1
王守誠
Wang Shoucheng
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王守誠，字君實，太原陽曲人。 氣宇和粹，性好學，從鄧文原、虞集遊，文辭日進。 泰定元年，試禮部第一，廷對賜同進士出身，授秘書郎。 遷太常博士，續編《太常集禮》若干卷以進。 轉藝林庫使，與著《經世大典》。 拜陝西行台監察御史。 除奎章閣鑑書博士。 拜監察御史。 僉山東廉訪司事。 改戶部員外郎、中書右司郎中。 拜禮部尚書。 與修遼、金、宋三史，書成，擢參議中書省事。 調燕南廉訪使。 至正五年，帝遣使宣撫四方，除守誠河南行省參知政事，與大都留守答爾麻失裡使四川，首薦雲南都元帥述律鐸爾直有文武材。 初，四川廉訪使某與行省平章某不相能，誣宣使蘇伯延行賄於平章某，瘐死獄中。 至是，伯延親屬有訴。 會茶鹽轉運司官亦訟廉訪使累受金，廉訪使倉皇去官，至揚州死。 副使而下，皆以事罷。 憲史四人、奏差一人，籍其家而竄之，餘皆斥去。 重慶銅梁縣尹張文德，出遇少年執兵刃，疑為盜，擒執之，果拒敵。 文德斬其首，得懷中帛旗，書曰南朝趙王。 賊黨聞之，遂焚劫雙山。 文德捕殺百餘人。 重慶府官以私怨使縣吏誣之，乃議文德罪，比不即捕強盜例加四等。 遇赦免，猶擬杖一百。 守誠至，為直其事。 他如以贓罪誣人，動至數千緡，與夫小民田婚之訟，殆百十計，守誠皆辨析詳讞，辭窮吐實，為之平反。 州縣官多取職田者，累十有四人，悉厘正之。 因疏言：「仕於蜀者，地僻路遙，俸給之薄，何以自養。 請以戶絕及屯田之荒者，召人耕種，收其入以增祿秩。」 宜賓縣尹楊濟亨欲於蟠龍山建憲宗神御殿，儒學提舉謝晉賢請復文翁石室為書院，皆採以上聞成之，風采聳動天下，論功居諸道最。 進資政大夫、河南行省左丞。 未上，母劉氏歿於京師，聞喪亟歸，遂遘疾，以至正九年正月卒，年五十有四。 帝賜鈔萬緡，諡文昭。 有文集若干卷。
Wang Shoucheng, whose courtesy name was Junshi, came from Yangqu in Taiyuan. He had a gentle, refined presence and loved study by nature. Through his association with Deng Wenyuan and Yu Ji, his writing improved steadily. In the first year of the Taiding reign he placed first in the Ministry of Rites examination. At the palace audience he received jinshi honors and was appointed a secretary. He was promoted to doctor of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, continued compiling the Collected Rites of the Imperial Ancestral Temple in several volumes, and submitted them to the throne. He became superintendent of the Forest of Arts Repository and helped compile the Great Compendium for Governing the Age. He was appointed investigating censor on the Shaanxi branch secretariat. He was made doctor for appraising books at the Kui Zhang Pavilion. He was appointed investigating censor. He served concurrently on the Shandong surveillance commission. He was transferred to vice director of the Ministry of Revenue and director in the right department of the Secretariat. He was appointed minister of rites. He took part in compiling the Liao, Jin, and Song histories. When the work was finished he was promoted to councilor of the Secretariat. He was transferred to surveillance commissioner of Yannan. In the fifth year of Zhizheng the emperor sent envoys to reassure the realm. Shoucheng was made vice administrator of the Henan branch secretariat and sent to Sichuan with Darimashi, the Dadu garrison commander. He was the first to recommend Shulü Duo'erzhi, the Yunnan marshal, as a man of both civil and military ability. Earlier a Sichuan surveillance commissioner had quarreled with a branch chief councillor. The commissioner falsely accused the pacification commissioner Su Boyan of bribing the councillor, and Boyan died in prison of mistreatment. Now Boyan's relatives brought a petition. At the same time an official of the tea and salt transport office accused the surveillance commissioner of taking repeated bribes. The commissioner fled his post in panic and died at Yangzhou. From the deputy commissioner down, all were removed from office over the affair. Four secretariat clerks and one memorial courier had their property confiscated and were exiled; the rest were all dismissed. Zhang Wende, magistrate of Tongliang in Chongqing, went out and met youths armed with blades. Taking them for bandits, he seized them, and they fought back. Wende beheaded one of them and found a silk banner in his clothes reading "King Zhao of the Southern Court." When the rebels heard of it, they burned and looted Shuangshan. Wende captured and killed more than a hundred of them. A Chongqing prefectural official, bearing a private grudge, had a county clerk frame him. They then sought to punish Wende under the statute for not capturing bandits at once, with the penalty raised four degrees. Even after an amnesty they still proposed a beating of one hundred strokes. When Shoucheng arrived, he vindicated Wende. In other cases too—false corruption charges running to thousands of strings of cash, and peasant disputes over land and marriage, nearly a hundred in all—Shoucheng examined each judgment in detail until the guilty confessed and he reversed wrongful convictions. He corrected fourteen prefectural and county officials who had taken more than their allotted official fields. He memorialized: "Officials serving in Shu face remote terrain and long roads, with meager salaries—how can they support themselves? Let abandoned households and idle garrison lands be leased for farming, and use the income to supplement official salaries." Yang Jiheng, magistrate of Yibin, wanted a spirit hall for Emperor Xianzong on Panlong Mountain; the schools commissioner Xie Jinxian asked to restore Lord Wen's stone chamber as an academy—Shoucheng endorsed both and had them carried out. His reputation shook the empire, and when merit was tallied he ranked first among all circuits. He was promoted to grand master for governance and left vice administrator of the Henan branch secretariat. Before he could assume the post his mother Lady Liu died in the capital. He rushed home on hearing the news, fell ill, and died in the first month of the ninth year of Zhizheng at the age of fifty-four. The emperor granted ten thousand strings of paper money and gave him the posthumous title Wenzhao. He left a collected works in several volumes.
3
○王思誠
Wang Sicheng
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王思誠，字致道，兗州嵫陽人。 天資過人，七歲，從師授《孝經》、《論語》，即能成誦。 家本業農，其祖佑詬家人曰：「兒大不教力田，反教為迂儒邪！」 思誠愈自力弗懈。 後從汶陽曹元用遊，學大進。 中至治元年進士第，授管州判官，召為國子助教，改翰林國史院編修官。 尋升應奉翰林文字，再轉為待制。 至正元年，遷奉議大夫、國子司業。 二年，拜監察御史，上疏言：「京畿去年秋不雨，冬無雪，方春首月蝗生，黃河水溢。 蓋不雨者，陽之亢，水湧者，陰之盛也。 嘗聞一婦銜冤，三年大旱，往歲伯顏專擅威福，仇殺不辜，郯王之獄，燕鐵木兒宗黨死者，不可勝數，非直一婦之冤而已，豈不感傷和氣邪！ 宜雪其罪。 敕有司行禱百神，陳牲幣，祭河伯，發卒塞其缺，被災之家，死者給葬具，庶幾可以召陰陽之和，消水旱之變，此應天以實不以文也。」
Wang Sicheng, whose courtesy name was Zhidao, came from Ziyang in Yanzhou. His gifts were exceptional. At seven he learned the Classic of Filial Piety and the Analects from a teacher and could recite them by heart. The family had always farmed. His grandfather You scolded the household: "The boy is grown—why not teach him to till the soil instead of making a pedant of him!" Sicheng only applied himself all the harder. Later he studied with Cao Yuanyong of Wenyang and made great progress. He passed the jinshi examination in the first year of Zhizhi, was made assistant magistrate of Guan Prefecture, summoned as an imperial academy instructor, and then made a compiler at the Hanlin National History Institute. He was soon promoted to Hanlin attendant drafter and later made academician in waiting. In the first year of Zhizheng he was made grand master for discussion and vice director of the imperial academy. In the second year he was appointed investigating censor and memorialized: "Last autumn the capital region had no rain, winter brought no snow, locusts appeared in the first month of spring, and the Yellow River flooded. Drought means yang is overbearing; flooding means yin has grown too strong. People say that when one wronged woman cried out, drought lasted three years. In recent years Bayan seized power and killed the innocent; the Prince of Tan affair and the deaths among Yantuemuer's kin are beyond counting. This is far more than one woman's grievance—has it not damaged the harmony of heaven and earth? Their convictions should be overturned. Command the offices to pray to all spirits, offer victims and silks, sacrifice to the River Lord, send laborers to seal the breach, and give burial goods to families of the dead—then perhaps yin and yang may be restored and flood and drought ended. Heaven must be answered with deeds, not empty ritual."
