A reply to Shi Pu of Xuzhou答徐州時溥書

On the sixteenth day of the sixth month, so-and-so states. My lord Vice Director, you have honored me with a long dispatch and have sent an official dispatch after it. Looking closely at what you meant, I find it runs off into many branches, and there is something in it like making sport of your earlier words. Will it not startle all who hear? Though you lean on strong troops and stout force, what of the labor of a heart that makes falsehood? Now Sizhou of old belonged to a kindly jurisdiction and has newly been marked with a commissioner's title, and this was truly not the prefect acting on his own but the direction of the court. Because in recent years it alone kept its loyalty whole, its name was at last entered among the defense commands, and the reward was handed down forever to its bold and hardy men. That it has long borne a neighbor's grudge of late is because it followed the statutes of the state, walked the straight way alone, and held its endangered walls fast, tasting gall and striving to be first, counting it no hardship to have its head cut off. This too is what the man of old meant when he said, "Better to be a loyal ghost than a rebel subject." Still more, Minister Yu has the grace and awe of Dingguo and the martial courage of Lidi. He has settled a worn-out people of himself and suits the feeling of the multitude well. He has always spread Goujian's single jar of wine evenly, with no party in it, and has done more than share out Zang Hong's thin gruel with something left over. Truly he scatters three years of store to meet one day's cost. The few can stand against the many, and at ease he may wait for a weary foe. How should he be compared with those who build their houses and go back to the plow, who shut their gates and leave off sweeping? Then suddenly I saw your letter, which said, "Sizhou alone blocks the Huai River and strengthens its own walls, so that the four quarters are much obstructed and the several circuits cannot get through. And further it slanders the court rashly and without ground. Now there are officers within the city who come in secret to make plans with me. I ask leave to stir my troops a little, and then the opening of peace can be looked for at once." As a rule, in human affairs nothing equals knowing oneself. Last year, sir, you could not keep yourself in hand, and your desire for honor was keen. For a while you roused a spirit that went crosswise, and in the end you made yourself the authority that holds a place in due order. So you have received the state's grace again and again and have taken a frontier charge far from the capital. How then can you honor yourself and make light of others, holding yourself right and other men wrong, so as to put your grudge upon Master Lin and come round at last to the fault of the Ji house? As for the Huai River being long obstructed and the roads not getting through, all of it comes from your own headquarters sending out troops. It is not the bank of the Si that blocks them. The right and wrong of it can be told apart, and near and far have heard it. At the beginning of last summer I early suffered your invasion. You called up an army of ants at Lianshui, and I held off a host of tigers at Huaishan. This was because I was helping those who hold close to what is good, and it was hard to escape a hard-fought battle. So I planned a punishing strike and used it to save those who hung head downward. You are no Xun Wu, and could not make a name for receiving surrender. I am shamed before Lü Bu, and fall short of his words for breaking up a fight. Sizhou reported the facts as they were. How can that be called slander? Though I am ashamed before one who knows me, I once dared to recommend a worthy man, and I also copied out the imperial order and sent it to you, so that you must surely have taken the trouble to learn it all. Who could have reckoned that, past all hoping and from the first, you would instead raise the beginnings of a rift, so that armored troops rose one after another and the borders were startled again and again? What you call officers within the city of Sizhou coming often to plan with you is a cunning dressing-up of empty words. You have sent your long dispatch everywhere, and all know it for a trick. Who would willingly be deceived and go along? The court, seeing that you are set in a great city and that your blade has ground to spare, entrusted to you the breaking of the transport blockade, hoping you would see to what the time required. If you would only hold back your war chariots, the supply carts could surely be set flowing. Now you say instead that you are carrying out the court's intention and will take the borders of Xu and Si, and you send out troops widely. It is hard to fathom the sense of it. If you truly drill your troops to be bold and keen and repay your sovereign with loyal diligence, why do you not lead your whole army in person, go out and wipe out the great villain, and set an extraordinary achievement early to repay a grace that came out of turn? Instead, learning that I was campaigning west a second time, you at once planned to cross to the north, and so raided the borders of Sizhou and offended against the banks of the Huai, betraying the favor and honor of the state and weaving harm for the prefectures and counties. You count the bandits' strength your good luck and block this hour set for the army. I cannot understand your honored mind. What wrong has the sage sovereign's encouragement done? Your words are many in branch and leaf, but the matter is not traced to root and source. Your letter also said, "Lately I hear that Luzhou and Haizhou have both turned rebel and have come again and again to offer their submission, and that no word is sent in reply." You press the claim that your kind feeling shows in your letters. Even if your face is not thick, how can your heart be at ease? Those places, Donghai and Lujiang, are where villainy has gathered by chance and heterodox doings have risen. It is not that there were men of worth in Zheng. Like seeks like in spirit, and they are all of Robber Zhi's company. You already hold a weighty charge, sir. Do not follow a dangerous scheme. Keep to the articles of the imperial order yourself, and what need will there be of dressed-up talk? I have sent the army's grain again and again and have relieved Linhuai often, in order to mark off the tracks of rebellion and of obedience and to let Sizhou keep its purpose from first to last. Truly Sizhou is not a Qi Zi, a man without manners. It is rather like Zhan Qin, who had words to say. Whenever it reported its urgency and its extremity, I only practiced benevolence and practiced righteousness. I ask only that you stop your remaining anger for a while and weigh a far design deeply, and that you put first the sincerity of repaying the state and not hurry the labor of striking a neighbor. I see too that the imperial order encourages and admonishes you, asking you to be in accord with Zhongwu. That shows the sovereign's feeling well enough, and to let a small grudge melt away rests with his subjects, who ought to think again with care. Seek to settle and soothe the common people, and call your soldiers back quickly of your own accord. If you betray your sovereign's command above and go against the feeling of men below, blocking the road of the campaign and pressing upon the borders near me, then it will be hard to decline the trial of borrowing one man to stand against a thousand. You will surely see how a wounded bird is easily startled and how a cornered beast will fight even so. Regret must guard what comes after, but the danger already lies ahead. Still more, Sizhou makes its name in holding to integrity, while your honored garrison makes its business the toying with arms. Sizhou follows only the royal governance, while your garrison weaves the words of a dispatch out of nothing. Set the good beside the bad, and the crooked and the straight can be known. So I dare to offer loyal counsel from afar, hoping to cut off false charges hereafter. Just when the sage sovereign is covered in dust and the calamity is not yet cleared away, how can a lord of parceled lands bear to raise arms again? I put out loyal words fiercely and am slow to smile in flattery. Strive to think of the larger whole, and do not expose a small flaw. Surely what is warned of today will win me your thanks at a later time. Follow sincerity and good faith, I hope, and do no harm to your fame and your merit. So-and-so, holding such-and-such an office, bows his head.