1
楊恭懿
Yang Gongyi
2
楊恭懿,字元甫,奉元人。 力學強記,日數千言,雖從親逃亂,未嘗廢業。 年十七,西還,家貧,服勞為養。 暇則就學,書無不讀,尤深於《易》、《禮》、《春秋》,後得硃熹集注《四書》,歎曰:「人倫日用之常,天道性命之妙,皆萃此書矣。」 父沒,水漿不入口者五日,居喪盡禮。 宣撫司、行省以掌書記辟,不就。
Yang Gongyi, courtesy name Yuanfu, came from Fengyuan. He applied himself to learning and had an exceptional memory, memorizing several thousand characters a day; even while fleeing chaos with his family, he never neglected his studies. At the age of seventeen he returned to the west. The family was poor, and he took on physical labor to provide for them. Whenever he had leisure he studied. There was no book he did not read, and he was especially versed in the Book of Changes, the Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. Later he obtained Zhu Xi's collected commentaries on the Four Books and exclaimed: "The norms of human conduct in everyday life and the mysteries of the Way of Heaven and human nature are all concentrated in this work." After his father's death he took neither water nor gruel for five days, and throughout the mourning period he observed the rites in full. The Pacification Commission and the Branch Secretariat both offered him the post of chief secretary, but he declined.
3
至元七年,與許衡俱被召,恭懿不至。 衡拜中書左丞,日於右相安童前稱譽恭懿之賢,丞相以聞。 十年,詔遣使召之,以疾不起。 十一年,太子下教中書,俾如漢惠聘四皓者以聘恭懿,丞相遣郎中張元智為書致命,乃至京師。 既入見,世祖遣國王和童勞其遠來,繼又親詢其鄉里、族氏、師承、子姓,無不周悉。 十二年正月二日,帝御香殿,以大軍南征,使久不至,命筮之,其言秘。 侍讀學士徒單公履請設取士科,詔與恭懿議之。 恭懿言:「明詔有謂:士不治經學孔孟之道,日為賦詩空文。 斯言誠萬世治安之本。 今欲取士,宜敕有司,舉有行檢、通經史之士,使無投牒自售,試以經義、論策。 夫既從事實學,則士風還淳,民俗趨厚,國家得才矣。」 奏之,帝善之。 會北征,恭懿遂歸田裡。
In the seventh year of the Zhiyuan era (1270), he and Xu Heng were both summoned to court, but Gongyi did not go. Heng was appointed Left Vice Director of the Secretariat and each day before the Right Chancellor Antong spoke of Gongyi's excellence; the chancellor reported this to the emperor. In the tenth year (1273) an edict dispatched envoys to summon him; citing illness, he did not go. In the eleventh year the Crown Prince instructed the Secretariat to invite Gongyi as Emperor Hui of Han had invited the Four Hoary Ones of Mount Shang; the chancellor sent Gentleman-of-the-Interior Zhang Yuanzhi with a letter bearing the imperial command, and only then did he arrive at the capital. Once he had been received in audience, Kublai sent Prince Hetong to welcome him for his long journey. The emperor then personally questioned him about his native district, clan, teachers, and descendants, omitting nothing. On the second day of the first month of the twelfth year, the emperor took his seat in the Incense Hall. Because the main force on the southern campaign had long failed to return, he ordered divination; the pronouncement was kept secret. Hanlin Academician Tutuha Gonglu requested that a civil examination be established; an edict ordered that this be discussed with Gongyi. Gongyi said: "A clear edict declares that when scholars do not pursue the classics and the Way of Confucius and Mencius, they spend their days writing fu and hollow literary compositions. This statement is indeed the foundation of enduring peace and good government. If scholars are now to be selected, the responsible offices should be instructed to recommend men of proven character who are versed in the classics and histories, so that none may submit petitions to peddle themselves, and they should be examined on classical interpretation and policy essays. Once scholars devote themselves to substantive learning, the tone of the literati will return to purity, the people's ways will grow more substantial, and the state will gain able men. He submitted this memorial, and the emperor approved it. When the northern campaign began, Gongyi returned to his home district.
4
十六年,詔安西王相敦遣赴闕。 入見,詔於太史院改歷。 十七年二月,進奏曰:「臣等遍考自漢以來曆書四十餘家,精思推算,舊儀難用,而新者未備,故日行盈縮,月行遲疾,五行周天,其詳皆未精察。 今權以新儀木表,與舊儀所測相較,得今歲冬至晷景及日躔所在,與列舍分度之差,大都北極之高下,晝夜刻長短,參以古制,創立新法,推算成《辛巳曆》。 雖或未精,然比之前改歷者,附會曆元,更立日法,全踵故習,顧亦無愧。 然必每歲測驗修改,積三十年,庶盡其法。 可使如三代日官,世專其職,測驗良久,無改歲之事矣。」 又《合朔議》曰:
In the sixteenth year an edict instructed the Anxi King's chancellor Dun to escort him to the capital. After he was received in audience, an edict assigned him to the Directorate of Astronomy to reform the calendar. In the second month of the seventeenth year he presented a memorial stating: "We have surveyed more than forty calendrical treatises from Han times onward and deliberated on their calculations. The old instruments are difficult to apply, and newer methods remain incomplete; accordingly, the sun's varying pace, the moon's alternating speed, and the five planets' circuits have none been scrutinized with sufficient precision. For now we have provisionally employed the new wooden gnomon and compared its readings with those of the old instrument, determining this year's winter-solstice shadow, the sun's position, discrepancies in lodge divisions, the altitude of the pole star at Dadu, and the lengths of day and night in quarter-hours. Drawing on ancient models, we have devised a new method and completed calculations for the Xinsi Calendar. Although it may not yet be fully precise, compared with earlier calendar reformers who forced the epoch to conform, devised new day-fraction rules, and merely followed old conventions, we have nothing to be ashamed of. Yet the calendar must be tested and revised annually; only after thirty years of accumulation might its method be fully perfected. Then officers like the calendrical specialists of the Three Dynasties could hold the post hereditarily, observe over long periods, and there would be no further need to reform the calendar." He also submitted a "Memorial on Conjunction and New Moon," which stated:
5
日行歷四時一周,謂之一歲; 月逾一周,復與日合,謂之一月; 言一月之始,日月相合,故謂合朔。 自秦廢歷紀,漢太初止用平朔法,大小相間,或有二大者,故日食多在晦日或二日,測驗時刻亦鮮中。 宋何承天測驗四十餘年,進《元嘉曆》,始以月行遲速定小餘以正朔望,使食必在朔,名定朔法,有三大二小,時以異舊法罷之。 梁虞廣刂造《大同曆》,隋劉焯造《皇極曆》,皆用定朔,為時所阻。 唐傅仁均造《戊寅曆》,定朔始得行。 貞觀十九年,四月頻大,人皆異之,竟改從平朔。 李淳風造《麟德曆》,雖不用平朔,遇四大則避人言,以平朔間之,又希合當世,為進朔法,使無元日之食。 至一行造《大衍曆》,謂「天事誠密,四大三小何傷。」 誠為確論,然亦循常不改。 臣等更造新歷,一依前賢定論,推算皆改從實。 今十九年曆,自八月後,四月並大,實日月合朔之數也。
When the sun completes one circuit through the four seasons, that is called a year; when the moon completes a circuit and again joins the sun, that is called a month; This means that at the start of a month the sun and moon conjoin, which is why it is termed conjunction and new moon. After Qin abolished calendrical chronology, the Han Taichu calendar relied solely on mean conjunctions, alternating long and short months and sometimes producing two long months in succession; solar eclipses therefore often fell on the last day of the month or the second day, and observed times rarely matched predictions. He Chengtian of Song observed for more than forty years and submitted the Yuanjia Calendar, first employing the moon's varying speed to adjust the fractional remainder and correct new and full moons so that eclipses would invariably fall on the new moon—a method called true conjunction, producing three long and two short months in sequence; contemporaries rejected it as departing from established practice. Yu Guang of Liang devised the Datong Calendar, and Liu Chuo of Sui the Huangji Calendar; both employed true conjunction but were obstructed by their contemporaries. Fu Renjun of Tang created the Wuyin Calendar, and true conjunction was first put into practice. In the nineteenth year of the Zhenguan reign, several consecutive long fourth months astonished everyone, and the calendar was ultimately reverted to mean conjunction. Li Chunfeng devised the Linde Calendar; although he did not employ mean conjunction, whenever four long months occurred he appeased public opinion by interposing mean conjunctions. He also sought to accommodate contemporary expectations with an advancing-new-moon method designed to prevent eclipses on New Year's Day. When the monk Yixing devised the Dayan Calendar, he declared: "Heaven's operations are truly precise; what injury is there in four long and three short months?" This was indeed sound doctrine, yet calendrists continued to follow convention without reform. We have now devised a new calendar, adhering entirely to the settled conclusions of earlier masters; all calculations have been revised to conform to actual observation. In the calendar for the nineteenth year, from the eighth month onward four consecutive long months appear—this reflects the actual count of solar-lunar conjunction.
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詳見《郭守敬傳》。 是日,方列跪,未讀奏,帝命許衡及恭懿起,曰:「卿二老,毋自勞也。」 授集賢學士,兼太史院事。
For further particulars see the biography of Guo Shoujing. That day, as they knelt in formation before the memorial could be read, the emperor directed Xu Heng and Gongyi to rise, saying: "You two venerable gentlemen, spare yourselves the strain." He was appointed Academician of the Hall for Gathering Worthies and concurrently placed in charge of the Directorate of Astronomy.
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十八年,辭歸。 二十年,以太子賓客召; 二十二年,以昭文館學士、領太史院事召; 二十九年,以議中書省事召。 皆不行。 三十一年,卒,年七十。
In the eighteenth year he resigned and returned home. In the twentieth year he was summoned as Mentor to the Heir Apparent; in the twenty-second year he was summoned as Academician of the Zhaowen Hall to head the Directorate of Astronomy; in the twenty-ninth year he was summoned to deliberate on Secretariat affairs. He declined every summons. In the thirty-first year he died at the age of seventy.
