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Wang Pu, styled Wenbo, came from Dongping. He passed the jinshi while young, became a proofreader, and served under Yang Bin, Han’s Privy Council commissioner. Bin feuded with Wang Zhang, Shi Hongzhao, and others. Pu saw Han still new, the Hidden Emperor young and frail, petty men in power—and Bin, a chief minister, at war with the generals. He knew ruin was coming and left Bin for the east. Later Li Ye and others persuaded the Hidden Emperor to purge the powerful ministers. Bin, Zhang, and Hongzhao were killed; clients of all three houses fell with them—Pu alone was spared, having left in time.
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唐失道而失吳、蜀，晉失道而失幽、并。 觀所以失之之由，知所以平之之術。 當失之時，君暗政亂，兵驕民困，近者奸於內，遠者叛於外，小不制而至於僭，大不制而至於濫，天下離心，人不用命，吳、蜀乘其亂而竊其號，幽、并乘其間而據其地。 平之之術，在乎反唐、晉之失而已。 必先進賢退不肖，以清其時； 用能去不能，以審其材； 恩信號令，以結其心； 賞功罰罪，以盡其力； 恭儉節用，以豐其財； 徭役以時，以阜其民。 俟其倉廩實、器用備、人可用而舉之。 彼方之民，知我政化大行，上下同心，力強財足，人安將和，有必取之勢，則知彼情狀者願為之間諜，知彼山川者願為之先導。 彼民與此民之心同，是與天意同； 與天意同，則無不成之功。
Tang lost the Way—and with it Wu and Shu. Jin lost the Way—and with it You and Bing. Study why they were lost, and you learn how to win them back. When empires fall, rulers grow blind and rule turns rotten; armies swagger while the people starve. Treason festers at court; rebellion rises on the frontier. Small disorders swell into usurpation; large ones into anarchy. The realm loses faith; commands go unheeded. Wu and Shu ride the chaos and steal imperial titles; You and Bing slip in and seize the soil. To pacify the borderlands, reverse what Tang and Jin did wrong—nothing more. First promote the worthy and dismiss the unworthy, and the age grows clear; use the able and discard the useless, and talent finds its place; with grace, trust, and clear command, bind hearts to you; reward merit and punish wrong, and men give all they have; with reverence, thrift, and restraint, fill the treasury; levy labor in its season, and the people grow rich. Wait until granaries brim, arms stand ready, and men answer the call—then strike. When folk across the border see our rule flourishing, court and camp of one mind, strength and silver in hand, soldiers content and commanders aligned—and know we must prevail—those who know their secrets will spy for us, and those who know their hills and rivers will guide us. When their people’s hearts align with ours, we align with Heaven; and when Heaven is with you, nothing fails.
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攻取之道，從易者始。 當今惟吳易圖，東至海，南至江，可撓之地二千里。 從少備處先撓之，備東則撓西，備西則撓東，彼必奔走以救其弊，奔走之間，可以知彼之虛實、眾之強弱，攻虛擊弱，則所向無前矣。 勿大舉，但以輕兵撓之。 彼人怯弱，知我師入其地，必大發以來應，數大發則民困而國竭，一不大發則我獲其利。 彼竭我利，則江北諸州乃國家之所有也。 既得江北，則用彼之民，揚我之兵，江之南亦不難而平之也。 如此，則用力少而收功多。 得吳，則桂、廣皆為內臣，岷、蜀可飛書而召之。 如不至，則四面並進，席卷而蜀平矣。 吳、蜀平，幽可望風而至。 唯并必死之寇，不可以恩信誘，必須以強兵攻，力已竭，氣已喪，不足以為邊患，可為後圖。 方今兵力精練，器用具備，群下知法，諸將用命，一稔之後，可以平邊。
Conquest begins with the easy target. Today only Wu yields easily. East to the sea, south to the Yangzi—two thousand li ripe for raiding. Harass where they are lightly held. Reinforce the east, strike the west; reinforce the west, strike the east. They will scramble to plug every gap—and in the scramble you learn where they are hollow and where they stand firm. Hit the hollow and break the weak, and nothing can stop you. Do not mount a full invasion—only light troops to harry and probe. They are a timid people. Once our columns cross their border, they must raise great armies to meet us. Raise them again and again, and the people break and the treasury empties; fail to raise them once, and the gain is ours. They spent, we enriched—then the Yangzi’s north-bank prefectures are ours. Hold the north bank, draft their people, march our banners south—and the river’s southern shore falls without great trouble. So: little force, great gain. Take Wu, and Guangxi and Guangdong bow inward; Min and Shu can be called by a single urgent letter. If they refuse, advance on every front and roll Shu up in one sweep. Pacify Wu and Shu, and You may submit at the first rumor of your approach. Only Bing is an enemy that dies fighting; grace and promises will not move it. Strong armies must break it. Once its strength is gone and its nerve shattered, it ceases to threaten the frontier—and can wait. Today the troops are sharp, the arsenals full, the court knows law, and the generals obey. One year from now, the borderlands can be settled.