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行部至檀州，首言：「採金鐵冶提舉司，設司獄，掌囚之應徒配者，鈦趾以舂金礦，舊嘗給衣與食，天歷以來，水壞金冶，因罷其給，囓草飲水，死者三十餘人，瀕死者又數人。 夫罪不至死，乃拘囚至於飢死，不若加杖而使速死之愈也。 況州縣俱無囚糧，輕重囚不決者，多死獄中，獄吏妄報其病月日用藥次第。 請定瘐死多寡罪，著為令。」 又言：「至元十六年，開壩河，設壩夫戶八千三百七十有七，車戶五千七十，出車三百九十輛，船戶九百五十，出船一百九十艘，壩夫累歲逃亡，十損四五，而運糧之數，十增八九，船止六十八艘，戶止七百六十有一，車之存者二百六十七輛，戶之存者二千七百五十有五，晝夜奔馳，猶不能給，壩夫戶之存者一千八百三十有二，一夫日運四百餘石，肩背成瘡，憔悴如鬼，甚可哀也。 河南、湖廣等處打捕鷹房府，打捕戶尚玉等一萬三千二百二十五戶，阿難答百姓劉德元等二千三百戶，可以簽補，使勞佚相資。」 又言：「燕南、山東，密邇京師，比歲饑饉，群盜縱橫，巡尉弓兵與提調捕盜官，會鄰境以討之，賊南則會於北，賊西則會於東，及與賊會，望風先遁，請立法嚴禁之。」 又言：「初開海道，置海仙鶴哨船四十餘艘，往來警邏。 今弊船十數，止於劉家港口，以捕盜為名，實不出海，以致寇賊猖獗，宜即萊州洋等處分兵守之，不令泊船島嶼，禁鎮民與梢水為婚，有能捕賊者，以船畀之，獲賊首者，賞以官。 仍移江浙、河南行省，列戍江海諸口，以詰海商還者，審非寇賊，始令泊船。 下年糧船開洋之前，遣將士乘海仙鶴於二月終旬入海，庶幾海道寧息。」 朝廷多是其議。
On his tour he reached Tan Prefecture and said first: "The gold and iron mining intendant's office runs a prison for convicts sentenced to penal servitude, with their toes clamped to pound ore. They once received clothing and food, but since the Tianli reign floods ruined the mines and the rations stopped. Prisoners gnawed grass and drank water—more than thirty died and several more were dying. When the crime does not warrant death, keeping prisoners until they starve is worse than beating them and letting them die at once. Moreover prefectures and counties provide no prison grain; many undecided prisoners die in jail while clerks fabricate monthly illness and medicine records. I ask that penalties be fixed according to how many die in custody, and written into law." He also said: "In the sixteenth year of Zhiyuan the Dam River was opened with 8,377 dam-labor households, 5,070 cart households providing 390 carts, and 950 boat households providing 190 vessels. Dam workers flee every year—four or five in ten are gone—while grain shipments have grown eight- or ninefold. Only 68 boats and 761 households remain; only 267 carts and 2,755 households remain, yet they rush day and night and still cannot keep up. Of 1,832 surviving dam households, each man hauls more than 400 piculs a day, shoulders raw with sores, faces gaunt as ghosts—it is heartbreaking. The falconry offices of Henan, Huguang, and elsewhere have 13,225 hunting households such as Shang Yu, and 2,300 Arnaqa subject households such as Liu Deyuan—these can be drafted to share the burden." He also said: "Yannan and Shandong border the capital. Famine has bred bandits, yet patrol guards and bandit-catchers summon neighbors to pursue them—when robbers go south the pursuers gather in the north, when robbers go west they gather in the east—and at the first sight of the enemy they flee. Strict laws are needed to stop this." He also said: "When the sea route was first opened, more than forty Sea Immortal Crane patrol ships guarded the coast. Now a dozen broken ships sit at Liujia Harbor—they claim to catch pirates but never sail, so pirates flourish. Troops should guard Laizhou Bay and other points, forbid anchoring at islands, forbid townspeople from marrying sailors, reward successful hunters with ships, and promote those who capture pirate leaders. The Jiangzhe and Henan branch secretariats should post guards at river and sea mouths, question returning merchants, and allow anchoring only after confirming they are not pirates. Before the grain fleet sails next year, send troops out on the Sea Immortal Cranes in the last ten days of the second month so the sea route may be secured." The court largely adopted his proposals.
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松州官吏誣構良民以取賂，訴於台者四十人，選思誠鞫問，思誠密以他事入松州境，執監州以下二十三人，皆罪之。 還至三河縣，一囚訴不已，俾其黨異處，使之言，囚曰：「賊向盜某芝麻，某追及，刺之幾死，賊以是圖復仇，今弓手欲捕獲功之數，適中賊計。 其贓，實某妻裙也。」 以裙示失主，主曰：「非吾物。」 其黨詞屈，遂釋之。 豐潤縣一囚，年最少，械系瀕死，疑而問之，曰：「昏暮三人投宿，將詣集場，約同行，未夜半，趣行，至一塚間，見數人如有宿約者，疑之，眾以為盜告，不從，脅以白刃，驅之前，至一民家，眾皆入，獨留戶外，遂潛奔赴縣，未及報而被收。」 思誠遂正有司罪，少年獲免。 出僉河南山西道肅政廉訪司事，行部武鄉縣，監縣來迓，思誠私語吏屬曰：「此必贓吏。」 未幾，果有訴於道側者，問曰：「得無訴監縣敓汝馬乎？」 其人曰：「然。」 監縣抵罪。 吏屬問思誠先知之故，曰：「衣弊衣，乘駿馬，非詐而何！」 陝西行台言：「欲疏鑿黃河三門，立水陸站以達於關陝。」 移牘思誠，會陝西、河南省憲臣及郡縣長吏視之，皆畏險阻，欲以虛辭復命，思誠怒曰：「吾屬自欺，何以責人！ 何以待朝廷！ 諸君少留，吾當躬詣其地。」 眾惶恐從之，河中灘磧百有餘里，礁石錯出，路窮，舍騎徒行，攀藤葛以進，眾憊喘汗弗敢言，凡三十里，度其不可，乃作詩歷敘其險，執政采之，遂寢其議。
Song Prefecture officials had framed innocent people for bribes; forty petitioners appealed to the censorate. Sicheng was chosen to investigate. Entering Song territory on a pretext, he arrested the surveillance commissioner and twenty-two subordinates and punished them all. On his return through Sanhe County one prisoner would not stop protesting. Sicheng separated his accomplices and questioned him. The man said: "Bandits once stole a man's sesame; I pursued and nearly killed one of them, so they sought revenge. Now the archers want a capture to fill their quota—they are playing into the bandits' hands. The supposed loot was actually another man's wife's skirt." When the skirt was shown to the supposed owner, he said, "That is not mine." The accomplices' story collapsed, and he was released. At Fengrun County a young prisoner lay shackled near death. Sicheng questioned him and heard: "At dusk three travelers asked to lodge with me on the way to market. Before midnight they hurried on. At a grave mound I saw men waiting as if by appointment and grew suspicious. They called them bandits and told me to report it, but I refused. They threatened me with blades and forced me ahead. At a farmhouse they all went inside while I stayed out, then I ran to the county—but was seized before I could report." Sicheng then punished the officials, and the youth was freed. He served concurrently on the Henan-Shanxi circuit commission for upholding justice. Touring Wuxiang County, the surveillance magistrate came to greet him. Sicheng whispered to his staff: "That man must be corrupt." Soon a petitioner appeared by the road. Sicheng asked, "Are you complaining that the surveillance magistrate seized your horse?" The man said, "Yes." The magistrate was punished. When his staff asked how he knew, he said, "Shabby clothes and a fine horse—what else could that be but fraud?" The Shaanxi branch secretariat proposed dredging the Yellow River's Three Gates and establishing land and water relay stations to reach Guan and Shaan. Sicheng was ordered to convene surveillance officials of Shaanxi and Henan and local magistrates to inspect the site. All feared the terrain and wanted to report empty excuses. Sicheng said angrily, "If we deceive ourselves, how can we blame others? How can we face the court? Wait here—I will go myself." They followed in alarm. For more than a hundred li along shoals and reefs the way ended; they dismounted and climbed by vines. All were exhausted and dared not complain. After thirty li they judged the project impossible. Sicheng wrote a poem detailing the dangers; the chief ministers accepted it and dropped the plan.