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○王恂
○ Wang Xun
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王恂,字敬甫,中山唐縣人。 父良,金末為中山府掾,時民遭亂後,多以詿誤繫獄,良前後所活數百人。 已而棄去吏業,潛心伊洛之學,及天文律曆,無不精究,年九十二卒。 恂性穎悟,生三歲,家人示以書帙,輒識風、丁二字。 母劉氏,授以《千字文》,再過目,即成誦。 六歲就學,十三學九數,輒造其極。 歲己酉,太保劉秉忠北上,途經中山,見而奇之,及南還,從秉忠學於磁之紫金山。
Wang Xun, courtesy name Jingfu, came from Tang County in Zhongshan. His father Liang served as a clerk in Zhongshan Prefecture at the end of the Jin dynasty. After the chaos, many people were imprisoned on trumped-up charges; Liang saved several hundred lives in all. He later abandoned official life and devoted himself to the Neo-Confucian learning of the Cheng brothers, as well as astronomy, harmonics, and calendrics, mastering all of these fields. He died at ninety-two. Xun was exceptionally bright. At the age of three, when his family showed him books, he immediately recognized the characters for "wind" and "fourth." His mother, Lady Liu, taught him the Thousand-Character Classic; after reading it twice he could recite it from memory. At six he entered formal schooling; at thirteen he studied the nine branches of mathematics and immediately attained mastery. In the jiyou year Grand Guardian Liu Bingzhong traveled north and passed through Zhongshan; struck by the boy's talent, he took him south on his return to study at Purple Gold Mountain in Ci Prefecture.
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癸丑,秉忠薦之世祖,召見於六盤山,命輔導裕宗,為太子伴讀。 中統二年,擢太子贊善,時年二十八。 三年,裕宗封燕王,守中書令,兼判樞密院事,敕兩府大臣:凡有諮禀,必令王恂與聞。 初,中書左丞許衡集唐、虞以來嘉言善政,為書以進。 世祖嘗令恂講解,且命太子受業焉。 又詔恂於太子起居飲食,慎為調護,非所宜接之人,勿令得侍左右。 恂言:「太子天下本,付託至重,當延名德與之居處。 況兼領中書、樞密之政,詔條所當遍覽,庶務亦當屢省,官吏以罪免者毋使更進,軍官害人,改用之際,尤不可非其人。 民至愚而神,變亂之餘,吾不之疑,則反覆化為忠厚。」 帝深然之。
In the guichou year Bingzhong recommended him to Kublai. He was received in audience at Liupan Mountain and appointed to guide Prince Yuzong as companion reader to the heir apparent. In the second year of the Zhongtong era he was promoted to Supporter of Goodness to the Heir Apparent at the age of twenty-eight. In the third year Prince Yuzong was enfeoffed as Prince of Yan, served as Director of the Secretariat, and concurrently oversaw the Military Affairs Commission. An edict instructed ministers of both offices that Wang Xun must be informed of every consultation and report. Earlier, Left Vice Director Xu Heng had compiled a book of exemplary sayings and sound policies from the age of Yao and Shun onward and presented it to the throne. Kublai once directed Xun to expound the work and ordered the heir apparent to study under him. He further instructed Xun to supervise the heir's daily routine, diet, and conduct with care, and not to allow unsuitable persons to wait upon him. Xun said: "The heir apparent is the foundation of the realm; the trust placed in him is weighty in the extreme. Men of eminent virtue should be invited to keep his company. Moreover, since he concurrently oversees Secretariat and Military Affairs affairs, he should read through all edicts and regulations and frequently review routine business. Officials dismissed for misconduct must not be reappointed. When military officers harm the people and are replaced, particular care must be taken not to appoint unworthy successors. The people are profoundly simple yet responsive; after the upheavals of disorder, if we do not distrust them, they will in time be transformed into honest and steadfast subjects. The emperor strongly approved these words.
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恂早以算術名,裕宗嘗問焉。 恂曰:「算數,六藝之一,定國家,安人民,乃大事也。」 每侍左右,必發明三綱五常,為學之道,及歷代治忽興亡之所以然。 又以遼、金之事近接耳目者,區別其善惡,論著其得失,上之。 裕宗問以心之所守,恂曰:「許衡嘗言:人心如印板,惟板本不差,則雖摹千萬紙皆不差; 本既差,則摹之於紙,無不差者。」 裕宗深然之。 詔擇勳戚子弟,使學於恂,師道卓然。 及恂從裕宗撫軍稱海,乃以諸生屬之許衡,及衡告老而去,復命恂領國子祭酒。 國學之制,實始於此。
Xun had early won renown for mathematics, and Prince Yuzong once questioned him on the subject. Xun replied: "Mathematics is one of the Six Arts. To establish the state and secure the people is a matter of the greatest importance." Whenever he attended the prince, he expounded the Three Bonds and Five Constants, the principles of learning, and the causes behind the rise and fall of successive dynasties. He also drew on recent events of the Liao and Jin dynasties still fresh in memory, distinguished their virtues and faults, analyzed their successes and failures, and submitted his findings. When Prince Yuzong asked what the heart should hold fast to, Xun said: "Xu Heng once remarked that the human heart is like a printing block: only if the block itself is true will every impression, even ten thousand sheets, be without flaw; but if the block is flawed, every impression on paper will be flawed without exception." Prince Yuzong strongly agreed. An edict selected sons of meritorious families to study under Xun, whose authority as teacher stood eminent. When Xun accompanied Prince Yuzong in pacifying the army at Chenghai, the students were placed under Xu Heng's charge. After Heng retired, Xun was again appointed libationer of the Directorate of Education. The institution of the National University in fact dates from this period.
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帝以國朝承用金《大明曆》,歲久浸疏,欲厘正之,知恂精於算術,遂以命之。 恂薦許衡能明歷之理,詔驛召赴闕,命領改歷事,官屬悉聽恂辟置。 恂與衡及楊恭懿、郭守敬等,遍考曆書四十餘家,晝夜測驗,創立新法,參以古制,推算極為精密,詳在《守敬傳》。 十六年,授嘉議大夫、太史令。 十七年,歷成,賜名《授時曆》,以其年冬頒行天下。
Because the dynasty had inherited the Jin Great Enlightenment Calendar, which had grown increasingly inaccurate over the years, the emperor wished to reform it. Knowing Xun's mastery of mathematics, he entrusted him with the task. Xun recommended Xu Heng as one who understood calendrical principles. An edict summoned him by relay to court and placed him in charge of calendar reform; all staff were to be appointed at Xun's discretion. Xun, together with Heng, Yang Gongyi, Guo Shoujing, and others, surveyed more than forty calendrical treatises and observed day and night. They devised a new method, drew on ancient models, and achieved calculations of exceptional precision; particulars appear in the biography of Guo Shoujing. In the sixteenth year he was appointed Grand Master of Court Discussion and Director of Astronomy. In the seventeenth year the calendar was completed and named the Season-Granting Calendar; that winter it was promulgated throughout the empire.
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十八年,居父喪,哀毀,日飲勺水。 帝遣內侍慰諭之。 未幾,卒,年四十七。 初,恂病,裕宗屢遣醫診治,及葬,賻鈔二千貫。 後帝思定歷之功,以鈔五千貫賜其家。 延祐二年,贈推忠守正功臣、光祿大夫、司徒、上柱國、定國公,諡文肅。
In the eighteenth year, while mourning his father, he was consumed by grief and took only a spoonful of water each day. The emperor sent a palace attendant to console him. Before long he died at the age of forty-seven. When Xun fell ill, Prince Yuzong repeatedly sent physicians to treat him. At his burial the prince granted two thousand strings of paper money as funeral compensation. Later, recalling his service in establishing the calendar, the emperor granted his family five thousand strings of paper money. In the second year of the Yanyou era he was posthumously honored as Meritorious Subject Who Pushes Loyalty and Upholds Rectitude, Grand Master of the Imperial Household, Minister of Education, Pillar of the State of the First Rank, and Duke Who Settles the State, with the posthumous name Wensu.
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子寬、賓,並從許衡遊,得星曆之傳於家學。 裕宗嘗召見,語之曰:「汝父起於書生,貧無貲蓄,今賜汝鈔五千貫,用盡可復以聞。」 恩卹之厚如此。 寬由保章正歷兵部郎中,知蠡州。 賓由保章副累遷秘書監。
His sons Kuan and Bin both studied under Xu Heng and inherited the family's expertise in astronomy and calendrics. Prince Yuzong once summoned them and said: "Your father rose from scholarly poverty without savings. I now grant you five thousand strings of paper money; when it is spent, you may request more." Such was the depth of the favor shown them. Kuan rose from Director of the Astrological Bureau through Libationer of the Calendar to Gentleman-of-the-Interior in the Ministry of War and served as prefect of Li Prefecture. Bin rose from Vice Director of the Astrological Bureau through successive promotions to Director of the Palace Library.
15
○郭守敬
○ Guo Shoujing
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郭守敬,字若思,順德邢台人。 生有異操,不為嬉戲事。 大父榮,通五經,精於算數、水利。 時劉秉忠、張文謙、張易、王恂同學於州西紫金山,榮使守敬從秉忠學。
Guo Shoujing, courtesy name Ruosi, came from Xingtai in Shunde. From childhood he showed an unusual temperament and never engaged in frivolous pastimes. His grandfather Rong mastered the Five Classics and was expert in mathematics and hydraulic engineering. At that time Liu Bingzhong, Zhang Wenqian, Zhang Yi, and Wang Xun studied together at Purple Gold Mountain west of the prefecture; Rong sent Shoujing to study under Bingzhong.
