A reply to Minister Wang of Jiangxi答江西王尙書書
1How the rift with Zhou Bao and Jing Qianzhen came about
十二月六日。某白。閤下遠捐長書。深貽善諭。一覽而發皇耳目。再窺而驚越神魂。是何詞彩之彬彬。能致言端之懇懇。旣知約我以禮。方信起予者商。況乃事徵於羑里聖人。道媲於首陽義士。切磋雖至。刻畫何勝。敬佩良箴。專銘鄙抱。然慮虛聲易應。眞寶難知。弄唇吻以鑠金。衆皆妙手。拭瞳眸而辨玉。多是淸盲。苟非原始要終。則必唱予和汝。是以。略陳梗槩。用察根源。匪欲廣援古今。所希暫曉左右。僅同伐善。豈免興慙。君其審之。僕所望也。僕與浙帥周司空。早於鳳里相識。亦爲鴒原往還。接載笑載言之時。展如兄如弟之分。況作建旟交代。眞爲結綬相知。旣睦比隣。罷扃外戶。江南江北。祗鬪行春。三楚三吳。盡喧來暮。方謂憑我友歲寒之節。解吾君宵旰之憂。豈料蒼烏高飛。翠華遠狩。僕以久叨重寄。便決專征。偶緣兵力未加。人心尙懾。遂於春首。先發羽書。仍請都統判官顧雲協律。議共成之事。謀相見之期。固非閱被廬之軍。徵夾谷之會。實欲親謀歃血。方寫痛心。若能接濟師徒。粗得振揚聲勢。而乃周司空却自棄同卽異。不能捨短從長。忽疑惑於澠池。謂矜誇於踐土。便見戒嚴城壁。阻塞津途。搆猜嫌而信有小人。遺故舊而曾無大過。僕雖逢彼怒。但守吾眞。及至中夏出軍。外方多事。冀安弊鎭。旁倚近隣。又合幕客過江。請爲都統副使。豈衒弓旌之禮。邀辟元戎。祗憑鈇鉞之威。撫綏近境。周司空確乎阻意。莞爾興譏。不從固請之言。自惜有餘之刃。頻移曩顧。但積沈猜。見此初屯下瀨之師。未設中流之誓。猶淹水道。久候天風。軍聲旣振於四隣。人意自防於兩岸。偶有背軍官健趙公約者。走投浙西。釣以巧言。搆爲細作。便移長牒。妄說異端。其書云。位極上公。權尊都統。別興異見。遽起他謀。以何悔尤。欲爲燒劫。僕以趙襄子之忍辱念玆在玆。藺相如之愼微有始有卒。遂馳書牒。具述事情。聞司空尙發怨言。自懷怍色。與宣護景虔貞，徐帥時溥者。暗資積釁。相應密謀。各興梗路之兵戈。遍告沿江之郡邑。以至練成戰陣。鎖斷征途。僕若不辭險阻之虞。必致殺傷之患。坐甲而未期破竹。廻車而用待負荊。尋屬繼奉絲綸。不令離鎭。遂驅組練。却已班師。雖云帝命斯遵。實乃隣兵所阻。彼宣州者。亦有所因。春初寇犯黟州。勢侵旬水。況値前廉已去。新帥未來。旣無禦捍之權。恐落奸兇之便。遂差押衙馮綬。暫令安撫郡城。蓋緣曾奉詔書。特許便宜從事。凡於制置。得以指麾。景虔貞常侍菽麥不分。蘭蕕莫辨。謂言專輒。遽有侵凌。殺害軍人。劫掠財物。馮綬幾臨死所。劣得生還。自此隋國怨興。謝城信絶。將投彼鼠。其如有礙之時。欲僨於豚。又是無端之事。且爲含忍。未及通和。必知橫被織羅。巧成貝錦。傳之于遠。誰曰不然。噫。滔滔者天下皆同。君子所恥。泛泛如水中自樂。壯夫不爲。但問事之若何。則知曲之在彼。今則特垂敎督。益驗奬憐。自緣有理可申。豈便無辭以對。固非飾過。不敢憑虛。莊生不云乎。其智適足以知人之過。而不知其所以過。若非辱殷勤之旨。何以息睚眦之詞。僕也不能嫉惡如讎。唯以用和爲貴。但以賢愚共惑。本末未彰。復書而不覺詞繁。比事而終慙理短。身修三省。勉尋曾子之規。心敬一言。永荷伯陽之惠。幸垂鑒志。某頓首。
On the sixth day of the twelfth month, so-and-so states. Your Excellency has cast a long letter to me from afar and given me deep and kindly instruction. At one reading my ears and eyes were opened wide. At a second glance my spirit was startled and leapt. How gleaming is the color of your words, and how earnestly they draw out the thread of what is said. Knowing now that you bind me with courtesy, I believe at last that the one who rouses me is Zixia. Still more, the matter is shown forth in the sage at Youli, and the way is matched with the righteous men of Shouyang. Your polishing and grinding is thorough. How could I match your carving and drawing? I wear your good admonition with respect and engrave it wholly on my humble breast. Yet I fear that an empty sound is easily answered and a true treasure hard to know. To play the lips and melt metal is a marvelous skill that all men have. To wipe the pupil and tell jade apart belongs mostly to those who are blind with clear eyes. If one does not trace the beginning and sum up the end, then surely I will sing and you will sing back. So I set out the outline in brief, for you to look into the root and the source. I do not wish to cite the past and the present widely. I hope only to make things clear to you for a while. It comes near to praising my own goodness, so how can I escape shame? Consider it well, sir. That is what I ask. I and the Zhe commander, Minister of Works Zhou, knew each other early in Fengli, and we went back and forth like wagtails on the plain. We met at a time of laughing together and talking together and unfolded the bond of elder and younger brother. And then we came to hand the banners one to the other, so that we were truly men who tied the seal cord and knew each other. Already at peace as near neighbors, we left off barring our outer gates. South of the river and north of the river we contended only in the spring progress, and in the three Chu and the three Wu all was loud with "He comes to us so late." I thought that, leaning on my friend's integrity in the cold of the year, I would undo my sovereign's care that