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召修遼、金、宋三史，調秘書監丞。 會國子監諸生相率為哄，復命為司業。 思誠召諸生立堂下，黜其首為哄者五人，罰而降齋者七十人，勤者升，惰者黜，於是更相勉勵。 超升兵部侍郎，監燒燕南昏鈔，忽心悸弗寧，已而母病，事畢，馳還京師侍疾。 及丁內憂，扶櫬南歸。 甫禫，朝廷行內外通調法，選郡縣守令，起思誠太中大夫、河間路總管。 磁河水頻溢，決鐵燈幹。 鐵燈幹，真定境也，召其邑吏，責而懲之。 遂集民丁作堤，晝夜督工，期月而塞。 复築夾堤於外，亙十餘里，命瀕河民及弓手，列置草舍於上，系木以防盜決。 是年，民獲耕藝，歲用大稔。 乃募民運碎甓，治郭外行道，高五尺，廣倍之，往來者無泥塗之病。 南皮民父祖，嘗瀕御河種柳，輸課於官，名曰柳課。 後河決，柳俱沒，官猶征之，凡十餘年，其子孫益貧，不能償，思誠連請於朝除之。 郡庭生嘉禾三本，一本九莖，一本十六莖，一本十三莖，莖五六穗，僚屬欲上進，思誠曰：「吾嘗惡人行異政，沽美名。」 乃止。 所轄景州廣川鎮，漢董仲舒之裡也，河間尊福鄉，博士毛萇舊居也，皆請建書院，設山長員。 召拜禮部尚書。
He was summoned to compile the Liao, Jin, and Song histories and made vice director of the Secretariat. When imperial academy students rioted together, he was again appointed vice director. Sicheng had the students stand in the hall courtyard, expelled five ringleaders, punished and demoted seventy to lower quarters, promoted the diligent and expelled the idle—and they began to encourage one another again. He was promoted to vice minister of war and supervised burning worn Yannan paper notes. His heart suddenly troubled him; soon his mother fell ill. When the work was done he raced back to the capital to nurse her. After completing mourning for his mother he escorted her coffin home to the south. Just after mourning ended the court implemented universal transfers of prefectural and county magistrates. Sicheng was recalled as grand master of the palace and route commander of Hejian. The Cishui River flooded repeatedly and breached the Tiedenggan embankment. Tiedenggan lay in Zhending territory; he summoned its county officials, blamed them, and punished them. He then gathered laborers to build the dike, supervising day and night, and sealed the breach within a month. He built outer parallel dikes for more than ten li, stationed riverside villagers and archers in grass huts along them, and tied timbers to guard against secret breaches. That year the people could farm again and the harvest was abundant. He recruited laborers to haul broken tiles and pave the roads outside the city wall five feet high and twice as wide, so travelers no longer struggled through mud. For generations Nanpi families had planted willows along the Imperial Canal and paid a willow tax to the government. Later the river breached and the willows were lost, yet the tax was still collected for more than ten years while descendants grew poorer and could not pay. Sicheng repeatedly petitioned the court to abolish it. Three stalks of auspicious grain appeared in the prefectural courtyard—one with nine stems, one with sixteen, one with thirteen, each bearing five or six ears. His staff wanted to report them to the throne. Sicheng said, "I have always hated officials who perform stunts to win praise." He refused. Guangchuan in Jing Prefecture was Dong Zhongshu's home; Zunfu in Hejian was where the erudite Mao Chang had lived—he asked that academies and mountain-chief posts be established at both. He was summoned and appointed minister of rites.
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十二年，帝以四方民頗失業，命名臣巡行勸課。 思誠至河間及山東諸路，召集父老，宣帝德意，莫不感泣，緘進二麥、豌豆，帝嘉之，賜上尊二。 召還，遷國子祭酒，俄復為禮部尚書，知貢舉，升集賢侍講學士，兼國子祭酒。 應詔言事：一曰置行省丞相以專方面； 二曰寬內郡徵輸以固根本； 三曰汰冗兵以省糧運； 四曰改祿秩以養官廉； 五曰罷行兵馬司以便詰捕； 六曰复倚郭縣以正紀綱； 七曰設常選以起淹滯。 尋出為陝西行台治書侍御史，辭以老病，不允，力疾戒行。
In the twelfth year, because people throughout the realm had largely lost their livelihoods, the emperor named eminent ministers to tour the provinces and encourage farming. Sicheng went to Hejian and the Shandong circuits, gathered elders, and proclaimed the emperor's benevolent intent until all wept. They presented sealed gifts of winter wheat and peas; the emperor praised him and granted two vessels of finest wine. Recalled to court, he was made chancellor of the imperial academy, soon again minister of rites and placed in charge of the civil service examinations, then promoted to attendant academician of the Hall of Gathered Worthies while retaining the chancellorship. Answering an imperial edict, he proposed seven reforms: first, appoint branch secretariat chief councillors to govern each region; second, ease levies in the inner commanderies to secure the foundation; third, cut redundant troops to save grain transport; fourth, reform salaries to sustain official integrity; fifth, abolish traveling horse-and-troop offices to ease pursuit of criminals; sixth, restore suburban counties to restore proper governance; seventh, establish regular selection to promote the long overlooked. He was soon sent out as associate censor of the Shaanxi branch secretariat. He pleaded age and illness but was refused, and set out despite his sickness.
9
十七年春，紅巾陷商州，奪七盤，進據藍田縣，距奉元一舍。 思誠會豫王阿剌忒納失裡及省院官於安西王月魯帖木兒邸，眾洶懼無言，思誠曰：「陝西重地，天下之重輕系焉。 察罕帖木兒，河南名將，賊素畏之，宜遣使求援，此上策也。」 戍將嫉客兵軋己，論久不決，思誠曰：「吾兵弱，旦夕失守，咎將安歸！」 乃移書察罕帖木兒曰：「河南為京師之庭戶，陝西實內郡之籓籬，兩省相望，互為脣齒，陝西危，則河南豈能獨安乎？」 察罕帖木兒新復陝州，得書大喜，曰：「先生真有為國為民之心，吾寧負越境擅發之罪。」 遂提輕兵五千，倍道來援。 思誠犒軍於鳳凰山，還定守禦九事，夜宿台中，未嘗解衣。 同官潛送妻子過渭北，思誠止之。 分守北門，其屬聞事急，欲圖苟免，思誠從容諭之曰：「吾受國重寄，安定一方，期戮力報效，死之可也。 自古皆有死，在遲與速耳。」 眾乃安。 既而援兵破賊，河南總兵官果以察罕帖木兒擅調，遣人問之，思誠亟請於朝，宜命察罕帖木兒專守關陝，仍令便宜行事，詔從之。
In the spring of the seventeenth year the Red Turbans captured Shang Prefecture, took Qipan, and advanced into Lantian County, only thirty li from Fengyuan. Sicheng met Prince Aratnahiri of Yu and the provincial and court officials at Prince Yuelutiemuer of Anxi's residence. The assembly was terrified into silence. Sicheng said, "Shaanxi is vital—the fate of the realm depends on it. Chaghan Temür is Henan's famous general and the rebels fear him. We should send envoys to ask for help—that is the best course." Garrison commanders resented outside troops and debate dragged on. Sicheng said, "Our forces are weak—we may lose the city any day. Who will bear the blame?" He wrote to Chaghan Temür: "Henan is the capital's gateway and Shaanxi its inner barrier. The two provinces are like lips and teeth—if Shaanxi falls, how can Henan stand alone?" Chaghan Temür had just retaken Shaan Prefecture. Delighted by the letter, he said, "You truly serve state and people—I would rather face punishment for crossing borders on my own authority." He led five thousand light troops to the rescue by forced march. Sicheng feasted the troops at Phoenix Mountain, settled nine points of defense, and slept in the censorate offices without undressing. Colleagues secretly sent their families north of the Wei; Sicheng stopped them. Assigned to guard the north gate, his subordinates heard how grave matters were and sought escape. Sicheng calmly told them, "The state has entrusted me to secure this region—we must serve with all our strength, and death is acceptable. All men die since antiquity—only the timing differs." The men were reassured. Relief troops soon defeated the rebels. The Henan commander questioned Chaghan Temür for unauthorized troop movement. Sicheng urgently asked the court to put him in charge of Guan and Shaan with discretionary authority; the edict followed.
10
行樞密院掾史田甲，受賂事覺，匿豫邸，監察御史捕之急，並係其母，思誠過市中，見之，曰：「嘻！ 古者罪人不孥，況其母乎！ 吾不忍以子而係其母。」 令釋之，不從，思誠因自劾不出，諸御史謁而謝之。 初，監察御史有封事，自中丞以下，惟署紙尾，莫敢問其由，事行，始知之，思誠曰：「若是，則上下之分安在！」 凡上章，必拆視，不可行者，以台印封置架閣庫。 俄起五省餘丁軍，思誠爭曰：「關中方用兵，困於供給，民多愁怨，復有是役，萬一為變，所繫豈輕耶！」 事遂寢。 十七年，召拜通議大夫、國子祭酒，時臥疾，聞命即起，至朝邑，疾復作。 十月，卒於旅舍，年六十有七。 諡獻肅。
Tian Jia, a clerk of the traveling privy council, was caught taking bribes and hid in the Prince of Yu's residence. Censors pressed the arrest and also bound his mother. Passing through the market, Sicheng exclaimed, "Alas! In antiquity guilt did not extend to kin—how much less to a mother! I cannot bear to bind a mother because of her son." He ordered her released, but they refused. Sicheng impeached himself and stayed away from office until the censors came to apologize. Earlier sealed memorials from investigating censors were signed only at the end by the vice censor-in-chief down, with no one daring to ask the contents until action was taken. Sicheng said, "If that is so, what becomes of hierarchy?" Thereafter every memorial had to be opened and read; unacceptable ones were sealed with the censorate seal and filed in the archive. Soon a levy was raised for surplus-man troops from five provinces. Sicheng protested, "Guanzhong is already at war, supplies are strained, and the people are bitter—if this levy sparks revolt, the consequences will be grave!" The project was dropped. In the seventeenth year he was summoned as grand master for discussion and chancellor of the imperial academy. Though ill in bed, he rose on hearing the order; at Chaoyi his illness returned. In the tenth month he died at an inn at the age of sixty-seven. He was given the posthumous title Xiansu.
