1
孫鼛，字叔靜，錢塘人。 父直官，徙揚之江都。 鼛年十五，遊太學，蘇洵、滕甫稱之。 用父任，調武平尉，捕獲名盜數十，謝賞不受。 再調越州司法參軍，守趙抃薦其材。 知偃師縣，蒲中優人詭僧服隱民間，以不語惑眾，相傳有異法，奔湊其門。 鼛收按姦狀，立伏辜。 韓縝鎮長安，辟入府； 縝去，後來者仍挽之使留，居五年，簽書西川判官。 或薦於朝，召對，擢提舉廣東常平。 徽宗初，徙兩浙。 由福建轉運判官召為屯田員外。
Sun Gao, courtesy name Shujing, was from Qiantang. His father, surnamed Zhi, served in office and later relocated to Jiangdu in Yang Prefecture. When Gao was fifteen he entered the Imperial University, where Su Xun and Teng Fu spoke highly of him. Through his father's yin privilege he was appointed commandant of Wuping, where he captured dozens of notorious bandits but refused any reward offered him. He was next assigned as judicial aide in Yue Prefecture, and the prefect Zhao Bian commended his abilities. While serving as magistrate of Yanshi, he found that entertainers from the Pu region were dressing as monks and living among the populace, mesmerizing crowds with vows of silence and rumors of supernatural powers until people thronged their doors. Gao investigated the case, uncovered the fraud, and swiftly brought the culprits to justice. When Han Zong served as military commissioner at Chang'an, he brought Gao onto his staff. Though Han Zong departed, his successor pressed Gao to remain; he stayed five years before being appointed recorder under the West Sichuan judicial commissioner. On recommendation to the court he was called for an imperial audience and promoted to intendant of the Guangdong Ever-Normal Granary circuit. Early in the Huizong reign he was transferred to the Two Zhe circuits. He was summoned from the post of Fujian transport vice-commissioner to become Clerk of Works in the Ministry of Revenue.
2
鼛微時與蔡京善，常曰：「蔡子，貴人也； 然才不勝德，恐貽天下憂。」 至是，京還朝，遇諸塗。 既見，京逆謂曰：「我若用於天子，願助我。」 鼛曰：「公誠能謹守祖宗之法，以正論輔人主，示節儉以先百吏，而絕口不言兵，天下幸甚。 鼛何為者。」 京默然。 既相，出提點江東刑獄。
In his younger days Gao was close to Cai Jing and often remarked, "Cai is destined for greatness; but his talent outstrips his character, and I fear he will bring calamity upon the empire." By then Cai Jing was returning to the capital and they met on the road. After they greeted each other, Cai said, "If the emperor employs me, I want your help." Gao replied, "If you would truly uphold the ancestral statutes, counsel the sovereign with honest principle, set an example of frugality for all the officials, and never breathe a word about war, the realm would be blessed indeed. As for me, what could I possibly do for you?" Cai fell silent. After Cai became chief councillor, Gao was sent out as judicial intendant for Jiang East circuit.
3
未幾，入為少府少監、戶部郎中。 縣官用度無藝，鼛與尚書曾孝廣、侍郎許幾謀曰：「日增一日，歲增一歲，天下之財豈能給哉？」 共疏論之。 當國者不樂，孝廣、幾由是罷，徙鼛開封。 遷太僕卿、殿中少監。
Soon afterward he was appointed assistant director of the Palace Domestic Service and bureau director in the Ministry of Revenue. Government spending knew no bounds; Gao met with Minister Zeng Xiaoguang and Vice Minister Xu Ji and said, "Costs rise day by day and year by year—how can the empire's resources keep pace?" Together they submitted a memorial on the matter. The men then in power took offense; Xiaoguang and Ji lost their posts over it, and Gao was moved to Kaifeng. He was promoted to master of the Court of the Imperial Stud and assistant director of the Palace Domestic Service.
4
四輔建，以顯謨閣待制知曹州。 論經始規畫之勞，轉太中大夫，徙鄆州。 邑人子為「草祭」之謠，指切蔡京。 鼛以聞，京怒，使言者誣以它謗，提舉鴻慶宮。 起知單州，遂致仕。 靖康二年卒，年八十六。 贈銀青光祿大夫，諡曰「通靖」。
When the Four Assistants were installed, he was made attendant reader-in-waiting at the Xianmo Hall and appointed prefect of Cao. In recognition of his work in founding and planning, he was promoted to Grandee of the Palace and transferred to Yan Prefecture. Local youths composed a satirical song called "Grass Sacrifice" that mocked Cai Jing. Gao reported the matter; Cai Jing was furious and had critics fabricate other charges against him, and Gao was relegated to intendant of Hongqing Palace. He was later recalled to serve as prefect of Dan, then retired from office. He died in the second year of the Jingkang era, at the age of eighty-six. He was posthumously granted the title Silver-Green Glory Grandee of Glory, with the posthumous name Tongjing (Comprehensive Tranquility).
5
鼛篤於行義，在廣東時，蘇軾謫居惠州，極意與周旋。 二子娶晁補之、黃庭堅女，黨事起，家人危懼，鼛一無所顧。 時人稱之。
Gao was deeply committed to integrity; while serving in Guangdong he went to great lengths to befriend Su Shi, who had been exiled to Huizhou. His two sons married daughters of Chao Buzhi and Huang Tingjian; when the faction prosecutions began and his household trembled with fear, Gao did not waver in the least. Contemporaries praised him for it.
6
吳時，字伸道，邛州人。 初舉進士，得學究出身； 再試，中甲科。 知華州鄭縣，轉運使檄州餫米五萬輸長安，鄭獨當三萬，時貽書使者曰：「會三萬斛之費，以車則千五百乘，以卒則五萬夫，縣民可役者才二百五十八戶耳。 古者用師則贏糧以養兵，無事則移兵以就食，誠能移兵於華，則前費可免。 華、雍相去百六十里，一旦欲用，朝發而夕至矣。」 使者從其言。
Wu Shi, courtesy name Shendao, was from Qiong Prefecture. On his first attempt at the jinshi examination he passed with only the lower xueju degree; on a second attempt he ranked in the top class. As magistrate of Zheng County in Hua Prefecture, he received an order from the transport commissioner to send fifty thousand piculs of grain to Chang'an, with Zheng County alone responsible for thirty thousand. Shi wrote to the envoy: "Thirty thousand piculs would require some fifteen hundred cartloads and fifty thousand laborers—yet the county has only two hundred fifty-eight households fit for corvée service. In antiquity armies carried extra grain when campaigning and shifted troops to food supplies in peacetime; if troops were stationed at Hua instead, this entire burden could be lifted. Hua and Yong are only one hundred sixty li apart, so forces could march out in the morning and arrive by evening whenever needed. The envoy accepted his proposal.
7
陸師閔幹秦、蜀茶馬，辟為屬。 章楶欲以御史薦，力辭之，徽宗求言，遠臣上章，封識多不能如式，有司悉卻之，時建言，乃得達。 為睦親宅教授，提舉永興軍路學事。 華州諸生有觸忌諱者，教授欲上之，曰：「是間言語，皆臣子所不忍聞。」 時即火其書，曰：「臣子不忍聞，而令君父聞乎？」
Lu Shimin, commissioner of the Qin-Shu Tea and Horse Agency, recruited him as a staff member. Zhang Shu wanted to recommend him as censor, but he firmly declined. When Emperor Huizong solicited opinions, memorials from distant officials were often rejected because their seals did not meet format requirements; Shi's submission alone got through. He served as professor at the Court of Kinship Lodge and as intendant of schools for the Yongxing Military Circuit. When some students in Hua Prefecture used language that violated taboo, the professor wanted to report them. Shi said, "Such language is what a loyal subject cannot bear even to hear. He at once burned the documents and said, "If we cannot bear to hear it, how can we allow our ruler and father to hear it?"
8
召為工部員外郎，改禮部，兼辟雍司業。 大觀興算學，議以黃帝為先師。 時言：「今祠祀聖祖，祝板書臣名，而釋奠孔子，但列中祀。 數學，六藝之一耳，當以何禮事之？」 乃止。 遷太僕少卿。
He was summoned as bureau director in the Ministry of Works, then moved to the Ministry of Rites while also serving as director of studies at the Piyong Imperial Academy. During the Daguan period a school of mathematics was founded, and officials debated making the Yellow Emperor its chief teacher. Shi argued: "In rites to the sacred ancestor our names appear on the prayer boards, yet Confucius receives only a mid-grade offering. Mathematics is but one of the Six Arts—what ceremony could possibly elevate it above that?" The proposal was dropped. He was promoted to vice director of the Court of the Imperial Stud.
9
張商英罷相，言者指時為黨，出知耀州，又降通判鼎州； 未赴，提舉河東常平。 歲饑，發公粟以振民。 童貫經略北方，每訪以邊事，輒不答。 還為大晟典樂，擢中書舍人、給事中。 內侍何欣謫監衡州酒，猶領節度使，時奏奪之。
After Zhang Shangying was dismissed as chancellor, critics denounced Shi as a factionalist; he was sent to govern Yao Prefecture and then demoted to vice-prefect of Ding; before he could take up the latter post he was appointed intendant of the Hedong Ever-Normal Granary circuit. During a famine year he opened government granaries to feed the people. Tong Guan, commissioner of the northern frontier, repeatedly questioned him about border affairs, but Shi refused to reply. He returned to head music at the Da Sheng Bureau and was promoted to secretariat drafter and chief supervising censor. The eunuch He Xin, though demoted to supervise the Hengzhou wine monopoly, still retained his military commissioner title; Shi submitted a memorial to revoke it.
10
又因進對及取燕事，曰：「祖宗盟血未乾，渝之必速亂。」 蔡攸聞之，以告王黼，黼怒，斥為腐儒。 時求去，以徽猷閣待制兼侍讀，俄提舉上請太平宮。 西歸，遇其里人趙雍，為言：「取燕必召禍。 吾老，得不遭其變，幸矣。」 累歲而卒，年七十八。
On another occasion, during an audience on the Yan campaign, he said, "The blood of our ancestors' covenant has scarcely dried—to break it will bring swift ruin. Cai You heard of this and informed Wang Fu, who in fury dismissed him as a pedantic hack. Shi asked to leave office and was made attendant reader and lecturer at the Huiyou Hall; shortly afterward he became intendant of the Shangqing Taiping Palace. On his way home to the west he met his townsman Zhao Yong and said, "The seizure of Yan is sure to bring disaster. I am old now; if I can die without living through that calamity, I shall count myself lucky." He died a few years later, at the age of seventy-eight.
11
時敏於為文，未嘗屬稿，落筆已就，兩學目之曰：「立地書廚。」
Shi wrote with extraordinary speed, never outlining a draft beforehand; the moment his brush touched paper the essay was complete. Students at both imperial academies nicknamed him "the walking library."
12
李昭玘
Li Zhaoqi
13
李昭玘，字成季，濟南人。 少與晁補之齊名，為蘇軾所知。 擢進士第，徐州教授。 守孫覺深禮之，每從容講學及古人行己處世之要，相得歡甚。 用李清臣薦，為秘書省正字、校書郎，加秘閣校理。
Li Zhaoqi, courtesy name Chenji, was from Jinan. In his youth he enjoyed equal renown with Chao Buzhi and won the notice of Su Shi. After earning his jinshi degree he served as professor at Xu Prefecture. Prefect Sun Jue treated him with great respect; they often spent leisurely hours discussing scholarship and the principles by which the ancients ordered their lives, and the two became fast friends. On the recommendation of Li Qingchen he was appointed rectifier of texts and collating secretary in the Secretariat, then collator of the Secret Archive.
14
通判潞州，潞民死多不葬，昭玘斥官地，畫兆竁，具棺衾，作文風曉之，俗為一變。 入為秘書丞、開封推官，俄提點永興、京西、京東路刑獄，坐元符黨奪官。
As vice-prefect of Lu he found that many locals were left unburied; he allocated government land, marked grave sites, supplied coffins and shrouds, and wrote an exhortation on burial customs that transformed local practice entirely. He was appointed director of the Secretariat and investigating censor in Kaifeng, then soon made judicial intendant for the Yongxing, Jingxi, and Jingdong circuits; he was stripped of office for Yuanfu faction association.