17
中統三年,文謙薦守敬習水利,巧思絕人。 世祖召見,面陳水利六事:其一,中都舊漕河,東至通州,引玉泉水以通舟,歲可省雇車錢六萬緡。 通州以南,於蘭榆河口徑直開引,由蒙村跳梁務至楊村還河,以避浮雞氵甸盤淺風浪遠轉之患。 其二,順德達泉引入城中,分為三渠,灌城東地。 其三,順德灃河東至古任城,失其故道,沒民田千三百餘頃。 此水開修成河,其田即可耕種,自小王村經滹沱,合入御河,通行舟筏。 其四,磁州東北滏、漳二水合流處,引水由滏陽、邯鄲、洺州、永年下經雞澤,合入灃河,可灌田三千餘頃。 其五,懷、孟沁河,雖澆灌,猶有漏堰餘水,東與丹河餘水相合。 引東流,至武陟縣北,合入御河,可灌田二千餘頃。 其六,黃河自孟州西開引,少分一渠,經由新、舊孟州中間,順河古岸下,至溫縣南復入大河,其間亦可灌田二千餘頃。 每奏一事,世祖歎曰:「任事者如此,人不為素餐矣。」 授提舉諸路河渠。 四年,加授銀符、副河渠使。
In the third year of the Zhongtong era Wenqian recommended Shoujing for his mastery of hydraulic engineering and ingenuity surpassing all others. The Founding Emperor received him in audience, and Shoujing laid out six hydraulic proposals in person. First: the old grain canal at the Central Capital, running east to Tongzhou—divert the Jade Spring to float shipping, and the realm could save sixty thousand strings of cartage every year. South of Tongzhou, cut a straight intake at the Lanyu estuary, run it from Mengcun and Tiaoliangwu back to the main stream at Yangcun, and so escape the shoals of Floating Chicken Ford, the wind and waves, and the wear of long tacking. Second: lead the Dada Spring of Shunde into the city, split it into three canals, and water the ground east of the walls. Third: east of Shunde the Feng River toward ancient Rencheng had wandered off its old bed and drowned more than thirteen hundred qing of farmland. Reopen that water as a river and the drowned fields become arable again; from Little Wang Village route it past the Hutuo into the Imperial Canal, fit for boats and rafts. Fourth: at the confluence of the Fu and Zhang northeast of Cizhou, divert water through Fuyang, Handan, Mingzhou, and Yongnian, down past Jize into the Feng—enough to irrigate three thousand qing and more. Fifth: the Qin River in Huai and Meng, for all its irrigation, still spilled weir-water eastward to meet the Dan's leftover flow. Channel that eastward to north of Wuzhi, pour it into the Imperial Canal, and water another two thousand qing. Sixth: west of Mengzhou split the Yellow River—a lesser canal between New and Old Mengzhou, hugging the ancient levee to Wen County and back into the main stream, watering two thousand qing along the way. After each proposal the Founding Emperor sighed and said, "Servants of the state like this—no one need eat for nothing." He was made Director-in-Chief of River Works for All Routes. In the fourth year he received the silver tally and the post of Vice Commissioner of River Works.
18
至元元年,從張文謙行省西夏。 先是,古渠在中興者,一名唐來,其長四百里,一名漢延,長二百五十里,它州正渠十,皆長二百里,支渠大小六十八,灌田九萬餘頃。 兵亂以來,廢壞淤淺。 守敬更立閘堰,皆復其舊。 二年,授都水少監。 守敬言:「舟自中興沿河四晝夜至東勝,可通漕運,及見查泊、兀郎海古渠甚多,宜加修理。」 又言:「金時,自燕京之西麻峪村,分引盧溝一支東流,穿西山而出,是謂金口。 其水自金口以東,燕京以北,灌田若干頃,其利不可勝計。 兵興以來,典守者懼有所失,因以大石塞之。 今若按視故跡,使水得通流,上可以致西山之利,下可以廣京畿之漕。」 又言:「當於金口西預開減水口,西南還大河,令其深廣,以防漲水突入之患。」 帝善之。 十二年,丞相伯顏南征,議立水站,命守敬行視河北、山東可通舟者,為圖奏之。
In the first year of Zhiyuan he accompanied Zhang Wenqian on provincial inspection in Xixia. Before then the old canals at Zhongxing included Tanglai, four hundred li long, and Hanyan, two hundred fifty li; ten main canals in other prefectures, each two hundred li, with sixty-eight branch canals large and small, watering more than ninety thousand qing. War had left them broken, choked, and shallow. Shoujing rebuilt the gates and weirs until every channel stood as before. In the second year he was named Vice Director of the Imperial Waterworks. Shoujing reported, "A boat from Zhongxing can reach Dongsheng in four days and nights along the river—grain transport is feasible—and at Zhabo and Ulun Hai I found many old canals worth restoring." He added, "Under the Jin, west of Yanjing at Mayu Village they split the Lugou east through the Western Hills—the Jinkou. From the Jinkou east and north of Yanjing it watered untold qing; the gain was beyond counting. When war came the keepers, fearing loss, sealed it with great stones. Survey the old course, let the water run again, and upstream the Western Hills prosper while downstream the capital's grain routes widen." He urged also, "West of the Jinkou open a spillway beforehand, sweeping southwest back to the main river, deep and wide, lest floodwater crash through." The Emperor assented. In the twelfth year, as Chancellor Bayan campaigned south, the court debated water courier stations and sent Shoujing to survey Hebei and Shandong for navigable routes, map them, and report.
19
初,秉忠以《大明曆》自遼、金承用二百餘年,浸以後天,議欲修正而卒。 十三年,江左既平,帝思用其言,遂以守敬與王恂率南北日官,分掌測驗推步於下,而命文謙與樞密張易為之主領裁奏於上,左丞許衡參預其事。 守敬首言:「歷之本在於測驗,而測驗之器莫先儀表。 今司天渾儀,宋皇祐中汴京所造,不與此處天度相符,比量南北二極,約差四度; 表石年深,亦復欹側。」 守敬乃盡考其失而移置之。 既又別圖高爽地,以木為重棚,創作簡儀、高表,用相比覆。 又以為天樞附極而動,昔人嘗展管望之,未得其的,作候極儀。 極辰既位,天體斯正,作渾天象。 象雖形似,莫適所用,作玲瓏儀。 以表之矩方,測天之正圜,莫若以圜求圜,作仰儀。 古有經緯,結而不動,守敬易之,作立運儀。 日有中道,月有九行,守敬一之,作證理儀。 表高景虛,罔象非真,作景符。 月雖有明,察景則難,作窺幾。 曆法之驗,在於交會,作日月食儀。 天有赤道,輪以當之,兩極低昂,標以指之,作星晷定時儀。 又作正方案、丸表、懸正儀、座正儀,為四方行測者所用。 又作《仰規覆矩圖》、《異方渾蓋圖》、《日出入永短圖》,與上諸儀互相參考。
Earlier Bingzhong had argued that the Great Enlightenment Calendar, used by Liao and Jin for two centuries, had drifted from the sky; he meant to revise it but died with the work unfinished. In the thirteenth year, with the south pacified, the Emperor took up Bingzhong's plan: Shoujing and Wang Xun led northern and southern astronomers in field measurement and computation below, while Wenqian and Privy Councilor Zhang Yi presided and reported above, and Left Chancellor Xu Heng joined the deliberations. Shoujing began, "A calendar lives by measurement, and measurement lives by instruments. The Directorate's armillary sphere was built at Bianjing in Song's Huangyou reign—it no longer fits our sky. Measured against the north and south poles, it errs by some four degrees; the gnomon stone, ancient now, had tilted as well." Shoujing traced every error and repositioned the lot. He chose high open ground, built a heavy timber pavilion, and invented the simplified instrument and the high gnomon to cross-check one another. He reasoned that the celestial pivot hugs the pole yet shifts; ancients had sighted it through extended tubes without hitting true—so he made the polar-waiting instrument. Fix the pole stars and the heavens stand true—he built the armillary planetarium. The planetarium mimicked the sky but served no practical end, so he devised the intricate instrument. A gnomon is square and heaven truly round—best to seek the circle with circles—hence the upward-looking instrument. Antiquity fixed longitude and latitude rings motionless; Shoujing replaced them with the standing revolution instrument. The sun rides a middle path, the moon nine; Shoujing unified them in the principle-verifying instrument. Raise the table and the shadow thins to illusion—he made the shadow-marker. The moon shines, yet its shadow is hard to read—he made the sighting-lever. A calendar proves itself at conjunction—he built the solar and lunar eclipse instrument. Heaven has an equator—a wheel to match it; the poles rise and fall—markers to point them—hence the star-gnomon time-setting instrument. He also devised the rectifying azimuth plate, pellet table, suspended rectifier, and seated rectifier for observers in every quarter. He drew the Upward Rule and Inverted Square, Different Regions Armillary Cover, and Sun's Rising, Setting, and Length charts to cross-reference the instruments.
20
十六年,改局為太史院,以恂為太史令,守敬為同知太史院事,給印章,立官府。 及奏進儀表式,守敬當帝前指陳理致,至於日晏,帝不為倦。 守敬因奏:「唐一行開元間令南宮說天下測景,書中見者凡十三處。 今疆宇比唐尤大,若不遠方測驗,日月交食分數時刻不同,晝夜長短不同,日月星辰去天高下不同,即目測驗人少,可先南北立表,取直測景。」 帝可其奏。 遂設監候官一十四員,分道而出,東至高麗,西極滇池,南逾硃崖,北盡鐵勒,四海測驗,凡二十七所。
In the sixteenth year the bureau became the Grand Astrologer's Court: Xun as Grand Astrologer, Shoujing as associate administrator—seals issued, offices founded. When the instrument models were presented, Shoujing explained their principles before the throne until dusk, and the Emperor never tired. Shoujing then memorialized, "In Kaiyuan the Tang calendrist Yixing sent Nangong Shuo to measure shadows empire-wide—thirteen sites appear in the books. Our realm exceeds Tang's; without distant measurements, eclipse magnitudes and times, day and night lengths, and the heights of sun, moon, and stars will all diverge. With too few observers at hand, set gnomons north and south first and measure shadows directly." The Emperor approved. Fourteen supervising observers were sent out by separate routes—east to Goryeo, west to Dian Pool, south past Zhuya, north to Tiele's edge—twenty-seven stations measuring under all four seas.
