Employing the Worthy任賢第三
1Fang Xuanling
房玄齡，齊州臨淄人也。初仕隋，為隰城尉。坐事，除名徙上郡。太宗徇地渭北，玄齡杖策謁於軍門，太宗一見，便如舊識，署渭北道行軍記室參軍。玄齡既遇知己，遂罄竭心力。是時，賊寇每平，眾人競求金寶，玄齡獨先收人物，致之幕府，及有謀臣猛將，與之潛相申結，各致死力。累授秦王府記室，兼陜東道大行臺考功郎中。玄齡在秦府十餘年，恒典管記。隱太子、巢刺王以玄齡及杜如晦為太宗所親禮，甚惡之，譖之高祖，由是與如晦並遭驅斥。及隱太子將有變也，太宗召玄齡、如晦，令衣道士服，潛引入閤謀議。及事平，太宗入春宮，擢拜太子左庶子。貞觀元年，遷中書令。三年，拜尚書左僕射，監修國史，封梁國公，實封一千三百戶。既總任百司，虔恭夙夜，盡心竭節，不欲一物失所。聞人有善，若己有之。明達吏事，飾以文學，審定法令，意在寬平。不以求備取人，不以己長格物，隨能收敘，無隔疏賤。論者稱為良相焉。十三年，加太子少師，玄齡自以一居端揆十有五年，頻抗表辭位，優詔不許。十六年，進拜司空，仍總朝政，依舊監修國史。玄齡復以年老請致仕，太宗遣使謂曰：「國家久相任使，一朝忽無良相，如失兩手。公若筋力不衰，無煩此讓。自知衰謝，當更奏聞。」玄齡遂止。太宗又嘗追思王業之艱難，佐命之匡弼，乃作《威鳳賦》以自喻，因賜玄齡，其見稱類如此。
Fang Xuanling was a man of Linzi in Qizhou. He first served the Sui and became constable of Xicheng. He was caught up in a case, struck from the rolls, and moved to Shang commandery. When Taizong was sweeping the land north of the Wei, Xuanling took up his staff and presented himself at the gate of the camp. Taizong saw him once and at once felt as though they were old friends, and made him recording adjutant of the Weibei Circuit army. Having met a man who knew his worth, Xuanling poured out all his heart and strength.
In those days, whenever bandits were put down, the rest scrambled for gold and treasure. Xuanling alone gathered up men first and brought them to the headquarters, and whenever there were ministers of counsel or bold generals, he quietly bound himself to them, so that each of them gave his utmost, even to death.
He was appointed again and again as recorder in the household of the Prince of Qin, and concurrently director of merit assessment in the grand administration of the Shan East Circuit. Xuanling was in the prince's household for more than ten years and always had charge of its papers. The Crown Prince Yin and Prince Ci of Chao bitterly hated the close favor that Taizong showed to Xuanling and Du Ruhui, and slandered them to Gaozu, and for this he and Ruhui were driven out together. When the Crown Prince Yin was about to make his move, Taizong summoned Xuanling and Ruhui, had them put on the robes of Daoist priests, and brought them secretly inside to plan with him.
When the matter was settled and Taizong entered the Eastern Palace, he raised him to be left mentor of the Heir Apparent. In the first year of Zhenguan he was moved to director of the Secretariat. In the third year he was appointed left vice director of the Department of State Affairs and supervised the compiling of the dynastic history, and he was enfeoffed as Duke of Liang with a fief of one thousand three hundred households.
After he took charge of all the offices together, he was careful and reverent from dawn to night and gave his whole heart and all his integrity, wishing that not one thing should be out of its place. When he heard that another man had some good in him, he felt it as if it were his own. He was clear and thorough in the business of office and adorned it with learning, and he examined and settled the laws with his mind on breadth and fairness. He did not look for every talent in one man when choosing people, and he did not measure others by what he himself was good at. He took men up according to what they could do, and shut out neither the distant nor the humble. Those who discussed such things called him a good minister.
In the thirteenth year he was further made junior preceptor of the Heir Apparent. Xuanling, reckoning that he had held the chief seat for fifteen years, sent up memorials again and again to resign his post, but a gracious edict would not allow it. In the sixteenth year he was raised to Minister of Works, yet he still held the government of the court along with it and supervised the dynastic history as before. When Xuanling again pleaded his age and asked to leave office, Taizong sent an envoy to say to him:
"The state has long employed you as its minister. If in one morning a good minister were suddenly gone, it would be like losing both hands. If your strength has not failed, do not trouble me with such refusals. When you know yourself that you are failing, then report it to me again."
So Xuanling stopped. Taizong also once looked back on the hardship of founding the dynasty and on the men who had aided the mandate and set things right, and he composed the Weifeng fu as an image of himself and bestowed it on Xuanling. Such was the praise he was given.
