A memorial asking for a progress to the Jianghuai country請巡幸江淮表
1Leave Shu and come to Yangzhou
臣某言。伏以舜伐有苗。修德而終能率服。湯征自葛。行恩而競望來蘇。斯皆今古之美譚。實乃帝王之盛事。固敢跼天負責。向日裁誠。仰陳利害之端。冀副華夷之望。不量狂瞽。遠黷聖聰。臣某誠惶誠懼。頓首頓首。臣聞日月以運行爲德。永麗于天。江河以委輸是期。必朝于海。上能昭其煦育。下方遂於通流。況乃天災非人力能除。地分有兵戎不起。將獻永安之兆。輒陳可復之詞。伏自寇陷上京。兵徵外鎭。猛銳始從於鶴列。旋致徒歸。頑兇尙固於蟻封。難成盡殪。臣豈唯投袂。實至衝冠。昨率舟師。暫屯江次。必欲朝離楚岸。暮及漢濱。旗張商嶺之風。劍拂秦川之霧。願言薄伐。冀效微勞。尋蒙陛下遠許分憂。不令離任。臣進退惟命。始終無虧。寧招曠職之譏。敢涉爭功之責。又緣淮海乍息煙塵。忽若去兵。必當致寇。則迺江南沃壤。盡成蠶食之資。淮北強隣。暗展鯨呑之勢。輿賦旣無所倚。軍須將必屢空。是以。仰奉勑書。已班師旅。四境之赤眉歸伏。八州之黔首謐寧。遍布皇恩。粗申將略。然而關中縱敵。閫外偸安。旣乖踴躍以身先。每切忸怩於顔厚。伏惟皇帝陛下省方展義。駐蹕經時。龜城壯麗之形。金湯雖固。鳳輦巡遊之費。桂玉可虞。況舊謂西川富強。秖因北路商旅。託其茶利。瞻彼軍儲。今則諸道發表章則半戴始廻。徵貢獻則經年未達。實緣道路遼夐。兼値干戈阻艱。値剽掠者斯多。至行朝者甚少。加以僦雇所費。耗蠹不輕。每當水運陸船。只可率鍾致石。以此征稅則漸成抗弊。軍兵則未遂飫饒。伏慮扈從實繁。宴犒仍廣。盡搜資於三蜀。難濟用於百司。苟興旰食之憂。實慊庶寮之望。又以蜀川僻居邛僰。密邇蠻戎。虺毒潛吹。獸心難測。儻或乘虛犯境。率衆渡瀘。六軍之熊豹騰威。縱能制敵。八詔之豺狼作暴。不免喧驚。事可酌於將來。禍須防於未兆。伏惟陛下覽臣忠懇。察臣直言。暫廻西幸之儀。更擧南巡之禮。使處處息後予之怨。人人安戀主之心。天下幸甚。天下幸甚。且如遠狩河陽。僞遊雲夢。將興霸王。俯順權宜。況江淮爲富庶之鄕。吳楚乃繁華之地。陛下九年理國。四海爲家。豈比周之東遷。非擬晉之南渡。賊巢兇狂久聚。穢黷難除。縱便收城。未宜廻駕。豈如楊都粵壤。桂苑名區。四夷之賓易朝天。九牧之貢無虛月。伏乞陛下俯廻鳳扆。略泛龍舟。必想山靈卷三峽之風。水伯寢九江之浪。遐尋禹跡。允叶堯巡。昔也日耀錦川。天不傾於西北。今則風行澤國。地無缺於東南。然後發使淸宮。擧章司隷。振盛儀於歸闕。告休績於登封。臣雖識昧變通。而志勤匡濟。敢憑草奏。輒貢管窺。無任戀聖感恩戰越屛營之至。謹奉表陳請以聞。臣某誠惶誠懼。頓首頓首謹言。
Your servant So-and-so speaks. Your servant humbly considers this. When Shun made war on the Youmiao, he cultivated his virtue and in the end could bring them to submit. When Tang began his campaigns from Ge, he did deeds of grace, and men vied with one another in hoping that he would come and bring them back to life. These are beautiful tales of past and present, and truly the great deeds of emperors and kings. So he dares to bend low beneath heaven and take the charge upon himself, to cut his sincerity to shape and face the sun with it, and to set out from below the first threads of gain and loss, hoping to meet what Chinese and barbarian alike look for. He does not weigh his own madness and blindness, and from afar he sullies your sage hearing. Your servant So-and-so is truly awed and truly afraid, bowing his head to the ground, bowing his head to the ground. Your servant has heard that the sun and moon take their moving as their virtue and hang forever in heaven, and that the Jiang and the He make it their appointment to pour themselves out and must come to court at the sea. When the one above can make his warm nurture shine, those below then come to flow freely. Still more, a disaster of heaven is not what the strength of men can take away, and among the divisions of the land there are places where no soldiers rise. Wishing to offer a sign of lasting peace, he sets out words on what may yet be restored. Ever since the bandits took the upper capital, soldiers have been levied from the outer commands. The fierce and the keen at first followed in the crane formation and soon came back with nothing done, while the stubborn and vile still hold fast on their anthill and cannot all be killed off. Your servant did not merely shake out his sleeves; his anger truly rose to lift his cap. Lately he led his fleet and camped a while by the river, meaning to leave the bank of Chu in the morning and reach the shore of the Han by evening, to spread his banners in the wind of the Shang range and to brush the mists of the Qinchuan plain away with his sword. He wished for a short campaign and hoped to offer some small labor. Soon Your Majesty from afar allowed him to share your cares and would not let him leave his post. In going forward and in drawing back your servant follows your command alone, and from first to last he has not failed in it. He would rather draw the reproach of leaving his duties empty than touch the blame of striving for merit. Besides, the smoke and dust over Huaihai have only just settled, and if the troops were suddenly taken away it would surely bring the bandits on. The rich soil of Jiangnan would all become food to be eaten as silkworms eat, and the strong neighbors north of the Huai would quietly spread out to swallow like whales. Once the land taxes have nothing to rest on, the army's supplies will surely run empty again and again. And so, receiving your edict, he has already brought his troops back. The Red Eyebrows within the four borders have come in and submitted, and the black-haired folk of the eight prefectures are quiet and at peace. He has spread the imperial grace everywhere and has unfolded a general's plans in some small measure. Yet the enemy is let loose within the passes while he steals his ease beyond the gate. Since this goes against leaping forward and going first in person, he feels keenly the shame of a thick face. Your servant humbly considers that Your Majesty has gone to inspect the regions and to spread right, and has stayed in one place season after