Honoring Teachers and Tutors尊敬師傅第十
貞觀三年，太子少師李綱，有腳疾，不堪踐履。太宗賜步輿，令三衛轝入東宮，詔皇太子引上殿，親拜之，大見崇重。綱為太子陳君臣父子之道，問寢視膳之方，理順辭直，聽者忘倦。太子嘗商略古來君臣名教，竭忠盡節之事。綱懍然曰：「讬六尺之孤，寄百里之命，古人以為難，綱以為易。」每吐論發言，皆辭色慷慨，有不可奪之志，太子未嘗不聳然禮敬。
In the third year of Zhenguan, Li Gang, the junior preceptor of the crown prince, had an ailment in his legs and could not walk. Taizong bestowed on him a carrying chair and had the three guards bear him into the Eastern Palace. He ordered the crown prince to lead him up into the hall and to bow to him in person, so that he was treated with great honor and weight.
Li Gang set forth for the crown prince the way of ruler and subject and of father and son, and the manner of asking after a parent's rest and watching over his meals. His reasoning ran smooth and his words were straight, and those who listened forgot their weariness. The crown prince once talked over the names and teachings of rulers and subjects of old, and the deeds of those who gave their full loyalty and kept their honor to the end. Li Gang said sternly:
"To be entrusted with an orphan of six feet and charged with the fate of a hundred li, the ancients held hard. I hold it easy."
Whenever he poured out his views and spoke, his words and his face were alike fervent, and there was in him a purpose no one could take away. The crown prince never failed to rise up in awe and honor him.
貞觀六年，詔曰：「朕比尋討經史，明王聖帝，曷嘗無師傅哉？前所進令遂不睹三師之位，意將未可。何以然？黃帝學大顛，顓頊學錄圖，堯學尹壽，舜學務成昭，禹學西王國，湯學威子伯，文王學子期，武王學虢叔。前代聖王，未遭此師，則功業不著乎天下，名譽不傳乎載籍。況朕接百王之末，智不同聖人，其無師傅，安可以臨兆民者哉？《詩》不云乎：『不愆不忘，率由舊章。』夫不學，則不明古道，而能政致太平者未之有也！可即著令，置三師之位。」
In the sixth year of Zhenguan an edict was issued:
"Of late I have searched through the classics and the histories. When have enlightened kings and sage emperors ever been without teachers? In the statutes submitted earlier the posts of the Three Preceptors do not appear at all, and this intent is not right. Why is it so?
"The Yellow Emperor learned from Da Dian, Zhuanxu learned from Lu Tu, Yao learned from Yin Shou, Shun learned from Wucheng Zhao, Yu learned from Xiwangguo, Tang learned from Weizi Bo, King Wen learned from Ziqi, and King Wu learned from Guo Shu. If the sage kings of former ages had not met such teachers, their merit and works would not have shown forth in the world, and their names and praise would not have been handed down in the records.
"How much more so with me, who come at the end of a hundred kings and whose wisdom is not that of a sage. Without a teacher, how could I stand over the multitude of the people? Does the Book of Songs not say, 'Not erring and not forgetting, he follows the old statutes'? Now if a man does not learn, he is not clear about the ancient way, and there has never yet been one who governed his way to great peace. Let it be written into the statutes at once, and let the posts of the Three Preceptors be established."
貞觀八年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「上智之人，自無所染，但中智之人無恒，從教而變，況太子師保，古難其選。成王幼小，周、召為保傅。左右皆賢，日聞雅訓，足以長仁益德，使為聖君。秦之胡亥，用趙高作傅，教以刑法，及其嗣位，誅功臣，殺親族，酷暴不已，旋踵而亡。故知人之善惡誠由近習。朕今為太子、諸王精選師傅，令其式瞻禮度，有所裨益。公等可訪正直忠信者，各舉三兩人。」
In the eighth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"A man of the highest wisdom is stained by nothing of himself. But a man of middling wisdom has no constancy, and changes according to what he is taught. How much more with the preceptors and guardians of a crown prince, whose choosing has been hard since ancient times. When King Cheng was young and small, the Duke of Zhou and the Duke of Shao were his guardians and preceptors. All around him were worthy men, and day by day he heard correct instruction, which was enough to make his benevolence grow and his virtue increase, so that he became a sage ruler. Huhai of Qin took Zhao Gao as his preceptor, and Zhao Gao taught him by punishments and laws. When he succeeded to the throne he cut down the meritorious ministers and killed his own kin, and did not cease from cruelty and violence, so that he perished before he could turn on his heel. From this it is known that a man's goodness or badness truly comes from those he is near and grows used to.