15
徽宗立，召為右司員外郎，遷太常少卿。 韓忠彥欲用為起居舍人，曾布持之，布使山陵，命始下。 為陳次升所論，出知滄州。 崇寧初，詔以昭玘嘗傾搖先烈，每改元豐敕條，倡從寬之邪說，罷主管鴻慶宮，遂入黨籍中。 居閑十五年，自號「樂靜先生」。 寓意法書、圖畫，貯於十囊，命曰「燕遊十友」，為之序，以為：「與今之人友，或趨附而陷於禍，吾寧與十者友，久益有味也。」
When Huizong came to the throne he was recalled as bureau director of the right office and promoted to vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Han Zhongyan wanted to appoint him attendant gentleman of the household, but Zeng Bu blocked the appointment until Bu departed for the imperial tomb rites, when the order finally went out. Chen Cisheng impeached him, and he was sent out as prefect of Cang. Early in the Chongning era an edict charged that Zhaoqi had undermined the accomplishments of the previous reign, repeatedly revising Yuanfeng statutes and preaching lax heterodoxies; he was removed from supervising Hongqing Palace and entered the proscribed faction list. He lived in retirement for fifteen years and took the sobriquet Master Lejing (Delighting in Stillness). He devoted himself to fine calligraphy and painting, kept them in ten cases he called the "Ten Companions of the Swallow Excursion," and wrote a preface declaring: "Friendship with men of the present often means flattery and ruin; I prefer these ten companions, whose company grows richer with time."
16
初，昭玘校試高密，得侯蒙。 蒙執政，思顧舊恩，使人致己意，昭玘唯求秘閣法帖而已。 使陝西時，延安小將車吉者被誣為盜，昭玘察知無它。 吉後立戰功，至皇城使，遇昭玘京師，拜於前曰：「感公生存之恩，願以名馬為獻。」 笑卻之。
Earlier, while grading examinations at Gaomi, Zhaoqi had passed Hou Meng. When Hou Meng rose to power he wished to repay the old debt and sent an emissary with his offer; Zhaoqi asked only for rubbings from the Secret Archive collection. While on duty in Shaanxi, a young Yan'an officer named Che Ji was falsely accused of robbery; Zhaoqi looked into the case and found no other wrongdoing. Ji later distinguished himself in battle and rose to commissioner of the imperial city; encountering Zhaoqi in the capital, he bowed and said, "I owe you my life and wish to offer you a fine steed in thanks. Zhaoqi smiled and refused.
17
晚知歙州，辭不行。 靖康初，復以起居舍人召，而已卒。 紹興初，追復直徽猷閣。
Late in life he was appointed prefect of She but declined to take up the post. At the start of the Jingkang era he was again summoned as attendant gentleman of the household, but he had already died. Early in the Shaoxing era his rank as direct attendant of the Huiyou Hall was posthumously restored.
18
吳師禮
Wu Shili
19
吳師禮，字安仲，杭州錢塘人。 太學上舍賜第，調涇縣主簿，知天長縣。 召太學博士、秘書省正字，預餞鄒浩，免。 徽宗初，為開封府推官。 蔡王似宮吏有不順語，下之府，師禮主治。 獄成，不使一詞及王； 吏雖有死者，亦不被以指斥罪。 擢右司諫，改右司員外郎。
Wu Shili, courtesy name Anzhong, was from Qiantang in Hang Prefecture. After graduating at the top of the Imperial University's upper division he was appointed chief clerk of Jing County and later magistrate of Tianchang. He was called to serve as erudite of the Imperial University and rectifier of texts in the Secretariat, but was dismissed for having attended the farewell banquet for Zou Hao. Early in the Huizong reign he served as investigating censor in the Kaifeng metropolitan office. When attendants of Prince Cai used seditious language, the case was referred to Kaifeng and Shili presided over the investigation. When the trial concluded, not one statement implicated the prince; and even attendants who were executed were not convicted of crimes that named him. He was promoted to remonstrator of the right office and then bureau director of the right office.
20
師禮工翰墨，帝嘗訪以字學，對曰：「陛下御極之初，當志其大者，臣不敢以末伎對。」 聞者獎其得體。 以直秘閣知宿州，卒。
Shili excelled at calligraphy; the emperor once asked his views on paleography. He answered, "At the start of your reign Your Majesty should fix your mind on great matters; I dare not reply with a trifling art. Onlookers praised his tact. He was appointed direct attendant of the Secret Archive and prefect of Su, where he died in office.
21
師禮遊太學時，兄師仁為正，守《春秋》學。 它學官有惡之者，條其疑問諸生，師禮悉以兄說對。 學官怒，鳴鼓坐堂上，眾質之，師禮引據《三傳》，意氣自如。 江公望時在旁，心竊喜。 後相遇於泌陽，公望謂曰：「子異日得志，當如何？」 曰：「但為人作豐年耳。」 遂定交。
While Shili was studying at the Imperial University, his elder brother Shiren served as Director and specialized in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Some of the other instructors bore him ill will; they set out doubtful points to test the students, and Shili answered every one with his brother's interpretations. The instructor grew angry, sounded the drum, and took his seat in the hall to interrogate him before the assembly; Shili cited the Three Commentaries in support, as composed as ever. Jiang Gongwang was present and inwardly rejoiced. Later they met again in Biyang; Gongwang said to him, "If you rise to office one day, what will you do? He replied, "Only to bring others a year of plenty." Thus they became close friends.
22
師仁，字坦求。 篤學厲志，不事科舉。 喪親，廬墓下，日倩旁寺僧造飯一缽以充饑，不復置庖爨及蓄僮僕。 郡守陳襄、鄧潤甫、蒲宗孟皆以遺逸薦於朝。 元祐初，召為太學正，遷博士，十年無它除。 後為潁川、吳王宮教授，卒。
Shiren, styled Tanqiu. Deep in learning and firm in resolve, he did not pursue the civil-service examinations. When his parents died, he built a mourning hut by the tomb; each day he hired monks from a nearby temple to prepare a single bowl of food to stave off hunger, and kept no kitchen or household servants. The prefectural administrators Chen Xiang, Deng Runfu, and Pu Zongmeng all recommended him to the court as a recluse of outstanding merit. At the beginning of the Yuanyou era he was summoned as Director of the Imperial University, then promoted to Erudite; for ten years he received no other appointment. He later served as instructor in the princely establishments of Yingchuan and Wu, and died in office.
23
王漢之
Wang Hanzhi
24
王漢之，字彥昭，衢州常山人。 父介，舉制科，以直聞，至秘閣校理。 漢之進士甲科，調秀州司戶參軍，知金華、澠池二縣，為鴻臚丞，知真州。 時詔諸道經畫財用上諸朝，漢之言：「所在無都籍，是以不能周知而校其登耗以待用。 願令郡縣先置籍，總之諸道，則天下如指諸掌矣。」 從之。 入為開封府推官，歷工、吏、禮三部員外郎，太常少卿。
Wang Hanzhi, styled Yanzhao, was a native of Changshan in Quzhou. His father Jie passed the decree examination, won renown for integrity, and rose to Collation Editor in the Secretariat. Hanzhi passed the jinshi in the top tier, was appointed registrar in the Xiuzhou revenue office, served as magistrate of Jinhua and Mianchi counties, became Vice Director of the Court of State Ceremonial, and governed Zhenzhou. When an imperial order directed each circuit to survey fiscal resources and report to the court, Hanzhi said, "No unified registers exist locally, and so revenues and expenditures cannot be fully known and compared in readiness for use. I ask that each prefecture and county be required to maintain registers first, with the circuits aggregating them; then the whole empire would lie in the palm of one's hand." The court adopted this. He entered court as judicial reviewer in the Kaifeng prefectural office, and served successively as Vice Director in the Ministries of Works, Personnel, and Rites, and as Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
25
蔡京置講議司。 漢之，其客也，引為參詳官。 擢禮部侍郎，轉戶部，以顯謨閣待制知瀛州。 言：「自何承矩規塘濼之地屯田，東達於海。 其後又修保塞五州為堤道，備種所宜木至三百萬本，此中國萬世之利也。 今浸失其道，願講行之。」 雄州歸信、容城災，兩輸戶請蠲稅，吏不聽。 漢之言：「雄州規小利，失大體，萬一契丹蠲之，為朝廷羞。」
Cai Jing established the Discussion Office. Hanzhi was his client and was brought in as a consulting official. He was promoted to Vice Minister of Rites, then transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, and with the provisional title of Gentleman for Court Discussion of the Xianmo Pavilion governed Yingzhou. He memorialized, "Since He Chengju planned marshland reclamation for garrison farming, extending eastward to the sea, and later the embankment roads of the five border prefectures of Baosai were repaired, with tree plantings suited to the soil numbering three million—this was a benefit to China for ten thousand generations. Today these works are gradually lost; I ask that they be studied and put back into practice." In Xiongzhou, Guixin and Rongcheng suffered disaster; dual-tax households requested tax relief, but the clerks refused. Hanzhi said, "Xiongzhou grasps at petty profit and loses sight of the larger principle; should the Khitan grant relief instead, it would shame the court."
26
徙江寧、河南府，不至，而為蘇、潭、洪三州。 召拜兵部侍郎，復以顯謨閣直學士知成都，又不至，連徙五州，入為工部侍郎。 奉使契丹，還，言其主不恤民政，而掊克荒淫，亡可跂而待也。 徽宗悅，以知定州。 久之，徙江寧。
He was transferred to Jiangning and Henan prefectures but did not take up those posts, and instead governed the three prefectures of Suzhou, Tanzhou, and Hongzhou. Summoned and appointed Vice Minister of War, he again received the straight title of Gentleman for Court Discussion of the Xianmo Pavilion to govern Chengdu but did not go; after successive transfers through five prefectures he entered court as Vice Minister of Works. On a mission to the Khitan, upon his return he reported that their ruler neglected civil administration while extorting and indulging in excess, and that their fall was imminent. Huizong was pleased and appointed him to govern Dingzhou. After a long interval he was transferred to Jiangning.
27
方臘之亂，錄奏報禦捕功，加龍圖閣直學士，又進延康殿學士。 卒，年七十。 弟渙之。
During the Fang La rebellion, his memorials on defense and suppression were rewarded with promotion to Straight Gentleman of the Longtu Pavilion, and again to Gentleman of the Yankang Hall. He died at the age of seventy. His younger brother Huanzhi.
28
弟渙之
Younger Brother Huanzhi
29
渙之，字彥舟。 未冠，擢上第，有司疑年未及銓格，特補武勝軍節度推官。 方新置學官，以為杭州教授，知潁上縣。 元祐中，為太學博士，校對黃本秘書。 通判衛州，入編修《兩朝魯衛信錄》。
Huanzhi, styled Yanzhou. Before reaching adulthood he placed at the top of the examinations; the authorities doubted he met the age requirement for assignment, and he was specially appointed as judicial reviewer in the Wusheng circuit military commission. When university instructors were newly established, he was made instructor at Hangzhou and magistrate of Yingshang county. During the Yuanyou era he was an Erudite at the Imperial University and collated the yellow-draft manuscripts of the Secretariat. As acting prefect of Weizhou he entered service to compile the Record of Trust between Lu and Wei of the Two Reigns.