11
○李好文
Li Haowen
12
李好文，字惟中，大名之東明人。 登至治元年進士第，授大名路浚州判官。 入為翰林國史院編修官、國子助教。 泰定四年，除太常博士。 會盜竊太廟神主，好文言：「在禮，神主當以木為之，金玉祭器，宜貯之別室。」 又言：「祖宗建國以來，七八十年，每遇大禮，皆臨時取具，博士不過循故事應答而已。 往年有詔為《集禮》，而乃令各省及各郡縣置局纂修，宜其久不成也。 禮樂自朝廷出，郡縣何有哉！」 白長院者，選僚屬數人，仍請出架閣文牘，以資採錄。 三年，書成，凡五十卷，名曰《太常集禮》。 遷國子博士。 丁內憂，服闋，起為國子監丞，拜監察御史。 時復以至元紀元，好文言：「年號襲舊，於古未聞，襲其名而不蹈其實，未見其益。」 因言時弊不如至元者十餘事。 錄囚河東，有李拜拜者，殺人，而行凶之仗不明，凡十四年不決，好文曰：「豈有不決之獄如是其久乎！」 立出之。 王傅撒都剌，以足蹋人而死，眾皆曰：「殺人非刃，當杖之。」 好文曰：「怙勢殺人，甚於用刃，況因有所求而殺之，其情為尤重。」 乃置之死，河東為之震肅。 出僉河南、浙東兩道廉訪司事。
Li Haowen, whose courtesy name was Weizhong, came from Dongming in Daming. He passed the jinshi examination in the first year of Zhizhi and was made assistant magistrate of Jun Prefecture on the Daming route. He entered service as a Hanlin national history compiler and imperial academy instructor. In the fourth year of Taiding he was made doctor of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. When thieves stole the imperial ancestral temple spirit tablets, Haowen said, "By ritual, spirit tablets should be wood; gold and jade vessels should be kept in a separate chamber." He also said, "For seven or eight decades since the founding, every great rite has been equipped at the last moment, and temple doctors have only repeated precedent. An edict once ordered compilation of the Collected Rites, yet every province, prefecture, and county was told to set up a bureau—no wonder it never finished. Rites and music come from the court—what business have prefectures and counties with them!" He informed the institute chief, chose several aides, and asked for archive documents to compile from. In three years the work was finished—fifty volumes entitled Collected Rites of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. He was transferred to doctor of the imperial academy. After mourning for his mother he was recalled as vice director of the imperial academy and appointed investigating censor. When the Zhiyuan reign title was revived, Haowen said, "Reusing an old era name is unheard of in antiquity; taking the name without its substance brings no benefit." He then listed more than ten current abuses worse than under Zhiyuan. Reviewing prisoners in Hedong, he found Li Baibai, accused of murder with the weapon unclear, undecided for fourteen years. Haowen said, "Can a case remain undecided so long?" He had him released at once. The prince's tutor Sadula kicked a man to death. All said killing without a blade should be punished by beating. Haowen said, "Killing by abuse of power is worse than with a blade—especially when done to obtain something; the crime is graver still." He sentenced him to death, and Hedong was awed into order. He served concurrently on the Henan and Zhedong surveillance commissions.
13
六年，帝親享太室，召僉太常禮儀院事。 至正元年，除國子祭酒，改陝西行台治書侍御史，遷河東道廉訪使。 三年，郊祀，召為同知太常禮儀院事。 帝之親祀也，至寧宗室，遣阿魯問曰：「兄拜弟可乎？」 好文與博士劉聞對曰：「為人後者，為之子也。」 帝遂拜。 由是每親祀，必命好文攝禮儀使。 四年，除江南行台治書侍御史，未行，改禮部尚書，與修遼、金、宋史，除治書侍御史，仍與史事。 俄除參議中書省事，視事十日，以史故，仍為治書。 已而復除陝西行台治書侍御史，時台臣皆缺，好文獨署台事。 西蜀奉使，以私憾摭拾廉訪使曾文博、僉事兀馬兒、王武事，文博死，兀馬兒誣服，武不屈，以輕侮抵罪。 好文曰：「奉使代天子行事，當問民疾苦，黜陟邪正，今行省以下，至於郡縣，未聞舉劾一人，獨風憲之司，無一免者，此豈正大之體乎！」 率御史力辨武等之枉，並言奉使不法者十餘事。 六年，除翰林侍講學士，兼國子祭酒，又遷改集賢侍講學士，仍兼祭酒。
In the sixth year the emperor personally offered in the Grand Chamber and summoned Haowen to serve concurrently on the imperial ancestral temple and ritual institute. In the first year of Zhizheng he was made chancellor of the imperial academy, then associate censor of the Shaanxi branch secretariat, then surveillance commissioner of the Hedong circuit. In the third year, at the suburban sacrifice, he was summoned as vice director of the imperial ancestral temple and ritual institute. When the emperor sacrificed in person and reached Emperor Ningzong's tablet, he sent Aru to ask, "May an elder brother bow to a younger brother?" Haowen and the doctor Liu Wen replied, "An adopted heir stands as a son." The emperor bowed. Thereafter whenever the emperor sacrificed in person, Haowen was appointed acting ritual commissioner. In the fourth year he was made associate censor of the Jiangnan branch secretariat but before leaving was made minister of rites and joined compiling the Liao, Jin, and Song histories, then made associate censor while still working on the histories. Soon he was made councilor of the Secretariat, but after ten days returned to associate censor because of the histories. He was again made associate censor of the Shaanxi branch secretariat. With all censorate posts vacant, Haowen alone handled its affairs. An envoy to Western Shu, bearing a private grudge, framed surveillance commissioner Zeng Wenbo, commissioner Wuma'er, and Wang Wu. Wenbo died; Wuma'er confessed under duress; Wu refused and was punished for contempt. Haowen said, "An envoy acts for the Son of Heaven and should inquire into people's hardships and reward the upright while removing the corrupt. From branch secretariats down to counties, not one official has been impeached—only surveillance officials, and none escape. Is that upright governance?" He led the censors in vindicating Wu and others and reported more than ten unlawful acts by the envoy. In the sixth year he was made Hanlin lecturing academician and concurrent chancellor of the imperial academy, then transferred to attendant academician of the Hall of Gathered Worthies while retaining the chancellorship.
14
九年，出參湖廣行省政事，改湖北道廉訪使，尋召為太常禮儀院使。 於是帝以皇太子年漸長，開端本堂，命皇太子入學，以右丞相脫脫、大司徒雅不花知端本堂事，而命好文以翰林學士兼諭德。 好文力辭，上書宰相曰：「三代聖王，莫不以教世子為先務，蓋帝王之治本於道，聖賢之道存於經，而傳經期於明道，出治在於為學，關係至重，要在得人。 自非德堪範模，則不足以輔成德性。 自非學臻閫奧，則不足以啟迪聰明。 宜求道德之鴻儒，仰成國家之盛事。 而好文天資本下，人望素輕，草野之習，而久與性成，章句之學，而浸以事廢，驟膺重托，負荷誠難。 必別加選掄，庶幾國家有得人之助，而好文免妨賢之譏。」 丞相以其書聞，帝嘉嘆之，而不允其辭，好文言：「欲求二帝三王之道，必由於孔氏，其書則《孝經》、《大學》、《論語》、《孟子》、《中庸》。」 乃摘其要略，釋以經義，又取史傳及先儒論說，有關治體而協經旨者，加以所見，仿真德秀《大學衍義》之例，為書十一卷，名曰《端本堂經訓要義》，奉表以進，詔付端本堂，令太子習焉。 好文又集歷代帝王故事，總百有六篇：一曰聖慧，如漢孝昭、後漢明帝幼敏之類； 二曰孝友，如舜、文王及唐玄宗友愛之類； 三曰恭儉，如漢文帝卻千里馬、罷露台之類； 四曰聖學，如殷宗緝學，及陳、隋諸君不善學之類。 以為太子問安餘暇之助。 又取古史，自三皇迄金、宋，歷代授受，國祚久速，治亂興廢為書，曰《大寶錄》。 又取前代帝王是非善惡之所當法當戒者為書，名曰《大寶龜鑑》。 皆錄以進焉。 久之，升翰林學士承旨，階榮祿大夫。 十六年，复上書皇太子，其言曰：「臣之所言，即前日所進經典之大意也，殿下宜以所進諸書，參以《貞觀政要》、《大學衍義》等篇，果能一一推而行之，則萬幾之政、太平之治，不難致矣。」 皇太子深敬禮而嘉納之。 後屢引年乞致仕，辭至再三，遂拜光祿大夫、河南行省平章政事，仍以翰林學士承旨一品祿終其身。
In the ninth year he served as administrator of the Huguang branch secretariat, then surveillance commissioner of the Hubei circuit, and was soon summoned as director of the imperial ancestral temple and ritual institute. As the crown prince grew older, the emperor opened the Hall of the Root of Integrity and ordered him to study. Right Chancellor Tuo Tuo and Grand Mentor Yabuhua oversaw the hall, while Haowen was named Hanlin academician and preceptor of virtue. Haowen strongly declined and wrote the chief minister: "The sage kings of the Three Dynasties all put instructing the heir first. Imperial governance rests on the Way, the Way of sages rests in the classics, and transmitting the classics requires one who clarifies the Way. Good government depends on learning—the matter is weighty, and the key is finding the right man. Without virtue fit to serve as a model, one cannot help form moral character. Without learning that reaches the deepest mysteries, one cannot enlighten the mind. The state should seek a great Confucian of virtue and learning for this great undertaking. Yet my gifts are modest, my reputation slight, rustic habits are deep in my nature, and textual study has been neglected in official life—to bear this heavy trust suddenly is truly hard. Another selection should be made so the state may gain a worthy teacher and I may escape the charge of blocking better men." The chief minister reported his letter; the emperor praised it but refused his resignation. Haowen said, "To seek the way of the Two Emperors and Three Kings one must go through Confucius—the books are the Classic of Filial Piety, Great Learning, Analects, Mencius, and Doctrine of the Mean." He extracted their essentials, explained them by classical meaning, added historical and earlier Confucian passages on governance consonant with the classics, and following Zhen Dexiu's Elaboration on the Great Learning produced eleven volumes entitled Essential Meanings of the Classics and Instructions for the Hall of the Root of Integrity, which he submitted for the crown prince's study. Haowen also collected stories of emperors through the ages, 106 in all: first, sage intelligence, such as Emperor Xiaozhao of Han and the youthful keenness of Emperor Ming of Later Han; second, filial piety and brotherly affection, such as Shun, King Wen, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang; third, respectful frugality, such as Emperor Wen of Han refusing thousand-li horses and abolishing the Terrace for Watching the Battle Array; fourth, sage learning, such as the Zong of Yin continuing his studies, and the rulers of Chen and Sui who studied poorly. These were meant to aid the crown prince in his leisure after paying respects. He also compiled ancient histories from the Three Sovereigns through Jin and Song on dynastic succession, the length of reigns, and the rise and fall of states into Record of the Great Treasure. He also compiled what former emperors should emulate or avoid into Tortoise Mirror of the Great Treasure. All were submitted to the throne. After a long while he was promoted to Hanlin academician recipient of edicts with the rank of grand master for glorious happiness. In the sixteenth year he again wrote the crown prince: "What I have said is the gist of the classics I submitted. Your Highness should study those books together with Essentials of Government from the Zhenguan Reign and Elaboration on the Great Learning—if you truly put them into practice, good government and great peace will not be hard to attain." The crown prince deeply respected him and gladly accepted his advice. Later he repeatedly asked to retire on grounds of age. After repeated refusals he was made grand master for splendid happiness and chief councillor of the Henan branch secretariat, retaining first-rank salary as Hanlin academician recipient of edicts for life.