"I now wish to choose with care preceptors and guardians for the crown prince and the several princes, so that they may look up to the measure of ritual and gain some benefit by it. You may seek out men who are upright, loyal, and trustworthy, and let each of you recommend two or three."
貞觀十一年，以禮部尚書王珪兼為魏王師。太宗謂尚書左仆射房玄齡曰：「古來帝子，生於深宮，及其成人，無不驕逸，是以傾覆相踵，少能自濟。我今嚴教子弟，欲皆得安全。王珪我久驅使，甚知剛直，志存忠孝，選為子師。卿宜語泰，每對王珪，如見我面，宜加尊敬，不得懈怠。」珪亦以師道自處，時議善之也。
In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Wang Gui, the minister of rites, was made preceptor to the Prince of Wei as well. Taizong said to Fang Xuanling, the left vice director of the department of state affairs:
"From ancient times the sons of emperors have been born in deep palaces, and when they grew up there was not one who was not proud and idle. For this reason one after another was overturned, and few were able to save themselves. I now teach my sons and younger kin strictly, wishing them all to be safe. Wang Gui I have employed for a long time, and I know well that he is firm and straight and that his purpose lies in loyalty and filial duty, so I chose him as preceptor to my son. You should tell Li Tai that whenever he faces Wang Gui he is to look on him as he looks on my face, and is to honor and respect him and not be remiss."
Wang Gui too bore himself according to the way of a preceptor, and the opinion of the time thought well of it.
貞觀十七年，太宗謂司徒長孫無忌、司空房玄齡曰：「三師以德道人者也。若師體卑，太子無所取則。」於是詔令撰太子接三師儀註。太子出殿門迎，先拜三師，三師答拜，每門讓三師。三師坐，太子乃坐。與三師書，前名惶恐，後名惶恐再拜。
In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to Zhangsun Wuji, the minister of education, and Fang Xuanling, the minister of works:
"The Three Preceptors are those who lead men by virtue. If the standing of a preceptor is low, the crown prince has nothing to take as his model."
Thereupon he ordered that a protocol be drawn up for the crown prince's receiving of the Three Preceptors. The crown prince goes out of the hall gate to meet them and bows first to the Three Preceptors, and the Three Preceptors bow in return. At every gate he yields to the Three Preceptors. The Three Preceptors are seated, and only then does the crown prince sit. When he sends a letter to the Three Preceptors, he writes "in fear and awe" before his name, and after his name "in fear and awe, bowing twice."
貞觀十八年，高宗初立為皇太子，尚未尊賢重道，太宗又嘗令太子居寢殿之側，絕不往東宮。散騎常侍劉洎上書曰：
In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, Gaozong was first set up as crown prince, and he did not yet honor the worthy or hold the way weighty. Taizong had also had the crown prince stay beside his own sleeping hall, so that he did not go to the Eastern Palace at all. Liu Ji, the cavalier attendant in ordinary, submitted a memorial:
臣聞郊迎四方，孟侯所以成德；齒學三讓，元良由是作貞。斯皆屈主祀之尊，申下交之義。故得芻言咸薦，睿問旁通，不出軒庭，坐知天壤，率由茲道，永固鴻基者焉。至若生乎深宮之中，長乎婦人之手，未曾識憂懼，無由曉風雅。雖復神機不測，天縱生知，而開物成務，終由外獎。匪夫崇彼幹籥，聽茲謠頌，何以辨章庶類，甄覈彜倫？歷考聖賢，咸資琢玉。是故周儲上哲，師望、奭而加裕；漢嗣深仁，引園、綺而昭德。原夫太子，宗祧是系，善惡之際，興亡斯在，不勤於始，將悔於終。是以晁錯上書，令通政術；賈誼獻策，務知禮教。竊惟皇太子玉裕挺生，金聲夙振，明允篤誠之美，孝友仁義之方，皆挺自天姿，非勞審諭，固以華夷仰德，翔泳希風矣。然則寢門視膳，已表於三朝；藝宮論道，宜弘於四術。雖富於春秋，飭躬有漸，實恐歲月易往，墮業興譏，取適晏安，言從此始。臣以愚短，幸參侍從，思廣儲明，暫願聞徹，不敢曲陳故事，切請以聖德言之。
Your servant has heard that meeting the four quarters in the suburbs was how the heir completed his virtue, and that taking his place by age among the students and yielding three times was how the heir made himself upright. In both, the honor of one who presides over the sacrifices was bent down, and the duty of consorting with those below was set forth. Thus the words of the grass cutters were all brought forward and wise questions passed through on every side, so that without going out from carriage and courtyard he sat and knew heaven and earth. By following this way he made the great foundation firm forever.