2Du Ruhui
杜如晦，京兆萬年人也。武德初，為秦王府兵曹參軍，俄遷陜州總管府長史。時府中多英俊，被外遷者眾，太宗患之。記室房玄齡曰：「府僚去者雖多，蓋不足惜。杜如晦聰明識達，王佐才也。若大王守藩端拱，無所用之；必欲經營四方，非此人莫可。」太宗自此彌加禮重，寄以心腹，遂奏為府屬，常參謀帷幄。時軍國多事，剖斷如流，深為時輩所服。累除天策府從事中郎，兼文學館學士。隱太子之敗，如晦與玄齡功第一，遷拜太子右庶子。俄遷兵部尚書，進封蔡國公，實封一千三百戶。貞觀二年，以本官檢校侍中。三年，拜尚書右僕射，兼知吏部選事。仍與房玄齡共掌朝政。至於臺閣規模，典章文物，皆二人所定，甚獲當時之譽，時稱房、杜焉。
Du Ruhui was a man of Wannian in Jingzhao. At the beginning of Wude he became adjutant of the bureau of arms in the household of the Prince of Qin, and soon he was moved to administrator of the area command of Shanzhou. At that time there were many outstanding men in the prince's household, and many of them were being transferred away, which troubled Taizong. The recorder Fang Xuanling said:
"Many of the household officers are leaving, but they are no loss. Du Ruhui is clear sighted and wide in understanding, and he has in him the making of a king's helper. If Your Highness means to guard your own domain with folded hands, you will have no use for him, but if you mean to order the four quarters, no one but this man will do."
From then on Taizong treated him with still heavier ceremony and entrusted him as a man of his own heart, and at last he memorialized to have him attached to the household, where he constantly shared the planning within the tent. In those days there was much business of war and state, and he cut through it and decided like flowing water, so that the men of that time deeply admired him. He was appointed again and again as aide in the Tiance headquarters, and concurrently academician of the College of Literary Studies.
When the Crown Prince Yin fell, the merit of Ruhui and Xuanling stood first, and so he was moved to right mentor of the Heir Apparent. Soon he was moved to minister of war and raised in fief to Duke of Cai, with a fief of one thousand three hundred households. In the second year of Zhenguan he acted as director of the Chancellery while keeping his own office, and in the third year he was appointed right vice director of the Department of State Affairs and also took charge of the selection of officials in the Ministry of Personnel. He still held the government of the court together with Fang Xuanling. Down to the shape of the offices and the statutes and institutions, everything was settled by these two men, and they won great praise in their time, so that people spoke of Fang and Du.
3Wei Zheng
魏徵，鉅鹿人也，近徙家相州之內黃。武德末，為太子洗馬。見太宗與隱太子陰相傾奪，每勸建成早為之謀。太宗既誅隱太子，召徵責之曰：「汝離間我兄弟，何也？」眾皆為之危懼。徵慷慨自若，從容對曰：「皇太子若從臣言，必無今日之禍。」太宗為之斂容，厚加禮異，擢拜諫議大夫。數引之臥內，訪以政術。徵雅有經國之才，性又抗直，無所屈撓。太宗每與之言，未嘗不悅。徵亦喜逢知己之主，竭其力用。又勞之曰：「卿所諫前後二百餘事，皆稱朕意，非卿忠誠奉國，何能若是？」三年，累遷秘書監，參預朝政，深謀遠算，多所弘益。太宗嘗謂曰：「卿罪重於中鉤，我任卿逾於管仲，近代君臣相得，寧有似我於卿者乎？」六年，太宗幸九成宮，宴近臣，長孫無忌曰：「王珪、魏徵，往事息隱，臣見之若讎，不謂今者又同此宴。」太宗曰：「魏徵往者實我所讎，但其盡心所事，有足嘉者。朕能擢而用之，何慚古烈？徵每犯顏切諫，不許我為非，我所以重之也。」徵再拜曰：「陛下導臣使言，臣所以敢言。若陛下不受臣言，臣亦何敢犯龍鱗，觸忌諱也。」太宗大悅，各賜錢十五萬。七年，代王珪為侍中，累封鄭國公。尋以疾乞辭所職，請為散官。太宗曰：「朕拔卿於讎虜之中，任卿以樞要之職，見朕之非，未嘗不諫。公獨不見金之在鑛，何足貴哉？良冶鍛而為器，便為人所寶。朕方自比於金，以卿為良工。雖有疾，未為衰老，豈得便爾耶？」徵乃止。後復固辭，聽解侍中，授以特進，仍知門下省事。十二年，太宗以誕皇孫，詔宴公卿，帝極歡，謂侍臣曰：「貞觀以前，從我平定天下，周旋艱險，玄齡之功無所與讓。貞觀之後，盡心於我，獻納忠讜，安國利人，成我今日功業，為天下所稱者，惟魏徵而已。古之名臣，何以加也。」於是親解佩刀以賜二人。庶人承乾在春宮，不修德業。魏王泰寵愛日隆，內外庶寮，咸有疑議。太宗聞而惡之，謂侍臣曰：「當今朝臣，忠謇無如魏徵，我遣傅皇太子，用絕天下之望。」十七年，遂授太子太師，知門下事如故。徵自陳有疾，太宗謂曰：「太子宗社之本，須有師傅，故選中正，以為輔弼。知公疹病，可臥護之。」徵乃就職。尋遇疾。徵宅內先無正堂，太宗時欲營小殿，乃輟其材為造，五日而就。遣中使賜以布被素褥，遂其所尚。後數日，薨。太宗親臨慟哭，贈司空，謚曰文貞。太宗親為制碑文，復自書於石。特賜其家食實封九百戶。太宗後嘗謂侍臣曰：「夫以銅為鏡，可以正衣冠；以古為鏡，可以知興替；以人為鏡，可以明得失。朕常保此三鏡，以防己過。今魏徵殂逝，遂亡一鏡矣！」因泣下久之。乃詔曰：「昔惟魏徵，每顯予過。自其逝也，雖過莫彰。朕豈獨有非於往時，而皆是於茲日？故亦庶僚茍順，難觸龍鱗者歟！所以虛己外求，披迷內省。言而不用，朕所甘心。用而不言，誰之責也？自斯已後，各悉乃誠。若有是非，直言無隱。」
Wei Zheng was a man of Julu, though of late his family had moved to Neihuang in Xiangzhou. At the end of Wude he was librarian to the Heir Apparent. Seeing that Taizong and the Crown Prince Yin were secretly working to overthrow each other, he always urged Jiancheng to plan early. After Taizong had cut down the Crown Prince Yin, he called Wei Zheng in and rebuked him:
"You set my brothers against each other. What was that?"