15
○孛術魯鋋子遠附
Borjigidai Chong (appendix)
16
孛術魯翀，字子翬，其先隆安人。 金泰和間，定女直姓氏，屬望廣平。 祖德，從憲宗南征，因家鄧之順陽，以功封南陽郡侯。 父居謙，用翀貴，封南陽郡公。 初，居謙辟掾江西，以家自隨，生翀贛江舟中，釜鳴者三，人以為異。 翀稍長，即勤學。 父歿，家事漸落，翀不恤，而為學益力，乃自順陽復往江西，從新喻蕭克翁學。 克翁，宋參政燧之四世孫也，隱居不仕，學行為州里所敬。 嘗夜夢大鳥止其所居，翼覆軒外，舉家驚異，出視之，沖天而去。 明日，翀至。 翀始名思溫，字伯和，克翁為易今名字，以夢故。 後復從京兆蕭渼遊，其學益宏以肆。 翰林學士承旨姚燧以書抵渼曰：「燧見人多矣，學問文章，無足與子翬比倫者。」 於是渼以女妻之。
Borjigidai Chong, whose courtesy name was Zihui, was descended from Long'an. In the Taihe era of Jin, Jurchen surnames were fixed and the clan was assigned to Wang of Guangping. His grandfather De followed Emperor Xianzong south, settled the family in Shunyang in Deng, and was enfeoffed as marquis of Nanyang for merit. His father Juqian, through Chong's eminence, was enfeoffed as duke of Nanyang. When Juqian was recruited as a clerk in Jiangxi he took his family along. Chong was born on a boat on the Gan River; the cauldron rang three times and people took it as an omen. As Chong grew he studied diligently. After his father died the family fortunes declined. Chong paid no heed and studied all the harder, returning from Shunyang to Jiangxi to study under Xiao Keyong of Xinyu. Keyong was the fourth-generation descendant of the Song grand councilor Sui. He lived in seclusion without office, and his learning and conduct were respected locally. One night he dreamed a great bird alighted at his home, wings covering the outer hall. The household was startled; when they went out to look, it soared away into the sky. The next day Chong arrived. Chong had originally been named Siwen, with the courtesy name Bohe; Xiao Keyong changed both to his present name and the courtesy name Zihui, acting on account of a dream. He later resumed his studies under Xiao Mei of the capital region, and his scholarship grew ever wider and more assured. Yao Sui, expositor of the Hanlin Academy, wrote to Xiao Mei: "I have met countless men, yet in scholarship and literary craft I have seen none who can stand comparison with your disciple Zihui." On that recommendation Xiao Mei gave him his daughter in marriage.
17
大德十一年，用薦者，授襄陽縣儒學教諭，升汴梁路儒學正。 會修《世皇實錄》，燧首以翀薦。 至大四年，授翰林國史院編修官。 延祐二年，擢河東道廉訪司經歷，遷陝西行台監察御史，賑濟吐蕃，多所建白。 五年，拜監察御史。 時英皇未出閣，翀言：「宜擇正人以輔導。」 帝嘉納之。 尋劾奏中書參議元明善，帝初怒，不納，明日，乃命改明善他官，而傳旨慰諭翀。 巡按遼陽，有旨給以弓矢環刀。 後因為定制。 還往淮東核憲司官聲跡，淮東憲臣，惟尚刑，多置獄具，翀曰：「國家所以立風紀，蓋將肅清天下，初不尚刑也。」 取其獄具焚之。 時有旨凡以吏進者，例降二等，從七品以上不得用。 翀言：「科舉未立，人才多以吏進，若一概屈抑，恐未足盡天下持平之議。 請吏進者，宜止於五品。」 許之，因著為令。 除右司都事。 時相鐵木迭兒專事刑戮，以復私憾，翀因避去。
In 1307, through recommendation he was appointed Confucian instructor for Xiangyang County and soon promoted to head of the Bianliang circuit Confucian school. When the court undertook the Veritable Records of Kublai, Yao Sui was the first to recommend Chong for the work. In 1311 he was appointed a compiler in the Hanlin Academy's National History Institute. In 1315 he was promoted to secretary of the Hedong surveillance office, then made investigating censor on the Shaanxi branch secretariat, where he oversaw famine relief in Tibet and submitted numerous memorials. In 1318 he was appointed investigating censor at court. The heir apparent had not yet been installed in his own residence; Chong urged that upright tutors be chosen to guide him. The emperor commended the advice and adopted it. He soon impeached Yuan Mingshan, a participant in the Secretariat; the emperor at first refused the charge in anger, yet the next day reassigned Mingshan and sent Chong a message of reassurance. While on inspection in Liaoyang he received an imperial order granting him bow, arrows, and the ring-handled saber borne by touring censors. The grant was later codified as standard practice. On his return he was sent to Huaidong to audit the conduct of surveillance commissioners, who there prized punishment above all and kept extensive torture gear on hand. Chong told them, "The state establishes discipline to purify the realm, not to make cruelty its first principle." He seized those implements and had them burned. An edict then required that officials who had risen through clerical ranks be demoted two grades by rule, and that none above the seventh sub-rank be appointed. Chong argued, "With the examination system still unsettled, most talent still enters through clerical service; to suppress such men wholesale would hardly satisfy fair opinion across the empire. He proposed that clerical appointees be capped at the fifth rank." The court agreed and inscribed the rule in law. He was appointed associate director of the Right Secretariat. The chief minister Temuder was then bent on executions to settle private scores, and Chong withdrew to keep clear of him.