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臣書生也，不足以講大事，至於不達大體，不合機變，惟陛下寬之。
I am only a bookish man, unqualified to speak of great strategy. If I miss the larger design or fail the moment’s need, I beg Your Majesty’s forbearance.
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He rose to Left Remonstrance Councillor and took charge of Kaifeng. Within the year he became Left Regular Attendant and Academician of the Hall of Manifest Brightness. Shizong had just taken the throne, hungry for war. He had already silenced the doubters, beaten Liu Min at Gaoping himself, and returned to drill the armies harder—suddenly burning to unite the realm. Again and again he asked his ministers how to rule. He picked twenty literary men, Xu Taifu among them, and set them to write “On the Difficulty of Being Ruler and the Difficulty of Being Minister” and “Pacifying the Borderlands”—Pu was chosen. Most literati of the day did not want the throne to hurry into war. Usurpation, they said, yields only to civil virtue first. Only Hanlin Academician Tao Gu, Dou Yi, Censor-in-Chief Yang Zhaojian, and Pu argued for war—and Pu said take the Jianghuai first. Shizong had known Pu for years; now his arguments struck like thunder, and Shizong found him even more extraordinary. He brought Pu into every plan for the realm. Nothing clashed. He decided to use him without reserve. Xiande year three, on the Huai campaign, Pu was made Deputy Commissioner of the Eastern Capital. Back from the field he became Vice Minister of Revenue and Deputy Privy Council Commissioner, then Privy Council Commissioner. Year four, on the second Huai campaign, Pu stayed behind to hold the capital.
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Under Shizong, war ran outward and law was rebuilt within. Pu was quick, brilliant, and many-sided—not only in the business of the day. Yin and yang, pitch pipes, calendrics: there was no art he did not command. Xiande year two, an edict put Pu to revising the Great Calendar. He stripped out recent Futian astrology and folk superstition, set up three methods—comprehensive, canonical, and systematic—and from the year’s track, lunar nodes, new and full moons, cyclical shifts, rates, and procedures calculated sun, moon, and the five planets, producing the Qintian Calendar. Year six brought another edict: rectify court music. Pu argued that cross-blowing the twelve pitch pipes never yields true pitch. Following Jing Fang, he built a pitch standard, strung thirteen nine-foot strings, set bridges to each pipe’s length in inches and fractions, tuned to the seven-tone scale—and the music, finished, rang true.
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Pu was hard and decisive, and Shizong believed in him. Whatever he undertook, no one dared stand in his way—nor could anyone outdo him. While Shizong fought on the Huai, Pu stayed in the capital, widened the new city, opened roads—monumental and vast. Much of today’s capital plan is his work. The music he made is still used today—and cannot be altered. The strategy he laid out was not a plan for one season alone. He even named the order of rise and fall: “Take Huainan first. Bing—the enemy that dies fighting—falls last.” When Song rose and settled the four quarters, only Bing submitted last—exactly as Pu foretold.
