A statement reporting that my nephew Shao lost Huazhou, and asking that military law be carried out奏姪男劭華州失守請行軍令狀
1Gao Shao
具銜高劭
Gao Shao, with his full titles.
2A nephew, and still under military law
右臣伏以僨軍之將。禮所興譏。大義滅親。傳曾垂訓。將肅安危之本。必嚴賞罰之科。竊自巨猾增驕。王師致討。臣堂姪男劭。比在河中司錄。得受李□都指揮。領昭義之甲兵。收華州之城邑。稍申鷹犬之力。暫挫梟狼之聲。已蒙特降殊恩。俯旌微效。服榮金紫。位忝星郞。始離蒲坂之具寮。遽假蓮峯之通守。誠合率忠勵勇。馘醜推兇。稟進尺退寸之規。決萬死一生之計。終申誠節。仰報寵光。昨者狂孼倂來。疲兵再戰。旣絶安西之救。難申逐北之威。然而不能潤草塗原。永忘苟活。抑使靡旗亂轍。旋見脫歸。致諸道之星分。縱姦徒之霧結。職此之過。罪無所逃。豈可當二峯保守之時。遽沾寵賞。及一陣奔亡之後。得免誅夷。國有常刑。軍無貸法。懲一勸百。念玆在玆。伏乞聖恩特行嚴典。徇于藩鎭。警彼師徒。所冀聖主國章。永能安於社稷。微臣家法。亦不昧於神祗。干冒宸聰。無任責躬泣血戰越之至。謹奉狀陳請以聞。謹奏。
For the above: your servant humbly considers that a general who wrecks his army is one whom the Rites hold up to blame, and that destroying kin for the greater right is a teaching the Zuo zhuan handed down long ago. If the root of safety and danger is to be kept in order, the articles of reward and punishment must be made strict. Since the great villain grew more arrogant and the royal army went out to punish him, your servant's cousin's son Shao, who was lately Administrator of Hezhong, received the commands of Li □ the Commander in Chief, led the armored troops of Zhaoyi, and took back the walled towns of Huazhou. He set forth a little of the strength of hawk and hound, and for a time he broke the voice of owls and wolves. Already you had been pleased to send down a rare grace and to look down and mark his small achievement, so that he wore the gold and purple in glory and held, though he did not deserve it, the place of a Gentleman of the Stars. He had just left the rank and file of Puban when all at once he borrowed the vice governorship of Lotus Peak. He ought in truth to have led out his loyalty and spurred on his courage, to have taken the ears of the vile and beaten back the wicked, to have held to the rule of advancing a foot and drawing back an inch, and to have settled upon the plan of ten thousand deaths and one life, so that in the end he might set forth his sincerity and constancy and repay from below the light of your favor. Not long ago the mad brood came on all together, and with worn-out soldiers he fought again. The relief from Anxi being cut off, it was hard for him to set forth the might that drives the enemy north. Yet he could not bring himself to wet the grass and smear the plain, and so forget for good a life merely clung to; instead he let the banners fall and the wheel ruts run wild, and was soon seen slipping away and coming home. He has caused the several circuits to be scattered like stars, and has let the crooked crowd gather like fog. For a fault such as this there is nowhere for the guilt to flee. How can it be that when he held and guarded the two peaks he was suddenly steeped in favor and reward, and after he fled from a single battle line he should escape being put to death? The state has its constant punishments, and the army has no law of pardon. To punish one man and so urge on a hundred is the thing to hold in mind, and to hold in mind again. I humbly beg that your sagely grace carry out the strict statute by special order, proclaim it through the frontier commands, and warn those soldiers. What is hoped is that the state's code of a sagely ruler may make the altars of the land secure forever, and that the house rules of your lowly servant may not be dark before the gods. In venturing upon the imperial ear I cannot bear the fullness of my self-reproach, of my weeping of blood and of my trembling. With respect I present this statement of request and report it. Respectfully submitted.