointed judicial assistant in Jingnan. When a subordinate county captured a murderer who had already confessed, Lianggong examined the corpse and the weapon and grew suspicious. "How can a foot-long blade leave wounds less than an inch deep?" he asked. He reported to the prefectural office and asked to conduct the investigation himself. Before long the real killer was captured. When a resident reported the loss of property worth more than a hundred thousand cash, dozens of commoners were arrested. It was midsummer, and the sounds of flogging and screaming could be heard outside; some whispered in the clerks' ears. Lianggong secretly suspected they were the thieves, quickly arrested and interrogated them, and recovered all the stolen goods.
77
改大理寺丞，出知湘陰縣。 縣逋米數千石，歲責里胥代輸，良肱論列之，遂蠲其籍。 通判杭州，江潮善溢，漂官民廬舍，良肱累石堤二十里障之，潮不為害。 時王陶為屬官，常以氣犯府帥，吏或訴陶，帥挾憾欲按之，良肱不可曰：「使陶以罪去，是以直不容也。」 帥遂已。 後陶官於朝，果以直聞。 知虔州，士大夫死嶺外者，喪車自虔出，多弱子寡婦。 良肱悉力振護，孤女無所依者，出俸錢嫁之。 以母老，得知南康軍。 丁母憂，服除，為三司使判官。
He was promoted to assistant director of the Court of Judicial Review and appointed magistrate of Xiangyin County. The county owed several thousand shi of rice, and each year village headmen were forced to pay on its behalf. Lianggong presented the case to higher authority and had the debt stricken from the registers. As vice prefect of Hangzhou, he faced tidal floods that regularly swept away public and private buildings. Lianggong built a stone dike twenty li long to hold the tides back, and the floods ceased to do harm. At the time Wang Tao served as a subordinate official and often offended the prefect with his blunt manner. When some clerks complained, the prefect, nursing a grudge, wanted to bring charges against him. Lianggong objected: "If Tao were driven out on false charges, it would mean the upright man has no place here." The prefect dropped the matter. Later Tao served at court and did indeed become renowned for his integrity. As prefect of Qian Prefecture, he saw that when scholar-officials died beyond the Ling mountains, their funeral processions passed through Qian bearing many helpless children and widows. Lianggong did everything in his power to assist and protect them. Orphan girls with no one to rely on he married off at his own expense from his official salary. Because his mother was elderly, he obtained the post of military prefect of Nankang so he could be nearer to her. After completing mourning for his mother, he served as commissioner-assessor to the Commissioner of the Three Sections.
78
方關、陝用兵，朝議貸在京民錢，良肱力爭之，會大臣亦以為言，議遂格。 內府出腐幣售三司，三司吏將受之，良肱獨曰：「若賦諸軍，軍且怨； 不則貨諸民，民且病。 請付文思，以奉帷幄。
Just as campaigns were underway in Guan and Shaan, the court debated requisitioning loans from the capital's residents. Lianggong argued forcefully against it, and when senior ministers raised the same objection, the proposal was shelved. When the inner treasury offered degraded currency for sale to the Three Sections and the clerks were about to accept it, Lianggong alone objected: "If this is distributed to the armies, the soldiers will resent it; and if it is sold to the people instead, the people will be ruined. Send it to the Department of Imperial Manufactures to supply the palace furnishings.
79
改知明州。 朝廷方治汴渠，留提舉汴河司。 汴水澱汙，流且緩，執政主狹河議。 良肱謂：「善治水者不與水爭地。 方冬水涸，宜自京左浚治，以及畿右，三年，可使水復行地中。」 弗聽。 又議伐汴堤木以資狹河。 良肱言：「自泗至京千餘里，江、淮漕卒接踵，暑行多病暍，藉蔭以休。 又其根盤錯，與堤為固，伐之不便。」 屢爭不能得，乃請不與其事。 執政雖怒，竟不為屈。 改太常少卿、知潤州，遷光祿卿、知宣州，治為江東最。 請老，提舉洪州玉隆觀，卒，年八十一。 七子，卞、爽最知名。 卞，字洪範； 爽，字荀龍，皆以任子恩試校書郎。
He was appointed prefect of Ming Prefecture. While the court was repairing the Bian Canal, he was retained as director of the Bian River Bureau. The Bian River was choked with silt and its current sluggish. Those in power favored a plan to narrow the channel. Lianggong argued, "A master of water management does not fight the river for land. Now, while winter has drawn the water down, we should dredge from east of the capital through the capital precinct. In three years the river can be made to run in its proper channel again." They would not listen. They also proposed felling the trees along the Bian dikes to finance the channel-narrowing project. Lianggong objected: "From Si to the capital is more than a thousand li. Grain-transport crews from the Yangzi and Huai regions follow one after another. In summer many succumb to heatstroke and depend on this shade to rest. Moreover, their roots are tangled and interlocked with the dike, holding it firm—felling them would be unwise." He argued repeatedly but could not prevail, and finally asked to be excused from the project altogether. Those in power were furious, but in the end he would not bend. He was appointed vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and prefect of Run Prefecture, then promoted to Grandee for Splendid Happiness and prefect of Xuan Prefecture, where his administration ranked first in Jiangdong. He requested retirement and was appointed director of the Yulong Abbey in Hong Prefecture. He died at eighty-one. He had seven sons; Bian and Shuang were the best known. Bian, courtesy name Hongfan; Shuang, courtesy name Xunlong—both entered the proofreader office through the privilege granted to sons of officials.
