Ridge-Beam Text for the Mud Storehouse (泥庫) of the Great Granary (大倉) in the Eulyu Year乙酉年大倉泥庫上樑文

Heave away. A building called a granary is truly the source of the storing of grain; in the heavens it becomes a star, being in general the figure of the Storehouse Tower (庫樓). In the state there is nothing greater than this, and so its construction ought to be large and broad. This state is seated in a capital of ten thousand generations and receives the tribute of the four quarters; knowing how weighty a single day's food is, it raises a thousand granaries and stores grain in them. The boats that bring it by water and moor at the bank stand stern locked against prow, and the carts that haul it overland and stretch along the roads run wheel after wheel like the weaving of cloth. What is taken from the people is slight, for only one part in ten is levied, and that from the public fields (公田); yet because what the land yields is evenly gathered, the reckoning of a single year still counts in the hundreds of thousands. Even so, much of it is left heaped in the open, which comes close to negligence in storing; there was no help for it, and we have only been making shift for the time being.

I humbly consider that His Majesty the Holy Sovereign puts the enriching of the state first in his governance, and that his loftiness and nobility are at ease with the times. He said that although from of old there have been round granaries and square ones, for a plan that would hold up long nothing equals the raising of high halls and high walls; and so he commanded the officials in charge (有司), who brought it to completion in not many days. To drag a single timber, the dust covered a hundred li; to roll a single stone, thunder rang through ten thousand mountains. Measured and set in order, it is mighty and it is fair. Such being the work, even had Gongshu (公輸) held the inked line and overseen it there would be nothing to add; and as for how much grain it holds, not even Lishou (隷首) with counting rods in hand could reckon it. So a good day has been chosen and the ridge-beam is about to be raised; I make bold to lift the cry of 「Heave away」 and now offer up the hymns of the six directions.

Heave away — let us fling the beam to the east, pointing straight into the midst of the horn and the tail of the Blue Dragon (蒼龍). Year by year in the spring fields he performs in person the rite of the royal field (籍田), and we shall see the old grain heaped up red and rotting.

Heave away — let us fling the beam to the west, and turning my head to look level with it, Mount Hua (華岳) is low. Already Jibin (罽賓) has been struck with awe and made to set out elephants and kingfisher plumes, and Shendu (身毒) shall be summoned again to offer black oxen and rhinoceros.

Heave away — let us fling the beam to the south, facing Mount Song (嵩山) straight on, where the air of kingship has gathered. Would you know that the songs of a people made prosperous are full of content? The warm wind loosens their anger, and his virtue reaches far.

Heave away — let us fling the beam to the north, where majesty brings to submission the braided-hair barbarians of Yanmen (雁門). Do not ask how high this towering thing stands; though the gold piled here reach the Northern Dipper, how should there be an end of it?

Heave away — let us fling the beam upward, hiding the sun and wrapping the sunset glow, a hundred fathoms high. Why should we fear that the public fields may not ripen well? Already it vies in grandeur with the granary of Heaven.

Heave away — let us fling the beam downward, throwing the great gate wide again to let ten thousand horses in. What need to measure this overflowing abundance against Hailing (海陵)? Of the grain squarely bound in sheaves we already hear the song that it is firm and seemly.

I humbly pray that, after the ridge-beam is raised, the gods may give their hidden help and blessing and fortune come to fulfillment; that Heaven may send the seasons and Earth bring forth its wealth, so that the three kinds of farming ripen well; that men may have grain to spare and women cloth to spare, so that the ten thousand people are prosperous and at peace; and that the storehouses may be filled full and the state stand firm. And so forth.