21
十七年,新歷告成,守敬與諸臣同上奏曰:
In the seventeenth year the new calendar was finished; Shoujing and the ministers jointly memorialized:
22
臣等竊聞帝王之事,莫重於歷。 自黃帝迎日推策,帝堯以閏月定四時成歲,舜在璇璣玉衡以齊七政。 爰及三代,歷無定法,周、秦之間,閏餘乖次。 西漢造《三統曆》,百三十年而後是非始定。 東漢造《四分曆》,七十餘年而儀式方備。 又百二十一年,劉洪造《乾象曆》,始悟月行有遲速。 又百八十年,姜岌造《三紀甲子曆》,始悟以月食衝檢日宿度所在。 又五十七年,何承天造《元嘉曆》,始悟以朔望及弦皆定大小餘。 又六十五年,祖沖之造《大明曆》,始悟太陽有歲差之數,極星去不動處一度餘。 又五十二年,張子信始悟日月交道有表裡,五星有遲疾留逆。 又三十三年,劉焯造《皇極曆》,始悟日行有盈縮。 又三十五年,傅仁均造《戊寅元曆》,頗採舊儀,始用定朔。 又四十六年,李淳風造《麟德曆》,以古歷章蔀元首分度不齊,始為總法,用進朔以避晦晨月見。 又六十三年,一行造《大衍曆》,始以朔有四大三小,定九服交食之異。 又九十四年,徐昂造《宣明曆》,始悟日食有氣、刻、時三差。 又二百三十六年,姚舜輔造《紀元曆》,始悟食甚泛餘差數。 以上計千一百八十二年,歷經七十改,其創法者十有三家。
We humbly hear that among the labors of emperors and kings, none weighs more than the calendar. The Yellow Emperor welcomed the sun and cast the rods; Yao fixed the four seasons with intercalary months; Shun aligned the seven regulators with the jade armillary and leveling tube. Through the Three Dynasties calendars lacked fixed law; between Zhou and Qin intercalary remainders lost their order. Western Han produced the Triple Concordance Calendar; a hundred thirty years passed before right and wrong were settled. Eastern Han produced the Quarter-Remainder Calendar; seventy years more before instruments and rites were complete. Another hundred twenty-one years: Liu Hong's Supernal Manifestation Calendar first grasped that the moon speeds and slows. Another hundred eighty: Jiang Ji's Triple Era Jiazi Calendar first used lunar eclipse opposition to fix the sun's lodge and degree. Another fifty-seven: He Chengtian's Origin of Blessing Calendar first fixed greater and lesser remainders for new, full, and both quarters alike. Another sixty-five: Zu Chongzhi's Great Enlightenment Calendar first measured the sun's precession and found the pole star more than a degree from the fixed point. Another fifty-two: Zhang Zixin first saw that the sun-moon path has inner and outer faces and the five stars hurry, linger, halt, and retreat. Another thirty-three: Liu Zhuo's Imperial Ultimate Calendar first caught the sun's daily motion in expansion and contraction. Another thirty-five: Fu Renjun's Wuyin Origin Calendar drew on old rites and first employed fixed new moons. Another forty-six: Li Chunfeng's Virtue of Lin Calendar, finding ancient rule, obscuration, origin, and head degrees inconsistent, devised a general method and advanced the new moon to keep the moon from showing on the month's last dawn. Another sixty-three: Yixing's Great Expansion Calendar first reckoned four long and three short months among the new moons and fixed eclipse variation across the nine domains. Another ninety-four: Xu Ang's Manifest Brightness Calendar first distinguished solar eclipses by vapor, mark, and time. Another two hundred thirty-six: Yao Shunfu's Era Origin Calendar first mastered the surplus-difference at greatest eclipse. In all: one thousand one hundred eighty-two years, seventy calendar reforms, thirteen founders of new methods.
23
自是又百七十四年,聖朝專命臣等改治新歷,臣等用創造簡儀、高表,憑其測實數,所考正者凡七事:
Another hundred seventy-four years on, the sage court charged us to forge a new calendar. With the simplified instrument and high gnomon we measured true numbers and corrected seven matters:
24
一曰冬至。 自丙子年立冬後,依每日測到晷景,逐日取對,冬至前後日差同者為準。 得丁丑年冬至在戊戌日夜半後八刻半,又定丁丑夏至在庚子日夜半後七十刻; 又定戊寅冬至在癸卯日夜半後三十三刻; 己卯冬至在戊申日夜半後五十七刻半; 庚辰冬至在癸丑日夜半後八十一刻半。 各減《大明曆》十八刻,遠近相符,前後應準。 二曰歲餘。 自《大明曆》以來,凡測景、驗氣,得冬至時刻真數者有六,用以相距,各得其時合用歲餘。 今考驗四年,相符不差,仍自宋大明壬寅年距至今日八百一十年,每歲合得三百六十五日二十四刻二十五分,其二十五分為今歷歲餘合用之數。 三曰日躔。 用至元丁丑四月癸酉望月食既,推求日躔,得冬至日躔赤道箕宿十度,黃道箕九度有奇。 仍憑每日測到太陽躔度,或憑星測月,或憑月測日,或徑憑星度測日,立術推算。 起自丁丑正月至己卯十二月,凡三年,共得一百三十四事,皆躔於箕,與月食相符。 四曰月離。 自丁丑以來至今,憑每日測到逐時太陰行度推算,變從黃道求入轉極遲、疾並平行處,前後凡十三轉,計五十一事。 內除去不真的外,有三十事,得《大明曆》入轉後天。 又因考驗交食,加《大明曆》三十刻,與天道合。 五曰入交。 自丁丑五月以來,憑每日測到太陰去極度數,比擬黃道去極度,得月道交於黃道,共得八事。 仍依日食法度推求,皆有食分,得入交時刻,與《大明曆》所差不多。 六曰二十八宿距度。 自漢《太初曆》以來,距度不同,互有損益。 《大明曆》則於度下餘分,附以太半少,皆私意牽就,未嘗實測其數。 今新儀皆細刻周天度分,每度分三十六分,以距線代管窺,宿度餘分並依實測,不以私意牽就。 七曰日出入晝夜刻。 《大明曆》日出入夜晝刻,皆據汴京為準,其刻數與大都不同。 今更以本方北極出地高下,黃道出入內外度,立術推求每日日出入晝夜刻,得夏至極長,日出寅正二刻,日入戌初二刻,晝六十二刻,夜三十八刻。 冬至極短,日出辰初二刻,日入申正二刻,晝三十八刻,夜六十二刻。 永為定式。
First: the winter solstice. From winter's onset in the bingzi year we measured the gnomon shadow daily and paired successive days; where the day-difference matched before and after solstice, that marked the instant. Thus dingzi's winter solstice fell on wuxu, eight and a half marks past midnight; dingzi's summer solstice on gengzi, seventy marks past midnight; wuyin's winter solstice on guimao, thirty-three marks past midnight; jimao's on wushen, fifty-seven and a half marks past midnight; gengchen's on guichou, eighty-one and a half marks past midnight. Each was eighteen marks earlier than the Great Enlightenment Calendar—near and far aligned, past and future matched. Second: the tropical year surplus. Since the Great Enlightenment Calendar, six true winter solstices from shadow and qi tests, spaced apart, each yielded its proper year surplus. Four years of verification agree to a hair; from Song Daming's renyin year to today is eight hundred ten years—each year three hundred sixty-five days, twenty-four marks, twenty-five parts, and those twenty-five parts are the surplus our calendar adopts. Third: the sun's lodge-transit. From the total lunar eclipse on dingzi's fourth-month guiyou in Zhiyuan we derived the sun's position: at winter solstice ten degrees equatorial Winnowing Basket, nine and a fraction ecliptic. Daily solar positions, or stars on the moon, moon on the sun, stars on the sun directly—we built methods for each. From dingzi's first month through jimao's twelfth—three years, one hundred thirty-four cases—all in Winnowing Basket, matching the eclipse. Fourth: the moon's departure. From dingzi onward, hourly lunar motion measured daily, converted along the ecliptic to find entry into rotation, extremes of slow and fast, and mean motion—thirteen cycles, fifty-one cases in all. Thirty reliable cases proved the Great Enlightenment Calendar's rotation entry lags heaven. Eclipse tests added thirty marks to the Great Enlightenment Calendar—now it matches heaven's way. Fifth: entry into crossing. From dingzi's fifth month, daily lunar polar distance against the ecliptic's yielded eight crossings of the moon's path with the ecliptic. Solar-eclipse methods gave magnitude and crossing instant for each—little different from the Great Enlightenment Calendar. Sixth: the twenty-eight lodges' interval-degrees. Since Han's Grand Inception, lodge intervals have shifted, each calendar adding or subtracting. The Great Enlightenment Calendar padded fractional parts with "great half, little less"—private fudge, never measured. Our new instruments mark the full circuit fine: thirty-six parts per degree, interval-lines instead of tube-sighting, lodge fractions from measurement—not private forcing. Seventh: sunrise, sunset, day, and night marks. The Great Enlightenment Calendar reckoned day and night from Bianjing; Dadu's numbers differ. We recalculated from this site's polar height and the ecliptic's inner and outer limits: at summer solstice, longest day, sun rises at yin proper's second mark, sets at xu initial's second, sixty-two marks of day, thirty-eight of night. At winter solstice, shortest day, sun rises at chen initial's second mark, sets at shen proper's second, thirty-eight marks of day, sixty-two of night. Let these stand as the fixed pattern forever.
25
所創法凡五事:一曰太陽盈縮。 用四正定氣立為升降限,依立招差求得每日行分初末極差積度,比古為密。 二曰月行遲疾。 古歷皆用二十八限,今以萬分日之八百二十分為一限,凡析為三百三十六限,依垛疊招差求得轉分進退,其遲疾度數逐時不同,蓋前所未有。 三曰黃赤道差。 舊法以一百一度相減相乘,今依算術句股弧矢方圜斜直所容,求到度率積差,差率與天道實吻合。 四曰黃赤道內外度。 據累年實測,內外極度二十三度九十分,以圜容方直矢接句股為法,求每日去極,與所測相符。 五曰白道交周。 舊法黃道變推白道以斜求斜,今用立渾比量,得月與赤道正交,距春秋二正黃赤道正交一十四度六十六分,擬以為法。 推逐月每交二十八宿度分,於理為盡。
The new methods number five in all: first, solar expansion and contraction. The four rectified qi set the bounds of solar rise and fall; finite-difference interpolation yields each day's motion, its extremes, and cumulative degrees—finer than any ancient calendar. Second: the moon's variable speed. Older calendars used twenty-eight limits; the new one sets one limit at 820 parts in 10,000 of a day, subdivided into 336 limits. Piled finite-difference interpolation yields the moon's shifting motion; its slow-fast degrees change hour by hour—unprecedented. Third: the ecliptic-equatorial correction. The old method merely subtracted and multiplied by 101 degrees; the new reckoning uses gnomon-triangle, arc-chord, and circle-square geometry to derive degree-rates and cumulative difference—rates that match heaven's course. Fourth: inner and outer ecliptic-equatorial limits. Years of observation fixed the polar limits at 23°90'; circle-square and arrow-chord methods now yield each day's polar distance in agreement with the measures. Fifth: the lunar path's nodal cycle. Older methods derived the lunar path from the ecliptic by oblique reckoning; the new method uses the armillary sphere and finds the moon crossing the equator 14°66' from the spring and autumn equinoxes—taken as the norm. Month by month it computes each nodal crossing through the twenty-eight lodges to the last degree—nothing left unresolved.