Everyone there feared for him. Wei Zheng was undaunted and answered calmly:
"If the Crown Prince had followed my words, there would surely have been no disaster today."
At this Taizong changed his face, treated him with high honor, and raised him to grand counselor for remonstrance. Many times he drew him into his own sleeping quarters and asked him about the ways of government. Wei Zheng had long had the talent to order a state, and his nature was upright and straight and would bend for nothing. Whenever Taizong spoke with him he was pleased. Wei Zheng too rejoiced to have met a lord who knew his worth, and he used his strength to the full. Taizong also comforted him, saying:
"You have remonstrated with me on more than two hundred matters, first and last, and all of them have met my mind. If you did not serve the state with a loyal heart, how could it be so?"
In the third year he was moved by stages to director of the Palace Library and took part in the government of the court, and by deep plans and far reckoning he added much. Taizong once said to him:
"Your offense was heavier than the shot at the belt buckle, and I have entrusted you with more than Guan Zhong was entrusted with. In recent ages, where has there been a lord and a minister who found each other as you and I have?"
In the sixth year, when Taizong went to the Jiucheng Palace and gave a feast for the ministers close to him, Zhangsun Wuji said:
"Wang Gui and Wei Zheng once served the Crown Prince Yin, and I used to look on them as enemies. I never thought that today I would share this feast with them."
Taizong said:
"Wei Zheng was truly my enemy in those days. But that he gave his whole heart to the man he served is worth praising. I am able to raise him up and use him, so why should I be ashamed before the stern men of old? Wei Zheng braves my face and remonstrates in earnest, and will not let me do wrong, and that is why I hold him heavy."
Wei Zheng bowed twice and said:
"Your Majesty leads me on to speak, and so I dare to speak. If Your Majesty would not receive my words, how should I dare to go against the dragon's scales and touch what is forbidden?"
Taizong was greatly pleased and gave each of them one hundred and fifty thousand cash.
In the seventh year he replaced Wang Gui as director of the Chancellery, and in time he was enfeoffed as Duke of Zheng. Soon he pleaded illness and begged to give up the offices he held and to become an officer without duties. Taizong said:
"I drew you out from among enemies and captives and entrusted you with the offices of the pivot, and when you saw my faults you never failed to remonstrate. Have you alone not seen gold while it lies in the ore? What is there to prize in it? Only when a good smith forges it into a vessel do men treasure it. I am now likening myself to the gold and making you the good craftsman. Though you are ill, you are not yet old and worn. How can it be so soon?"
So Wei Zheng stopped. Later he refused again and stood firm, and the emperor granted his release from the Chancellery, gave him the rank of Specially Advanced, and still had him take charge of the affairs of the Chancellery.
In the twelfth year, because an imperial grandson had been born, Taizong ordered a feast for the high ministers. The emperor was full of joy and said to the ministers in attendance:
"Before Zhenguan, in following me to settle the empire and going round through hardship and danger, none can match the merit of Xuanling. After Zhenguan, in giving me his whole heart, offering loyal and straight words, making the state secure and the people prosper, and bringing about the work we have today, which all under heaven praises, there is only Wei Zheng. What could the famous ministers of old add to this?"
Then he loosened the sword at his own waist and gave it to the two men.
While Chengqian, later a commoner, was in the Eastern Palace, he did not cultivate virtue and work, and Prince Tai of Wei was more favored day by day, so that among the officials within and without there was doubt and talk. Taizong heard it and hated it, and said to the ministers in attendance:
"Among the ministers of the court today none is so loyal and outspoken as Wei Zheng. I will send him to be the tutor of the Heir Apparent and cut off the expectations of the empire."
In the seventeenth year he gave him the post of grand preceptor of the Heir Apparent and had him take charge of the Chancellery as before. Wei Zheng reported that he was ill, and Taizong said to him:
"The Heir Apparent is the root of the ancestral temple and the altars of the land, and he must have a tutor, and so I chose one upright and straight to help him. I know that you are sick, but you may guard him lying down."
