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The appraisal評語

Hou Han Shu Dongyi Zhuan (Accounts of the Eastern Yi in the Book of the Later Han) 後漢書東夷列傳 · Fan Ye · 5th century (about 432–445) · 2 passages · 229 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min

Hou Han Shu Dongyi Zhuan (Accounts of the Eastern Yi in the Book of the Later Han) Complete in one volume A fifth-century man's ordering of how China looked at the east through the two hundred years of the Later Han. Buyeo, Eumnu, Goguryeo, Eastern Okjeo, Ye, the Three Han and Wa come in turn. Compiled some hundred and fifty years after the Accounts of the Eastern Yi in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, yet treating an earlier age, it lays bare side by side what each of the two books left out and what it added at the same places. Here are the tale of Dongmyeong striking the water with his bow and founding Buyeo, how Himiko came to be set up as ruler, and the Sodo that Mahan raised by hanging bells and drums on a great tree.

1The discourse says — when the eight rules were set, no gate was barred at night

論曰：“昔箕子違衰殷之運，避地朝鮮。始其國俗未有聞也，及施八條之約，使人知禁，遂乃邑無淫盜，門不夜扃，回頑薄之俗，就寬略之法，行數百千年，故東夷通以柔謹為風，異乎三方者也。苟政之所暢，則道義存焉。仲尼懷憤，以為九夷可居。或疑其陋。子曰：“君子居之，何陋之有！”亦徒有以焉爾。其後遂通接商賈，漸交上國。而燕人衛滿擾雜其風，於是從而澆異焉。《老子》曰：“法令滋章，盜賊多有。”若箕子之省簡文條而用信義，其得聖賢作法之原矣！

The discourse says: "Long ago Gija turned away from the fortune of the failing Yin and fled to Joseon. At first nothing had been heard of the customs of that country; but when he set forth the covenant in eight articles and made the people know what was forbidden, there came to be no license and no theft in the towns, and no gate was barred at night. He turned back a stubborn and thin custom and brought them to a law that was generous and plain, and it was kept for hundreds and a thousand years. Therefore the Eastern Yi everywhere took softness and care for their manner, and they were unlike the peoples of the other three quarters.

Truly, where government is opened out, the Way and righteousness dwell there. Confucius held his anger in his heart and thought the Nine Yi fit to live among, and some doubted that they were crude. The Master said, 'If a gentleman lives there, what crudeness can there be?' This too had its reason.

Afterward merchants came and went at last, and little by little they had dealings with the great country above them (上國). But Wiman, a man of Yan, stirred up and mixed their manner, and from that time it grew thin and changed. The Laozi says, 'The more the laws and orders are set out, the more robbers and thieves there are.' What Gija did, cutting down the articles of law and using good faith and righteousness, may be said to have got the root from which the sages and the worthy men made law."

2The verse says — at times they followed, at times they revolted

贊曰：宅是嵎夷，曰乃暘谷。巢山潜海，厥區九族。嬴末紛亂，燕人違難。雜華澆本，遂通有漢。眇眇偏譯，或從或畔。

The verse says:

They settled in Ouyi, and the place was called Yanggu. Nesting in the mountains, sunk in the sea, their quarters held nine clans. At the end of Qin all fell into disorder, and men of Yan came fleeing from the trouble. They mixed in Chinese ways and thinned the root, and at last there were dealings with Han. Far, far off, with speech twice turned, at times they followed, at times they revolted.

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