26
十九年,恂卒。 時歷雖頒,然其推步之式與夫立成之數,尚皆未有定稿。 守敬於是比次篇類,整齊分杪,裁為《推步》七卷,《立成》二卷,《歷議擬稿》三卷,《轉神選擇》二卷,《上中下三歷注式》十二卷。 二十三年,繼為太史令,遂上表奏進。 又有《時候箋注》二卷,《修改源流》一卷。 其測驗書,有《儀像法式》二卷,《二至晷景考》二十卷,《五星細行考五十卷》,《古今交食考》一卷,《新測二十八舍雜坐諸星入宿去極》一卷,《新測無名諸星》一卷,《月離考》一卷,並藏之官。
In the nineteenth year Wang Xun died. The calendar was already in force, yet its computational formulas and table constants still lacked a finished draft. Shoujing then sorted the materials by topic, harmonized every fraction, and produced Ephemeris Calculation (7 juan), Tabular Constants (2 juan), Draft Calendar Discourse (3 juan), Turning Spirit Selection (2 juan), and Commentarial Forms for the Three Calendars (12 juan). In the twenty-third year he became Director of the Astronomy Bureau and memorialized the throne with the completed works. He also wrote Seasonal Notes (2 juan) and Sources of Revision (1 juan). His observational treatises included Design of Astronomical Instruments (2 juan), Solstice and Equinox Shadow Studies (20 juan), Fine Motions of the Five Planets (50 juan), Eclipses Past and Present (1 juan), New Lodge and Star Positions (1 juan), New Unnamed Stars (1 juan), and Lunar Separation (1 juan)—all kept in the imperial archives.
27
二十八年,有言灤河自永平挽舟逾山而上,可至開平; 有言瀘溝自麻峪可至尋麻林。 朝廷遣守敬相視,灤河既不可行,瀘溝舟亦不通守敬因陳水利十有一事。 其一,大都運糧河,不用一畝泉舊原,別引北山白浮泉水,西折而南,經甕山泊,自西水門入城,環匯於積水潭,復東折而南,出南水門,合入舊運糧河。 每十里置一閘,比至通州,凡為閘七,距閘里許,上重置斗門,互為提閼,以過舟止水。 帝覽奏,喜曰:「當速行之。」 於是復置都水監,俾守敬領之。 帝命丞相以下皆親操畚鍤倡工,待守敬指授而後行事。 先是,通州至大都,陸運官糧,歲若干萬石,方秋霖雨,驢畜死者不可勝計,至是皆罷之。 三十年,帝還自上都,過積水潭,見舳艫敝水,大悅,名曰通惠河,賜守敬鈔萬二千五百貫,仍以舊職兼提調通惠河漕運事。 守敬又言:於澄清閘稍東,引水與北霸河接,且立閘麗正門西,令舟楫得環城往來。 志不就而罷。 三十一年,拜昭文館大學士、知太史院事。
In the twenty-eighth year some proposed hauling boats up the Luan River from Yongping over the mountains to Kaiping; others that the Lugou canal from Mayu could reach Xunmalin. The court sent Shoujing to survey both routes. The Luan was impracticable and Lugou traffic impossible; he then memorialized eleven hydraulic projects. First: for Dadu's grain canal, abandon the old Yimu Spring line and divert Baifu Spring from the northern hills west and south through Wengshan Lake into the West Water Gate, around Jishuitan, then out the South Water Gate to rejoin the old transport channel. A lock every ten li—seven in all to Tongzhou—with flash locks a li upstream of each, alternating to lift boats and dam the flow. The Emperor read the memorial and said gladly, "Carry this out at once." The Directorate of Waterways was restored and Shoujing placed at its head. The Emperor ordered the chief counselor and all below to wield spade and hoe at the worksite themselves, and none might move until Shoujing directed them. Before, tens of thousands of piculs yearly went by land from Tongzhou to Dadu; in autumn rains donkeys and oxen died beyond count. That burden was now lifted. In the thirtieth year, returning from Shangdu, he passed Jishuitan, saw boats packed on the water, and rejoiced. He named the canal Tonghui, gave Shoujing 12,500 strings of cash, and left him in office to oversee its transport. Shoujing also proposed diverting water east of Chengqing Lock into the North Ba River and building a lock west of Lizheng Gate so craft could circle the capital. The plan was never finished and was dropped. In the thirty-first year he was made Academician of the Hall for the Veneration of Literature and head of the Astronomy Bureau.
28
大德二年,召守敬至上都,議開鐵幡竿渠,守敬奏:「山水頻年暴下,非大為渠堰,廣五七十步不可。」 執政吝於工費,以其言為過,縮其廣三之一。 明年大雨,山水注下,渠不能容,漂沒人畜廬帳,幾犯行殿。 成宗謂宰臣曰:「郭太史神人也,惜其言不用耳。」 七年,詔內外官年及七十,並聽致仕,獨守敬不許其請。 自是翰林太史司天官不致仕,定著為令。 延祐三年卒,年八十六。
In Dade 2 Shoujing was called to Shangdu to open the Iron Banner Pole Canal. He memorialized, "Floods have thundered down these mountains year after year; unless we build channels and dikes fifty or seventy paces wide, we cannot hold them." The ministers grudged the expense, called him extravagant, and cut the width by a third. Next year came torrential rains; the channel overflowed, drowning people, herds, and camps almost to the imperial lodge. Chengzong told his ministers, "Grand Astrologer Guo is a prophet; pity we did not heed him." In the seventh year the court let officials at seventy retire—except Shoujing, whose petition was refused. Thereafter Hanlin and astronomical offices were barred from retirement by permanent regulation. He died in Yanyou 3, aged eighty-six.
29
楊桓,字武子,兗州人。 幼警悟,讀《論語》至《宰予晝寢章》,慨然有立志,由是終身非疾病未嘗晝寢。 弱冠為郡諸生,一時名公咸稱譽之。 中統四年,補濟州教授,後由濟寧路教授召為太史院校書郎,奉敕撰《儀表銘》《曆日序》,文辭典雅,賜楮幣千五百緡,辭不受。 遷秘書監丞。 至元三十一年,拜監察御史。 有得玉璽於木華黎曾孫碩德家者,桓辨識其文,曰「受天之命,既壽永昌」,乃頓首言曰:「此歷代傳國璽也,亡之久矣。 今宮車晏駕,皇太孫龍飛,而璽復出,天其彰瑞應於今日乎!」 即為文述璽始末,奉上於徽仁裕聖皇后。
Yang Huan, courtesy name Wuzi, was from Yanzhou. Clever as a boy, he read the Analects to Zai Yu's midday sleep, resolved on the spot, and thereafter never napped except in sickness. In his early twenties he became a district student, and leading men praised him everywhere. In Zhongtong 4 he became professor at Jizhou; later, as Jining professor, he entered the Astronomy Bureau to draft Inscriptions for Astronomical Instruments and Preface to the Calendar Day—elegant work—and refused 1,500 min of paper money. He rose to assistant director of the Palace Library. In Zhiyuan 31 he became investigating censor. When a jade seal turned up in the home of Muqali's great-grandson Shuo De, Huan read its text—"Received Heaven's command; long life and eternal stability"—kowtowed, and said, "This is the dynastic seal of state, lost for ages. The late emperor's bier is still warm, the heir-apparent has taken flight—and the seal returns. Does Heaven not show its favor upon this day?" He then wrote an account of the seal from first to last and presented it to Empress Zhiren Yusheng.
30
成宗即位,桓疏上時務二十一事:一曰郊祀天地; 二曰親享太廟,備四時之祭; 三曰先定首相; 四曰朝見群臣,訪問時政得失; 五曰詔儒臣以時侍講; 六曰設太學及府州儒學,教養生徒; 七曰行誥命以褒善敘勞; 八曰異章服以別貴賤; 九曰正禮儀以肅宮庭; 十曰定官制以省內外冗員; 十一曰講究錢穀以裕國用; 十二曰訪求曉習音律者以協太常雅樂; 十三曰國子監不可隸集賢院,宜正其名; 十四曰試補六部寺監及府州司縣吏; 十五曰增內外官吏俸祿; 十六曰禁父子骨肉、奴婢相告訐者; 十七曰定婚姻聘財; 十八曰罷行用官錢營什一之利; 十九曰复笞杖以別輕重之罪; 二十曰郡縣吏自中統前仕宦者,宜加優異; 二十一曰為治之道宜各從本俗。 疏奏,帝嘉納之。
When Chengzong ascended, Huan memorialized twenty-one reforms: first, suburban sacrifice to Heaven and Earth; second, attend the Ancestral Temple in person for all four seasons; third, appoint a chief minister first; fourth, hold court, receive ministers, and ask what policy gains or loses; fifth, summon Confucian scholars to lecture the throne on schedule; sixth, found the Imperial Academy and local schools to train students; seventh, issue edicts of reward for virtue and service; eighth, distinguish dress by rank; ninth, correct ritual to dignify the court; tenth, reform offices to cut redundancy; eleventh, study revenue to fill the treasury; twelfth, seek masters of pitch to tune the court music; thirteenth, the Directorate of Education must not answer to the Academy of Scholarly Worthies—restore its proper status; fourteenth, examine candidates for clerks in ministries, directorates, and local offices; fifteenth, raise official salaries; sixteenth, forbid kin and servants from informing on one another; seventeenth, set standards for marriage gifts; eighteenth, end investing official funds for ten-percent gain; nineteenth, restore beating with the rod to mark degrees of guilt; twentieth, favor clerks who served before Zhongtong; twenty-first, let each region be governed according to its own customs. The Emperor read the memorial and approved it with praise.