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Spring of year six, Shizong sent Pu to inspect the Bian mouth and build sluice gates. On the way back he stopped at former chancellor Li Gu’s house; sickness took him, he fell from his seat, was carried home, and died at fifty-four. Shizong came to his funeral, struck the ground with the jade axe of mourning, and broke into great wailing four times. He was posthumously made Palace Attendant.
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鄭仁誨，字日新，太原晉陽人也。 初，事唐將陳紹光。 紹光為人驍勇而好使酒，嘗因醉怒仁誨，拔劍欲殺之，左右皆奔走，仁誨植立不動，無懼色，紹光擲劍於地，撫仁誨曰：「汝有器量，必富貴，非吾所及也。」 仁誨後棄紹光去，還鄉里，事母以孝聞。 漢高祖為河東節度使，周太祖居帳下，時時往過仁誨，與語甚歡。 每事有疑，即從仁誨質問，仁誨所對不阿，周太祖益奇之。 漢興，周太祖為樞密使，乃召仁誨用之，累官至內客省使。 太祖破李守貞於河中，軍中機畫，仁誨多所參決。 太祖入立，以仁誨為大內都點檢、恩州團練使、樞密副使，累遷宣徽北院使，出為鎮寧軍節度使。 顯德元年，拜樞密使。 世宗攻河東，仁誨留守東都。 明年冬，以疾卒。 世宗將臨其喪，有司言歲不利臨喪，世宗不聽，乃先以桃荝而臨之。
Zheng Renhui, styled Rixin, came from Jinyang in Taiyuan. He first served the Tang general Chen Shaoguang. Shaoguang was a fierce drinker. Once, drunk and furious at Renhui, he drew his sword to kill him. Everyone fled; Renhui stood still, unafraid. Shaoguang flung down his sword, clapped Renhui’s shoulder, and said: “You have the measure of a great man—you will rise high. That is beyond me.” Renhui later left Shaoguang, went home, and became known for honoring his mother. When Han Gaozu governed Hedong, Zhou Taizu served in his camp and often called on Renhui—they talked as old friends. When Taizu was uncertain, he went to Renhui for plain answers. Renhui never flattered—and Taizu prized him the more. When Han was established, Taizu became Privy Council Commissioner and brought Renhui in; he rose step by step to Commissioner of the Inner Clients Bureau. When Taizu broke Li Shouzhen at Hezhong, Renhui helped decide much of the army’s strategy. When Taizu took the throne he made Renhui Grand Inspector of the Inner Palace, Military Training Commissioner of Enzhou, and Deputy Privy Council Commissioner; he rose to Commissioner of the Northern Hall of the Palace Secretariat, then went out to govern the Zhenning Army. Xiande year one, he became Privy Council Commissioner. When Shizong attacked Hedong, Renhui stayed behind to hold the eastern capital. The next winter he died of illness. Shizong meant to attend his funeral; the officials warned that the year was ill-omened for mourning. Shizong refused to heed them, performed the peach-branch and reed exorcism, and went anyway.
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From humble days Renhui had advised Taizu; in high office he never traded on it—yet Taizu and Shizong both cherished him. He remained modest, courteous, and ritual-minded, never vaunting himself, and the literati spoke well of him. He was posthumously made Grand Councillor, enfeoffed as Duke of Han, and given the posthumous title Loyal and Upright.
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Hu Zai, styled Zhongxi, came from Northern Yan. As a youth he loved books and wrote well. Early in Guangshun he took the jinshi with top honors, became proofreader, and served in the History Institute. He was promoted again to Investigating Censor. In his prose he took pride in rich language. He once compiled the rise, fall, order, and chaos of dynasties through the ages into “Origins of Fate”—a work of great detail. Visiting Xiangguo Temple, he fell in love with the courtyard bamboo and wrote “Fresh Green” on the wall. Shizong heard, sent a palace eunuch to copy it from the wall, read it with praise, and made him Vice Director of the Waterways Office and drafter of edicts. He rose to Hanlin Academician and was granted crimson robes—but Zai was already ill and could not attend court to give thanks. After more than a hundred days he dragged himself, sick, into duty at the Academy. Shizong pitied him, granted leave to go home, and sent the imperial physician to treat him.