18
頃之，擢翰林修撰，又改左司都事。 於是拜住為左相，使人勞翀曰：「今規模已定，不同往日，宜早至也。」 翀強為起。 會國子監隸中書，俾翀兼領之。 先是，陝西有變，府縣之官多罣罥者，翀白丞相曰：「此輩皆脅從，非同情者。」 乃悉加銓敘。 帝方獵柳林，駐故東平王安童碑所，因獻《駐蹕頌》，皆稱旨，命坐，賜飲尚尊。 從幸上京，次龍虎台，拜住命翀傳旨中書，翀領之，行數步，還曰：「命翀傳否？」 拜住歎曰：「真謹飭人也。」 間謂翀曰：「爾可作宰相否？」 翀對曰：「宰相固不敢當，然所學，宰相事也。 夫為宰相者，必福德才量四者皆備，乃足當耳。」 拜住大悅，以酒觴翀曰：「非公，不聞此言。」 迎駕至行在所，翀入見，帝賜之坐。 升右司員外郎，奉旨預修《大元通制》，書成，翀為之序。 泰定元年，遷國子司業。 明年，出為河南行省左右司郎中。 丞相曰：「吾得賢佐矣。」 翀曰：「世祖立國，成憲具在，慎守足矣。 譬若乘舟，非一人之力所能運也。」 翀乃開壅除弊，省務為之一新。 三年，擢燕南河北道廉訪使，晉州達魯花赤有罪就逮，而奉使宣撫以印帖征之，欲緩其事，翀發其奸，奉使因遁去。 入僉太常禮儀院事，盜竊太廟神主，翀言：「各室宜增設都監員，內外嚴置局鎖，晝巡夜警，永為定制。」 從之。 又纂修《太常集禮》，書成而未上，有旨命翀兼經筵官。
Shortly afterward he was promoted to Hanlin compiler, then transferred back to associate director of the Left Secretariat. Bainu then became left chancellor and sent a messenger to urge Chong: "The new order is fixed and unlike the old days—you should return without delay." Chong reluctantly accepted and took up his post. When the National University was placed under the Secretariat, Chong was assigned to direct it as well. After the Shaanxi uprising many local officials had been implicated; Chong told the chancellor, "They followed under duress and did not share the rebels' aims." They were all reinstated through review. While the emperor hunted at Willow Grove he paused at the stele of the former Prince of Dongping, An Tong; Chong presented an "Ode to the Imperial Halting," won high praise, was bidden to sit, and was served wine from the imperial cup. On the journey to Shangdu the party halted at Longhutai; Bainu told Chong to convey an edict to the Secretariat. Chong acknowledged the order, walked a few steps, then turned back and asked, "Am I indeed to convey this edict?" Bainu sighed and said, "What a scrupulous man." He then asked Chong in private, "Could you serve as chancellor?" Chong answered, "I would not presume to claim the post, yet what I have studied is precisely the chancellor's craft. A true chancellor must unite virtue, fortune, talent, and breadth of capacity—only when all four are present is the office truly filled." Bainu was delighted, raised his cup to Chong, and said, "But for you I would never have heard such words." When the emperor arrived at the traveling palace Chong was received in audience and granted a seat. Promoted to vice director of the Right Secretariat, he helped compile the Comprehensive Statutes of the Great Yuan by imperial commission and wrote the preface when the work was complete. In 1324 he was made vice director of the National University. The following year he was posted as director of the Henan branch secretariat's left and right bureaus. The provincial chancellor said, "I have gained a worthy assistant at last." Chong replied, "Kublai founded the dynasty and left its institutions complete; our task is careful stewardship, nothing more. It is like steering a great vessel—no single hand can move it alone." Chong cleared obstructions and swept away abuses until provincial administration was wholly renewed. In 1326 he was made surveillance commissioner for Yannan and Hebei. When a guilty darughachi of Jinzhou was arrested, a pacification commissioner tried to summon him away with a sealed warrant to stall the case; Chong exposed the scheme and the commissioner fled. Appointed associate director of the Directorate of Imperial Rites, he responded to the theft of ancestral spirit tablets by proposing additional chief wardens for each shrine chamber, strict inner and outer locks, and permanent day-and-night patrols. The court adopted his plan. He also compiled the Collected Rites of the Directorate of Imperial Rites; before the finished work could be submitted, an edict named him a lecturer at the Classics Colloquium as well.
19
文宗之入也，大臣問以典故，翀所建白近漢文故事，眾皆是之。 文宗嘗字呼子翬而不名。 命翀與平章政事溫迪罕等十人，商論大事，日夕備顧問，宿直東廡下。 文宗虛大位以俟明宗，翀極言：「大兄遠在朔漠，北兵有阻，神器不可久虛，宜攝位以俟其至。」 文宗納其言。 及文宗親祀天地、社稷、宗廟，翀為禮儀使，詳記行禮節文於笏，遇至尊不敢直書，必識以兩圈，帝偶取笏視，曰：「此為皇帝字乎？」 因大笑，以笏還翀。 竣事，上《天歷大慶詩》三章，帝命藏之奎章閣。 擢陝西漢中道廉訪使。 會立太禧院，除僉太禧宗禋院，兼祗承神御殿事，詔遣使趣之還。 迎駕至龍虎台，帝問：「子翬來何緩？」 太禧院使阿榮對曰：「翀體豐肥，不任乘馬，從水道來，是以緩耳。」 太禧臣日聚禁中，以便顧問，帝嘗問阿榮曰：「魯子翬飲食何如？」 對曰：「與眾人同。」 又問：「談論如何？」 曰：「翀所談，義理之言也。」 從幸上都，嘗奉敕撰碑文，稱旨，帝曰：「候朕還大都，當還汝潤筆貲也。」
When Emperor Wenzong entered the capital the ministers asked about ceremonial precedent; Chong's proposals, modeled on the accession of Emperor Wen of Han, won universal assent. Emperor Wenzong sometimes addressed him by his courtesy name Zihui rather than by his personal name—a mark of exceptional favor. He appointed Chong, Grand Councillor Undihen, and eight others—ten men in all—to deliberate on state affairs, keeping them at hand day and night as counselors quartered in the eastern wing. Emperor Wenzong left the throne vacant awaiting Emperor Mingzong; Chong urged strongly, "Your elder brother is far in the northern steppe and the northern armies block the road—the throne cannot stand empty. You should rule as regent until he arrives." Emperor Wenzong took his counsel. When Emperor Wenzong personally offered sacrifice to Heaven and Earth, the altars of soil and grain, and the ancestral temple, Chong served as ritual commissioner and noted each ceremonial step on his court tablet; wherever the imperial title appeared he marked it with two circles rather than write it outright. The emperor once glanced at the tablet and asked, "Is that meant for the word 'emperor'?" He laughed aloud and returned the tablet to Chong. After the rites he presented three "Great Celebration Poems of the Tianli Reign"; the emperor ordered them stored in the Kuizhang Pavilion. He was promoted to surveillance commissioner for Shaanxi and Hanzhong. When the Grand Felicity Directorate was established he was made its associate director for ancestral sacrifice and put in charge of the Spirit-Veneration Hall; the court sent envoys to hurry his return. Meeting the emperor at Longhutai, the emperor asked, "Why has Zihui been so long in coming?" Arong, director of the Grand Felicity Directorate, answered, "Chong is stout of build and cannot endure horseback travel; he came by water, and that is why he is late." Grand Felicity officials gathered daily in the palace for consultation; the emperor once asked Arong, "How does Lu Zihui fare at table?" He answered that Chong ate no differently from the others. The emperor asked again, "What of his conversation?" Arong said, "Chong speaks only in the language of moral principle." On the journey to Shangdu he composed a stele inscription by imperial order to great acclaim; the emperor said, "When I return to Dadu I shall pay your writer's fee."
20
遷集賢直學士，兼國子祭酒。 諸生素已望翀，至是，私相歡賀。 翀以古者教育有業，退必有居。 舊制，弟子員初入學，以羊贄，所貳之品與羊等。 翀曰：「與其饜口腹，孰若為吾黨燥濕寒暑之虞乎！」 命撙集之，得錢二萬緡有奇，作屋四區，以居學者。 諸生積分，有六年未及釋褐者，翀至，皆使就試而官之。 帝師至京師，有旨朝臣一品以下，皆乘白馬郊迎。 大臣俯伏進觴，帝師不為動，惟翀舉觴立進曰：「帝師，釋迦之徒，天下僧人師也。 餘，孔子之徒，天下儒人師也。 請各不為禮。」 帝師笑而起，舉觴卒飲，眾為之栗然。
He was made academician-expositor of the Jixian Hall and concurrently chancellor of the National University. The students had long revered him; now they celebrated among themselves. Chong held that in antiquity learning was a calling and that students, on leaving school, must have somewhere to live. By old custom new students presented sheep as entrance gifts, with secondary offerings matched to the sheep's value. Chong said, "Better to shelter our fellows from heat and cold than to fill a few stomachs for a day." He had the gifts pooled instead, raising more than twenty thousand strings of cash, and built four dormitory compounds for the students. Some students had accumulated six years of credit without yet qualifying for office; Chong had them all examined and appointed. When the Imperial Preceptor reached the capital, an edict required officials of the first rank and below to ride white horses and meet him in the suburbs. The ministers prostrated themselves and offered the cup, but the Imperial Preceptor did not respond—only Chong stood forward with the cup and said, "Imperial Preceptor, you are of Shakyamuni's line, teacher to all monks under Heaven. As for the rest of us, we are disciples of Confucius, teachers to all scholars under Heaven. Let us each dispense with such obeisance." The Imperial Preceptor smiled, rose, drained the cup, and the whole assembly stood in awe.
21
文宗崩，皇太后聽政，命別不花、塔失海牙、阿兒思蘭、馬祖常、史顯夫及翀六人，商論國政。 翀以大位不可久虛，請嗣君即位，早正宸極，以幸天下。 帝既即位，大臣以為赦不可頻行，翀曰：「今上以聖子神孫，入繼大統，當新天下耳目。 今不赦，豈可收怨於新造之君乎！」 皇太后以為宜從翀言，議乃定。 遷禮部尚書，階中憲大夫。 有大官妻無子而妾有子者，其妻以田盡入於僧寺，其子訟之，翀召其妻詰之曰：「汝為人妻，不以資產遺其子，他日何面目見汝夫於地下！」 卒反其田。
After Emperor Wenzong's death the empress dowager ruled as regent and appointed Biebuqa, Tashihaiya, Arsalan, Ma Zuchang, Shi Xianfu, and Chong—six men—to deliberate on state affairs. Chong urged that the throne could not remain vacant and that the heir should ascend at once to steady the realm. After the new emperor's accession the ministers argued against frequent amnesties; Chong said, "His Majesty has entered the succession as a sage son and divine grandson—the realm's eyes and ears must be renewed. Without an amnesty now, how can we avoid heaping resentment on a newly enthroned sovereign?" The empress dowager sided with Chong, and the matter was settled. He was promoted to minister of rites with the rank of Central Rectitude Grandee. A senior official's wife, childless while a concubine had borne a son, had given all the family land to a monastery; the son sued, and Chong summoned the wife and rebuked her: "As a wife you withhold your property from your son—what face will you show your husband in the grave!" The land was restored to the son.