So Wei Zheng took up the post. Soon he met with illness. There had never been a proper hall inside Wei Zheng's house, and Taizong turned aside the timber for a small palace he was then going to build and had one built for him, and it was finished in five days. He sent a palace envoy with a cloth quilt and a plain mattress, so that what Wei Zheng honored might be fulfilled. A few days later he died.
Taizong went to him in person and wept aloud, gave him the posthumous office of Minister of Works, and the posthumous name Wenzhen. Taizong himself composed the text of his stele and wrote it out on the stone with his own hand. He granted his house a special fief of nine hundred households.
Taizong later said to the ministers in attendance:
"With bronze for a mirror one can set one's robe and cap straight. With the past for a mirror one can know rise and fall. With a man for a mirror one can make clear gain and loss. I have always kept these three mirrors to guard against my own faults, and now Wei Zheng is gone, and I have lost one mirror."
At this he shed tears for a long while. Then he issued an edict:
"In days past it was only Wei Zheng who always showed me my faults. Since he died, though there are faults they are not brought to light. Was I alone wrong in former days and wholly right today? Rather it must be that the officials go along for ease and find it hard to touch the dragon's scales. Therefore I empty myself and seek outside, and part the fog and look within. To speak and not be heeded is what I take gladly upon myself, but to be heeded and not speak, whose fault is that? From this time on, let each of you give all his sincerity. If there is right and wrong, speak straight and hide nothing."
4Wang Gui
王珪，太原祁縣人也，武德中，為隱太子中允，甚為建成所禮。後以連其陰謀事，流於巂州。建成誅後，太宗即位，召拜諫議大夫。每推誠盡節，多所獻納。珪嘗上封事切諫，太宗謂曰：「卿所論皆中朕之失，自古人君莫不欲社稷永安，然而不得者，只為不聞己過，或聞而不能改故也。今朕有所失，卿能直言，朕復聞過能改，何慮社稷之不安乎？」太宗又嘗謂珪曰：「卿若常居諫官，朕必永無過失。」顧待益厚。貞觀元年，遷黃門侍郎，參預政事，兼太子右庶子。二年，進拜侍中。時房玄齡、魏徵、李靖、溫彥博、戴胄與珪同知國政，嘗因侍宴，太宗謂珪曰：「卿識鑒精通，尤善談論，自玄齡等，咸宜品藻。又可自量孰與諸子賢？」對曰：「孜孜奉國，知無不為，臣不如玄齡。每以諫諍為心，恥君不及堯、舜、臣不如魏徵。才兼文武，出將入相，臣不如李靖。敷奏詳明，出納惟允，臣不如溫彥博。處繁理劇，眾務必舉，臣不如戴胄。至如激濁揚清，嫉惡好善，臣於數子，亦有一日之長。」太宗深然其言，群公亦各以為盡己所懷，謂之確論。
Wang Gui was a man of Qi county in Taiyuan. In the Wude years he was assistant to the Crown Prince Yin and was highly honored by Jiancheng. Later, being caught up in that secret plot, he was banished to Suizhou. After Jiancheng was cut down and Taizong came to the throne, he was summoned and appointed grand counselor for remonstrance. He always gave his whole sincerity and all his integrity, and he offered much.
Wang Gui once sent up a sealed memorial remonstrating earnestly, and Taizong said to him:
"What you have argued all strikes my faults. From of old there has been no ruler who did not wish the altars of the land to be long at peace, yet they did not get it, only because they did not hear of their own faults, or heard and could not mend them. Now if I have a fault, you can speak straight, and I in turn can hear of my fault and mend it. Why should I worry that the altars will not be at peace?"
Taizong also once said to Wang Gui:
"If you were always in the seat of a remonstrating officer, I should surely be without fault forever."
He regarded and treated him still more warmly. In the first year of Zhenguan he was moved to vice director of the Chancellery and took part in the government, and concurrently he was right mentor of the Heir Apparent. In the second year he was raised to director of the Chancellery.
At that time Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, Li Jing, Wen Yanbo and Dai Zhou held the government of the state together with Wang Gui. Once, while they attended a feast, Taizong said to Wang Gui:
"Your eye for men is sure, and you are especially good at discussion. Begin with Xuanling and judge them all. And weigh yourself as well. Set against these men, which of you is the worthier?"
He answered:
"In serving the state tirelessly, and, knowing a thing, leaving nothing undone, I am not the equal of Xuanling. In making remonstrance and contention his very heart, and being ashamed that his lord does not reach Yao and Shun, I am not the equal of Wei Zheng. In talent that joins the civil and the military, a general abroad and a minister at court, I am not the equal of Li Jing. In reporting with detail and clarity, and being wholly trustworthy in what he sends out and takes in, I am not the equal of Wen Yanbo. In handling what is tangled and ordering what is hard, so that all business is surely carried through, I am not the equal of Dai Zhou. But when it comes to driving out the muddy and raising up the clear, hating evil and loving good, in this I have a day's advantage over these men."
Taizong thought his words deeply right, and the assembled lords also said that each man had spoken out all that he held, and they called it a sure judgment.