31
未幾,升秘書少監,預修《大一統志》。 秩滿歸兗州,以貲業悉讓弟楷,鄉里稱焉。 大德三年,以國子司業召,未赴,卒,年六十六。
Soon he became vice director of the Secretariat and helped compile the Comprehensive Gazetteer. When his term ended he went home to Yanzhou and gave his entire estate to his brother Kai; neighbors praised his generosity. In Dade 3 he was summoned as vice commissioner of the Directorate of Education but died before taking office, aged sixty-six.
32
桓為人寬厚,事親篤孝,博覽群籍,尤精篆籀之學。 著《六書統》、《六書溯源》、《書學正韻》,大抵推明許慎之說,而意加深,皆行於世。
Huan was generous and dutiful, a devoted son who read widely and excelled in seal script. His Comprehensive Six Scripts, Origins of the Six Scripts, and Correct Rhymes of Calligraphy deepened Xu Shen's philology and circulated widely.
33
楊果,字正卿,祁州蒲陰人。 幼失怙恃,自宋遷亳,复徙居許昌,以章句授徒為業,流寓轗軻十餘年。 金正大甲申,登進士第。 會參政李蹊行大司農於許,果以詩送之,蹊大稱賞,歸言於朝,用為偃師令。 到官,以廉幹稱,改蒲城,改陝,皆劇縣也。 果有應變材,能治煩劇,諸縣以果治效為最。
Yang Guo, courtesy name Zhengqing, came from Puyin in Qizhou. Orphaned young, he fled Song for Bo, then Xuchang, teaching classical texts for a living through more than ten years of wandering hardship. In Jin's Zhengda jiazi year he passed the jinshi examination. When Vice Administrator Li Xi inspected agriculture at Xu, Guo sent him a parting poem that Xi praised to the court; Guo was made magistrate of Yanshi. In office he won praise for integrity and drive; transfers to Pucheng and then Shan—both demanding counties—followed. Resourceful in crisis, he mastered the hardest posts; among the counties his record stood first.
34
金亡,歲己丑,楊奐徵河南課稅,起果為經歷。 未幾,史天澤經略河南,果為參議。 時兵革之餘,法度草創,果隨宜贊畫,民賴以安。 世祖中統元年,設十道宣撫使,命果為北京宣撫使。 明年,拜參知政事。 及例罷,猶詔與左丞姚樞等日赴省議事。 至元六年,出為懷孟路總管,大修學廟。 以前嘗為中書執政官,移文申部,特不署名。 以老致政,卒於家,年七十五,諡文獻。
After Jin's fall, in jichou Yang Huan took charge of Henan taxes and Guo became his secretary. Soon Shi Tianze took charge of Henan and made Guo his aide. In the wake of war, with laws still being shaped, Guo advised as need arose and the people found stability through him. In Shizu's Zhongtong 1 ten circuit pacification commissioners were created; Guo became Pacification Commissioner of the Northern Capital. The next year he became vice administrator of the Secretariat. Though rotated out by rule, he was still ordered with Left Assistant Yao Shu and others to attend Secretariat deliberations daily. In Zhiyuan 6 he became chief administrator of Huai-Meng Route and rebuilt its school temple on a grand scale. Having once been a Secretariat executive, he notified the ministry and deliberately omitted his signature from documents. He retired for age and died at home, seventy-five, posthumous name Wenxian.
35
果性聰敏,美風姿,工文章,尤長於樂府,外若沉默,內懷智用,善諧謔,聞者絕倒。 微時,避亂河南,娶羈旅中女,後登科,歷顯仕,竟與偕老,不易其初心,人以是稱之。 有《西庵集》,行於世。
Clever and handsome, skilled in prose and especially yuefu, he seemed quiet outwardly yet was sharp within, a wit whose jests left hearers helpless with laughter. Fleeing chaos in Henan he married a woman he met on the road; after the jinshi and high office he kept her to the end—men praised his constancy. His Western Hermitage Collection circulated widely.
36
王構,字肯堂,東平人。 父公淵,遭金末之亂,其兄三人挈家南奔,公淵獨誓死守墳墓,伏草莽中,諸兄呼之不出,號慟而去,卒得存其家,而三兄不知所終。
Wang Gou, courtesy name Kentang, was from Dongping. His father Gongyuan, in Jin's final chaos, saw three elder brothers flee south with their households while he alone swore to guard the tombs, hiding in the grass though they called; they wept and departed. He saved the clan; the three brothers vanished without trace.
37
構少穎悟,風度凝厚。 學問該博,文章典雅,弱冠以詞賦中選,為東平行台掌書紀。 參政賈居貞一見器重,俾其子受學焉。 至元十一年,授翰林國史院編修官。 時遣丞相伯顏伐宋,先下詔讓之,命構屬草以進,世祖大悅。 宋亡,構與李槃同被旨,至杭取三館圖籍、太常天章禮器儀仗,歸於京師。 凡所薦拔,皆時之名士。 十三年秋,還,入覲,遷應奉翰林文字,升修撰。 丞相和禮霍孫由翰林學士承旨拜司徒,辟構為司直。 時丞相阿合馬為盜擊死,世祖亦悟其奸,復相和禮霍孫,更張庶務,構之謀畫居多。 歷吏部、禮部郎中,審囚河南,多所平反。 改太常少卿,定親享太廟儀注。 擢淮東提刑按察副使,召見便殿,親授制書,賜上尊酒以遣之。 尋以治書侍御史召。 屬桑哥為相,俾與平章卜忽木檢核燕南錢穀,而督其逋負。 以十一月晦行,期歲終復命。 明年春還,宿盧溝驛,度逾期,禍且不測,謂卜忽木曰:「設有罪,構當以身任之,不以累公也。」 會桑哥死,乃免。 有旨出銓選江西。 入翰林,為侍講學士。 世祖崩,構撰諡冊。
Gou was bright as a youth, his manner grave and steady. Learned and elegant in prose, he won selection by rhapsody in his youth and became recorder of the Eastern Branch Secretariat. Vice Administrator Jia Juzhen esteemed him at first sight and sent his son to study with him. In Zhiyuan 11 he became compiler in the Hanlin National History Academy. When Bayan was sent against Song, the court first issued a denunciation; Gou drafted it to the Emperor's great satisfaction. After Song's fall Gou and Li Pan were ordered to Hangzhou to bring back the Three Institutes' books, the ritual vessels of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Heavenly Manifestation, and the regalia to the capital. Every man he recommended was a leading figure of the day. In the thirteenth year's autumn he returned, had audience, became Hanlin Academician in Attendance, and was promoted reviser. After Heli Huosun rose from Hanlin expositor to Grand Preceptor, he took Gou on as his registrar. Ahmad had just been killed by assassins; Kublai, seeing his corruption at last, restored Heli Huosun and set state business on a new course—much of it shaped by Gou's advice. He held directorships in the Ministries of Personnel and Rites, reviewed cases in Henan, and overturned many unjust sentences. Promoted to Vice Minister of Imperial Sacrifices, he codified the rites for the emperor's own sacrifices in the Ancestral Temple. Raised to vice commissioner on the Huaidong surveillance circuit, he was called to the Privy Chamber, handed his commission by the emperor's own hand, and dismissed with fine wine. Soon afterward he was summoned back as an attending censor. Under Chancellor Sangtu he was paired with Grand Councillor Buhumu to audit Yan South revenues and grain and to chase down unpaid levies. He left on the last day of the eleventh month and was due to report back before the year was out. He came back the following spring and stopped at Lugou station. Seeing he was overdue and punishment uncertain, he told Buhumu, "If anyone must answer for this, let it be me—not you." Sangtu died about that time, and the matter was dropped. He was sent to Jiangxi on a provincial appointment commission. He joined the Hanlin Academy as lecturer-in-waiting. At Kublai's death Gou wrote the posthumous epithet scroll.
38
構歷事三朝,練習臺閣典故,凡祖宗諡冊冊文皆所撰定,朝廷每有大議,必諮訪焉。 喜薦引寒士,前後省台、翰苑所辟,無慮數十人,後居清要,皆有名於時。
Gou served three emperors and knew Secretariat precedent by heart. He drafted every ancestral posthumous title and enshrinement text, and the court consulted him on every weighty question. He loved lifting up obscure scholars. The men he helped into the Secretariat, the Censorate, and the Hanlin numbered in the dozens; each later rose to a notable post.
39
子士熙,仕至中書參政,卒官南台御史中丞。 士點,淮西廉訪司僉事。 皆能以文學世其家。
His son Shixi reached associate administrator of the Secretariat and died in office as vice censor-in-chief on the Southern Censorate. Shidian served as assistant commissioner on the Huai West surveillance circuit. The family kept its literary reputation through them all.
