Filial Piety and Brotherly Love孝友第十五
司空房玄齡事繼母，能以色養，恭謹過人。其母病，請醫人至門，必迎拜垂泣。及居喪，尤甚柴毀。太宗命散騎常侍劉洎就加寬譬，遺寢床、粥食、鹽菜。
Fang Xuanling, the minister of works, served his stepmother, and he could care for her with a gentle face, and his respect and care went beyond other men. When his mother was ill and he called a physician and the man reached the gate, he always met him with a bow and shed tears. When he was in mourning he wasted away and harmed his body more than ever. Taizong ordered Liu Ji, the cavalier attendant-in-ordinary, to go and console him and set his mind at ease, and sent him a couch, gruel, salt and greens.
虞世南，初仕隋，歷起居舍人，宇文化及殺逆之際，其兄世基時為內史侍郎，將被誅，世南抱持號泣，請以身代死，化及竟不納。世南自此哀毀骨立者數載，時人稱重焉。
Yu Shinan first held office under Sui and served as court diarist. When Yuwen Huaji murdered his sovereign, Yu Shinan's elder brother Yu Shiji was vice director of the Secretariat at the time, and was about to be put to death. Shinan held him fast and wept aloud and begged to die in his place with his own body, but Huaji would not have it in the end. From that time Shinan grieved and wasted until he was nothing but bone for several years, and the men of that day held him in esteem.
韓王元嘉，貞觀初，為潞州刺史。時年十五，在州聞太妃有疾，便涕泣不食，及至京師發喪，哀毀過禮。太宗嘉其至性，屢慰勉之。元嘉閨門修整，有類寒素士大夫，與其弟魯哀王靈夔甚相友愛，兄弟集見，如布衣之禮。其修身潔已，內外如一，當代諸王莫能及者。
Li Yuanjia, the prince of Han, was prefect of Luzhou at the beginning of Zhenguan. He was fifteen years old then, and when he heard in his prefecture that the grand consort was ill, he at once shed tears and would not eat, and when he reached the capital and the mourning was declared, his grieving and wasting went beyond the rites. Taizong admired his utter nature, and comforted him and encouraged him again and again.
Yuanjia kept the gate of his inner chambers in good order, and there was something of the poor scholar about him. He and his younger brother Li Lingkui, the prince Ai of Lu, loved each other dearly as brothers, and when the brothers gathered and saw one another they did so with the courtesies of men in plain cloth. He cultivated himself and kept himself clean, and he was the same within and without, so that none of the princes of that day could match him.
霍王元軌，武德中，初封為吳王，貞觀七年，為壽州刺史。屬高祖崩，去職，毀瘠過禮。自後常衣布服，示有終身之戚。太宗嘗問侍臣曰：「朕子弟孰賢？」侍中魏徵對曰：「臣愚暗，不盡知其能，惟吳王數與臣言，臣未嘗不自失。」太宗曰：「卿以為前代誰比？」徵曰：「經學文雅，亦漢之間、平，至如孝行，乃古之曾、閔也。」由是寵遇彌厚，因令妻徵女焉。
Li Yuangui, the prince of Huo, was first enfeoffed as prince of Wu in the Wude era, and in the seventh year of Zhenguan he was prefect of Shouzhou. When Gaozu died he left his post, and his wasting and gauntness went beyond the rites. Afterward he always wore hempen clothes, to show that his grief would last as long as his life.
Taizong once asked the ministers in attendance:
"Which among my sons and younger brothers is worthy?"
Wei Zheng, the director of the Chancellery, answered:
"Your servant is foolish and dull, and does not know the whole of his ability. Only the prince of Wu has spoken with me a number of times, and I have never failed to feel my own want."
Taizong said:
"With whom of former ages do you compare him?"
Wei Zheng said:
"In classical learning and refined letters he is the prince of Hejian and the prince of Dongping of Han, and as for the conduct of filial piety, he is the Zeng Shen and the Min Ziqian of old."
Because of this the favor and treatment he received grew richer still, and Taizong had him take Wei Zheng's daughter to wife.
貞觀中，有突厥史行昌直玄武門，食而舍肉，人問其故，曰：「歸以奉母。」太宗聞而嘆曰：「仁孝之性，豈隔華夷？」賜尚乘馬一疋，詔令給其母肉料。
In the Zhenguan era, Shi Xingchang, a man of the Tujue, was on watch at the Xuanwu Gate, and as he ate he set his meat aside. When men asked him the reason he said:
"I mean to take it home and give it to my mother."
Taizong heard of it and sighed in admiration:
"How should a nature that is benevolent and filial be divided between the Chinese and the barbarians?"
He bestowed on him one horse from the imperial stables, and by edict had meat supplied to his mother.