But one who is born within the deep palace and grows up in the hands of women has never known worry or fear, and has no way to understand the Airs and the Odes. Even if his divine perception cannot be fathomed and Heaven has granted him knowledge from birth, still the opening of things and the completing of affairs comes in the end from encouragement outside himself. If he does not hold high those shields and flutes and listen to these songs and praises, by what means will he distinguish and make clear the many kinds of things, and sift and examine the constant bonds of men?
Going through the sages and worthies one by one, all of them relied on having their jade cut and polished. Thus the heir of Zhou was of the highest wisdom, yet he took Taigong Wang and Shao Gong Shi as his teachers and grew richer by it; and the successor of Han was deep in benevolence, yet he drew in Dongyuan Gong and Qili Ji and made his virtue shine.
Now the crown prince is the one on whom the ancestral temple hangs, and in the space between good and bad lies rising or falling. If he is not diligent at the start, he will repent at the end. That is why Chao Cuo submitted a memorial to make him versed in the arts of government, and Jia Yi offered a plan, working to make him know ritual and instruction.
In my humble thought, His Highness the crown prince was born outstanding with the richness of jade, and his note of metal sounded early. The beauty of his brightness, his good faith, his depth and sincerity, and the ways of his filial duty, brotherly love, benevolence, and righteousness all rise from the gifts Heaven gave him, and have not cost the labor of examining and admonishing. Truly the Chinese and the barbarians look up to his virtue, and the things that fly and the things that swim long for his influence. This being so, his watching over the meals at the bedchamber gate has already shown itself at three courts, and his discussing of the way in the palace of the arts should likewise be widened to the four branches of learning.
Though he is rich in years and his discipline of himself improves by degrees, what your servant truly fears is that months and years pass easily, that neglect of his studies will stir up mockery, and that a taking of ease and comfort may begin from here. Your servant, foolish and of small worth, has had the good fortune to be among the attendants, and thinking to widen the brightness of the heir, he wishes to be heard for a moment. He does not dare to lay out old affairs in a roundabout way, and earnestly asks leave to speak from Your Majesty's own sage virtue.
伏惟陛下誕睿膺圖，登庸歷試。多才多藝，道著於匡時；允文允武，功成於纂祀。萬方即敘，九圍清晏。尚且雖休勿休，日慎一日，求異聞於振古，勞睿思於當年。乙夜觀書，事高漢帝；馬上披卷，勤過魏王。陛下自勵如此，而令太子優遊棄日，不習圖書，臣所未諭一也。加以暫屏機務，即寓雕蟲。紆寶思於天文，則長河韜映；摛玉華於仙劄，則流霞成彩。固以錙銖萬代，冠冕百王，屈、宋不足以升堂，鍾、張何階於入室。陛下自好如此，而太子悠然靜處，不尋篇翰，臣所未諭二也。陛下備該眾妙，獨秀寰中，猶晦天聰，俯詢凡識。聽朝之隟，引見群官，降以溫顏，訪以今古。故得朝廷是非，閭里好惡，凡有巨細，必關聞聽。陛下自行如此，而令太子久趨入侍，不接正人，臣所未諭三也。陛下若謂無益，則何事勞神；若謂有成，則宜申貽厥。蔑而不急，未見其可。伏願俯推睿範，訓及儲君，授以良書，娛之嘉客。朝披經史，觀成敗於前蹤；晚接賓遊，訪得失於當代。間以書劄，繼以篇章，則日聞所未聞，日見所未見。副德愈光，群生之福也。
Prostrate, your servant considers that Your Majesty was born in wisdom and received the chart, was raised up and employed and tested through many trials. Having many talents and many arts, your way showed itself in setting the age right. Truly accomplished in letters and in arms, your merit was fulfilled in continuing the sacrifices. The myriad regions have fallen into order, and the nine bounds are clear and at peace.
Even so, though all is well you do not call it well, and day by day you are careful for one day more. You seek out uncommon learning from remote antiquity and labor your wise thought upon the present year. You read books in the second watch of the night, a thing higher than the emperor of Han; you open a scroll on horseback, in diligence beyond the king of Wei. Your Majesty urges yourself on like this, and yet you let the crown prince idle away his days at ease and not study the charts and writings. This is the first thing your servant does not understand.