5Li Jing
李靖，京兆三原人也。大業末，為馬邑郡丞。曾高祖為太原留守，靖觀察高祖，知有四方之誌，因自鎖上變，詣江都。至長安，道塞不通而止。高祖克京城，執靖，將斬之，靖大呼曰：「公起義兵除暴亂，不欲就大事，而以私怨斬壯士乎？」太宗亦加救靖，高祖遂舍之。武德中，以平蕭銑、輔公祏功，歷遷揚州大都督府長史。太宗嗣位，召拜刑部尚書。貞觀二年，以本官檢校中書令。三年，轉兵部尚書，為代州行軍總管，進擊突厥定襄城，破之。突厥諸部落俱走磧北。北擒隋齊王暕之子楊道政，及煬帝蕭後，送於長安，突利可汗來降，頡利可汗僅以身遁。太宗謂曰：「昔李陵提步卒五千，不免身降匈奴，尚得名書竹帛。卿以三千輕騎，深入虜庭，克復定襄，威振北狄，實古今未有，足報往年渭水之役矣。」以功進封代國公。此後，頡利可汗大懼，四年，退保鐵山，遣使入朝謝罪，請舉國內附。又以靖為定襄道行軍總管，往迎頡利。頡利雖外請降，而心懷疑貳。詔遣鴻臚卿唐儉、攝戶部尚書將軍安修仁慰諭之，靖謂副將張公謹曰：「詔使到彼，虜必自寬，乃選精騎賫二十日糧，引兵自白道襲之。」公謹曰：「既許其降，詔使在彼，未宜討擊。」靖曰：「此兵機也，時不可失。」遂督軍疾進。行至陰山，遇其斥候千餘帳，皆俘以隨軍。頡利見使者甚悅，不虞官兵至也。靖前鋒乘霧而行，去其牙帳七里，頡利始覺，列兵未及成陣，單馬輕走，虜眾因而潰散。斬萬餘級，殺其妻隋義成公主，俘男女十餘萬，斥土界自陰山至於大漠，遂滅其國。尋獲頡利可汗於別部落，餘眾悉降。太宗大悅，顧謂侍臣曰：「朕聞主憂臣辱，主辱臣死。往者國家草創，突厥強梁，太上皇以百姓之故，稱臣於頡利，朕未嘗不痛心疾首，誌滅匈奴，坐不安席，食不甘味。今者暫動偏師，無往不捷，單於稽顙，恥其雪乎！」群臣皆稱萬歲。尋拜靖光祿大夫、尚書右僕射，賜實封五百戶。又為西海道行軍大總管，征吐谷渾，大破其國。改封衛國公。及靖身亡，有詔許墳塋制度依漢衛、霍故事，築闕象突厥內燕然山、吐谷渾內積石二山，以旌殊績。
Li Jing was a man of Sanyuan in Jingzhao. At the end of Daye he was assistant governor of Mayi commandery. At that time Gaozu was regent of Taiyuan, and Li Jing, watching Gaozu, knew that he had designs on the four quarters, and so he bound himself and set out for Jiangdu to report the plot. He reached Chang'an, and as the road was blocked and he could not get through, he stopped there.
When Gaozu had taken the capital, he seized Li Jing and was about to behead him, and Li Jing cried out:
"You raised a righteous army to sweep away violence and disorder. Do you not mean to accomplish the great work, and will you behead a stout man over a private grudge?"
Taizong too pleaded for Li Jing, and Gaozu at last let him go. In the Wude years, for his merit in putting down Xiao Xian and Fu Gongshi, he passed through several offices and became administrator of the great area command of Yangzhou.
When Taizong succeeded to the throne, he summoned him and appointed him minister of justice. In the second year of Zhenguan he acted as director of the Secretariat while keeping his own office. In the third year he was moved to minister of war and made commander of the Daizhou expeditionary army, and he advanced against the Tujue city of Dingxiang and broke it. The Tujue tribes all fled north of the desert. In the north he took Yang Daozheng, son of Prince Jian of Qi of the Sui, and Empress Xiao, consort of Emperor Yang, and sent them to Chang'an. The Tuli Qaghan came and surrendered, and the Xieli Qaghan escaped with nothing but his own body. Taizong said to him:
"Long ago Li Ling led five thousand foot soldiers, and yet he could not escape surrendering himself to the Xiongnu, and still his name was written on bamboo and silk. You with three thousand light horse went deep into the barbarian court, took back Dingxiang, and shook our power over the northern tribes. Truly this has never been done in ancient times or now, and it is enough to repay the affair at the Wei River last year."
For this merit he was raised in fief to Duke of Dai.
After this the Xieli Qaghan was in great fear, and in the fourth year he fell back and held Mount Tie, and he sent an envoy to court to beg pardon for his offenses and to ask that his whole nation be taken in submission. Li Jing was again made commander of the Dingxiang Circuit expeditionary army and went to meet Xieli. Though Xieli outwardly asked to surrender, in his heart he held two minds. By edict Tang Jian, the chamberlain for dependencies, and An Xiuren, general and acting minister of revenue, were sent to soothe him. Li Jing said to his second in command, Zhang Gongjin:
"When the envoys with the edict reach them, the barbarians are sure to grow slack. Then I will choose crack horsemen, carry twenty days' rations, and lead the troops to fall on them by way of the Baidao road."
Gongjin said:
"We have already granted their surrender, and the envoys with the edict are there. It is not yet right to strike."
Li Jing said:
"This is the moment of war. The time cannot be lost."