30
徽宗立，以日食求言。 渙之用大臣交薦召對，因言：「求言非難，聽之難； 聽之非難，察而用之難。 今國家每下求言之詔，而下之報上，乃或不然，以指陳闕失為訕上，以阿諛佞諂為尊君，以論議趨時為國是，以可否相濟為邪說。 志士仁人知言之無益也，不復有言，而小人肆為詭譎可駭之論，苟容偷合。 願陛下虛心公聽，言無逆遜，唯是之從； 事無今昔，唯當為貴； 人無同異，唯正是用。 則人心說，治道成，天意得矣。」 帝欣然延納，欲任以諫官、御史。 辭曰：「臣由大臣薦，不可以居是官。」 乃拜吏部員外郎，遷左司員外郎、起居舍人，擢中書舍人。 趨省之日，詞頭三十三，下筆即就。
When Huizong ascended the throne, he sought advice on account of a solar eclipse. Huanzhi was summoned for audience through senior officials' joint recommendation, and said, "To solicit advice is not difficult; to listen is difficult; to listen is not difficult; to examine and employ it is difficult. Today, whenever the state issues an edict seeking counsel, the responses from below to above are sometimes otherwise: pointing out faults is taken as deriding the ruler, flattery is taken as honoring the sovereign, debating timely policies is taken as the national consensus, and reconciling yes and no is taken as heterodox talk. Men of steadfast purpose, knowing that speech is useless, speak no more, while petty men freely advance bizarre and alarming theories, grasping at temporary accommodation. I ask Your Majesty to listen with an open mind in the public interest, to accept words without regard to whether they seem contrary, and to follow what is right; in matters without distinction between past and present, to hold only what ought to be done as precious; among people without distinction of faction, to employ only the upright. Then hearts will be content, governance will succeed, and Heaven's intent will be fulfilled." The Emperor received this with pleasure and wished to appoint him remonstrance or censorial official. He declined, saying, "I came through senior ministers' recommendation; I cannot accept such an office." He was appointed Vice Director in the Ministry of Personnel, then Vice Director in the Left Office and Drafting Gentleman for Court Audience, and was promoted to Drafting Gentleman of the Central Secretariat. On the day he attended the Secretariat, there were thirty-three draft titles; he completed them at once.
31
崇寧初，進給事中、吏部侍郎，以寶文閣待制知廣州。 言者論渙之當元祐之末，與陳瓘、龔𡙇、張庭堅遊，既棄於紹聖，而今復之，有害初政。 解職知舒州，入黨籍。 尋知福州，未至，復徙廣州。 蕃客殺奴，市舶使據舊比，止送其長杖笞，渙之不可，論如法。
At the beginning of the Chongning era he was promoted to Chief Supervising Censor and Vice Minister of Personnel, and with the provisional title of Gentleman for Court Discussion of the Baowen Pavilion governed Guangzhou. Critics argued that at the end of Yuanyou Huanzhi had associated with Chen Guan, Gong Shen, and Zhang Tingjian; cast aside in the Shaosheng era, yet now restored—harmful to the inaugural policies. He was removed from office and made prefect of Shuzhou, and entered the faction register. Soon he was assigned to Fuzhou but before arriving was transferred again to Guangzhou. A foreign merchant killed a slave; the maritime trade commissioner, citing precedent, would only send the merchant chief back for bamboo strokes; Huanzhi refused and argued for punishment according to law.
32
召詣闕，言者復拾故語以阻之，罷為洪州。 改滁州，歷潭、杭、揚三州。 張商英相，為給事中、吏部侍郎。 商英去，亦出守。 越八年，知中山府，加寶文閣直學士。 朝廷議北伐，渙之以疾提舉明道宮。 又四年卒，年四十五。
Summoned to court, critics again dredged up old charges to block him, and he was dismissed to govern Hongzhou. He was transferred to Chuzhou and successively governed Tanzhou, Hangzhou, and Yangzhou. When Zhang Shangying became chief councillor, Huanzhi was made Chief Supervising Censor and Vice Minister of Personnel. When Shangying left office, Huanzhi too was sent out as prefect. Eight years later he governed Zhongshan prefecture, with addition of the straight title of Gentleman for Court Discussion of the Baowen Pavilion. When the court debated a northern campaign, Huanzhi pleaded illness and was made superintendent of the Mingdao Palace. Four years later he died at the age of forty-five.
33
渙之性淡泊，恬於仕進，每云：「乘車常以顛墜處之，乘舟常以覆溺處之，仕宦常以不遇處之，則無事矣。」 其歸趣如此。
By nature Huanzhi was detached and indifferent to advancement; he often said, "When riding in a carriage, imagine overturning; when aboard a boat, imagine capsizing; in office, imagine meeting no success—then nothing will trouble you." Such was the bent of his mind.
34
黃廉，字夷仲，洪州分寧人。 第進士，歷州縣。 熙寧初，或薦之王安石。 安石與之言，問免役事，廉據舊法以對，甚悉。 安石曰：「是必能辦新法。」 白神宗，召訪時務，對曰：「陛下意在便民，法非不良也，而吏非其人。 朝廷立法之意則一，而四方推奉紛然不同，所以法行而民病，陛下不盡察也。 河朔被水，河南、齊、晉旱，淮、浙飛蝗，江南疫癘，陛下不盡知也。」 帝即命廉體量振濟東道，除司農丞。 還報合旨，擢利州路轉運判官，復丞司農。
Huang Lian, styled Yizhong, was a native of Fenning in Hongzhou. He passed the jinshi and served through prefectural and county posts. At the beginning of the Xining reforms, someone recommended him to Wang Anshi. Anshi conversed with him and asked about the labor-exemption law; Lian answered according to the old statutes in full detail. Anshi said, "He will certainly be able to carry out the new laws." He reported this to Emperor Shenzong, who summoned Lian to inquire about current affairs; he replied, "Your Majesty's intent lies in benefiting the people; the laws are not inherently bad, but the clerks are not the right men. The court's intent in legislating is one, yet implementation differs widely in every quarter; this is why the laws operate while the people suffer—Your Majesty does not fully investigate. The Hebei has suffered flooding; Henan, Qi, and Jin are in drought; Huai and Zhejiang have locust plagues; Jiangnan has epidemic illness—Your Majesty does not fully know. The Emperor immediately ordered Lian to survey and provide relief on the eastern circuits, and appointed him Assistant Director in the Ministry of Revenue. On his return his report accorded with the Emperor's intent; he was promoted to transport assistant of Lizhou circuit, and again served as assistant director in the Ministry of Revenue.
35
為監察御史裏行，建言：「成天下之務，莫急於人才，願令兩制近臣及轉運使各得舉士。」 詔各薦一人。 繼言：「寒遠下僚，既得名聞於上，願令中書審其能而表用，則急才之詔，不虛行於天下矣。」 又言：「比年水旱，民蒙支貸倚閣之恩，今幸歲豐，有司悉當舉催。 久饑初稔，累給並償，是使民遇豐年而思歉歲也，請令諸道以漸督取之。」
As investigating censor he memorialized, "Nothing is more urgent for accomplishing the empire's tasks than talent; I ask that Academicians of the two inner halls and circuit transport commissioners each be allowed to recommend scholars." An edict ordered each to recommend one person. He memorialized further, "Junior officials far below, once their names reach the throne, I ask that the Secretariat examine their ability and memorialize appointment—then the urgent call for talent will not be issued in vain throughout the realm." He also said, "In recent years of flood and drought the people have enjoyed the grace of relief loans and deferred collection; now that the harvest is abundant, the authorities everywhere are pressing collection in full. After long famine the first good harvest, with accumulated disbursements all repaid at once—this makes the people greet a bountiful year while longing for lean years; I ask that the circuits be ordered to collect gradually."
36
論俞充結王中正致宰屬，並言中正任使太重。 帝曰：「人才蓋無類，顧駕御之何如耳。」 對曰：「雖然，臣慮漸不可長也。」
He criticized Yu Chong for associating with the eunuch Wang Zhongzheng to reach the chief minister's staff, and jointly argued that Zhongzheng's commission was too heavy. The Emperor said, "Talent knows no category; it depends only on how one reins it in." He replied, "Even so, Your servant fears that what grows gradually cannot be stopped in time."
37
河決曹村，壞田三十萬頃、民廬舍三十八萬家。 受詔安撫京東，發廩振饑，遠不能至者，分遣吏移給，擇高地作舍以居民，流民過所毋征算，轉行者賦糧，質私牛而與之錢，養男女棄於道者，丁壯則役其力，凡所活二十五萬。
The Yellow River burst at Caocun, ruining three hundred thousand qing of fields and thirty-eight myriad dwellings of the people. Ordered to pacify the eastern capital region, he opened granaries to relieve famine; for those far beyond reach he dispatched clerks to deliver relief, chose high ground to build shelters for the displaced, exempted transit levies on roaming refugees, supplied grain to those still on the move, pawned private oxen and gave money in exchange, nursed abandoned children on the roads, and conscripted strong men for labor—altogether saving two hundred fifty thousand lives.
38
相州獄起，鄧溫伯、上官均論其冤，得譴去，詔廉詰之，竟不能正。 未幾獄成，始悔之。 加集質校理，提點河東刑獄。
When a case arose in the Xiangzhou prison, Deng Wenbo and Shangguan Jun argued the prisoners' innocence and were dismissed in reprimand; the Emperor ordered Lian to investigate, and in the end he could not rectify the matter. Before long the case was concluded and the Emperor came to regret it. He was given the additional office of Collator in the Court for Collection of Precious Objects and made judicial intendant of Hedong.
39
遼人求代北地，廉言：「分水畫境，失中國險固，啟豺狼心。」 其後契丹果包取兩不耕地，下臨雁門，父老以為恨。 王中正發西兵，用一而調二，轉運使又附益之，廉曰：「民朘剝至骨，斟酌不乏興，足矣！ 忍自竭根本邪？」 即奏云：「師必無功，盍有以善其後？」 既大軍潰歸，中正嫁罪於轉餉。 廉詣上黨對理，坐貶秩。
The Khitan sought the northern lands beyond Dai; Lian said, "Dividing the border by watercourses forfeits China's strategic strongpoints and whets the appetite of wolves." Thereafter the Khitan indeed absorbed the two stretches of unsettled land, overlooking Yanmen Pass, and the elders of the region bore this as a grievance. Wang Zhongzheng mobilized western troops, requisitioning double while mustering one; the transport commissioner added still more; Lian said, "The people are stripped to the bone—careful provision is enough for the campaign without shortage! Can you bear to exhaust the very root itself?" He memorialized at once, "The army is sure to fail without success; ought there not be some means to mend matters afterward?" When the great army returned in rout, Zhongzheng shifted blame onto those who supplied provisions. Lian went to Shangdang to argue the case in person and was demoted in rank.
40
明年，進為左司郎中，遷起居郎、集賢殿修撰、樞密都承旨。 上官均論其往附蔡確為獄，改陝西都轉運使。 拜給事中，卒，年五十九。
The following year he was promoted to Left Division Director, then transferred to Diarist, Compiler at the Hall for Collecting Writings, and Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs Commissioner's Court. Shangguan Jun charged that he had formerly sided with Cai Que in the prison affair; he was reassigned as Commissioner of the Shaanxi Transport Circuit. He was appointed Supervising Censor-in-Chief, then died at the age of fifty-nine.
41
朱服，字行中，湖州烏程人。 熙寧進士甲科，以淮南節度推官充修撰、經義局檢討，歷國子直講、秘閣校理。 元豐中，擢監察御史裏行。 參知政事章惇遣所善袁默、周之道見服，道薦引意以市恩，服舉劾之。 惇補郡，免默、之道官。
Zhu Fu, courtesy name Xingzhong, was a native of Wucheng in Huzhou. In the Xining era he graduated jinshi in the first class. As judicial assistant on the Huainan circuit he served as compiler and reviewer at the Classics Meaning Bureau, and later as Lecturer-at-Large in the Directorate of Education and Collator at the Secret Archive. During the Yuanfeng era he was elevated to Probationary Investigating Censor. Vice Grand Councilor Zhang Dun sent his protégés Yuan Mo and Zhou Zhidao to visit Fu, intimating that recommendation might win his gratitude; Fu impeached them. Dun was sent out to fill a prefectural post, and Mo and Zhidao were dismissed from office.
