A Letter Submitted from the Camp of the Eastern Campaign to the Minister Commanding and the Vice Commander, the Vice Director征東軍幕上都統尙書副使侍郞書
月日。兵馬錄事兼修製良醞令同正李某。謹裁書拜上于兵馬都統尙書副使侍郞閣下。幕下小生。緣職係卑宂。常時雖吶吶似不能言者。苟事有當義。必須言而後得可施設者。則其可喑喑忍不吐耶。況幕中籌畫。集衆策而參酌者也。其聽與否。在兩公之鑒採何如耳。僕豈敢故作沈深寡言之態。而有所隱耶。夫古之將兵者。不必要兵之犀銳。而以先得士心爲上策。蓋士卒解體。則雖有勝兵十萬。其如戰何。其所與士卒同甘苦。蓋亦以此也。昔唐太宗征外國。將軍李思摩中弩矢。太宗親爲之吮血。及軍廻。集戰亡人骸骨。設太牢祭之。痛哭盡哀。軍士無不洒泣。競思奮礪。南承嗣之父。死難睢陽。承嗣自襁褓超升爵秩。及征西河。承嗣願得身當一隊。效死戎行。予讀書至此。未嘗不掩卷雪涕也。且賤一男子。病仆床褥上。死兒女子手中。其子孫猶乞米作飯。以供其祭。穴土爲塋。以營其葬。況大丈夫慷慨攘臂。從軍萬里。方交兵之際。飛矢如雨。義不顧生。極力而戰。不幸見敗。力窮乃死。則是死也固萬萬倍於床褥之屍。然去國離家。客死天涯。雖有諸孫衆子。寧遽聞而遽至耶。是古之所以收骨設祭而悲之者也。何則。假使死者無精魄魂靈之有知者。而莽莽也昩昩也。其死君難。勢合可惜。則彼寧不知耳。我且無負於彼。況人之五精七魄。雖死猶存。苟得蒙收骨設祭之賜。則其不爲舞且抃於地下。雖死之後。猶生之時耶。今聞巘陽之戰。官軍多有力戰而死者。骸骨暴野。莫有收之者。況一盤一盂之祭乎。然不聞官給廩穀以祭。又不聞官收死骨以葬。又不聞錄其功勞如何者。其與古道甚不稱副。是僕所以不得不憤敢伸吭而告訴者也。伏望元師副使兩公閣下。議出一斷。出令軍中。其死亡之骨。則若論彼此。難於辨別。無官軍賊種。皆悉埋之。禮記月令曰。仲春之月。掩骼埋胔。蓋不欲傷和氣也。今屬是候。埋骨甚合理。況死國之人乎。其祭官軍之物故者。各以死亡多小。給官粟於隊伍。招魂而祀之。仍錄功之尤者。筆之簡冊。俾賞延後嗣。則非特地下之鬼感泣大恩。懷結草之報也。抑亦一軍之士。無不策激。有以一當萬者。戰卒如此。何憂不揵哉。嗚呼。褒死者勸生者。在此一政。實非細事。伏惟閣下商之。某職在參謀。不可不言。輕冒威重。不宣。再拜。
On a certain day of a certain month, Yi so-and-so, Recorder of the Army and concurrently Supernumerary Director of the Office of Fine Wines (良醞令同正), reverently composes this writing and bows and submits it to Your two Excellencies, the Minister Commanding the Army and the Vice Commander, the Vice Director.
This lowly one beneath your tent is low in office and bound to an idle place, and is always like one who gropes and cannot speak. Yet if a matter be fitting to righteousness and such as can be carried out only after it is spoken, how should I bear it like a mute and not utter it? Moreover, the devising within a camp is a gathering of many counsels to be compared and weighed. Whether it is heard or not hangs only upon Your two Lordships' looking and choosing. How should I put on a look of depth and few words and keep something hidden?