kept him at work from dawn to dark. How could I have reckoned that the grey crow would fly high and the kingfisher banners hunt far away? Having long borne a weighty charge unworthily, I resolved at once on a campaign of my own. It happened that my military strength had not yet been increased and the hearts of men were still afraid, so at the head of spring I first sent out the feathered summons, and then asked Gu Yun, Harmonizer of Pitches and administrative assistant to the Commander-in-chief, to discuss with him the work we would accomplish together and to plan a date for meeting. Truly it was not to review the army at Beilu or to levy a gathering at Jiagu. I wished in truth to plan with him and drink blood, and so to write out what pained my heart. Had it been possible to bring the troops across in relief, we might at least have made our force felt. But Minister of Works Zhou, for his part, gave up what was shared and went over to what was strange, and could not put aside the short and follow the long. He suddenly grew suspicious as at Mianchi and said I was boasting as at Jiantu, and at once he was seen to set his walls on guard and to block the fords and the roads. In weaving suspicion and ill will there was indeed a petty man at work. In casting off an old friend there had been no great fault. Though I met his anger, I kept only to what is true in me. When midsummer came and the army went out, there were many troubles outside, and hoping to keep my poor garrison at peace I leaned for support on a near neighbor. I also asked that a guest of my staff cross the river and become vice commissioner to the Commander-in-chief. How should I have been making a show of the courtesy of the bow and the banner, inviting a great general to office? It was only to lean on the awe of the axe and soothe the borders near me. Minister of Works Zhou firmly closed his mind to it and laughed out his mockery. He would not follow my urgent request and begrudged his own blade that had strength to spare. He shifted his former regard again and again and only heaped up deep suspicion. He saw that this army of Xialai, newly encamped, had not yet made its oath in midstream but still lingered on the waterways, long waiting for a wind from heaven, and since the sound of the troops already resounded among the neighbors on four sides, men's minds of themselves made a guard of both banks. By chance there was one Zhao Gongyue, an officer who had turned his back on the army. He fled and gave himself up to Zhexi, angled for favor with artful words, and was woven into the shape of a spy. At once a long dispatch was sent out, rashly speaking heterodox things. That letter said, "Your place is highest among the dukes and your power honored as Commander-in-chief, yet you raise a separate and strange view and suddenly start another scheme. Out of what regret do you mean to burn and plunder?" For my part, I thought of how Viscount Xiang of Zhao endured insult, holding it here and holding it here, and I made the care of Lin Xiangru over small things have a beginning and an end. So I sent off letter and dispatch and set out the circumstances in full. I hear that the Minister of Works still lets out words of resentment and keeps a look of shame in himself, and that with Jing Qianzhen, Protector of the Army of Xuanzhou, and Shi Pu, commander of Xuzhou, he has secretly drawn on accumulated grievance and answered their close schemes, each raising arms to block