So he urged the army on at speed. When they came to the Yin Mountains, they met more than a thousand tents of the enemy's scouts, and they took them all and made them follow the army. Xieli saw the envoys and was greatly pleased, and did not reckon that the imperial troops would come. Li Jing's vanguard moved under cover of fog, and when they were seven li from his headquarters tent, Xieli first became aware of it. He drew up his men, but before they could form ranks he fled alone and light on a single horse, and at this the barbarian host broke and scattered. More than ten thousand heads were taken, his wife the Sui Princess Yicheng was killed, and more than a hundred thousand men and women were captured. The frontier was pushed out from the Yin Mountains to the great desert, and so his country was destroyed. Soon the Xieli Qaghan was seized among another tribe, and the rest of his people all surrendered.
Taizong was greatly pleased, and he turned and said to the ministers in attendance:
"I have heard that when the lord is troubled the minister is disgraced, and when the lord is disgraced the minister dies. In the old days, when the state was newly founded, the Tujue were strong and fierce, and the Retired Emperor, for the people's sake, called himself a subject to Xieli, and my heart has never ceased to ache and my head to hurt at it. I set my will on destroying the Xiongnu, and I did not sit at ease on my mat and my food was not sweet to me. Now we have moved one wing of the army for a moment, and wherever it went it won, and the chanyu bows his forehead to the ground. Is the shame not washed away?"
All the ministers cried, "Ten thousand years!"
Soon Li Jing was appointed grand master of the palace and right vice director of the Department of State Affairs, and was given a fief of five hundred households. He was also made grand commander of the Xihai Circuit expeditionary army, attacked the Tuyuhun, and broke that country utterly. His fief was changed to Duke of Wey. When Li Jing died, an edict allowed the plan of his tomb to follow the old precedent of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing of the Han, raising towers in the shape of two mountains, Mount Yanran in the Tujue lands and Mount Jishi in the Tuyuhun lands, to display his singular merit.
6Yu Shinan
虞世南，會稽餘姚人也。貞觀初，太宗引為上客。因開文館，館中號為多士，咸推世南為文學之宗。授以記室，與房玄齡對掌文翰。嘗命寫《列女傳》以裝屏風，於時無本，世南暗書之，一無遺失。貞觀七年，累遷秘書監，太宗每機務之隙，引之談論，共觀經史。世南雖容貌懦弱，如不勝衣，而誌性抗烈，每論及古先帝王為政得失，必存規諷，多所補益。及高祖晏駕，太宗執喪過禮，哀容毀顇，久替萬機，文武百寮，計無所出，世南每入進諫，太宗甚嘉納之，益所親禮。嘗謂侍臣曰：「朕因暇日，每與虞世南商榷古今，朕有一言之善，世南未嘗不悅，有一言之失，未嘗不悵恨。其懇誠若此，朕用嘉焉。群臣皆若世南，天下何憂不治？」太宗嘗稱世南有五絕：一曰德行，二曰忠直，三曰博學，四曰詞藻，五曰書翰。及卒，太宗舉哀於別次，哭之甚慟。喪事官給，仍賜以東園秘器，贈禮部尚書，謚曰文懿。太宗手敕魏王泰曰：「虞世南於我，猶一體也。拾遺補闕，無日暫忘，實當代名臣，人倫準的。吾有小善，必將順而成之；吾有小失，必犯顏而諫之。今其云亡，石渠、東觀之中，無復人矣，痛惜豈可言耶！」未幾，太宗為詩一篇，追思往古理亂之道，既而嘆曰：「鍾子期死，伯牙不復鼓琴。朕之此篇，將何所示？」因令起居褚遂良詣其靈帳讀訖焚之，其悲悼也若此。又令與房玄齡、長孫無忌、杜如晦、李靖等二十四人，圖形於淩煙閣。
Yu Shinan was a man of Yuyao in Kuaiji. At the beginning of Zhenguan, Taizong drew him in as an honored guest. When the College of Literature was opened, it was said that the college had many fine scholars, and yet they all put Shinan first as the master of letters. He was given the post of recorder and had charge of the writing together with Fang Xuanling. Once he was ordered to copy out the Lienu zhuan to decorate a screen, and as there was no copy at hand at the time, Shinan wrote it out from memory without missing a single word.
In the seventh year of Zhenguan he was moved by stages to director of the Palace Library. Whenever Taizong had a break from affairs he drew him in to talk, and they looked at the classics and the histories together. Though Shinan's face and body were soft and weak, as if he could not bear his own clothes, his will and nature were upright and fierce. Whenever they discussed the rights and wrongs of the rule of the emperors and kings of old, he always kept to correcting and admonishing, and he added much.
When Gaozu passed away, Taizong kept the mourning beyond what ritual required, his face wasted with grief, and for a long time he let the myriad affairs lapse, so that the civil and military officials had nowhere to turn for a plan. Whenever Shinan came in to remonstrate, Taizong received it with great pleasure and treated him with still closer honor. He once said to the ministers in attendance:
"On my idle days I weigh past and present with Yu Shinan, and if I have one good word Shinan is always pleased, and if I have one word amiss he is always sorry. His earnest sincerity is like this, and I praise him for it. If all my ministers were like Shinan, what worry would there be that the empire is not well governed?"