42
受詔治朱明之獄。 故事，制獄許上殿，非本章所云者皆取旨。 服論其非是，罷之。 俄知諫院，遷國子司業、起居舍人，以直龍圖閣知潤州，徙泉、婺、寧、廬、壽五州。 廬人饑，守便宜振護，全活十餘萬口。 明年大疫，又課醫持善藥分拯之，賴以安省甚眾。
He received orders to investigate the Zhu Ming case. By precedent, commissioners appointed to special cases were allowed to appear at court; on any matter not covered in the original memorial they had to seek the throne's instruction. Fu argued that this was wrong, and the practice was abolished. Soon he was placed in charge of the Remonstrance Bureau, then promoted to Vice Director of the Directorate of Education and Diarist-of-the-Left. With the honorary title Associate at the Dragon Diagram Hall he governed Runzhou, and was later transferred in turn through Quan, Wu, Ning, Lu, and Shou. When the people of Luzhou were starving, he used his authority as prefect to relieve and protect them at need, saving more than a hundred thousand lives. The next year, when a great pestilence struck, he also set physicians with effective medicines to distribute aid; many were thereby restored to peace.
43
當元祐時，未嘗一日在朝廷，不能無少望。 值紹聖初政，因表賀，乃力詆變亂法度之故。 召為中書舍人。 使遼，未反而母死，詔以其家貧，賜帛二百。 喪除，拜禮部侍郎。 湖州守馬城言其居喪疏几筵而獨處它室，謫知萊州。
Throughout the Yuanyou era he never spent a single day at court, and could not altogether suppress a measure of disappointment. At the opening of the Shaosheng reign he submitted a congratulatory memorial and thereupon denounced with force the reasons the legal order had been overturned and thrown into confusion. He was summoned to serve as Drafting Official of the Central Secretariat. While on embassy to Liao, before he could return his mother died; an edict, noting that his household was poor, granted him two hundred bolts of silk. When his mourning ended, he was appointed Vice Minister of Rites. The prefect of Huzhou, Ma Cheng, reported that during mourning he had kept only a sparse couch for the bier yet lived alone in another room; he was demoted to prefect of Laizhou.
44
徽宗即位，加集賢殿修撰，再為廬州； 越兩月，徙廣州。 哲宗既祥，服賦詩有「孤臣正泣龍髯草」之語，為部使者所上，黜知袁州。 又坐與蘇軾遊，貶海州團練副使，蘄州安置。 改興國軍，卒。
When Emperor Huizong ascended the throne, he was given the additional title of Compiler at the Hall for Collecting Writings and again governed Luzhou; Two months later he was transferred to Guangzhou. After Emperor Zhezong's second-year mourning had ended, Fu wrote a poem containing the line "a lone minister weeps before the dragon's-beard grass"; a circuit commissioner reported it, and he was removed to govern Yuanzhou. Again, for associating with Su Shi, he was demoted to Vice Military Training Commissioner of Haizhou and ordered to reside at Qizhou. He was reassigned to Xingguo Army, where he died.
45
張舜民
Zhang Shunmin
46
張舜民，字芸叟，邠州人。 中進士第，為襄樂令。 王安石倡新法，舜民上書言：「便民所以窮民，強內所以弱內，辟國所以蹙國。 以堂堂之天下，而與小民爭利，可恥也。」 時人壯之。 元豐中，朝廷討西夏，陳留縣五路出兵，環慶帥高遵裕辟掌機密文字。 王師無功，舜民在靈武詩有「白骨似沙沙似雪」，及官軍「斫受降城柳為薪」之句，坐謫監邕州鹽米倉； 又追赴鄜延詔獄，改監郴州酒稅。
Zhang Shunmin, courtesy name Yunsou, was a native of Binzhou. He passed the jinshi examination and became magistrate of Xiangle. Wang Anshi championed the New Policies. Shunmin submitted a memorial saying, "Measures meant to ease life for the people in fact impoverish them; measures meant to strengthen the interior in fact weaken it; measures meant to expand the realm in fact shrink it. For a realm as grand as ours to wrangle with common folk over profit—how shameful." People of the time admired him for it. During the Yuanfeng era the court campaigned against Western Xia. Five armies marched out through Chenliu; Gao Zunyu, commander of the Huanqing circuit, recruited Shunmin to manage confidential documents. The imperial armies won nothing. At Lingwu Shunmin wrote in verse, "White bones like sand, sand like snow," and of the troops, "They hew the willows of Shouxiang City for firewood." For this he was demoted to overseer of the Yongzhou salt-and-grain depot; He was then summoned to the edict prison at Fuyan and afterward reassigned to oversee wine taxes at Chenzhou.
47
會赦北還，司馬光薦其才氣秀異，剛直敢言，以館閣校勘為監察御史。 上疏論西夏強臣爭權，不宜加以爵命，當興師問罪，因及文彥博，左遷監登聞鼓院。 臺諫交章乞還職，不聽。 通判虢州，提點秦鳳刑獄。 召拜殿中侍御史，固辭，改金部員外郎。 進秘書少監，使遼，加直秘閣、陝西轉運使，知陝、潭、青三州。 元符中，罷職付東銓，以為坊州、鳳翔，皆不赴。
When an amnesty was proclaimed he returned north. Sima Guang recommended his exceptional talent and spirit and his forthright, fearless speech; from collation in the palace libraries he was made Investigating Censor. He memorialized that powerful ministers of Western Xia were contending for power and ought not to receive enfeoffment; the court should raise an army and call them to account—thereby implicating Wen Yanbo. He was demoted to overseer of the Petition Drum Court. Censors and remonstrators submitted memorial after memorial asking that he be restored to office, but the court would not listen. He served as vice prefect of Guozhou and as intendant of judicial affairs on the Qinfeng circuit. He was summoned and appointed Palace Attendant Censor, but firmly declined; he was made Vice Director in the Ministry of Revenue instead. He was promoted to Vice Director of the Secretariat, served on embassy to Liao, was given direct access to the Secret Archive, and became Shaanxi transport commissioner, governing in turn Shaan, Tan, and Qing. During the Yuanfu era his office was terminated and he was handed over to the eastern selection board. He was appointed to Fangzhou and Fengxiang but went to neither post.
48
徽宗立，擢右諫議大夫，居職才七日，所上事已六十章。 陳陝西之弊曰：「以庸將而御老師，役饑民而爭曠土。」 極論河朔之困，言多剴峭。 徙吏部侍郎，旋以龍圖閣待制知定州，改同州。 坐元祐黨，謫楚州團練副使，商州安置。 復集賢殿修撰，卒。
When Huizong ascended the throne he was elevated to Right Remonstrance Advisor. He had been in office only seven days when the matters he had submitted already numbered sixty memorials. He laid out the ills of Shaanxi, saying, "Mediocre generals are set over veteran armies; starving people are driven to fight over barren land." He argued at length the distress of Hebei; his language was mostly sharp and unsparing. He was transferred to Vice Minister of Personnel, then soon made academician-administrator of the Dragon Diagram Hall and prefect of Dingzhou, and later transferred to Tongzhou. For association with the Yuanyou faction he was demoted to Vice Military Training Commissioner of Chuzhou and ordered to reside at Shangzhou. He was restored as Compiler at the Hall for Collecting Writings, then died.
49
舜民慷慨喜論事，善為文，自號「浮休居士」。 其使遼也，見其太孫禧好音樂、美姝、名茶、古畫，以為他日必有如唐張義潮挈十三州來歸者，不四十年當見之。 後如其言。 紹興中，追贈寶文閣直學士。
Shunmin was open-handed and loved to debate public affairs; he was skilled at writing and styled himself the Hermit of Floating Rest. On his embassy to Liao he observed the great-grandson Xi to be fond of music, beautiful women, fine tea, and antique paintings. He concluded that one day there would surely appear another Zhang Yichao of Tang, who would lead the thirteen circuits back in submission—and that within forty years one would see it. Later events proved him right. During the Shaoxing era he was posthumously granted the title Academic Gentlemen of the Hall for Treasuring Culture.
50
盛陶，字仲叔，鄭州人。 第進士。 熙寧中，為監察御史。 神宗問河北事，對曰：「朝廷以便民省役，議廢郡縣，誠便。 然沿邊地相屬，如北平至海不過五百里，其間列城十五，祖宗之意固有所在，願仍舊貫。」 慶州李復圭輕敵敗國，程昉開河無功，籍水政以擾州縣，皆疏其過。 二人實王安石所主，陶不少屈，出簽書隨州判官。
Sheng Tao, courtesy name Zhongshu, was a native of Zhengzhou. He passed the jinshi examination. During the Xining era he served as Investigating Censor. When Shenzong asked about affairs in Hebei, he replied, "The court, wishing to benefit the people and reduce corvée, is discussing the abolition of prefectures and counties—which would indeed be convenient. Yet along the frontier the land runs continuously: from Beiping to the sea is scarcely five hundred li, and within that stretch stand fifteen walled cities. The intent of the ancestors surely had its reason; I beg that the old arrangement be preserved." Li Fugui of Qingzhou treated the enemy lightly and brought defeat on the state; Cheng Fang opened a canal without success and used water administration to harass prefectures and counties—Tao memorialized the faults of them all. Both men were in fact protégés of Wang Anshi. Tao would not yield in the least and was sent out as signing clerk and judge of Suizhou.
51
久之，入為太常博士、考功員外郎、工部右司郎中，至侍御史。 陳官冗之敝，謂恩澤舉人，宜取嘉祐、治平之制； 選人改官，宜準熙寧、元豐之法。 諫官劉安世等攻蔡確為謗詩，陶曰：「確以弟碩有罪，但坐罷職，不應懷恨。 注釋詩語，近於捃摭，不可以長告訐之風。」 安世疏言：「陶居風憲地，目睹無禮於君親之人，而附會觀望，紀綱何賴。」 出知汝州，徙晉州，召為太常少卿。
After a long interval he entered court service as Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Vice Director in the Ministry of Personnel, and Right Division Director in the Ministry of Works, eventually reaching Attending Censor. He laid out the ill of redundant offices, saying that candidates advanced by grace and favor ought to follow the Jiaoyou and Zhiping system; and that selected men changing office ought to follow the Xining and Yuanfeng law. When remonstrance officials Liu Anshi and others attacked Cai Que for slanderous poetry, Tao said, "Que's younger brother Shuo was guilty, yet Que was only dismissed from office—he ought not to harbor resentment. To annotate lines of poetry comes close to nitpicking; one cannot allow the fashion of lengthy informing to grow." Anshi memorialized, "Tao holds a post charged with upholding censorial discipline. He has witnessed men disrespectful toward lord and parent, yet he temporizes and looks on—on what, then, can public order rely?" He was sent out as prefect of Ruzhou, transferred to Jinzhou, and later summoned as Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.
52
議合祭天地，請從先帝北郊之旨； 既而合祭，陶即奉行，亦不復辨執也。 進權禮部侍郎、中書舍人，以龍圖閣待制知應天府、順昌府、瀛州。 元符中，例奪職，卒，年六十七。
When the court debated combined sacrifice to Heaven and Earth, he asked that it follow the late emperor's intent for the northern suburban sacrifice; but once combined sacrifice was adopted, Tao simply carried it out and did not press his earlier view. He was promoted to Acting Vice Minister of Rites and Drafting Official of the Central Secretariat, and as academician-administrator of the Dragon Diagram Hall governed Yingtian, Shunchang, and Ying. During the Yuanfu era his office was stripped by precedent; he died at the age of sixty-seven.
53
論曰：王氏、章、蔡之當國也，士大夫知拂之必斥，附之必進也，而孫鼛正言蔡京，不肯為之助； 吳時卻童貫，忤王黼，乃幸於罷歸； 昭玘辭侯蒙之延致； 朱服發章惇之薦引，舜民詆新法； 而盛陶不屈於安石，其大節皆可取。 獨漢之為京客，黃廉附蔡確獄，有愧鼛等多矣。 《易》曰：「介於石，不終日，貞吉。」 故君子貴乎知幾。
The historians comment: When the Wang clan, Zhang Dun, and Cai Que held the state, scholar-officials knew that to oppose them was to be expelled and to join them was to advance. Yet Sun Gao spoke plainly against Cai Jing and would not lend him aid; Wu Shi rebuffed Tong Guan and offended Wang Fu, yet was fortunate enough to be dismissed and return home; Li Zhaoqi declined Hou Meng's invitation to serve; Zhu Fu exposed Zhang Dun's attempt at recommendation; Shunmin denounced the New Policies; and Sheng Tao would not yield to Anshi—in all these cases their great integrity is worthy of praise. Only Wang Hanzhi, as a client of Cai Jing, and Huang Lian, who joined Cai Que's prison case, stand far more ashamed than Sun Gao and the others. The Book of Changes says, "Caught between the stones—before the day is out. Perseverance brings good fortune." Thus the gentleman prizes knowing the turning point in time.