40
○魏初
○ Wei Chu
41
魏初,字大初,弘州順聖人。 從祖璠,金貞佑三年進士,補尚書省令史。 金宣宗求直言,璠首論將相非人,及不當立德陵事,疏奏,不報。 後復上言:「國勢危逼,四方未聞有勤王之舉,隴右地險食足,其帥完顏胡斜虎亦可委仗,宜遣人往論大計。」 大臣不悅而止。 閱數月,胡斜虎兵不來,已無及,金主悔焉。 金將武仙軍次五垛山不進。 求使仙者,或薦璠,即授朝列大夫、翰林修撰,給騎四人以從。 至則仙已遁去,部曲亦多散亡,璠撫循招集,得數千人,推其中材勇者為帥長,仍制符印予之,以矯制自劾,金主謂其處置得宜。 繼聞仙率餘眾保留山,璠直趣仙所宣諭之。 或讒於仙,謂璠欲奪其軍,仙怒,命士拔刃若欲鏦璠然,且引一吏與璠辨。 璠不為動,大言曰:「王人雖微,序於諸侯之上,將軍縱不加禮,奈何聽讒邪之言,欲以小吏置對耶! 且將軍跳山谷,而左右無異心者,以天子大臣故也,苟不知尊天子,安知麾下無如將軍者? 不然,吾有死,無辱命。」 仙不能屈。 璠复激使進兵,不應。 比還,金主已遷歸德,复遷蔡州。 金亡,璠無所歸,乃北還鄉里。 庚戌歲,世祖居潛邸,聞璠名,徵至和林,訪以當世之務。 璠條陳便宜三十餘事,舉名士六十餘人以對,世祖嘉納,後多采用焉。 以疾卒於和林,年七十,賜諡靖肅。
Wei Chu, styled Dachu, came from Shunsheng in Hong Prefecture. His kinsman Fan, a generation back, took jinshi in Jin Zhenyou 3 and became a Secretariat clerk. When Emperor Xuānzong of Jin asked for blunt counsel, Fan was first to say the high command was unfit and that the Virtue Tomb should not be built. The memorial went in; nothing came back. He wrote again: "The realm is in grave danger, yet no loyal army marches from any quarter. Longyou is defensible and well provisioned; its commander Wanyan Huxiehu is a man you can rely on. Send an envoy and lay the great plan before him." The ministers took offense, and the proposal died. Months passed without Huxiehu's army. By then nothing could be done, and the Jin emperor repented too late. The Jin general Wu Xian camped at Wuduo Mountain and refused to move. The court needed someone to summon Wu Xian; Fan was recommended, made Grand Master of the Court and Hanlin compiler, and given four horsemen for the journey. He arrived to find Wu Xian gone and the army in pieces. Fan rallied several thousand men, picked the bravest as squad chiefs, issued tally-seals on his own authority, and reported himself for discipline. The Jin emperor approved his handling. When he heard Wu Xian still held the remnant of his force at Baoliu Mountain, Fan went straight to his camp to deliver the imperial command. A whisper reached Wu Xian that Fan meant to steal his command. Enraged, Xian had blades drawn as if to kill Fan and set a petty clerk to dispute with him. Fan never flinched. "I may be humble," he said, "but I rank above every lord. Even if you owe me no courtesy, will you heed slander and pit a clerk against the emperor's envoy? Your men cling to you in the hills because you serve the Son of Heaven. Dishonor the throne, and who can say your own officers will not turn on you as you have turned on me? Otherwise I choose death before a failed mission." Wu Xian could not break him. Fan urged him again to march; he still refused. When Fan got back, the Jin court had already fled to Guide, then to Caizhou. Jin fell; with nowhere left to serve, Fan went home to the north. In the gengxu year Kublai, still heir apparent, heard of Fan and called him to Karakorum to ask his view of the times. Fan laid out more than thirty practical reforms and named over sixty scholars of note. Kublai welcomed the counsel and later put much of it into practice. He died at Karakorum, aged seventy, and was given the posthumous name Jingsu.
42
帝宴群臣於上都行宮,有不能釂大卮者,免其冠服。 初上疏曰:「臣聞君猶天也,臣猶地也,尊卑之禮,不可不肅。 方今內有太常、有史官、有起居注,以議典禮、記言動; 外有高麗、安南使者入貢,以觀中國之儀。 昨聞錫宴大臣,威儀弗謹,非所以尊朝廷、正上下也。」 疏入,帝欣納之,仍諭侍臣自今毋復為此舉。 時襄樊未下,將括民為兵,或請自大興始。 初言:「京師天下之本,要在殷盛,建邦之初,詎宜騷動!」 遂免括大興兵。 初又言:「舊制,常參官諸州刺史,上任三日,舉一人自代。 況風紀之職與常員異,請自監察御史、按察司官,在任一歲,各舉一人自代,所舉不當,有罰,不惟砥礪風節,亦可為國得人。」 遂舉勸農副使劉宣自代。 出僉陝西四川按察司事,歷陝西河東按察副使,入為治書侍御史。 又以侍御史行御史臺事於揚州,擢江西按察使,尋徵拜侍御史。 行台移建康,出為中丞,卒,年六十一。
At the Shangdu palace the emperor gave a feast at which any minister who could not empty a great cup was stripped of cap and robe. Wei Chu memorialized first: "I have heard that the ruler is as Heaven and the minister as earth; the rites that separate high from low must be kept. Within the court the Director of Sacrifices, the historiographers, and the recorder of the ruler's conduct deliberate ritual and set down every word and act; while from without envoys of Koryŏ and Annam come bearing tribute to witness how the Middle Kingdom conducts itself. Yet yesterday's feast for the great ministers showed no care for dignity or order. That is no way to honor the throne or teach respect between ruler and subject." The emperor read the memorial with pleasure and told his attendants never to hold such a feast again. Xiangyang and Fancheng still held out; the court meant to press the people into service, and some proposed starting with Daxing. Chu objected: "The capital is the root of the empire; it must stay strong. In the founding of a dynasty, why disturb it first?" Daxing was spared the levy. He also urged restoring an old rule: every regularly attending official and every prefect, within three days of appointment, should name a successor. Disciplinary posts matter even more. Let every supervising censor and surveillance commissioner, after one year, nominate his own replacement, with penalties for a poor choice. That would sharpen integrity and fill the state with able men." He then nominated Liu Xuan, vice commissioner for encouraging agriculture, as his own successor. He served on the Shaanxi–Sichuan surveillance circuit, then as deputy on the Shaanxi–Hedong circuit, and returned to court as attending censor. As attending censor he ran Censorate business at Yangzhou, was promoted to Jiangxi surveillance commissioner, and was soon recalled as attending censor again. When the branch secretariat moved to Jiankang he became vice censor-in-chief and died there at sixty-one.
43
子必復,集賢侍講學士。
His son Bifu became lecturer-in-waiting in the Hall of Assembled Worthies.
44
○焦養直
○ Jiao Yangzhi
45
焦養直,字無咎,東昌堂邑人。 夙以才器稱。 至元十八年,世祖改符寶郎為典瑞監,思得一儒者居之。 近臣有以養直薦者,帝即命召見,敷對稱旨,以真定路儒學教授超拜典瑞少監。 二十四年,從征乃顏。 二十八年,賜宅一區。 入侍帷幄,陳說古先帝王政治,帝聽之,每忘倦。 嘗語及漢高帝起自側微,誦所舊聞,養直從容論辨,帝即開納,由是不薄高帝。 大德元年,成宗幸柳林,命養直進講《資治通鑑》,因陳規諫之言,詔賜酒及鈔萬七千五百貫。 二年,賜金帶、象笏。 三年,遷集賢侍講學士,賜通犀帶。 七年,詔傅太子於宮中,啟沃誠至,帝聞之,大悅。 八年,代祀南海。 九年,進集賢學士。 十一年,升太子諭德。 至大元年,授集賢大學士,謀議大政悉與焉。 告老歸而卒,贈資德大夫、河南等處行中書省右丞,諡文靖。
Jiao Yangzhi, styled Wujiu, came from Tangyi in Dongchang. He had been known since youth for ability and judgment. In Zhiyuan 18 Kublai renamed the seal-and-tally office the Directorate of Auspicious Commissions and wanted a Confucian scholar to head it. A court intimate named Yangzhi; Kublai summoned him at once. He answered so well that he skipped from Zhending professor of Confucian learning straight to vice director of the directorate. In year 24 he marched on the Nayan campaign. In year 28 he received a house in the capital. He attended the emperor in private and lectured on the politics of ancient kings; Kublai listened until he forgot fatigue. Once the talk turned to Gaozu of Han rising from nothing. Yangzhi answered with easy, pointed reasoning, and the emperor took it to heart—after which he stopped looking down on Gaozu. In Dade 1, when Chengzong visited Willow Grove, he had Yangzhi lecture from the Comprehensive Mirror and offer remonstrance. The emperor rewarded him with wine and 17,500 strings of paper money. In year 2 he received a gold belt and ivory tablet. In year 3 he became lecturer-in-waiting in the Hall of Assembled Worthies and was given a rhinoceros-horn belt. In year 7 he was ordered to tutor the crown prince in the palace. He instructed with such sincerity that Chengzong heard of it and was delighted. In year 8 he carried out the sacrifice to the Southern Sea on the emperor's behalf. In year 9 he rose to academician of the Hall of Assembled Worthies. In year 11 he became preceptor of the crown prince. In Zhida 1 he became grand academician and was consulted on every major policy question. He asked to retire, went home, and died. Posthumously he was made Grand Master of Cherishing Virtue and right vice administrator of the Henan branch secretariat, with the posthumous name Wenjing.
46
子德方,以廕為興國路總管府判官。
His son Defang entered service by yin privilege as assistant administrator of Xingguo prefecture.
47
○孟攀鱗
○ Meng Panlin
48
孟攀鱗,字駕之,雲內人。 曾祖彥甫,以明法為西北路招討司知事。 有疑獄當死者百餘人,彥甫執不從,後三日得實,皆釋之。 祖鶴、父澤民,皆金進士。 攀鱗幼日誦萬言,能綴文,時號奇童。 金正大七年,擢進士第,仕至朝散大夫、招討使。 歲壬辰,汴京下,北歸居平陽。 丙午,為陝西帥府詳議官,遂家長安。 世祖中統三年,授翰林待制、同修國史。 至元初,召見,條陳七十事,大抵勸上以郊祀天地,祠太廟,制禮樂,建學校,行科舉,擇守令以字民,儲米粟以贍軍,省無名之賦,罷不急之役,百司庶府統於六部,紀綱制度悉由中書,是為長久之計。 世祖悉嘉納之,諮問諄諄。 後論王百一、許仲平優劣,對曰:「百一文華之士,可置翰苑; 仲平明經傳道,可為後學矜式。」 帝深然之。 又嘗召問宗廟、郊祀儀制,攀鱗悉據經典以對。 時帝將視祀,詔命攀鱗會太常議定禮儀,攀鱗夜畫郊祀及宗廟圖以進,帝皆親覽焉。 復以病請西歸,帝令就議陝西五路四川行中書省事。 四年卒,年六十四。 延祐三年,贈翰林學士承旨、資德大夫、上護軍、平原郡公,諡文定。
Meng Panlin, styled Jiazhi, came from Yunnei. His great-grandfather Yanfu, an expert in law, served as commissioner of the Northwest Route pacification office. In one doubtful case more than a hundred men faced execution. Yanfu refused to sign off; three days later the truth emerged and every man was freed. His grandfather He and his father Zemin had both passed the Jin jinshi. As a boy Panlin could recite ten thousand characters a day and write polished prose; people called him a wonder-child. He took jinshi in Jin Zhengda 7 and rose to Grand Master for Court Discussion and pacification commissioner. When Bianjing fell in the renchen year he went north and settled at Pingyang. In the bingwu year he became detailed review officer on the Shaanxi military staff and made Chang'an his home. In Kublai's Zhongtong 3 he was made Hanlin attendant drafter and associate compiler of the national history. Early in Zhiyuan he was summoned and submitted seventy proposals: perform suburban sacrifices, worship in the Ancestral Temple, institute ritual and music, open schools, hold examinations, appoint caring magistrates, stock grain for the armies, cut nameless levies, end wasteful corvée, bring every agency under the Six Ministries, and let the Secretariat set all law and custom—a program meant to last. Kublai welcomed every item and questioned him at length. Later, asked to compare Wang Baiyi and Xu Zhongping, he said, "Baiyi is a man of literary brilliance—fit for the Hanlin; Zhongping masters the classics and carries the Way—he should be a model for later students." The emperor agreed wholeheartedly. He was summoned again on temple and suburban rites and answered entirely from the classics. As the emperor prepared to sacrifice in person, Panlin was ordered to settle the rites with the Director of Sacrifices. He drew overnight diagrams of the suburban altar and the temple rites and presented them; the emperor studied each one himself. Ill again, he asked to go west. The emperor let him retire but ordered him to advise on the Shaanxi–Sichuan branch secretariat from home. He died in year 4, aged sixty-four. In Yanyou 3 he was posthumously made Hanlin expositor, Grand Master of Cherishing Virtue, senior guardian of the army, and Duke of Pingyuan, with the posthumous name Wending.