Taizong once said that Shinan had five excellences. The first was virtuous conduct, the second loyal straightness, the third wide learning, the fourth literary grace, and the fifth calligraphy.
When he died, Taizong mourned for him in a separate hall and wept bitterly. The funeral was paid for by the offices, and he was given a coffin from the Eastern Garden, the posthumous office of minister of rites, and the posthumous name Wenyi. Taizong wrote out an order with his own hand to Prince Tai of Wei:
"Yu Shinan was to me as one body. He gathered up what I dropped and patched what I lacked, and never for a day forgot it. He was truly a famous minister of our age and a standard for human conduct. If I had a small good in me, he would surely follow it up and bring it to completion, and if I had a small fault, he would surely brave my face and remonstrate. Now they tell me he is gone, and within the Shiqu and the Dongguan there is no one left. How can the pain and the loss be spoken?"
Not long after, Taizong composed a poem, looking back on the way of order and disorder in ancient times, and then he sighed:
"When Zhong Ziqi died, Bo Ya never played the zither again. This poem of mine, to whom shall I show it?"
So he had Chu Suiliang, the court diarist, go to the spirit curtain, read it through, and burn it. Such was his grief. He also had his likeness painted in the Lingyan Pavilion together with twenty four men, Fang Xuanling, Zhangsun Wuji, Du Ruhui, Li Jing and the rest.
7Li Ji
李勣，曹州離狐人也。本姓徐，初仕李密，為左武侯大將軍。密後為王世充所破，擁眾歸國，勣猶據密舊境十郡之地。武德二年，謂長史郭孝恪曰：「魏公既歸大唐，今此人眾土地，魏公所有也。吾若上表獻之，則是利主之敗，自為己功，以邀富貴，是吾所恥。今宜具錄州縣及軍人戶口，總啟魏公，聽公自獻，此則魏公之功也，不亦可乎？」乃遣使啟密。使人初至，高祖聞無表，惟有啟與密，甚怪之。使者以勣意聞奏，高祖方大喜曰：「徐勣感德推功，實純臣也。」拜黎州總管，賜姓李氏，附屬籍於宗正。封其父蓋為濟陰王，固辭王爵，乃封舒國公，授散騎常侍。尋加勣右武侯大將軍。及李密反叛伏誅，勣發喪行服，備君臣之禮，表請收葬。高祖遂歸其屍。於是大具威儀，三軍縞素，葬於黎陽山。禮成，釋服而散，朝野義之。尋為竇建德所攻，陷於建德，又自拔歸京師。從太宗征王世充、竇建德，平之。貞觀元年，拜并州都督，令行禁止，號為稱職，突厥甚加畏憚。太宗謂侍臣曰：「隋煬帝不解精選賢良，鎮撫邊境，惟遠築長城，廣屯將士，以備突厥，而情識之惑，一至於此。朕今委任李勣於并州，遂得突厥畏威遠遁，塞垣安靜，豈不勝數千里長城耶？」其後并州改置大都督府，又以勣為長史，累封英國公。在并州凡十六年。召拜兵部尚書，兼知政事。勣時遇暴疾，驗方云須灰可以療之，太宗自剪須為其和藥。勣頓首見血，泣以陳謝。太宗曰：「吾為社稷計耳，不煩深謝。」十七年，高宗居春宮，轉太子詹事，加特進，仍知政事。太宗又嘗宴，顧勣曰：「朕將屬以孤幼，思之無越卿者。公往不遺於李密，今豈負於朕哉！」勣雪涕致辭，因噬指流血。俄沈醉，御服覆之，其見委信如此。勣每行軍，用師籌算，臨敵應變，動合事機。自貞觀以來，討擊突厥、頡利及薛延陀、高麗等，並大破之。太宗嘗曰：「李靖、李勣二人，古之韓、白，衛、霍豈能及也。」
Li Ji was a man of Lihu in Caozhou. His surname was originally Xu. He first served Li Mi and became general in chief of the left militant guard. When Li Mi was later broken by Wang Shichong and led his followers back to the dynasty, Li Ji still held the ten commanderies of Li Mi's old territory. In the second year of Wude he said to his administrator Guo Xiaoke:
"The Duke of Wei has gone over to the Great Tang, and so these people and this land are the Duke of Wei's. If I were to send up a memorial and present them, that would be to profit by my lord's ruin and make it my own merit in order to seek rank and riches, and I am ashamed of that. Now I should write out in full the prefectures and counties and the soldiers and households and report it all to the Duke of Wei, and let him present it himself. Then the merit is the Duke of Wei's. Is that not better?"
So he sent an envoy to report to Li Mi. When the envoy first arrived, Gaozu heard that there was no memorial but only a report addressed to Li Mi, and he thought it very strange. When the envoy told him Li Ji's intent, Gaozu was then greatly pleased and said:
"Xu Ji is moved by kindness and gives the merit away. He is truly a pure minister."
He appointed him area commander of Lizhou, bestowed on him the surname Li, and entered him in the registers of the Court of the Imperial Clan. He enfeoffed his father Xu Gai as Prince of Jiyin, but as he firmly declined the rank of prince, he was enfeoffed as Duke of Shu and given the post of gentleman cavalier attendant. Soon Li Ji was further made general in chief of the right militant guard.