54
章衡，字子平，浦城人。 嘉祐二年，進士第一。 通判湖州，直集賢院，改鹽鐵判官，同修起居注。 物有掛空籍者，奏請蠲之。 又言：「三司經費，取領而無多寡，率不預知。 急則斂於民，倉卒趣迫，故苦其難供。 願敕三部判官，簿正其數，即有所賦，先期下之，使公私皆濟。」 三司使忌其能，出知汝州、潁州。
Zhang Heng, courtesy name Ziping, was a native of Pucheng. In the second year of Jiayou he placed first in the jinshi examination. He served as vice prefect of Huzhou, received direct appointment at the Hall for Collecting Writings, was transferred to Salt and Iron Commissioner, and jointly edited the Veritable Records. Where items hung on empty registers, he memorialized to have the obligations remitted. He also said, "In the expenditures of the three departments, funds are drawn without knowing the amounts; as a rule no one foreknows them in advance. When urgency comes, levies fall on the people; pressed in haste, they suffer under the burden of supply. I ask that the vice commissioners of the three departments be ordered to register and correct the figures, and that whenever an assessment is due it be issued in advance, so that both public and private interests may be served." The commissioner of the three departments resented his ability and had him sent out as prefect of Ruzhou and Yingzhou.
55
熙寧初，還判太常寺。 建言：「自唐開元纂修禮書，以《國恤》一章為豫凶事，刪而去之。 故不幸遇事，則捃摭墜殘，茫無所據。 今宜為《厚陵集禮》，以貽萬世。」 從之。
At the beginning of the Xining era he returned as vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He proposed, "When the Tang, in the Kaiyuan reign, compiled ritual books, they treated the chapter 'National Mourning' as foreknowledge of misfortune and cut it away. Hence when misfortune strikes unexpectedly, officials grope among fallen fragments with nothing solid to rely on. Now the court ought to compile a Collected Rites of the Thick Tumulus to hand down to ten thousand generations." The emperor assented.
56
出知鄭州，奏罷原武監，馳牧地四千二百頃以予民。 復判太常，知審官西院。 使遼，燕射連發破的，遼以為文武兼備，待之異於他使。 歸復命，言遼境無備，因此時可復山後八州。 不聽。
Sent out as prefect of Zhengzhou, he memorialized to abolish the Yuanyuan monitor and rushed four thousand two hundred qing of pasture land into the people's hands. He again served as vice director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and as director of the Western Office of the Ministry of Personnel. On embassy to Liao, at the banquet archery he hit the mark again and again. The Liao court judged him to combine civil and military gifts and treated him differently from other envoys. On his return he reported that the Liao frontier was undefended and that at this moment the eight prefectures behind the mountains could be recovered. The court did not heed him.
57
衡患學者不知古今，纂歷代帝系，名曰《編年通載》，神宗覽而善之，謂可冠冕諸史； 且念其嘗先多士，進用獨後，面賜三品服。 判吏部流內銓，嘗有員闕，既擬注，而三班院輒用之，反訟吏部。 宰相主其說，衡連奏疏與之辨。 或曰宰相之勢，恐不可深校，衡不為止，至訴於御前。 神宗命內侍偕至中書，宰相見之怒，衡曰：「衡為朝廷法耳。」 以狀上請而視之，相悟曰：「若爾，吏部是矣。」 乃罪三班。
Heng worried that scholars did not know past from present. He compiled successive imperial lines in a work titled Comprehensive Chronological Record. Shenzong read it with approval and said it could crown all histories; and reflecting that though he had once led the foremost scholars, his own advancement had come late, he granted him third-rank robes in person. As vice director of the Ministry of Personnel's flowing-within selection board, there was once a vacancy. After nominations had been drawn up, the Three-Rank Court used the post instead and in turn brought suit against the Ministry of Personnel. The chief councilor supported their claim. Heng submitted memorial after memorial disputing them. Someone said the chief councilor's power was such that one ought not press the matter too far; Heng would not stop, and carried the dispute before the emperor himself. Shenzong ordered an inner attendant to accompany Heng to the Central Secretariat. When the chief councilor saw this he was angry. Heng said, "Heng upholds the law on behalf of the court." He submitted a written statement and asked the councilor to read it. The councilor understood and said, "If that is so, the Ministry of Personnel is in the right." The Three-Rank Court was thereupon punished.
58
未幾，知通進銀臺司、直舍人院，拜寶文閣待制、知澶州。 神宗曰：「卿為仁宗朝魁甲，寶文藏御集之處，未始除人，今以之處卿。」 衡拜謝。 至郡，會官立法禁民販鹽，衡言：「民恃鹽以生，生之所在，雖犯法不顧。 空令犴獄日繁，請如故便。」 徙知成德軍，坐事免。
Before long he was placed in charge of the Communication and Silver Terrace Office and the Drafting Courtyard, and was appointed academician-administrator of the Hall for Treasuring Culture and prefect of Danzhou. Shenzong said, "You were top graduate in Renzong's reign. The Hall for Treasuring Culture houses the imperial collections—never before had anyone been appointed there. Now that honor is given to you." Heng bowed in thanks. On reaching his prefecture, officials were drafting a law forbidding the people to traffic in salt. Heng said, "The people depend on salt to live. Where livelihood is at stake, they will break the law without a second thought. We would only fill the prisons day by day for nothing. I ask that matters be left as before for the people's convenience." He was transferred to govern Chengde Army, then dismissed for an offense.
59
元祐中，歷秀、襄、河陽、曹、蘇州，加集賢院學士，復以待制知揚、廬、宣、潁州，卒，年七十五。
During the Yuanyou era he governed in turn Xiuzhou, Xiangzhou, Heyang, Cao, and Suzhou, was made Academic Gentlemen of the Collecting Writings Hall, and again served as academician-administrator at Yang, Lu, Xuan, and Ying; he died at the age of seventy-five.
60
顏復，字長道，魯人，顏子四十八世孫也。 父太初，以名儒為國子監直講，出為臨晉簿。 嘉祐中，詔郡國敦訪遺逸，京東以復言。 凡試於中書者二十有二人，考官歐陽修奏復第一。 賜進士，為校書郎，知永寧縣。 熙寧中，為國子直講。 王安石更學法，取士率以己意，使常秩等校諸直講所出題及所考卷，定其優劣，復等五人皆罷。
Yan Fu, courtesy name Changdao, was a man of Lu and the forty-eighth-generation descendant of Yan Hui. His father Taichu, a renowned scholar, served as Lecturer-at-Large in the Directorate of Education and was later sent out as clerk of Linjin. In the Jiayou era an edict ordered circuits and prefectures to seek out reclusive talent; the Jingdong circuit recommended Fu. Twenty-two candidates were examined at the Central Secretariat; the examining official Ouyang Xiu memorialized that Fu should rank first. He was granted the jinshi degree, appointed Proofreader, and made magistrate of Yongning. During the Xining era he served as Lecturer-at-Large in the Directorate of Education. Wang Anshi revised the learning law and chose scholars according to his own judgment. He had Chang Zhi and others collate the examination topics set by the lecturers-at-large and the papers submitted, fixing superior and inferior ranks—Fu and five others were all dismissed.
61
元祐初，召為太常博士。 建言：「士民禮制不立，下無矜式。 請令禮官會萃古今典範為五禮書。 又請考正祀典，凡干讖緯曲學、汙條陋製、道流醮謝、術家厭勝之法，一切芟去。 俾大小群祀盡合聖人之經，為後世法。」 遷禮部員外郎。 孔宗翰請尊奉孔子祠，復因上五議，欲專其祠饗，優其田祿，蠲其廟幹，司其法則，訓其子孫。 朝廷多從之。
At the beginning of the Yuanyou era he was summoned as Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He proposed, "Ritual for scholars and commoners has not been established; below the throne there is no model for others to take pride in. I ask that ritual officials assemble ancient and modern paradigms into a book of the five rites. He also asked to examine and correct the sacrificial canon: every heterodox use of omens and prognostication, vulgar regulation, Taoist offering, and occult rite of suppression should be cut away. Thus great and small sacrifices alike may accord with the sages' classics and stand as law for later generations." He was promoted to Vice Director in the Ministry of Rites. When Kong Zonghan asked to honor Confucius's shrine, Fu added five proposals: to concentrate its sacrifices, improve its field stipends, exempt its temple timber, supervise its rites, and instruct its descendants. The court largely followed his advice.
62
兼崇政殿說書，進起居舍人兼侍講，轉起居郎。 請擇經行之儒，補諸縣教官； 凡學者考其志業，不由教官薦，不得與貢舉、升太學。 拜中書舍人兼國子監祭酒，言：「太學諸生，有誘進之法，獨教官未嘗旌別，似非嚴師勸士之道。」 未逾年，以疾改天章閣待制，未拜而卒，年五十七。 王岩叟等言復學行超特，宜加優賻，詔賜錢五十萬。 子岐，建炎中為門下侍郎。
He concurrently lectured at the Chongzheng Hall, was promoted to Diarist-of-the-Left with concurrent lecture duties, and was later transferred to Diarist. He asked that Confucian scholars of proven moral conduct be chosen to fill county instructorships; and that all students' ambitions and work be examined—without an instructor's recommendation they should not be allowed to compete in tribute selection or enter the Directorate of Education. He was appointed Drafting Official of the Central Secretariat and concurrent Chancellor of the Directorate of Education. He said, "Directorate students have methods to encourage advancement, yet instructors alone have never been singled out for reward—this hardly seems the way for strict teachers to urge their scholars." Within a year, on grounds of illness, he was reassigned as academician-administrator of the Hall of Heavenly Pattern. Before he could take up the post he died at the age of fifty-seven. Wang Yansou and others said Fu's learning and conduct were exceptional and that added posthumous honors were fitting; an edict granted five hundred thousand cash. His son Qi, during the Jianyan era, served as Vice Censor-in-Chief under the Gate.
63
孫升，字君孚，高郵人。 第進士，簽書泰州判官。 哲宗立，為監察御史。 朝廷更法度，逐姦邪，升多所建明。 嘗上疏曰：「自二聖臨御，登用正人，天下所謂忠信端良之士，豪傑俊偉之材，俱收並用，近世得賢之盛，未有如今日者。 君子日進而小人日退，正道日長而邪慝日消，在廷濟濟有成周之風，此首開言路之效也。 願於耳目之臣，論議之際，置黨附之疑，杜小人之隙； 疑間一開，則言者不安其職矣。 言者不安其職，則循默之風熾，而壅蔽之患生，非朝廷之福也。」 遷殿中待御史。
Sun Sheng, courtesy name Junfu, was a native of Gaoyou. He passed the jinshi examination and served as signing clerk and judge of Taizhou. When Zhezong ascended the throne, he became Investigating Censor. The court renewed the laws and drove out the wicked; Sheng contributed many proposals of his own. Once he memorialized, saying, "Since the two sovereigns assumed rule, upright men have been elevated. Every man in the empire accounted loyal, trustworthy, upright, and good, every heroic and outstanding talent, has been gathered and employed together. In recent times the abundance of worthy men in office has never matched today. The gentleman advances day by day and the petty man retreats day by day; the correct Way lengthens day by day and wickedness wanes day by day. In court there is the flourishing style of prosperous Zhou. This is the fruit of first opening the path of free speech. I pray that among the officials who are the emperor's eyes and ears, in the midst of debate, suspicions of faction may be set aside and the petty man's openings sealed shut; for once suspicion opens even a crack, those who speak cannot rest secure in their duties. When speakers cannot rest secure in their duties, the fashion of following silence grows fierce and the harm of obstruction arises. That is no blessing to the court." He was transferred to Palace Attendant Censor.
