Life of Master Guk (麴先生傳)麴先生傳
麴聖字中之。酒泉郡人也。少爲徐邈所愛。邈名而字之。遠祖本溫人。恒力農自給。鄭伐周。獲以歸。故其子孫或布於鄭。曾祖。史失其名。祖牟徙酒泉因家焉。遂爲酒泉郡人。至父醝始仕爲平原督郵。娶司農卿穀氏女。生聖。聖自爲兒時。已有沈深局量。客詣父目愛曰。此兒心器當汪汪若萬頃之波。澄之不淸。撓之不濁。與卿談。不若與阿聖樂。及長。與中山劉伶，潯陽陶潛爲友。二人嘗謂曰。一日不見此子。鄙吝萌矣。每見。移日忘疲。輒心醉而歸。州辟糟丘掾。未及就。又徵爲靑州從事。公卿交口薦進。上令待詔公車。居無何。召見目送曰。此酒泉麴生耶。朕飮香名久矣。先是。太史奏酒旗星大有光。未幾聖至。帝亦以是益奇焉。卽拜爲主客郞中。尋轉爲國子祭酒。兼禮儀使。凡掌朝會宴饗宗廟蒸嘗酌獻之禮。無不稱旨。上器之。擢置喉舌。待以優禮。每入謁。命舁而升殿。呼麴先生而不名。上心有不懌。及聖入見。上始大笑。凡見愛皆此類也。性醞籍。日親近。與上無小忤。由是益貴幸。從上遊宴無節。子酷，䤖，醳。倚父寵頗橫恣。中書令毛穎上疏劾奏曰。倖臣擅寵。天下所病。今麴聖以斗筲之用。幸登朝級。位列三品。內深賊。喜中傷人。故萬人呶號。疾首痛心。此非醫國之忠臣。乃實毒民之賊夫。聖之三子。憑恃父寵。橫行放肆。爲人所苦。請陛下幷賜死以塞衆口。書奏。子酷等卽日飮酖自殺。聖坐廢爲庶人。鴟夷子亦嘗善聖。故亦墮車自死。初。鴟夷子以滑稽見幸。與麴聖相友。每上出入。託於屬車。鴟夷子嘗困臥。聖戲曰。卿腹雖大。空洞何有。答曰。足容卿輩數百。其相戲謔如此。聖旣免。齊郡鬲州間。盜賊群起。上欲命討。難其人。復起聖爲元帥。聖持軍嚴。與士卒同甘苦。灌愁城一戰而拔。築長樂阪而還。帝以功封爲湘東侯。一年。上疏乞退曰。臣本甕牖之子。少貧賤。爲人轉賣。偶逢聖主虛心優納。拯於沈溺。容若江湖。有忝洪造。無潤國體。前以不謹。退安鄕里。雖薄露之垂盡。幸餘滴之得存。敢欣日月之明。更發醘鷄之覆。且器盈則覆。物之常理。今臣遇痟渴之病。命迫浮漚。庶一吐兪音。使退保餘生。帝優詔不允。遣中使齎松桂菖蒲等藥物。就其第省病。聖累表固辭。上不得已許之。遂歸老故鄕。以壽終。弟賢官至二千石。子䣧，酘，𨠗，醂。服桃花汁學仙。族子𨡑，䤍，□〔⿰酉貪〕。皆籍屬萍氏云。
Guk Seong (麴聖) had the style-name Jungji (中之) and was a man of Jiuquan Commandery (酒泉郡). In his childhood he was favored by Xu Miao (徐邈), and Xu Miao gave him his name and his style. His distant ancestor was by origin a man of Wen (溫). He always lived by his own labor at farming, but Zheng attacked Zhou and took him captive and went home with him; and so his descendants were in part scattered through Zheng. The name of his great-grandfather has dropped out of the histories. His grandfather Mo (牟) moved to Jiuquan and made his home there, and so became a man of Jiuquan Commandery. It was with his father Cha (醝) that the family first held office, as Supervisor of Posts at Pingyuan (平原督郵); and Cha married the daughter of the Minister of Agriculture (司農卿) of the Gok clan (穀氏), and she bore Seong.
Even as a child Seong already had a deep and hidden capacity. A guest who had come to see his father looked at him closely and said, loving him: "This child's vessel of heart ought to be like the brimming waves of ten thousand acres, which will not clear though you try to clear them and will not cloud though you stir them. Talking with you is not so good as taking pleasure in little Seong (阿聖)."
When he grew up he became the friend of Liu Ling (劉伶) of Zhongshan and Tao Qian (陶潛) of Xunyang. The two of them once said, "If we do not see this man for a single day, a mean and stingy heart sprouts in us"; and each time they saw him they never knew they were wearied though the day wore on, and in the end they went home drunk at heart.