22
元統二年，除江浙行省參知政事。 逾年，以遷葬故歸鄉里。 明年，召為翰林侍講學士，以疾辭，不上。 至元四年卒，年六十。 贈通奉大夫、陝西行省參知政事、護軍，追封南陽郡公，諡文靖。
In 1334 he was appointed vice administrator of the Jiangzhe branch secretariat. A year later he returned home to oversee a family reburial. The following year he was summoned as Hanlin exposition academician but declined on grounds of illness and never returned to court. In the fourth year of Zhiyuan he died at the age of sixty. He was posthumously honored as Grand Master for Splendid Happiness, vice administrator of the Shaanxi branch secretariat, and protector of the army; enfeoffed as Duke of Nanyang with the posthumous title Wenjing.
23
翀狀貌魁梧，不妄言笑。 其為學一本於性命道德，而記問宏博，異言僻語，無不淹貫。 文章簡奧典雅，深合古法。 用是天下學者，仰為表儀。 其居國學者久，論者謂自許衡之後，能以師道自任者，惟耶律有尚及翀而已。 有文集六十卷。
Chong was tall and imposing, grave in speech and seldom given to laughter. His scholarship rooted in the moral nature of the self, yet his erudition was vast and no recondite text or strange doctrine lay beyond his grasp. His prose was concise, profound, and classically elegant, in full accord with ancient models. Scholars across the empire looked to him as their standard. He served long at the National University; later opinion held that after Xu Heng, only Yelü Youshang and Chong truly bore the teacher's mantle. His collected works ran to sixty juan.
24
子遠，字朋道，以翀廕調秘書郎，轉襄陽縣尹，須次居南陽。 賊起，遠以忠義自奮，傾財募丁壯，得千餘人，與賊拒戰，俄而賊大至，遠被害死。 遠妻雷為賊所執，賊欲妻之，乃詆賊曰：「我魯參政塚婦，縣令嫡妻，夫死不貳，肯從汝狗彘以生乎！」 賊醜其言，將辱之，雷號哭大罵，不從，乃見殺。 舉家皆被害。
His son Yuan, courtesy name Pengdao, entered office through Chong's yin privilege as a secretary, then became magistrate of Xiangyang and, while awaiting appointment, lived in Nanyang. When rebels rose Yuan rallied to the defense, spent his fortune to raise more than a thousand men, and fought the rebels until a larger force arrived and killed him. Yuan's wife Lei was captured; the rebels wished to take her, but she reviled them: "I am the widow of Counselor Lu's house and a magistrate's lawful wife—my husband is dead and I am faithful; would I live as the mate of dogs and swine like you!" Enraged by her words, they moved to violate her; Lei wailed and cursed them until they killed her. The entire household was slain.
25
○李枿
Li Jiong
26
李泂，字溉之，滕州人。 生有異質，始從學，即穎悟強記。 作為文辭，如宿習者。 姚燧以文章負大名，一見其文，深嘆異之，力荐於朝，授翰林國史院編修官。 未幾，以親老，就養江南。 久之，辟中書掾，非其志也。 及考除集賢院都事，轉太常博士。 拜住為丞相，聞泂名，擢監修國史長史，歷秘書監著作郎、太常禮儀院經歷。 泰定初，除翰林待制，以親喪未克葬，辭而歸。 天歷初，復以待制召。 於是文宗方開奎章閣，延天下知名士充學士員，泂數進見，奏對稱旨，超遷翰林直學士，俄特授奎章閣承製學士。 泂既為帝所知遇，乃著書曰《輔治篇》以進，文宗嘉納之。 朝廷有大議，必使與焉。 會詔修《經世大典》，泂方臥疾，即強起，曰：「此大製作也，吾其可以不預！」 力疾同修。 書成，既進奏，旋謁告以歸。 复除翰林直學士，遣使召之，竟以疾不能起。
Li Jiong, whose courtesy name was Guaizhi, came from Tengzhou. He was gifted from birth, and from his first days of study he proved exceptionally quick and retentive. When he wrote, it seemed the work of long practice. Yao Sui was renowned for his writing. After a single reading of Jiong's work he was deeply impressed and pressed his case at court; Jiong was appointed a compiler at the Hanlin Academy National History Office. Soon afterward, with elderly parents to care for, he went south to support them in Jiangnan. After some years he was recruited as a clerk in the Secretariat, a post that did not suit his inclinations. He passed the examination and was appointed supervisor of affairs at the Academy of Gathered Worthies, then was transferred to doctor of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. When Bayan became chief councillor he heard of Jiong's reputation and promoted him to chief administrator for supervising the national history; he later served as compiler at the Directorate of Books and manager at the Imperial Ancestral Temple Rites Institute. Early in the Taiding reign he was made a Hanlin attending draftsman, but with a parent still unburied in mourning he declined the post and went home. Early in the Tianli reign he was recalled as an attending draftsman. The Emperor Wenzong had just opened the Kui Zhang Pavilion and gathered famous scholars from across the empire as its academicians. Jiong appeared before him often; his replies in audience pleased the throne, and he was quickly promoted to Hanlin direct academician, then specially appointed a drafting academician at the Kui Zhang Pavilion. Once the emperor knew and favored him, Jiong composed the Chapters on Assisting Governance and presented it; Wenzong received it with approval. Whenever the court took up a major question, he was always included. When an edict went out to compile the Great Compendium for Governing the Age, Jiong was bedridden, yet he roused himself at once and said, "This is a work of the first rank—how could I stay out of it!" He forced himself from his sickbed to join the editors. When the work was finished and presented, he promptly asked leave and went home. He was again made Hanlin direct academician and messengers were sent to fetch him, but in the end his illness left him unable to rise.
27
泂骨骼清峻，神情開朗，秀眉疏髯，目瑩如電，顏面如冰玉，而脣如渥丹然，峨冠褒衣，望之者疑為神仙中人也。 其為文章，奮筆揮灑，迅飛疾動，汩汩滔滔，思態疊出，縱橫奇變，若紛錯而有條理，意之所至，臻極神妙。 泂每以李太白自似，當世亦以是許之。 嘗遊匡廬、王屋、少室諸山，留連久乃去，人莫測其意也。 僑居濟南，有湖山花竹之勝，作亭曰天心水面，文宗嘗敕虞集製文以記之。 泂尤善書，自篆、隸、草、真皆精詣，為世所珍愛。 卒年五十九。 有文集四十卷。
Jiong had a spare, elegant frame and an open, luminous bearing: fine brows, a light beard, eyes bright as lightning, a face like polished jade, lips the color of cinnabar. In his high cap and flowing robes he seemed to onlookers a figure from the realm of immortals. In his writing he swept the brush with abandon—swift, torrential, thought upon thought unfolding in startling turns that seemed chaotic yet held their own order. Whatever he aimed at, he carried to a kind of inspired perfection. He often compared himself to Li Bo, and his contemporaries largely agreed. He once visited Mount Lu, Mount Wangwu, Mount Shaoshi, and other peaks, staying long at each before moving on, and none could guess what was in his mind. He made his home in Jinan, where lakes, hills, flowers, and bamboo offered their charms; there he built a pavilion called Heaven's Heart, Water's Surface, and Wenzong once commanded Yu Ji to write an inscription for it. He was also a master of calligraphy, equally accomplished in seal, clerical, cursive, and regular scripts, and his work was treasured far and wide. He died at the age of fifty-nine. His collected works ran to forty juan.
28
○蘇天爵
Su Tianjue
29
蘇天爵，字伯修，真定人也。 父志道，歷官嶺北行中書省左右司郎中，和林大饑，救荒有惠政，時稱能吏。 天爵由國子學生公試，名在第一，釋褐，授從仕郎、大都路薊州判官。 丁內外艱，服除，調功德使司照磨。 泰定元年，改翰林國史院典籍官，升應奉翰林文字。 至順元年，預修《武宗實錄》。 二年，升修撰，擢江南行台監察御史。
Su Tianjue, whose courtesy name was Boxiu, came from Zhending. His father Zhidao had served as director in the left and right departments of the Lingbei Branch Secretariat; during the great famine at Karakorum his famine relief earned a reputation for humane government, and he was regarded as a capable administrator. Tianjue took the public examination for National University students and placed first. Upon entering official service he was appointed attendant gentleman and judge of Jizhou in the Dadu circuit. After mourning for both parents he returned to service and was assigned as copyist at the Merit Commission. In the first year of the Taiding reign he became archivist at the Hanlin Academy National History Office and was promoted to Hanlin attendant for composition. In the first year of the Zhishun reign he helped compile the Veritable Records of Emperor Wuzong. The next year he was promoted to compiler and appointed investigating censor on the Jiangnan branch secretariat.