64
梁燾責張問，升從而擊之，執政指為附和，出知濟州。 逾年，提點京西刑獄，召為金部員外郎，復拜殿中侍御史，進侍御史。 時翰林承旨鄧溫伯為臺臣所攻，升與賈易論之尤力，謂草蔡確制，稱其定策功比漢周勃，欺天負國，豈宜親承密命？ 不報。 由起居郎擢中書舍人，直學士院，以天章閣待制知應天府。 董敦逸、黃廷基摭升過，改集賢院學士。
When Liang Dao censured Zhang Wen, Sheng joined in attacking him. The chief administrators called this mere parroting and sent him out as prefect of Jizhou. After a year he became intendant of judicial affairs on the Jingxi circuit, was summoned as Vice Director in the Ministry of Revenue, was again appointed Palace Attendant Censor, and advanced to Attending Censor. At the time the Hanlin Academician Deng Wenbo was under attack from censorial officials. Sheng, together with Jia Yi, argued most forcefully that Wenbo had drafted Cai Que's edict, praising his merit in settling the crisis as comparable to Han's Zhou Bo—deceiving Heaven and betraying the state. How could such a man personally receive secret imperial orders? There was no response. From Diarist he was elevated to Drafting Official of the Central Secretariat and direct academician of the Academy, and as academician-administrator of the Hall of Heavenly Pattern governed Yingtian prefecture. Dong Dunyi and Huang Tingji collected Sheng's faults, and he was reassigned as Academic Gentlemen of the Collecting Writings Hall.
65
紹聖初，翟思、張商英又劾之，削職，知房州、歸州； 貶水部員外郎，分司； 又貶果州團練副使，汀州安置。 卒，年六十二。
Early in the Shaosheng era Zhai Si and Zhang Shangying again impeached him. His office was stripped and he was made prefect of Fangzhou and Guizhou; he was demoted to Vice Director of Waterways with branch service; and again demoted to Vice Military Training Commissioner of Guozhou, with residence ordered at Tingzhou. He died at the age of sixty-two.
66
升在元祐初，嘗言：「王安石擅名世之學，為一代文宗。 及進居大位，出其私智，以蓋天下之聰明，遂為大害。 今蘇軾文章學問，中外所服，然德業器識，有所不足。 為翰林學士，已極其任矣； 若使輔佐經綸，願以安石為戒。」 世譏其失言。
Early in the Yuanyou era Sheng once said, "Wang Anshi monopolized the learning famous throughout the world and was the literary patriarch of a generation. Yet when he rose to high office he brought out his private wisdom to blanket the empire's intelligence, and thus became a great harm. Today Su Shi's literary learning is admired within and without the court, yet in virtue, achievement, capacity, and insight he is somewhat lacking. As Hanlin Academician he has already reached the limit of that office; if he were set to assist in governance, I pray the court take Anshi as a warning." The world mocked him for his misplaced words.
67
韓川，字元伯，陝人。 進士上第，歷開封府推官。 元祐初，用劉摯薦，為監察御史。 極論市易之害，以為：「雖曰平均物直，而其實不免貨交以取利，就使有獲，尚不可為，況所獲不如所亡，果何事也？ 願量留官吏，與之期，使趣罷此法。」 從之。
Han Chuan, courtesy name Yuanbo, was a man of Shaan. He passed the jinshi examination at the top of his class and served as judicial officer of Kaifeng prefecture. Early in the Yuanyou era, on Liu Zhi's recommendation, he became Investigating Censor. He argued at length against the harm of the Market Exchange Law, saying, "Though it is called averaging market value, in fact it does not avoid commodity exchange to seize profit. Even if there were gain, the law still should not stand—how much less when what is gained does not equal what is lost. What, in the end, is the point of it? I ask that the court measure how many officials to retain, set them a deadline, and hasten the abolition of this law." The court assented.
68
遷殿中侍御史。 疏言：「朝廷於人才，常欲推至公以博采，及其弊也，則幾於利權勢而抑孤寒； 常欲收勤績以赴用，要其終也，則莫不收虛名而廢實效。 近制太中大夫以上歲舉守臣，遇大州闕，則選諸所表； 他雖考課上等，皆莫得預。 推原旨意，固欲得人。 然所謂太中大夫以上，率在京師，諸馳騖請求者，得之為易； 至於淹歷郡縣治狀應法者，顧出其下，則是謹身修潔之人，不若營求一章之速化也。」 於是詔吏部更立法。
He was promoted to Palace Attendant Censor. He memorialized, "Toward talent the court often wishes to promote utmost fairness and gather men broadly; yet when the system goes wrong it nearly favors power and suppresses the isolated and poor; it often wishes to gather diligent achievement for employment, yet in the end it only gathers empty reputation and casts aside real effect. Under recent regulation, Grandees of Palace Attendance and above annually recommend circuit administrators; when a great prefecture falls vacant, the court selects from all submitted lists; others who rank upper in evaluation still may not compete. Tracing the original intent, the rule surely aims to secure capable men. Yet those titled Grandee of Palace Attendance and above are mostly in the capital; men who hustle and plead obtain posts easily; while those who have long served in prefectures and counties with performance that meets the standards are placed below them. Thus the man careful in conduct and cultivation is not equal to one memorial from the ambitious office-seeker for swift advancement." Thereupon an edict ordered the Ministry of Personnel to revise the law.
69
張舜民論西夏事，乞停封冊，朝廷以為開邊隙，罷其御史。 梁燾等為舜民爭之。 川與呂陶、上官均謂舜民之言，實不可行。 燾等去，川亦改太常少卿，不拜，加集賢校理、知潁州。 還為侍御史、樞密都承旨，進中書舍人、吏、禮二部侍郎，以龍圖閣待制復守潁，徙虢州。 與孫升同受責，由坊州、郢州貶屯田員外郎，分司，岷州團練副使，道州安置。 徽宗立，得故官，知青、襄二州，卒。
Zhang Shunmin discussed Western Xia affairs and begged that enfeoffment be halted. The court thought this would open border disputes and dismissed him from his censor's post. Liang Dao and others contended on Shunmin's behalf. Chuan, together with Lü Tao and Shangguan Jun, said that in truth Shunmin's words could not be carried out. When Dao and the others left office, Chuan too was reassigned as Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He did not accept the post and was instead given collation at the Collecting Writings Hall and made prefect of Yingzhou. He returned as Attending Censor and Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs Commissioner's Court, advanced to Drafting Official and Vice Minister of Personnel and of Rites, and as academician-administrator of the Dragon Diagram Hall again governed Ying; he was later transferred to Guozhou. Together with Sun Sheng he received the same punishment: from Fangzhou and Yingzhou he was demoted to Vice Director of Farms with branch service, then to Vice Military Training Commissioner of Minzhou, with residence ordered at Daozhou. When Huizong ascended the throne, Chuan was restored to his former offices and governed Qing and Xiang; he then died.
70
龔鼎臣
Gong Dingchen
71
龔鼎臣，字輔之，鄆之須城人。 父誘衷，武陵令。 鼎臣幼孤自立，景祐元年第進士，為平陰主簿，疏泄瀦水，得良田數百千頃。 調孟州司法參軍，以薦，為泰寧軍節度掌書記。
Gong Dingchen, courtesy name Fuzhi, was from Xucheng in Yan. His father Youzhong had been magistrate of Wuling. Dingchen lost his father young and stood on his own. In the first year of Jingyou he passed the jinshi examination and served as chief clerk of Pingyin, where he drained a flooded pond and reclaimed several hundred thousand qing of good farmland. He was transferred to judicial aide of Mengzhou and, on recommendation, became secretary to the Taizhou military governor.
72
徂徠石介死，讒者謂介北走遼，詔兗州劾狀。 郡守杜衍會問，掾屬莫對，鼎臣獨曰：「介寧有是，願以闔門證其死。」 衍探懷出奏稿示之，曰：「吾既保介矣，君年少見義如是，未可量也。」 舉為秘書省著作佐郎、知萊蕪縣。 大臣薦試館職，坐與石介善，不召。 徙知濛陽縣，轉秘書丞。 丁母憂，服除，知安丘縣。 以賢良方正召試秘閣，轉太常博士，賜五品服，知渠州。 渠故僻陋無學者，鼎臣請於朝，建廟學，選邑子為生，日講說，立課肄法，人大勸，始有登科者。 郡人繪像事之。
When Shi Jie of Cui Lai died, slanderers said Jie had fled north to Liao. An edict ordered Yanzhou to investigate. Prefect Du Yan convened the inquiry. None of the clerks would answer until Dingchen alone said, "Would Jie have done such a thing? I stake my entire household on proving his death." Yan drew from his breast the memorial draft and showed it to him, saying, "I have already vouched for Jie. You are young, yet you see righteousness like this—your measure cannot yet be taken." He was recommended as Assistant in the Secretariat and became magistrate of Laowu. Great ministers recommended him for trial appointment to a palace post, but because he had been friendly with Shi Jie he was not summoned. He was transferred to magistrate of Mengyang and promoted to Secretariat assistant. When his mother died he entered mourning; when mourning ended he became magistrate of Anqiu. He was summoned for the erudite-and-upright examination at the Secret Archive, transferred to Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, granted fifth-rank robes, and made prefect of Quzhou. Quzhou had formerly been remote and without scholars. Dingchen requested permission to build a prefectural school, select sons of the district as students, lecture daily, and establish curriculum and methods of study. The people were greatly encouraged, and for the first time candidates from Quzhou passed the examinations. The people of the prefecture painted his image to honor him.
73
召入編校史館書籍，轉都官，擢起居舍人、同知諫院。 歲冬旱，將錫春宴，鼎臣曰：「旱甾太甚，非君臣同樂之時，請罷宴以答天戒。」 日當食，陰雲不見，鼎臣曰：「陽精既虧，四方必見，為異益大，願精思力行，進賢遠佞，以應皇極。」 又論內侍都知鄧保信罪狀，不應出入禁中； 蘇安靜年未五十，不應超押班； 妃嬪贈三代，僭后禮； 董淑妃賜諡，非是； 凡大禮赦，請準太平興國詔書，前期下禁約，後有犯不原，以杜指赦為姦者，宜著為令； 開封三司於法外斷獄，朝廷多曲徇其請，願先付中書審畫。 仁宗悉從之。
He was summoned to compile books in the History Office, transferred to a directorship in the Ministry of Revenue, and elevated to Diarist-of-the-Left with concurrent appointment as vice director of the Remonstrance Bureau. That winter there was drought. The court was about to grant the spring banquet when Dingchen said, "The drought disaster is too severe—this is no time for ruler and ministers to rejoice together. I ask that the banquet be canceled to answer Heaven's warning." On the day of an eclipse the yin clouds did not appear. Dingchen said, "The yang essence is already depleted—the four quarters will surely take note; the omen is all the greater. I hope for refined thought and earnest conduct, advancing the worthy and distancing the fawning, to answer the imperial pole." He also argued the crimes of the inner-attendant chief Deng Baoxin, saying he was unfit to enter and leave the forbidden palace; and that Su Anjing, not yet fifty, was unfit to leap over his seniors and lead the class. Consorts and concubines were granted posthumous honors for three generations, usurping the rites of a queen; to grant a posthumous title to Pure Consort Dong was improper; on every great amnesty he asked that the court follow the Taiping Xingguo precedent: prohibitions issued in advance, no pardon afterward for violators, to shut off those who banked on clemency to do wrong—and that this be enacted as law; the Kaifeng Three Offices judged cases outside the statutes, and the court often indulged their requests; he asked that such matters first be sent to the Secretariat for review. Emperor Renzong accepted every proposal.