The district called him to be Aide of Lees Hill (糟丘掾), but he could not take it up in time; and then he was called to be Attendant Clerk of Qingzhou (靑州從事). The great ministers with one voice recommended him, and the king had him wait for the edict at the Office of the Public Carriage (公車). Before long the king summoned and saw him, and following him with his eyes said: "Is this Licentiate Guk (麴生) of Jiuquan? Long have I drunk of his fragrant name." Before this the Grand Astrologer (太史) had reported that "the Wine-Banner Star (酒旗星) shines greatly"; and when Seong arrived a little afterward, the king for this reason thought him the more remarkable. He appointed him at once Director of Guests (主客郞中), and presently moved him to be Libationer of the National Academy (國子祭酒) and Commissioner of Rites (禮儀使) besides. In all the audiences and banquets and the sacrifices at the ancestral shrine he took charge of the rite of pouring and presenting the wine, and there was nothing in it that did not accord with the king's mind. The king held him a man of capacity, singled him out and set him in the place of throat and tongue, and treated him with the thickest courtesy. Whenever he came in to an audience he was carried in a litter and allowed to come up into the hall, and he was called "Master Guk" and not addressed by his name. Even when the king was not glad at heart, as soon as Seong came in to see him the king at last laughed aloud. The favor he was shown was in every case of this kind.
His nature was generous and large, and though he came near the king day after day there was not the least friction between them. By this he grew the more honored and favored, and in roaming and feasting in the king's train he kept no measure. His sons Hok (酷), Po (䤖) and Yeok (醳), trusting in their father's favor, behaved with much license.
Mao Ying (毛穎), Director of the Secretariat, sent up a memorial impeaching him: "That a favored servant should monopolize the royal grace is a thing the whole realm counts a sickness. Now Guk Seong, with the usefulness of a peck measure, has by luck climbed into the ranks of the court and is ranged in the third degree of office. Inwardly he does great harm and loves to injure others, and so ten thousand people cry out and ache in the head and smart at heart. This is no loyal servant who mends the state; he is truly a thief who harms the people. And Seong's three sons, trusting in their father's favor, behave with license, and the people suffer by them. I beg Your Majesty to grant them death together and so stop the mouths of the multitude."
When the document had been presented, his son Hok and the others that same day drank poisoned wine (酖酒) and killed themselves, and Seong, implicated with them, was degraded and made a commoner. Chiija (鴟夷子) too had once been on good terms with Seong, and he likewise fell from his carriage and killed himself. In the beginning Chiija had been favored for his jesting and had become Seong's friend; and whenever the king went out or came in he committed himself to the carriage that followed. Chiija was once lying down exhausted, and Seong teased him: "Your belly is big, but it is empty inside — what is there in it?" He answered: "It could easily hold several hundred of the likes of you." Such was the way they teased each other.
After Seong had withdrawn from office, bands of brigands rose up between Qi Commandery (齊郡) and Ge Prefecture (鬲州). The king wished to strike them, but it was hard to find the man for it, and so he raised Seong up again and made him commander. Seong led his troops strictly and shared sweet and bitter alike with his soldiers; he turned the water upon the Citadel of Sorrow (愁城) and took it in a single battle, raised the Slope of Lasting Joy (長樂阪), and came home. For this merit the king enfeoffed him as Marquis of Xiangdong (湘東侯).
A year later he sent up a memorial asking to retire: "Your servant is by origin the child of a house whose window was a hole in a jar, and in his youth he was poor and lowly and was sold hither and thither among men. By chance he met a holy sovereign, who emptied his heart and generously took him in, who drew him up out of the place where he had sunk and sheltered him as a river and a lake shelter. He has only sullied your great making and has not been able to enrich the dignity of the state; and because at the first he was not careful, he withdrew and was at ease in his home village. Though the thin dew was all but spent, there happily remained a few last drops, and daring to rejoice in the brightness of the sun and the moon he opened once more what the fruit-flies had covered. Moreover, that a vessel overturns when it is full is the constant principle of things. Now your servant has met with the sickness of the wasting thirst (痟渴), and his life has drawn near to a floating bubble. I beg that you will once hand down a word of consent, and let him withdraw and keep what remains of his life."
The king would not consent, but in a generous edict sent a palace attendant with medicines such as pine and cassia and sweet flag to go to his house and look to his illness. Seong sent up memorial after memorial and firmly declined, and the king, unable to do otherwise, allowed it. In the end he went home to his village, and grew old and lived out his years and died.
His younger brother Hyeon (賢) rose in office to two thousand bushels. His sons Im (䣧), Du (酘), Yeom (𨠗) and Nam (醂) drank the juice of peach blossoms and studied to be immortals; and his nephews Ju (𨡑), Mi (䤍) and □〔⿰酉貪〕 were all, it is said, registered under the Ping office (萍氏).
Interlinear notes 1
酒有三品。
Wine has three grades.
2Words of the Historian
史臣曰。麴氏世本農家。聖以醇德淸才。作王心腹。斟酌國政。有沃帝心。幾致大平。旣醉之功。盛哉。及其泰寵。幾亂國經。雖禍及於子。無憾。然晚節知足自退。能以壽終。易曰見幾而作。聖庶幾焉。
The historian says: the Guk family was by origin, generation after generation, a house of farmers. Seong, with unalloyed virtue and clear talent, became the king's heart and bowels, judged the business of the state and moistened the king's mind, and all but brought about a reign of peace; the merit of "they are already drunk" was magnificent. But when the favor shown him came to excess, he all but threw the laws of the state into confusion; and though calamity reached as far as his sons, there is nothing in it to regret. Yet in his later years he knew when to be content, withdrew of his own accord, and was able to live out his years and die. The Book of Changes says, "He sees the signs and rises" — and Seong comes near to that.