Moreover, the moment you set the affairs of state aside for a while, you turn to the small craft of letters. When you wind your precious thoughts about the patterns of heaven, the long river of stars hides its light; when you spread your jade flowers on an immortal's tablet, the streaming sunset clouds take on their colors. Truly you count ten thousand generations as a grain of dust and crown the hundred kings. Qu Yuan and Song Yu are not enough to climb to your hall, and by what stair could Zhong Yao and Zhang Zhi enter your chamber? Your Majesty delights in this for himself, and yet the crown prince dwells far off in quiet and does not seek out writings. This is the second thing your servant does not understand.
Your Majesty is furnished with every subtlety and stands alone above the world, and yet you veil your heavenly hearing and bend down to ask the understanding of ordinary men. In the gaps between hearing the court, you draw in the many officials and come down to them with a warm face and ask them of ancient and present times. Thus the right and wrong of the court and the likes and dislikes of the villages, whatever there is of great or small, must come to your hearing. Your Majesty acts like this for himself, and yet you have the crown prince hurry in to attend you for long stretches and never meet upright men. This is the third thing your servant does not understand.
If Your Majesty holds that there is no profit in these things, then why labor your spirit upon them? And if you hold that they bring something to completion, then you should set them forth for the one who comes after you. To slight them and count them as not urgent, your servant cannot see to be right.
Prostrate, your servant wishes that you would bend to extend your wise example and let your teaching reach the heir, that you would give him good books and delight him with fine guests. In the morning let him open the classics and the histories and see success and ruin in the tracks of those before him; in the evening let him meet with guests and inquire into the gains and losses of the present age; and let letters fill the spaces between, and writings follow after. Then day by day he will hear what he has not heard and see what he has not seen. That the virtue of the heir should shine the brighter is the good fortune of all living people.
竊以良娣之選，遍於中國。仰惟聖旨，本求典內，冀防微，慎遠慮，臣下所知。暨乎徵簡人物，則與聘納相違，監撫二周，未近一士。愚謂內既如彼，外亦宜然者。恐招物議，謂陛下重內而輕外也。古之太子，問安而退，所以廣敬於君父；異宮而處，所以分別於嫌疑。今太子一侍天闈，動移旬朔，師傅已下，無由接見。假令供奉有隟，暫還東朝，拜謁既疏，且事俯仰，規諫之道，固所未暇。陛下不可以親教，宮寀無因以進言，雖有具寮，竟將何補？
In my humble view, the choosing of a secondary consort was carried out throughout the whole country. Looking up and considering the sage intent, it was from the first a search for one to take charge within, in the hope of guarding against small beginnings and taking careful thought for what is far off. This your servants below understand. But when it came to calling up and sifting men of ability, the matter ran counter to the taking of a consort, and in the two years of overseeing and comforting the state not one scholar has been brought near. In my foolish view, since matters within are as they are, matters without should be so too. Your servant fears that this will invite the talk of others, who will say that Your Majesty makes much of what is within and makes light of what is without.
The crown prince of old asked after his father's rest and then withdrew, and so widened his reverence toward his ruler and father; he dwelt in a separate palace, and so kept apart what might be suspected. Now when the crown prince attends once at the palace, ten days or a month go by in moving about, and from the preceptors down there is no way to meet him. Even if there is a gap in his attendance and he returns for a while to the Eastern Palace, his audiences there are already few, and it is all bowing down and looking up, so that for the way of admonishing by rule there is truly no leisure. If Your Majesty cannot teach him in person, and the officials of his palace have no occasion to speak to him, then though the full complement of officers is there, what in the end will they help?
伏願俯循前躅，稍抑下流，弘遠大之規，展師友之義。則離徽克茂，帝圖斯廣，凡在黎元，孰不慶賴。太子溫良恭儉，聰明睿哲，含靈所悉，臣豈不知。而淺識勤勤，思效愚忠者，願滄溟益潤，日月增華也。
Prostrate, your servant wishes that you would bend to follow the tracks of those before you and hold down a little what flows downward, that you would widen the far and great rule and set forth the duty of teacher and friend. Then his excellence will grow abundant and the imperial plan will be widened by it, and among all the common people who would not count it a blessing and lean upon it? That the crown prince is warm and good, respectful and frugal, clear sighted and wise, is known to every feeling soul, and how should your servant not know it? Yet his shallow understanding labors on and thinks to offer up its foolish loyalty, because he wishes the wide ocean to be moistened still more and the sun and the moon to add to their brightness.
太宗乃令洎與岑文本、馬周遞日往東宮，與皇太子談論。
Taizong then had Liu Ji, Cen Wenben, and Ma Zhou go to the Eastern Palace on alternate days and discuss with the crown prince.