74
尋兼管勾國子監，判登聞檢院，詳定寬恤民力奏議。 淮南災，以鼎臣體量安撫，蠲逋振貸，全活甚眾。 為遼正旦使，鼎臣奏：「景德中，遼犯淄、青，臣祖母、兄、姊皆見略，義不忍往。」 許之，仍詔後子孫並免行焉。
Soon he also supervised the Directorate of Education, judged the Palace Memorial Appeals Office, and worked through memorials on lenient policies to ease the people's burdens. When Huainan was stricken, Dingchen was sent to investigate and console the region; he remitted tax arrears and extended relief loans, preserving countless lives. When named envoy to Liao for the New Year's audience, Dingchen memorialized, "In the Jingde era Liao invaded Zi and Qing; my grandmother, elder brother, and elder sister were all carried off. In duty I cannot bear to go." The court assented, and further decreed that his descendants in turn should be exempt from such embassies.
75
俄拜戶部員外郎兼侍御史知雜事，賜三品服。 轉吏、禮二部郎中。 論宗室宜歲試補外官，請汰濫官冗兵，蕃財用，禁奢靡。 連劾薛向姦暴，鬻鹽、市馬皆罔上。 英宗登位，屢乞延訪臣下，親決國事。 上疏勸皇太后早還政； 及卷簾而御璽未復，又極論。 謂昭陵宜儉葬，景靈神御殿不宜增侈，以彰先帝恭德。 鼎臣在言路累歲，闊略細故，至大事，無所顧忌。 然其言優遊和平，不為峻激，使人主易聽，退亦未嘗語人，故其事多施行。
Before long he was made Vice Director of the Ministry of Revenue and concurrently Vice Censor-in-Chief, with third-rank court dress. He was transferred to director in the Ministries of Personnel and of Rites. He urged that imperial clansmen be examined annually before filling outside posts; he asked to cut superfluous offices and idle troops, husband state funds, and forbid luxury. He repeatedly impeached Xue Xiang for cruelty and rapacity; monopolizing salt and buying horses, Xiang had deceived the throne throughout. When Emperor Yingzong ascended the throne, Dingchen repeatedly begged him to summon his ministers often and decide state affairs himself. He memorialized urging the Empress Dowager to restore the regency to the emperor without delay; when she held court from behind the curtain while the imperial seal had not yet been returned, he argued the matter again at length. He held that Zhaoling should be buried frugally and the Spirit Hall at Jingling should not be enlarged, thereby displaying the late emperor's modest virtue. Dingchen spent years on the remonstrance path, broad-minded over trifles, yet on great affairs he held back nothing. Yet his words were measured and calm, never sharp or inflammatory, so the sovereign could readily hear them; in retirement he never spoke of them to others, and thus most of what he urged was enacted.
76
改集賢殿修撰、知應天府，徙江寧。 召還，判太常寺兼禮儀事。 神宗即位，判吏部流內銓、太常寺。 選人得官，待班謝辭，率皆留滯。 鼎臣奏易為門謝辭，甚便之。 明堂議侑帝，或云以真宗，或云以仁宗。 鼎臣曰：“嚴父莫大於配天，未聞以祖也。 ”乃奉英宗配。 王安石侍講，欲賜坐。 事下禮官，鼎臣言不可，安石不悅。 求補外，知兗州。
He was made Compiler in the Hall for Cherishing Literature and prefect of Yingtian, then transferred to Jiangning. On recall he judged the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and concurrently handled ritual matters. When Shenzong ascended the throne, Dingchen judged the Ministry of Personnel's roster of internal appointments and the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Those who received appointment often lingered, waiting to take leave and offer thanks. Dingchen memorialized that thanks at the gate would be far easier; the change proved greatly convenient. In the Bright Hall debate over the accompanying sacrifice, some urged Zhenzong, others Renzong. Dingchen said, "To honor the father reaches its height in matching Heaven; never yet have I heard of matching the grandfather." Accordingly Emperor Yingzong was paired in the rite. When Wang Anshi lectured before the throne, he asked to be granted a seat. The matter went to the ritual officials; Dingchen said it could not be allowed, and Anshi took offense. He sought an outside appointment and was made prefect of Yanzhou.
77
是時，諸道方田使者希功賞，概取稅虛額及嘗所蠲者，加舊籍以病民。 鼎臣獨按籍差次為十等，一無所增，兗人德之。 改吏部，提舉西京崇福宮。 復判太常寺，留守南京。 陛辭，神宗顧語移晷，喜曰：「人言卿老不任事，精明乃爾，行且用卿矣。」
At the time circuit commissioners for equalizing the fields, hungry for merit and reward, broadly seized inflated tax quotas and levies once remitted, restoring them to the old registers to afflict the people. Dingchen alone followed the registers and ranked households in ten grades without adding a single levy; the people of Yanzhou blessed him. He was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel and made intendant of the Chongfu Palace in the Western Capital. He again judged the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and stayed at Nanjing as regent. At his farewell audience Shenzong spoke with him at length and said gladly, "Men say you are old and unfit for office, yet see how keen you are—you will soon be used again."
78
鄭穆，字閎中，福州侯官人。 性醇謹好學，讀書至忘櫛沐，進退容止必以禮。 門人千數，與陳襄、陳烈、周希孟友，號「四先生」。 舉進士，四冠鄉書，遂登第，為壽安主簿。 召為國子監直講，除編校集賢院書籍。 歲滿，為館閣校勘，積官太常博士。 乞納一秩，先南郊追封考妣，從之。 改集賢校理，求外補，通判汾州。
Zheng Mu, courtesy name Hongzhong, was a native of Houguan in Fuzhou. Earnest and careful by nature, he loved learning; in study he would forget to comb his hair or bathe, and whether coming or going his bearing always followed ritual. His disciples numbered in the thousands; with Chen Xiang, Chen Lie, and Zhou Ximeng he formed a circle styled the "Four Masters." He topped the provincial lists four times, then passed the jinshi examination and was appointed registrar of Shou'an. He was summoned as lecturer in the Directorate of Education and made collator in the Hall for Assembling Worthies. When his term ended he became reviser in the palace library and rose step by step to Erudite of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. He petitioned to surrender one rank so that at the next suburban sacrifice his father and mother might receive posthumous ennoblement; the court granted it. Made collator in the Hall for Assembling Worthies, he sought an outside post and was appointed transit vice-prefect of Fenzhou.
79
熙寧三年，召為岐王侍講。 嘉王出閣，改諸王侍講。 府僚闕員，御史陳襄請擇人，神宗曰：「如鄭穆德行，乃宜左右王者。」 凡居館閣三十年，而在王邸一紀，非公事不及執政之門。 講說有法，可為勸戒者，必反復擿誦，岐、喜二王咸敬禮焉。
In the third year of Xining he was summoned as lecturer to the Prince of Qi's household. When the Prince of Jia left the inner palace school, Mu was reassigned as lecturer to the princes. When a post in the princely household fell vacant, Remonstrance Officer Chen Xiang asked that someone be chosen; Shenzong said, "One of Zheng Mu's character is fit to attend a prince." He spent thirty years in the palace library and twelve years in the princely mansions, never calling at the chief ministers' gates except on public business. His teaching had method; whatever could warn or admonish he would repeat and recite again and again, and the Princes of Qi and Xi both honored him.
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元豐三年，出知越州，加朝散大夫。 先是，鑒湖旱乾，民因田其中，延袤百里，官籍而稅之。 既而連年水溢，民逋官租積萬緡，穆奏免之。 未滿告老，管勾杭州洞霄宮。
In the third year of Yuanfeng he was sent out as prefect of Yuezhou and promoted to Grandee of Palace Leisure. Earlier Mirror Lake had dried in drought and the people had farmed its bed for a hundred li; the government registered the land and taxed it. Then for years the waters rose; the people owed official rent in tens of thousands of strings, and Mu memorialized for remission. Before his term ended he petitioned to retire and was put in charge of the Cave of the Azure Sky at Hangzhou.
81
元祐初，召拜國子祭酒。 每講益，無問寒暑，雖童子必朝服廷接，以禮送迎。 諸生皆尊其經術，服其教訓。 故人張景晟者死，遣白金五百兩，託其孤，穆曰：「恤孤，吾事也，金於何有？」 反金而收其子，長之。 三年，揚王、荊王請為侍講，罷祭酒，除直集賢院，復入王府。 荊王薨，為揚王翊善。 太學生乞為師，復除祭酒，兼徐王翊善。 四年，拜給事中兼祭酒； 五年，除寶文閣待制，仍祭酒。
At the opening of the Yuanyou era he was summoned and made Director of the Directorate of Education. Whenever he lectured on the Book of Changes he did so in heat or cold alike; even boys he received in court dress in the hall and sent away with ritual courtesy. The students all revered his classical learning and submitted to his instruction. His old friend Zhang Jingsheng, on dying, left five hundred taels of silver, entrusting his orphan to Mu; Mu said, "To comfort the orphan is my duty—what need is there for gold?" He returned the gold and took in the boy, raising him to adulthood. In the third year the Princes of Yang and Jing asked that he lecture for them; he was removed as Director, made drafter in the Hall for Assembling Worthies, and returned to the princely mansions. When the Prince of Jing died, he became tutor to the Prince of Yang. Students of the Imperial University petitioned that he be their teacher; he was again made Director and concurrently tutor to the Prince of Xu. In the fourth year he was appointed Supervising Secretary and concurrently Director; in the fifth year he was made Awaiting-Appointment Drafter of the Pavilion of Treasured Literature while still serving as Director.
82
六年，請老，提舉洞霄宮。 敕過門下，給事中范祖禹言：「穆雖年出七十，精力尚強。 古者大夫七十而致仕，有不得謝，則賜之几杖。 祭酒居師資之地，正宜處老成，願毋輕聽其去。」 不報。 太學之士數千人，以狀詣司業，又詣宰相請留，亦不從。 於是公卿大夫各為詩贈其行。 空學出祖汴東門外，都人觀者如堵，歎未嘗見。 明年卒，年七十五。 子璆，軍事推官。
In the sixth year he asked to retire and was made intendant of the Cave of the Azure Sky. When the edict passed the Secretariat, Supervising Secretary Fan Zuyu said, "Though Mu is past seventy, his strength is still firm. In antiquity a grandee at seventy would retire; if leave to withdraw was denied, the throne would grant him a folding stool and staff. The Director's post is the seat of the teacher; it is precisely where a man of seasoned years should stand—I beg that his departure not be lightly granted." The court did not answer. Several thousand Imperial University students petitioned the Vice Director and then the chief minister to keep him; again they were not heeded. Thereupon grandees and high officials each composed a poem to send him on his way. Imperial University students escorted him to a farewell beyond the eastern gate of Bian; the watching crowd packed the roads, sighing that they had never seen the like. The following year he died, aged seventy-five. His son Qiu served as a military judicial officer.
83
席旦，字晉仲，河南人。 七歲能詩，嘗登沉黎嶺，得句警拔，觀者驚異。 元豐中，舉進士，禮部不奏名。 時方求邊功，旦詣闕上書言：「戰勝易，守勝難，知所以得之，必知所以守之。」 神宗嘉納，令廷試賜第。 歷齊州司法參軍、鄭州河陽教授、敕令所刪定官。
Xi Dan, courtesy name Jinzhong, was a native of Henan. At seven he could compose verse; once climbing Mount Chenli he produced lines so striking that onlookers marveled. In the Yuanfeng era he passed the jinshi examination, but the Ministry of Rites did not enter his name on the rolls. As the court then sought merit on the frontier, Dan went to the capital and memorialized, "Victory in battle is easy; victory in holding is hard. Who knows how to win must know how to hold." Shenzong praised and accepted it and ordered a palace examination with conferral of rank. He served as judicial adjutant of Qizhou, instructor at Heyang in Zhengzhou, and reviser of edicts in the Office for Compiling Statutes.