49
○尚野
○ Shang Ye
50
尚野,字文蔚,其先保定人,徙滿城。 野幼穎異,祖母劉,厚資之使就學。 至元十八年,以處士徵為國史院編修官。 二十年,兼興文署丞,出為汝州判官,廉介有為,憲司屢薦之。 二十八年,遷南陽縣尹。 初至官,獄訟充斥,野裁決無留滯,涉旬,遂無事。 改懷孟河渠副使,會遣使問民疾苦,野建言:「水利有成法,宜隸有司,不宜復置河渠官。」 事聞於朝,河渠官遂罷。 大德六年,遷國子助教。 諸生入宿衛者,歲從幸上都,丞相哈剌哈孫始命野分學於上都,以教諸生,仍鑄印給之,上都分學自野始。 俄升國子博士,誨人先經學而後文藝,每謂諸生曰:「學未有得,徒事華藻,若持錢買水,所取有限,能自鑿井及泉而汲之,不可勝用矣。」 時學舍未備,野密請御史臺,乞出帑藏所積,大建學舍以廣教育。 仁宗在東宮,野為太子文學,多所裨益,時從賓客姚燧、諭德蕭渼入見,帝為加禮。 至大元年,除國子司業,近臣奏分國學西序為大都路學,帝已可其奏,野謂國學、府學混居,不合禮制,事遂寢。 四年,拜翰林直學士、知制誥同修國史。 詔野赴吏部,試用陰補官,野多所優假。 或病其太寬,野曰:「今初設此法,冀將來者習詩書、知禮義耳,非必責效目前也。」 眾乃服。 皇慶元年,升翰林侍講學士。 延祐元年,改集賢侍講學士,兼國子祭酒。 二年夏,移疾歸滿城,四方來學者益眾。 六年,卒於家,年七十六。 贈通奉大夫、太常禮儀院使、護軍,追封上黨郡公,諡文懿。
Shang Ye, styled Wenwei, came from a Baoding family that had moved to Mancheng. Ye was precocious as a boy; his grandmother Liu gave generously so he could study. In Zhiyuan 18, summoned as a recluse scholar, he became compiler at the National History Institute. In year 20 he also served as vice director of the Office for Promoting Literature, then went out as assistant administrator of Ruzhou. He governed with integrity and energy, and the surveillance circuit recommended him again and again. In the twenty-eighth year he was appointed magistrate of Nanyang county. When he first took office the dockets were overflowing, yet Ye decided cases without delay; within ten days the courts were clear. He was made Vice Commissioner of Huai-Meng River Works. Envoys had been sent to inquire into popular hardship, and Ye advised: "Water control already has fixed regulations; it should fall under the regular bureaus, not warrant a separate corps of river officials again." The report reached court, and the river-works posts were abolished. In Dade 6 he became Assistant Instructor at the Imperial Academy. Students enrolled in the palace guard accompanied the court to Shangdu each year. Grand Chancellor Hala Hasun first charged Ye with opening a branch academy there to instruct them and had a seal cast for the school. The Shangdu branch academy began with Ye. He was soon promoted Doctor of the Academy. He taught others to master the classics before literary polish, and often told his students: "Learning not yet secured, yet fussing over ornament, is like buying water with cash—you only get so much. Dig your own well to the spring and draw from it, and you will never run dry." The academy buildings were still unfinished. Ye quietly petitioned the Censorate to release accumulated treasury funds and build new halls on a grand scale to broaden instruction. While Renzong was heir apparent, Ye served as his literary tutor and aided him greatly. He often attended audience with the guest-official Yao Sui and the preceptor Xiao Mian, and the Emperor treated him with special respect. In Zhida 1 he was made Vice Director of the Imperial Academy. A court favorite proposed splitting the academy's western wing off as the Metropolitan Prefecture school. The Emperor had already assented, but Ye argued that housing the national and prefectural academies together violated ritual order, and the plan was shelved. In the fourth year he was appointed Direct Academician of the Hanlin, Controller of Edicts, and associate compiler of the national history. An edict sent Ye to the Ministry of Personnel to test candidates for hereditary privilege appointments, and he showed considerable leniency in many cases. Some faulted him for being too indulgent. Ye replied: "The rule has only just been introduced. The aim is that future appointees will study the classics and learn ritual and righteousness—not that we must demand immediate results." His colleagues were persuaded. In Huangqing 1 he was promoted Hanlin Academician Lecturer-in-Attendance. In Yanyou 1 he became Lecturer-in-Attendance of the Jixian Hall and concurrently Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. In the summer of the second year he pleaded illness and went home to Mancheng, where students from all directions gathered in ever greater numbers. He died at home in the sixth year, at the age of seventy-six. He was posthumously honored as Grand Master for Thorough Service of Attendance, Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Rites, and Defender of the Army; enfeoffed as Duke of Shangdang and given the posthumous name Wenyi (Cultivated and Virtuous).
51
野性開敏,志趣正大,事繼母以孝聞,文辭典雅,一本於理。
By nature Ye was quick and open-minded, his aims broad and upright. He was famed for filial devotion to his stepmother, and his prose was elegant, grounded throughout in principle.
52
子師易,蘄州路總管府判官。 師簡,中奉大夫、奎章閣侍書學士、同知經筵事。
His son Shiyi served as judicial administrator of the Qizhou circuit headquarters. Shijian held the rank of Grand Master for Sagely Administration and served as Academician in Attendance on Calligraphy in the Kuizhang Pavilion and Associate Director of the Classics Colloquium.
53
○李之紹
Li Zhishao
54
李之紹,字伯宗,東平平陰人。 自幼穎悟聰敏,從東平李謙學。 家貧,教授鄉里,學者咸集。 至元三十一年,纂修《世祖實錄》,徵名儒充史職,以馬紹、李謙薦,授將仕佐郎、翰林國史院編修官。 直學士姚燧欲試其才,凡翰林應酬之文,積十餘事,並以付之。 之紹援筆立成,並以稿進。 燧驚喜曰:「可謂名下無虛士也。」 大德二年,聞祖母疾,辭歸。 复除編修官,升將仕郎。 六年,升應奉翰林文字。 七年,遷太常博士。 九年,丁母憂,累起復,終不能奪。 至大三年,仍授太常博士,升承事郎。 四年,升承直郎、翰林待制。 皇慶元年,遷國子司業。 延祐三年,升奉政大夫、國子祭酒。 夙夜孳孳,惟以教育人材為心。 四年十二月,升朝列大夫、同僉太常禮儀院事。 六年,改翰林直學士,復以疾還。 七年,召為翰林直學士。 至治二年,升翰林侍講學士、知制誥同修國史。 三年,告老而歸。 泰定三年八月卒,年七十三。
Li Zhishao, courtesy name Bozong, came from Pingyin in Dongping. From childhood he was bright and quick-witted, and studied under Li Qian of Dongping. The family was poor, so he taught in his home district, and students flocked to him. In Zhiyuan 31, while the Veritable Records of Kublai were being compiled, eminent scholars were summoned for historiographic duty. On the recommendation of Ma Shao and Li Qian he was appointed Assistant Gentleman for Merit and compiler in the Hanlin National History Academy. Direct Academician Yao Sui wished to test his ability and handed him more than ten pieces of routine Hanlin correspondence that had piled up. Zhishao took up his brush and finished them on the spot, submitting every draft. Sui exclaimed in delight: "A famous teacher indeed leaves no unworthy pupil." In Dade 2, on hearing that his grandmother was ill, he resigned and returned home. He was reappointed compiler and raised to Gentleman for Merit. In the sixth year he was promoted to Hanlin Academician in Attendance. In the seventh year he became Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. In the ninth year he entered mourning for his mother. Though repeatedly recalled to office, nothing could shake his resolve. In Zhida 3 he was again made Doctor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and promoted to Gentleman for Supporting Affairs. In the fourth year he rose to Gentleman for Direct Support and Hanlin Academician in Attendance. In Huangqing 1 he became Vice Director of the Imperial Academy. In Yanyou 3 he was promoted to Grand Master for Administrative Governance and Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. Day and night he toiled, with no thought but the cultivation of talent. That December of the fourth year he was made Grand Master of the Court Assembly and Associate Director of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Rites. In the sixth year he was made Direct Academician of the Hanlin but again went home on account of illness. In the seventh year he was recalled as Direct Academician of the Hanlin. In Zhizhi 2 he was promoted Hanlin Academician Lecturer-in-Attendance, Controller of Edicts, and associate compiler of the national history. In the third year he petitioned to retire on grounds of age and returned home. He died in the eighth month of Taiding 3, aged seventy-three.
55
子勗,廕父職,同知諸暨州事。
His son Xu inherited his father's rank and served as Associate Administrator of Zhuji Prefecture.
56
之紹平日自以其性遇事優游少斷,故號果齊以自勵。 有文集藏於家。
Zhishao felt that by nature he was too easygoing and indecisive in affairs, and so took the style Guoqi to spur himself on. His collected writings were preserved in the family.