80
卞博學多大略，累為唐州判官、湖北安撫司勾當機宜文字。 討叛蠻有功，知沅州。 蠻殺沿邊巡檢，卞設方略復平之，加奉議郎。 先是，良肱為鼎州推官，五溪蠻叛，良肱運糧境上，周知其利害，上書言：「此彈丸地，不足煩朝廷費，不如棄與而就撫之。」 當時是其議，未果棄也。 及蠻叛，斷渠陽道，扼官軍不得進，卞適使湖北，帥唐義問即授卞節制諸將。 陰選死士三千人，夜銜枚繞出賊背，伐山開道，漏未盡數刻，入渠陽。 黎明整眾出，賊大駭，盡銳來戰，奮擊大破之。 鼓行度險，賊七遇七敗，斬首數千級，蠻遂降。 尋有詔廢渠陽軍為砦，盡拔居人護出之。 紹聖初，治棄渠陽罪，免歸。 徽宗即位，復奉議郎，管勾玉隆觀。 未幾，復渠陽為靖州，又論前事免，終於家。
Bian was widely learned and possessed great strategic vision. He served repeatedly as vice prefect of Tang Prefecture and as chief policy clerk in the Hubei Pacification Commission. For his achievements in suppressing rebellious tribes, he was appointed prefect of Yuan Prefecture. When tribesmen killed a frontier patrol inspector, Bian devised a strategy and restored order. He was promoted to Gentleman for Fostering Righteousness. Earlier, while Lianggong was judicial assistant in Ding Prefecture, the Five Streams tribes rebelled. He transported grain to the frontier, studied the terrain and its risks in detail, and memorialized: "This is a tiny territory not worth the court's expense. Better to withdraw and win them over by appeasement." His proposal won approval at the time, but the withdrawal was never carried out. When the tribes rebelled they severed the Qianyang route and blocked the government armies. Bian happened to be on assignment in Hubei, and the commander Tang Yiwen immediately placed all generals under his command. He secretly chose three thousand elite troops who, at night with gag-sticks in their mouths, circled behind the enemy, cut a path through the mountains, and reached Qianyang within a few hours before dawn. At dawn he formed his troops and marched out. The rebels were terrified, threw their full strength into battle, and were smashed in a fierce assault. Beating drums, they pressed through the difficult terrain. Seven times they met the enemy and seven times routed them, taking several thousand heads, until the tribes surrendered. Soon an edict downgraded Qianyang Army to a stockade and ordered all inhabitants evacuated under escort. Early in the Shaosheng era he was punished for the abandonment of Qianyang, dismissed from office, and sent home. When Emperor Huizong took the throne he was restored to Gentleman for Discussion and assigned to manage Yulong Abbey. Before long Qianyang was restored as Jing Prefecture. He was again prosecuted over the earlier affair, dismissed, and died at home.
81
爽尚氣自信，不少貶以合世。 應元豐詔，上便宜十五事，言過剴切。 元祐末，爽復極言請太皇太后還政事，章惇憾爽不附己，乃擿其言為謗訕，以瀛州防禦推官除名，竄封州。 久之，起知明州，未行，以言者罷，監東嶽廟。 崇寧中，與卞俱入黨籍。
Shuang was proud and self-assured, rarely bending himself to suit the times. In response to the Yuanfeng edict he submitted fifteen policy proposals, his language excessively sharp and uncompromising. Late in the Yuanyou era Shuang again urged forcefully that the Grand Empress Dowager return governmental power. Zhang Dun, resenting Shuang's refusal to side with him, seized on his words as slander, stripped him of rank, and banished him to Feng Prefecture. After a long interval he was appointed prefect of Ming Prefecture, but before he could take up the post critics had him removed and made supervisor of the Eastern Peak Temple. During the Chongning era he and Bian were both entered on the proscribed faction register.