30
明年，慮囚於湖北。 湖北地僻遠，民獠所雜居，天爵冒瘴毒，遍歷其地。 囚有言冤狀者，天爵曰：「憲司歲兩至，不言何也？」 皆曰：「前此慮囚者，應故事耳。 今聞御史至，當受刑，故不得不言。」 天爵為之太息。 每事必究心，雖盛暑，猶夜篝燈，治文書無倦。 沅陵民文甲無子，育其甥雷乙，後乃生兩子，而出乙，乙俟兩子行賣茶，即舟中取斧，並斫殺之，沈斧水中，而血漬其衣，跡故在。 事覺，乙具服，部使者乃以三年之疑獄釋之。 天爵曰：「此事二年半耳，且不殺人，何以衣污血？ 又何以知斧在水中？ 又其居去殺人處甚近，何謂疑獄？」 遂復置於理。 常德民盧甲、莫乙、汪丙同出傭，而甲誤墮水死，甲弟之為僧者，欲私甲妻不得，訴甲妻與乙通，而殺其夫。 乙不能明，誣服擊之死，斷其首棄草間，屍與仗棄譚氏家溝中。 吏往索，果得髑髏，然屍與仗皆無有，而譚誣證曾見一屍，水漂去。 天爵曰：「屍與仗縱存，今已八年，未有不腐者。」 召譚詰之，則甲未死時，目已瞽，其言曾見一屍水漂去，妄也。 天爵語吏曰：「此乃疑獄，況不止三年。」 俱釋之。 其明於詳讞，大抵此類。
The following year he was sent to review prisoners in Hubei. Hubei was remote, its population mixed with tribal communities; Tianjue braved the miasma and traveled the province from end to end. When prisoners claimed they had been wronged, Tianjue asked, "The censorate visits twice a year—why did you say nothing then?" They all replied, "The men who came before only went through the motions. Now that a real censor has come, we expect to be punished, so we have to speak up." Tianjue sighed at the state of things. He pursued every case to the bottom. Even in midsummer he worked by lamplight deep into the night, handling documents without rest. In Yuanling, Wen Jia had no son and raised his nephew Lei Yi. Later he had two sons of his own and sent Yi away. Yi lay in wait until the brothers went out to sell tea, took an axe from the boat, and killed them both. He threw the axe into the water, but blood had soaked his clothes and the evidence remained. When the crime was exposed Yi confessed fully, yet the regional commissioner released him as a doubtful case within the three-year statute. Tianjue said, "This case is only two and a half years old. And if he did not kill them, why was his clothing stained with blood? How did he know the axe was in the water? His home stood very near the scene of the killings—what doubt is there in this case?" He had the case sent back for trial. In Changde, Lu Jia, Mo Yi, and Wang Bing hired out together as laborers. Jia fell into the water by accident and drowned. Jia's younger brother, a monk, had wanted Jia's wife for himself; failing that, he accused her of adultery with Yi and of murdering her husband. Unable to clear himself, Yi falsely confessed to beating Jia to death, cutting off his head and leaving it in the grass, and throwing the body and weapon into the Tan family's ditch. Officers searched and found a skull, but no body or weapon. Tan falsely testified that he had once seen a corpse carried off by the current. Tianjue said, "Even if the body and weapon had survived, eight years have passed—nothing could remain intact." He summoned Tan and questioned him. Jia had still been alive when Tan went blind; his story of seeing a corpse swept away was fabrication. Tianjue told the officers, "This is a genuine doubtful case, and it is well beyond three years." He released everyone involved. His mastery of close legal reasoning was largely of this kind.
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入為監察御史，道改奎章閣授經郎。 元統元年，復拜監察御史，在官四閱月，章疏凡四十五上，自人君至於朝廷政令、稽古禮文、閭閻幽隱，其關乎大體、系乎得失者，知無不言。 所劾者五人，所薦舉者百有九人。 明年，預修《文宗實錄》，遷翰林待制，尋除中書右司都事，兼經筵參贊官。 後至元二年，由刑部郎中改御史臺都事。 三年，遷禮部侍郎。 五年，出為淮東道肅政廉訪使，憲綱大振，一道肅然。 入為樞密院判官。 明年，改吏部尚書，拜陝西行台治書侍御史，復為吏部尚書，升參議中書省事。 是時，朝廷更立宰相，庶務多所弛張，而天子圖治之意甚切，天爵知無不言，言無顧忌，夙夜謀畫，鬚髮盡白。
He was recalled to the capital as investigating censor, but on the journey was reassigned as lecturer at the Kui Zhang Pavilion. In the first year of the Yuantong reign he was again made investigating censor. In four months he submitted forty-five memorials, touching everything from the conduct of the ruler to court policy, classical ritual, and wrongs hidden in the villages—whatever bore on the state's foundations or on success and failure, he spoke without reserve. He impeached five men and recommended one hundred and nine. The next year he helped compile the Veritable Records of Emperor Wenzong, was promoted to Hanlin attending draftsman, and soon became supervisor of affairs in the Secretariat's right department while also serving as assistant at the classics lectern. In the second year of the Houzhiyuan reign he moved from director in the Ministry of Punishments to supervisor of affairs at the Censorate. The third year he was made vice minister of rites. The fifth year he was sent out as surveillance commissioner for purifying government on the Huaidong circuit; discipline was sharply restored and the whole region fell into order. He was recalled as vice director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. The next year he became minister of personnel, then was appointed investigating censor and secretary at the Shaanxi branch secretariat, returned to the ministry of personnel, and was promoted to participant in Secretariat affairs. The court had just reshuffled its chief councillors; administration had grown lax in many areas, yet the emperor's desire for good government was keen. Tianjue spoke on everything he knew, without fear of giving offense, planning day and night until his hair and beard had turned white.
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至正二年，拜湖廣行省參知政事，遷陝西行台侍御史。 四年，召為集賢侍講學士，兼國子祭酒。 天爵自以起自諸生，進為師長，端己悉心，以範學者。 明年，出為山東道肅政廉訪使，尋召還集賢，充京畿奉使宣撫。 究民所疾苦，察吏之姦貪，其興除者七百八十有三事，其糾劾者九百四十有九人，都人有包、韓之譽，然以忤時相意，竟坐不稱職罷歸。 七年，天子察其誣，乃復起為湖北道宣慰使、浙東道廉訪使，俱未行。 拜江浙行省參知政事。 江浙財賦，居天下十七，事務最煩劇，天爵條分目別，細巨不遺。 九年，召為大都路都總管，以疾歸。 俄復起為兩浙都轉運使，時鹽法弊甚，天爵拯治有方，所辦課為鈔八十萬錠，及期而足。 十二年，妖寇自淮右蔓延及江東，詔仍江浙行省參知政事，總兵於饒、信，所克復者，一路六縣。 其方略之密，節制之嚴，雖老帥宿將不能過之。 然以憂深病積，遂卒於軍中。 年五十九。
In the second year of the Zhizheng reign he was made vice administrator of the Huguang branch secretariat, then transferred to attending censor at the Shaanxi branch secretariat. The fourth year he was recalled as attendant lecturer at the Academy of Gathered Worthies and concurrently made rector of the National University. Having risen from the ranks of students to lead them as their teacher, he disciplined himself and gave his full care to setting an example for the scholars. The next year he was sent out as surveillance commissioner on the Shandong circuit, then soon recalled to the Academy of Gathered Worthies and appointed pacification commissioner for the capital region. He looked into the people's hardships and exposed official corruption and greed, instituting or abolishing seven hundred and eighty-three measures and impeaching nine hundred and forty-nine men. The capital compared him to Bao Xuan and Han Qi, but because he had crossed the chief councillor he was at last dismissed as unfit for office. The seventh year the emperor saw that he had been wronged and appointed him pacification commissioner for Hubei and surveillance commissioner for eastern Zhejiang, but he took neither post. He was appointed vice administrator of the Jiangzhe branch secretariat. Jiangzhe supplied seven-tenths of the empire's revenue and its administration was the most burdensome; Tianjue sorted every matter by category and left nothing large or small unattended. The ninth year he was summoned as chief administrator of the Dadu circuit but went home on account of illness. He was soon recalled as director-general of transport for the two Zhe circuits. The salt monopoly was then in grave disorder; Tianjue set it right with sound methods, collected eight hundred thousand ingots in paper revenue, and met the quota on schedule. The twelfth year rebel bands spread from west of the Huai into Jiangdong. He was again made vice administrator of the Jiangzhe branch secretariat and given command at Rao and Xin; he recovered one circuit and six counties. The tightness of his planning and the severity of his discipline surpassed even seasoned field commanders. But worry and illness wore him down, and he died in camp. He was fifty-nine years old.
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天爵為學，博而知要，長於紀載，嘗著《國朝名臣事略》十五卷、《文類》七十卷。 其為文，長於序事，平易溫厚，成一家言，而詩尤得古法，有詩稿七卷、文稿二十卷。 於是中原前輩，凋謝殆盡，天爵獨身任一代文獻之寄，討論講辯，雖老不倦。 晚歲，復以釋經為己任。 學者因其所居，稱之為滋溪先生。 其他所著文，有《松章疏》五卷、《春風亭筆記》二卷； 《遼金紀年》、《黃河原委》，未及脫稿云。
In scholarship he was broad yet focused, especially skilled as a historian; he wrote Outlines of Famous Ministers of Our Dynasty in fifteen juan and Literary Categories in seventy juan. His prose excelled at narrative—plain, warm, and distinctive in manner—and his poetry especially preserved classical forms. He left seven juan of verse and twenty juan of prose. By then the elder scholars of the central plains had nearly all passed away, and Tianjue alone carried the literary legacy of an age, lecturing and debating without tiring even in old age. In his later years he again made explicating the classics his chief task. Scholars named him for his home, calling him Master of Zixi Brook. His other writings included Pine Grove Memorials in five juan and Spring Breeze Pavilion Notes in two juan; while Chronology of Liao and Jin and Origins and Course of the Yellow River were left unfinished at his death.