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When Zai was famous for his writing, Privy Council Commissioner Wang Pu especially prized his talent and recommended him to Chancellor Li Gu—but Gu would not use him. Pu asked Gu: “Why is Hu Zai not made Drafting Secretary?” Gu said: “I know his talent. But Zai’s fate is thin—I fear the office would break him.” Pu said: “You are chancellor. Promoting the worthy and dismissing the unworthy is your duty—why talk of fate?” Soon after, Zai was summoned and made drafter of edicts. Once Academician, he died of illness within the year—thirty-six years old. Commentators said Gu knew men—and Pu knew how to recommend them.
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The Son of Heaven was bold and martial, hungry for extraordinary men, and especially honored men of letters. Zai, with Zhang Zhao, Dou Yan, Tao Gu, Xu Taifu, and others, all rose into office. Among them Gu wrote worst—and behaved worst. Zhao and Yan often argued with him; their prose shone. Gu could only read the ruler’s mood, flatter ahead of it, and praise every deed, great or small. Widening the capital, wooden farm figures, purple fungus, white hares—all won his hymns of praise, his words mostly fit for a clown. Zai, cut off young, never matched Zhao and Yan in argument—but he never flattered like Gu.
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嗚呼！ 作器者，無良材而有良匠； 治國者，無能臣而有能君。 蓋材待匠而成，臣待君而用。 故曰，治國譬之於奕，知其用而置得其處者勝，不知其用而置非其處者敗。 敗者臨棋註目，終日而勞心，使善奕者視焉，為之易置其處則勝矣。 勝者所用，敗者之棋也； 興國所用，亡國之臣也。 王朴之材，誠可謂能矣。 不遇世宗，何所施哉？ 世宗之時，外事征伐，攻取戰勝； 內修制度，議刑法，定律歷，講求禮樂之遺文，所用者五代之士也，豈皆愚怯於晉、漢，而材智於周哉？ 惟知所用爾。 夫亂國之君，常置愚不肖於上，而強其不能，以暴其短惡，置賢智於下，而泯沒其材能，使君子、小人皆失其所，而身蹈危亡。 治國之君，能置賢智於近，而置愚不肖於遠，使君子、小人各適其分，而身享安榮。 治亂相去雖遠甚，而其所以致之者不多也，反其所置而已。 嗚呼，自古治君少而亂君多，況於五代，士之遇不遇者，可勝嘆哉！
Alas! To shape a vessel you need no perfect timber—only a perfect craftsman; to govern a state you need no perfect ministers—only a perfect ruler. Timber waits for the craftsman; ministers wait for the ruler. So they say: governing a state is like Go—know your pieces and place each where it belongs, and you win; misplace them, and you lose. The loser stares at the board all day, mind in knots; let a master look—and by moving each piece to its right square, the game turns. The stones the victor plays are the loser’s own pieces. The men a rising realm employs are the ministers of a fallen one. Wang Pu’s talent was genuine—capable indeed. Without Shizong, where could he have shown it? Under Shizong the realm campaigned abroad—attacking, conquering, winning in battle; Within he refined institutions, debated law, fixed the calendar, and recovered lost rites and music—the men he used were veterans of the Five Dynasties. Were they fools and cowards under Jin and Han, yet sages under Zhou? It comes down to knowing whom to use. A ruler who brings ruin puts fools in high office and drives them beyond their strength until their flaws stand bare; puts the wise below and buries their gifts, so gentlemen and petty men alike lose their proper stations—and he himself walks into peril and extinction. A ruler who brings order keeps the wise close and the unworthy far, so gentlemen and petty men each fill their proper roles—and he enjoys safety and honor himself. Order and disorder seem worlds apart, yet what makes them differ is small: simply reverse whom you place where. Alas! Through the ages worthy rulers have been rare and ruinous ones many—all the more in the Five Dynasties. How many scholars found a master, and how many did not—what sighs could count them all!