In old days those who led armies did not necessarily seek that their soldiers be keen, but made it their first device to win the hearts of their soldiers. If the bodies of the soldiers are loosened, then though one have a hundred thousand excellent troops, what can be done with a battle? That they shared the sweet and the bitter with their soldiers was in general for this reason.
In old days, when Taizong of Tang was campaigning against an outer country, the general Li Sima (李思摩) was struck by a crossbow bolt, and Taizong sucked out the blood with his own mouth. When the army returned, he gathered the bones of those who had died in battle and set out a great sacrifice and made offering and wept in grief and exhausted his sorrow, so that there was not a soldier who did not shed tears, and they vied in resolving to exert themselves. The father of Nan Chengsi (南承嗣) died in the straits at Suiyang (睢陽). Chengsi was granted office by a leap while still at the breast, and at the campaign against Xihe (西河) he himself took charge of a division and asked to offer up his death in the army. Whenever I read and come to this, I have never failed to close the book and wipe away my tears.
Again, when a single low fellow falls ill and lies prostrate and dies at the hands of children and women, his sons and grandsons still beg rice and cook a meal and make offering, and dig the earth and make a grave and perform the burial. How much more when a great man, stirred with ardor, bares his arms and follows the army ten thousand li away, and in the hour when the troops close, with the flying arrows like rain, takes no thought for his life out of righteousness and fights with all his strength, and then, being unfortunate, is beaten and his strength is spent and he dies: this death is from the first ten thousand times greater than a corpse lying in its bed. Yet having left his country and left his house, he dies a traveler at the sky's edge; and though he have many sons and grandsons, how should they hear of it at once and come at once? This is why in old days they gathered the bones and set out sacrifices and mourned.
Why is this? Even if the dead have no knowing of soul and spirit and are far off and dark, yet to have died in their sovereign's straits is, as matters stand, a thing to be grieved for; and though the dead may not know, for my part I shall not have failed them. How much more, since a man's five essences and seven souls remain even in death. If they receive the kindness of having their bones gathered and sacrifices set out for them, how should they not dance and clap their hands beneath the earth and count themselves, even after death, as among the living?
Now I hear that in the battle at Heonyang (巘陽) many of the royal troops died fighting with all their strength, and that their bones lie exposed in the fields with none to gather them. How much less is there a sacrifice of a single tray and a single bowl. I have not heard that the government has brought out grain and made offering, nor heard that the government has gathered and buried the bones of the dead, nor heard in what way their services have been recorded. This accords very ill with the way of antiquity, and this is why I cannot overcome my indignation and dare to stretch out my neck and report it.
I pray that Your Excellencies, the Commander and the Vice Commander, will take counsel and decide as one and issue an order to the army. As for the bones of the dead, if one argues over this side and that they will be hard to sort out, so let there be no sorting of the royal troops from the brigands, but let all be buried. The Monthly Ordinances of the Book of Rites says, "In the middle month of spring, cover the dried bones and bury the rotted flesh." This was in general because they would not injure the mild breath of the season. We have now entered that season, and so the burying of bones is very much according to reason — how much more for men who have died for the state.
As for the sacrifices to the dead among the royal troops, according as the number of the dead is many or few, let the government's millet be issued to the divisions so that they may summon the souls and make offering; and let those whose service was outstanding be recorded and written in a book, so that their reward may reach their descendants. Then it will not only be that the souls beneath the earth are moved by so great a kindness and weep and harbor a mind to repay it by knotting the grass. The soldiers of a whole army will all be stirred as though whipped, and there will be those who face ten thousand single-handed. If the fighting soldiers are such, why should one fear that they will not be strong?
Ah — the praising of the dead and the encouraging of the living lie in this one act of government, and it is truly no petty matter. I pray that Your Excellencies will weigh it. My office being that of a staff adviser, I could not but speak. I have lightly trespassed upon the weight of your dignity. Here I stop. I bow twice.
Interlinear notes 1
上書後。出租三百斛給隊伍。又使埋骨。
After the letter was submitted, three hundred bushels of millet were issued and given to the divisions, and the bones were also ordered to be buried.