season. The Tortoise City is grand and splendid in form, and its walls of metal and moat of boiling water are firm; but the cost of the phoenix carriage on its progress gives cause for fear, for there firewood costs as much as cassia and food as much as jade. Moreover, what used to be called the wealth and strength of Xichuan came only from the merchants of the northern road, who leaned on the profit of tea and looked to it for the army's stores. Now when the circuits send up their memorials, half a year passes before word returns, and when tribute is levied, a year goes by and it does not arrive. This is truly because the roads are long and far, and because shield and spear block the way. Many are those who meet with plunder, and very few reach the traveling court. Besides, the cost of hire eats away no small amount. Whenever goods go by water and by land, in cart and in boat, a zhong of grain must be spent to bring a single shi through. Taxes gathered in this way grow step by step into a great evil, and the soldiers never come to have their fill. Your servant fears that the attendants on your progress are truly many and the feasts and rewards still broad, so that even scraping up all the wealth of the Three Shu it will be hard to meet the spending of the hundred offices. This would truly raise the cares that keep a ruler from his meals, and would fall short of what the many officials look for. Again, the Shu country lies off in a corner among the Qiong and the Bo, close beside the Man and the Rong. The viper's poison blows in secret, and the heart of a beast is hard to measure. Should they take the chance of an opening to cross the border and lead their host over the Lu, then, though the bears and leopards of the six armies raise their might and can indeed hold the enemy down, the wolves and jackals of the eight zhao would work their violence, and a loud alarm could not be escaped. An affair may be weighed by what is to come, and calamity must be guarded against before it shows a sign. Your servant humbly asks that Your Majesty look on his loyal earnestness and consider his straight words: turn back for a while the array of the western progress and take up again the rite of a southern tour, so that in every place the complaint that says, "Why does he come to us last?" may cease, and every man's heart that longs for his lord may be at rest. It would be great good fortune for all under heaven. It would be great good fortune for all under heaven. Consider too the distant hunt at Heyang and the feigned journey to Yunmeng. Those were about to raise up a hegemon and a king, and they bent to what the moment required. How much more now, when Jianghuai is a country of wealth and many people and Wu and Chu are lands of flourishing splendor, and when Your Majesty has governed the state for nine years and makes the four seas your house. This is nothing like the eastward move of Zhou, nor to be compared with the southward crossing of Jin. The bandit Chao has long gathered his vile and frantic crowd, and their filth is hard to clear away. Even if the city is taken back, it is not yet fitting to turn the carriage there. How could that be like Yangdu in the land of Yue, that famed region of the cassia garden, where guests from the four quarters may easily come to court at heaven and the tribute of the nine shepherds fails in no month? Your servant humbly begs Your Majesty to turn the phoenix screen about and to set the dragon boat afloat a little way. Surely the spirits of the mountains will roll up the wind of the Three Gorges, and the lord of the waters will lay the waves of the Nine Rivers to sleep. You would seek out the far traces of Yu and match in truth the progress of Yao. In the past the sun shone on the Brocade River, and heaven did not tilt to the northwest. Now the wind goes over the land of marshes, and the earth is not broken away in the southeast. After that, send envoys to cleanse the palace and raise up again the office of the Colonel over the Retainers, shake out a great array on your return to the palace, and announce your fair achievement at the feng sacrifice. Though your servant's knowledge is dim in matters of change and adaptation, his will is diligent to set things right and to save them. He ventures to lean on a draft memorial and to offer what he has seen through a tube. He cannot bear the utmost of longing for his sage ruler, of gratitude for your grace, and of trembling dread. He respectfully presents this memorial of request for Your Majesty's hearing. Your servant So-and-so is truly awed and truly afraid, bowing his head to the ground, bowing his head to the ground. Respectfully spoken.