the roads and announcing it everywhere to the prefectures and towns along the river, so that it has come to drilling battle lines and locking the road of the campaign. If I had not declined the fear of that hard passage, I would surely have brought about the trouble of killing and wounding. Sitting in my armor I could not set a date for splitting the bamboo, and I turned my carriage back and waited to carry the thorn. Just then I received the sovereign's silken words one after another, forbidding me to leave my garrison, and so I drove my armored troops and brought the army back after all. Though it is said that the emperor's command was followed, in truth it was the neighboring troops that blocked the way. As for Xuanzhou, there too was a cause. At the head of spring the bandits offended against Yizhou and their force pressed on the Xun River. Moreover the former surveillance commissioner had already gone and the new commander had not come, so there was no authority to ward them off, and I feared the place would fall to the convenience of the villains. I therefore sent the staff officer Feng Shou to settle and soothe the prefectural city for a while. This was because I had earlier received an imperial order that expressly allowed me to act as expedience required, so that in all matters of disposition I could direct things. Jing Qianzhen, the Attendant Gentleman, cannot tell beans from barley or part orchid from stinkweed. Saying that I had acted on my own, he suddenly invaded, killed soldiers and plundered goods, and Feng Shou came near to the place of death and barely got back alive. From this the resentment of Sui arose and good faith with the city of Xie was broken. I would have thrown at that rat, but it was a time when something held me back. I would have stumbled over the pig, but that again was a matter with no handle. So I bore it for the present and have not yet reopened friendly relations. Surely I know that I am being netted and woven athwart, and that a shell-pattern brocade is being cunningly made of it. When it is passed on to distant places, who will say it is not so? Alas. Those who go with the current are all alike in the world, and that is what a gentleman is ashamed of. To float about and take pleasure in the water is what a strong man does not do. Only ask how the matter stands, and you will know that the crookedness is on their side. Now you have bestowed your teaching and your urging on me in particular, and I see your encouragement and your pity all the more. Since I have reason of my own to set out, how should I be without words to answer? Truly I do not dress up a fault, nor do I dare lean on emptiness. Did not Master Zhuang say, "His wisdom is just enough to know another man's fault, but he does not know why the fault is there"? Had I not been honored with your kind purpose, with what could I stop the words of those who glare sidelong? I cannot hate evil as I would an enemy, and I hold only the use of concord to be precious. But the worthy and the foolish are deluded alike and the matter has not been shown from first to last, and so in writing back I have not noticed how my words have multiplied, and in setting the affair out I am ashamed at last that my reasoning falls short. In my person I examine three things, and strive to follow the rule of Zengzi. In my heart I revere one word, and bear the kindness of Boyang forever. I ask you kindly to look into my purpose. So-and-so bows his head.