84
徽宗召對，擢右正言，遷右司諫。 御史中丞錢遹率同列請廢元祐皇后而冊劉氏為太后，旦面質為不可。 遹劾旦陰佐元祐之政，左轉吏部員外郎。 改太常少卿，遷中書舍人、給事中。 新建殿中省，命為監，俄拜御史中丞兼侍講。
Huizong summoned him for audience and promoted him to Right Remonstrance Officer, then to Right Imperial Censor. Vice Censor-in-Chief Qian Kui led his colleagues in asking that the Yuanyou Empress be deposed and Lady Liu installed as Empress Dowager; Dan confronted him face to face that this could not be done. Kui impeached Dan for secretly aiding Yuanyou policies and had him demoted to Vice Director in the Ministry of Personnel. He was made Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and promoted to Drafting Secretary of the Secretariat and Supervising Secretary. When the Palace Directorate was newly established he was appointed its intendant, and soon was made Vice Censor-in-Chief and concurrently lecturer.
85
內侍郝隨驕橫，旦劾罷之，都人誦其直。 帝以其章有「媚惑先帝」之語，嫌為指斥，旋改吏部侍郎，以顯謨閣待制知宣州。 召為戶部侍郎，還吏部。 郝隨復入侍，乃以顯謨閣直學士知成都府。
The inner attendant Hao Sui was arrogant and overbearing; Dan impeached him and had him removed, and the capital praised his uprightness. The emperor, because his memorial contained the phrase "bewitching the late emperor," took it as a personal attack and soon transferred him to Vice Minister of Personnel and made him Awaiting-Appointment Drafter of the Xianmo Pavilion and prefect of Xuanzhou. He was summoned as Vice Minister of Revenue and returned to the Ministry of Personnel. When Hao Sui again entered attendance, Dan was made Direct Drafter of the Xianmo Pavilion and prefect of Chengdu.
86
自趙諗以狂謀誅後，蜀數有妖言，議者遂言蜀土習亂。 或導旦治以峻猛，旦政和平，徙鄭州。 入見，言：「蜀人性善柔，自古稱兵背叛，皆非其土俗，願勿為慮。」 遂言：「蜀用鐵錢，以其艱於轉移，故權以楮券，而有司冀贏羨，為之益多，使民不敢信。」 帝曰：「朕為卿損數百萬虛券，而別給緡錢與本業，可乎？」 對曰：「陛下幸加惠遠民，不愛重費以救敝法，此古聖王用心也。」 自是錢引稍仍故。
After Zhao Shen was executed for his mad plot, Shu repeatedly had ominous rumors; deliberators then said the people of Shu were prone to rebellion. Some urged Dan to govern with severity and harshness; Dan's rule was mild and peaceful, and he was transferred to Zhengzhou. On audience he said, "The people of Shu are by nature gentle and yielding; from antiquity those who took up arms in rebellion were none of them following local custom—I beg that Your Majesty give it no thought." He then said, "Shu uses iron coin, and because it is hard to move, paper notes were issued as a temporary measure; yet the officials hoped for surplus profit and issued ever more, until the people dared not trust them." The emperor said, "Shall I void several million in worthless notes for you and separately supply strings of cash for the original trades?" He replied, "Your Majesty is pleased to show favor to distant people and does not begrudge heavy expense to rescue a broken system—this is the mind of the ancient sage-kings." From this the paper notes gradually returned to their former course.
87
坐進對淹留，黜知滁州。 久之，帝思其治蜀功，復知成都。 朝廷開西南夷，黎州守詣幕府白事，言雲南大理國求入朝獻，旦引唐南詔為蜀患，拒卻之。 已而威州守焦才叔言，欲誘保、霸二州內附。 旦上章劾才叔為姦利斂困諸蕃之狀，宰相不悅，代以龐恭孫，而徙旦永興。 恭孫俄罪去，加旦述古殿直學士，復知成都。 時郅永壽、湯延俊納土，樞密院用以訹旦，旦曰：「吾以為朝廷悔開疆之禍，今猶自若邪？」 力辭之。 卒於長安，年六十二，贈太中大夫。
Because he lingered too long in audience he was demoted and made prefect of Chuzhou. After a long while the emperor recalled his achievements in governing Shu and again made him prefect of Chengdu. The court opened relations with the southwestern Yi; the prefect of Lizhou came to the headquarters to report that Dali in Yunnan sought to enter court and offer tribute; Dan cited how the Tang's Nanzhao had been a calamity for Shu and refused. Soon the prefect of Weizhou, Jiao Caishu, proposed to entice Ba and Ba prefectures to submit inward. Dan submitted a memorial impeaching Caishu for using wicked profit to oppress the various tribes; the chief minister was displeased, replaced him with Pang Gongsun, and transferred Dan to Yongxing. Gongsun soon left office under charges; Dan was promoted to Direct Drafter of the Hall for Venerating Antiquity and again made prefect of Chengdu. At that time Zhi Yongshou and Tang Yanjun surrendered their domains; the Bureau of Military Affairs used the occasion to press Dan. Dan said, "I had thought the court had repented of the calamity of territorial expansion—are you still of the same mind?" He firmly declined. He died at Chang'an, aged sixty-two, and was posthumously granted the title Grandee of Palace Attendance.
88
旦立朝無所附徇，第為中丞時，蔡王似方以疑就第，旦糾其私出府，請推治官吏，議者哂之。 子益，字大光，紹興初，參知政事。
In court Dan owed allegiance to no faction. Only once, when he was vice censor-in-chief: Prince Cai Si, under suspicion, had retired to his mansion; Dan impeached him for slipping out without leave and asked that the officials involved be investigated and punished—on which commentators only laughed. His son Yi, courtesy name Daguan, became vice grand councilor at the opening of the Shaoxing reign.
89
喬執中
Qiao Zhizhong
90
喬執中，字希聖，高郵人。 入太學，補《五經》講書，五年不謁告。 王安石為群牧判官，見而器之，命子弟與之遊。 擢進士，調須城主簿。 時河役大興，部役者不得人。 一夕，噪而潰，因致大獄。 執中往代，終帖然。 富民賂吏，將創橋所居以罔市利，執中疏其害，使者入吏言使成之，執中曰：「官可去，橋不可創也。」 卒不能奪。
Qiao Zhizhong, courtesy name Xisheng, was a native of Gaoyou. He entered the Imperial University, was appointed lecturer on the Five Classics, and for five years never once requested leave. When Wang Anshi served as deputy director of the Pasturage Commission, he took notice of him and held him in esteem, bidding his sons keep his company. He passed the jinshi examination and was made registrar of Xucheng. River works were then launched on a vast scale, and the officials charged with corvée labor could not keep the crews in hand. One night they raised a clamor and broke apart, which led to a major prosecution. Zhizhong went to take their place, and in the end all was quiet. A wealthy man bribed the clerks, planning to have a bridge built at his residence to corner the market; Zhizhong memorialized on the harm. When the envoy arrived the clerks urged that it be carried through; Zhizhong said, "The official may go, but the bridge shall not be built." In the end they could not prevail against him.
91
王安石為政，引執中編修《熙寧條例》，選提舉湖南常平。 章惇討五溪，檄執中取大田、離子二峒。 峒路險絕，期迫，執中但走一校諭其酋，即相率歸命。 錄功當遷秩，辭以及父母。
When Wang Anshi took the reins of government he brought Zhizhong in to compile the Xining Regulations and appointed him intendant of Hunan's Ever-Normal granaries. When Zhang Dun campaigned against the Five Streams he issued a dispatch ordering Zhizhong to secure the Datian and Lizi gorges. The gorge roads were sheer and trackless, the deadline pressing; Zhizhong merely sent one sergeant to address their chieftains, and they at once came in ranks to submit. His merit was entered and he was due for promotion in rank, but he declined while his parents still lived.
92
就徙轉運判官，召為司農丞、提點開封縣鎮。 諸縣牧地，民耕歲久，議者將取之，當夷丘墓，伐桑柘，萬家相聚而泣。 執中請於朝，神宗詔復予民。 改提點京西北路刑獄。 時河決廣武，埽危甚，相聚莫敢登。 執中不顧，立其上，眾隨之如蟻附，不日埽成。
He was then transferred to transport commissioner and summoned as vice director of the Ministry of Revenue and intendant of Kaifeng's county markets. In several counties there was pasturage the people had tilled for years; deliberators were about to reclaim it—tombs would be leveled, mulberry and catalpa felled—and ten thousand households gathered, weeping together. Zhizhong petitioned the court, and Emperor Shenzong ordered the land restored to the people. He was reassigned judicial intendant for the Northwest circuit around the capital. The Yellow River then burst its banks at Guangwu; the dike-repair works were desperately perilous, and though the laborers massed together, none dared climb them. Zhizhong paid no heed, mounted the works and stood upon them; the crowd followed like ants swarming a ridge, and within days the dike was finished.
93
元祐初，為吏部郎中，請選人由縣令、錄事參軍致仕者，升朝籍，得封其親。 兼徐王府侍講、翊善，遷起居舍人、起居郎，權給事中。 有司以天下讞獄失出入者同坐，執中駁之曰：「先王重入而輕出，恤刑之至也。 今一旦均之，恐自是法吏不復肯與生比，非好生洽民之意也。」 進中書舍人。 邢恕遇赦甄復，執中言：「恕深結蔡確，鼓唱扇搖，今復其官，懼疑中外。」 遷給事中、刑部侍郎。
At the opening of the Yuanyou era he was director in the Ministry of Personnel and asked that officials who retired after serving as county magistrate or registrar be entered on the court roster and permitted to ennoble their parents. He concurrently served as lecturer and tutor in the Prince of Xu's household, was promoted to Attendant Gentleman for Drafting the Imperial Diary and then Recorder of the Sovereign's Movements, and acted as supervising secretary. When the relevant office proposed that throughout the empire officials who erred in sentencing—whether too harsh or too lenient—should share punishment alike, Zhizhong objected, "The ancient kings weighed conviction heavily and acquittal lightly—that is the utmost in compassionate punishment. To equalize them in a single stroke—I fear legal officials will from this refuse to lean toward sparing life; that is not the intent of cherishing life and bringing the people into harmony." He was advanced to drafting secretary of the Secretariat. When Xing Shu was restored to office through amnesty and review, Zhizhong said, "Shu was deeply bound to Cai Que, drumming up trouble and fanning unrest; to restore him now—I fear it will breed suspicion at court and beyond." He was made supervising secretary and vice minister of punishments.
94
紹聖初，上官均摭執中為呂大防所用，以寶文閣待制知鄆州。 執中寬厚有仁心，屢典刑獄，雪活以百數。 明年，夢神人畀以騎都尉，詰旦為客言之，少焉，談笑而逝，年六十三。
At the opening of the Shaosheng era, Shangguan Jun dredged up charges that Zhizhong had served Lü Dafang's faction and had him appointed awaiting-appointment drafter of the Pavilion of Treasured Literature and prefect of Yan. Zhizhong was generous of heart and humane in spirit; he repeatedly held judicial posts and cleared or spared lives by the hundreds. The following year he dreamed that a divine being bestowed on him the title Commandant of Cavalry; at dawn he told a guest of it, and shortly thereafter passed away mid-conversation and laughter, aged sixty-three.
95
論曰：宋之人才，自祖宗涵養，至於中葉，盛矣。 顏復、鄭穆醇然儒者，宜居師表。 龔鼎臣、喬執中始終不渝厥守，豈易得哉。 章衡欲復山後八州，為國啟釁； 孫升以蘇軾比王安石為人； 韓川詆張舜民之言不可行； 席旦以蔡王見疑，因而擠之。 然瑕不掩瑜，它善蓋亦有可稱者。 古稱「才難不其然」者，其斯之謂歟？
The commentators say: Song talent, nourished from the founding emperors through the mid-dynasty, had grown abundant indeed. Yan Fu and Zheng Mu were scholars in the purest Confucian mold, fit to stand as masters and models for others. Gong Dingchen and Qiao Zhizhong never wavered from the principles they held—men like these, how easily are they found? Zhang Heng wished to recover the eight prefectures beyond the mountains, opening strife for the realm; Sun Sheng likened Su Shi to Wang Anshi in character; Han Chuan denounced Zhang Shunmin's proposals as unworkable; Xi Dan, seeing Prince Cai fall under suspicion, pressed him all the harder. Yet a flaw does not obscure the jade; in their other virtues too, surely, there is something worthy of praise. When the ancients said that talent is hard to find—is it not exactly this they meant?