When Li Mi rebelled and was put to death, Li Ji announced the mourning and put on mourning dress, keeping the ritual of lord and minister, and sent up a memorial asking to gather the body and bury it. Gaozu then gave back the corpse to him. So he set out the full array of ceremony, the three armies dressed in white, and buried him on Mount Liyang. When the rites were finished they took off the mourning and dispersed, and court and country thought it righteous.
Soon he was attacked by Dou Jiande and fell into Jiande's hands, and he got himself out again and returned to the capital. He followed Taizong in attacking Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande and putting them down.
In the first year of Zhenguan he was appointed area commander of Bingzhou. What he ordered was done and what he forbade ceased, and he was called fit for his office, and the Tujue greatly feared him. Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"Emperor Yang of Sui did not understand how to choose out worthy and good men to guard and soothe the frontier, but only built the long wall far away and stationed generals and soldiers everywhere against the Tujue, and the confusion of his sense and knowledge went as far as that. I have now entrusted Bingzhou to Li Ji, and the Tujue have come to fear his power and flee far off, and the frontier is quiet. Is this not better than a long wall of several thousand li?"
Afterwards Bingzhou was changed and a great area command was set up there, and Li Ji was again made its administrator, and in time he was enfeoffed as Duke of Ying. He was in Bingzhou sixteen years in all. He was summoned and appointed minister of war, with charge of the government as well.
Li Ji then met with a sudden illness, and the prescription said that the ash of a beard could cure it, so Taizong cut off his own beard to be mixed into the medicine. Li Ji knocked his head on the ground until it bled and wept his thanks, and Taizong said:
"I do it as a plan for the altars of the land, that is all. Do not trouble me with deep thanks."
In the seventeenth year, while Gaozong was in the Eastern Palace, he was moved to supervisor of the household of the Heir Apparent, given the rank of Specially Advanced, and he still kept charge of the government. Taizong once at a feast looked at Li Ji and said:
"I am about to entrust my young child to someone, and when I think of it there is no one beyond you. You did not fail Li Mi in the old days. How then would you fail me now?"
Li Ji wiped away his tears and made his reply, and he bit his finger until the blood ran. Soon he was deep in drink, and the emperor covered him with his own robe. Such was the trust laid on him.
Whenever Li Ji went to war he reckoned by the art of war, and when he faced the enemy and met change, his every move fitted the moment. From Zhenguan on he attacked the Tujue and Xieli, and the Xueyantuo and Goguryeo, and broke them all utterly. Taizong once said:
"These two men, Li Jing and Li Ji, are the Han Xin and the Bai Qi of old. How could Wei Qing and Huo Qubing come near them?"
8Ma Zhou
馬周，博州茌平人也。貞觀五年，至京師，舍於中郎將常何之家。時太宗令百官上書言得失，周為何陳便宜二十餘事，令奏之，事皆合旨。太宗怪其能，問何，何對曰：「此非臣所發意，乃臣家客馬周也。」太宗即日召之，未至間，凡四度遣使催促。及謁見，與語其悅。令直門下省，授監察御史，累除中書舍人。周有機辯，能敷奏，深識事端，故動無不中。太宗嘗曰：「我於馬周，暫時不見，則便思之。」十八年，歷遷中書令，兼太子左庶子。周既職兼兩宮，處事平允，甚獲當時之譽。又以本官攝吏部尚書。太宗嘗謂侍臣曰：「周見事敏速，性甚慎至。至於論量人物，直道而言，朕比任使之，多稱朕意。既寫忠誠，親附於朕，實藉此人，共康時政也。」
Ma Zhou was a man of Chiping in Bozhou. In the fifth year of Zhenguan he came to the capital and lodged in the house of Chang He, a general of the palace guard. At that time Taizong had ordered all the officials to send up writings speaking of what was well and ill done, and Ma Zhou wrote out for Chang He more than twenty useful proposals and had him present them, and every one of them met the emperor's mind. Taizong wondered at his ability and asked Chang He, and Chang He answered:
"This did not come out of my own mind. It was done by Ma Zhou, a guest in my house."
Taizong summoned him that same day, and before he arrived he sent messengers four times in all to hurry him. When he was admitted and they had spoken together, the emperor was pleased. He had him lodge on duty in the Chancellery and gave him the post of investigating censor, and in time he appointed him drafter in the Secretariat. Ma Zhou had a quick tongue and argued well, he was good at making reports, and he knew the threads of a matter deeply, and so nothing he did missed the mark. Taizong once said:
"If I do not see Ma Zhou even for a little while, I miss him at once."
In the eighteenth year he passed through several posts to director of the Secretariat, and concurrently left mentor of the Heir Apparent. Though Ma Zhou held office in both palaces, he handled affairs with fairness and won great praise in his time. He also acted as minister of personnel while keeping his own office. Taizong once said to the ministers in attendance:
"Ma Zhou sees into matters quickly, and his nature is very careful and thorough. When it comes to judging and weighing men, he speaks by the straight way. I have employed him of late, and much of what he does meets my mind. He has poured out his loyalty and drawn close to me, and I shall truly lean on this man to make the government of our time secure together."