82
潘夙，字伯恭，鄭王美從孫也。 天聖中，上書論時政，授仁壽主簿。 久之，知韶州，擢江西轉運判官，提點廣西、湖北刑獄。 邵州蠻叛，湖南騷動，遷轉運使，專制蠻事，親督兵破其團峒九十。 徙知滑州，改湖北轉運便，知桂州。 坐在湖北時匿名書誣判官韓繹，謫監隨州酒稅。 起知光化軍。 大臣以將帥才舉之，易端州刺史，再遷徙鄜州。 召對，訪交、廣事稱旨，還司封郎中、直昭文館，復知桂州。
Pan Su, courtesy name Bogong, was a collateral descendant of Prince Mei of Zheng. During the Tiansheng era he submitted a memorial on current affairs and was appointed chief clerk of Renshou. After some years he became prefect of Shao Prefecture, was promoted to transport commissioner-assessor of Jiangxi, and served as intendant of penal affairs for Guangxi and Hubei. When the tribes of Shao Prefecture rebelled and Hunan was thrown into turmoil, he was made transport commissioner with sole authority over tribal affairs and personally led troops to destroy ninety stockaded settlements. He was transferred to Hua Prefecture, then made Hubei transport commissioner and prefect of Gui Prefecture. He was convicted of writing an anonymous letter while in Hubei slandering commissioner-assessor Han Yi and was demoted to supervise the wine tax of Suizhou. He was restored and appointed military prefect of Guanghua. Senior ministers recommended him as a commander, and he was moved to Duan Prefecture, then transferred again to Yan Prefecture. Summoned to audience, his answers on affairs in Jiaozhi and Guangdong pleased the emperor. He was made bureau director in the Ministry of Rites, Hanlin attendant at the Zhaowen Pavilion, and again prefect of Gui Prefecture.
83
交人敗於占城，偽表稱賀以為大捷，神宗詔之曰：「智高之難方二十年，中人之情，燕安忽事，直謂山僻蠻獠，無可慮之理。 殊不思禍生於所忽，唐六詔為中國患，此前事之師也。 卿本將家子，寄要蕃，宜體朕意，悉心經度。」 夙遂上書陳交阯可取狀，且將發兵。 未報，而徙河北轉運使，歷度支、鹽鐵副使，知河中府。 章惇察訪荊湖，討南、北江蠻徭，陳夙憂邊狀，以知潭州。 再遷光祿卿，知荊南、鄂州，卒，年七十。
After the people of Jiaozhi were defeated by Champa they sent a false memorial of congratulation claiming a great victory. Emperor Shenzong admonished him: "Nong Zhigao's rebellion was only twenty years ago. Ordinary men grow complacent in comfort and neglect danger, assuming that remote mountain tribes can never threaten us. They forget that disaster grows from neglect. The Six Zhao of Tang were a scourge to China—that lesson should still be before us. You come from a military family and hold a critical frontier post. Embody my intent and devote yourself wholeheartedly to planning." Su then memorialized on how Jiaozhi could be conquered and was about to mobilize troops. Before any reply arrived he was transferred to Hebei transport commissioner, served as vice commissioner of revenue and of salt and iron, and became prefect of Hezhong. When Zhang Dun inspected Jinghu and Hunan and campaigned against the southern and northern river tribes, Su reported his concerns about the frontier and was appointed prefect of Tan Prefecture. He was promoted again to Chamberlain for the Imperial Clan, governed Jingnan and E Prefectures, and died at seventy.
84
論曰：士之官斯世，有一善可稱，致生民咸被其澤於無窮者，故州郡之寄為尤重，張田免禁兵毒於瘴厲，士宏考圭田出於實輸，朱景父子、諲、載、煦、渙、士宏、壽隆輩，皆有德在民。 仲元不以私怒加人，良肱明於折獄，夙以將家子而能留心邊務，用當其材，舉能其官。 若琮也雖長於吏治，而所至掊克，君子奚取焉。
The appraisal says: When men of learning serve in public office, even a single virtue worth praising can bring lasting benefit to the people. For this reason prefectural posts carry special weight. Zhang Tian spared forbidden troops from malarial poison; Lu Shihong audited noble estates against actual tax payments; Zhu Jing and his son, Rong Yin, Li Zai, Dan Xu, Yao Huan, Lu Shihong, Zhu Shoulong, and others like them all left virtue among the people. Yang Zhongyuan did not let private anger govern his judgments; Lianggong was skilled at deciding cases; Su, though born to a military family, gave serious attention to frontier affairs. When each was used according to his talent, all fulfilled their offices well. As for Cong, though skilled in administration, wherever he went he extorted the people—what gentleman would approve of that?