On Frugality論儉約第十八
貞觀元年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「自古帝王凡有興造，必須貴順物情。昔大禹鑿九山，通九江，用人力極廣，而無怨讟者，物情所欲，而眾所共有故也。秦始皇營建宮室，而人多謗議者，為徇其私欲，不與眾共故也。朕今欲造一殿，材木已具，遠想秦皇之事，遂不復作也。古人云：『不作無益害有益。』『不見可欲，使民心不亂。』固知見可欲，其心必亂矣。至如雕鏤器物，珠玉服玩，若恣其驕奢，則危亡之期可立待也。自王公以下，第宅、車服、婚嫁、喪葬，準品秩不合服用者，宜一切禁斷。」由是二十年間，風俗簡樸，衣無錦繡，財帛富饒，無饑寒之弊。
In the first year of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"From of old, whenever emperors and kings have raised up buildings, they have had to hold it precious to follow the nature of things. Long ago the Great Yu bored through nine mountains and opened nine rivers, and he used the strength of men most widely, yet there were none who resented him and spoke ill of him. This was because it was what the nature of things wanted and what the multitude held in common. When the First Emperor of Qin built his palaces and halls, many men spoke ill of him and argued against him. This was because he followed his own private desire and did not share with the multitude.
"I wished now to build one hall, and the timber was already prepared, but I thought back to the affair of the First Emperor of Qin, and in the end I did not build it. The men of old said, 'Do not make what is of no use and so harm what is of use.' They said, 'Do not show what may be desired, and the hearts of the people will not be thrown into confusion.' Truly I know that when a man sees what may be desired his heart is bound to be thrown into confusion. When it comes to carving and engraving vessels, and making clothes and playthings of pearl and jade, if a man gives free rein to his pride and extravagance, then he may stand and wait for the day of danger and ruin.
"From the princes and dukes downward, in houses, in carriages and clothes, in marriages and in funerals, whatever does not accord with a man's rank and is not fit for his wearing or his use is to be forbidden and cut off altogether."
By this, for twenty years, the customs were plain and simple. There was no brocade or embroidery on clothes, goods and silk were plentiful, and there was no suffering from hunger and cold.
貞觀二年，公卿奏曰：「依《禮》，季夏之月，可以居臺榭。今夏暑未退，秋霖方始，宮中卑濕，請營一閣以居之。」太宗曰：「朕有氣疾，豈宜下濕？若遂來請，糜費良多。昔漢文將起露臺，而惜十家之產，朕德不逮於漢帝，而所費過之，豈為人父母之道也？」固請至於再三，竟不許。
In the second year of Zhenguan the high officials memorialized:
"According to the Book of Rites, in the last month of summer one may dwell on a terrace or in a pavilion. Now the summer heat has not yet withdrawn and the autumn rains are just beginning, and the palace is low and damp. We ask that one pavilion be built for you to dwell in."
Taizong said:
"I have an ailment of the breath. How could a low and damp place be right for me? If in the end I did as you ask, the waste would truly be great. Long ago Emperor Wen of Han was about to raise a Dew Terrace, and he spared the property of ten households. My virtue does not reach that of the Han emperor. If what I spend goes beyond his, how is that the way of one who is father and mother to the people?"
They pressed their request a second and a third time, but to the end he did not allow it.
貞觀四年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「崇飾宮宇，遊賞池臺，帝王之所欲，百姓之所不欲。帝王所欲者放逸，百姓所不欲者勞弊。孔子云：『有一言可以終身行之者，其恕乎！已所不欲，勿施於人。』勞弊之事，誠不可施於百姓。朕尊為帝王，富有四海，每事由己，誠能自節，若百姓不欲，必能順其情也。」魏徵曰：「陛下本憐百姓，每節己以順人。臣聞『以欲從人者昌，以人樂己者亡。』隋煬帝志在無厭，惟好奢侈，所司每有供奉營造，小不稱意，則有峻罰嚴刑。上之所好，下必有甚，競為無限，遂至滅亡。此非書籍所傳，亦陛下目所親見。為其無道，故天命陛下代之。陛下若以為足，今日不啻足矣；若以為不足，更萬倍過此，亦不足。」太宗曰：「公所奏對甚善。非公，朕安得聞此言？」
In the fourth year of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"To raise up and adorn palaces and halls, and to roam and take pleasure by ponds and terraces, is what emperors and kings desire and what the people do not desire. What emperors and kings desire is idle ease. What the people do not desire is toil and exhaustion. Confucius said, 'If there is one word that may be practiced to the end of life, is it not forgiveness? What you do not want yourself, do not do to others.' Work of toil and exhaustion truly must not be laid on the people. In honor I am emperor and king, and in wealth I hold all within the four seas, and every matter proceeds from myself. If I can truly set a measure on myself, then in what the people do not want I can surely follow their feeling."
Wei Zheng said:
"Your Majesty has pitied the people from the first, and you always spare yourself in order to follow the people. Your servant has heard it said, 'He who bends his desires to others flourishes. He who makes others give him pleasure perishes.' Emperor Yang of Sui set his mind on what has no satiety and loved only extravagance, and whenever the offices in charge presented or built something that did not suit him even a little, there were harsh punishments and severe penalties. What the man above loves, those below are sure to love still more, and they vied with one another without limit and came at last to ruin. This is not something handed down in books. Your Majesty saw it with your own eyes. Because he was without the way, Heaven commanded Your Majesty to take his place.
"If Your Majesty thinks it enough, then today there is not only enough but more than enough. If Your Majesty thinks it not enough, then ten thousand times more than this would still not be enough."
Taizong said:
"What you have set forth in answer is very good. Without you, how should I have heard these words?"
貞觀十六年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「朕近讀《劉聰傳》，聰將為劉後起䳨儀殿，廷尉陳元達切諫，聰大怒，命斬之。劉後手疏啟請，辭情甚切，聰怒乃解，而甚愧之。人之讀書，欲廣聞見以自益耳，朕見此事，可以為深誡。比者欲造一殿，仍構重閣，今於藍田采木，並已備具，遠想聰事，斯作遂止。」
In the sixteenth year of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"Of late I have been reading the Life of Liu Cong. Liu Cong was about to raise the Fengyi Hall for the Empress Liu, and Chen Yuanda, the commandant of justice, remonstrated earnestly. Liu Cong was greatly angered and ordered him beheaded. The Empress Liu wrote out a plea with her own hand, and her words and her feeling were most earnest, and at this Liu Cong's anger was loosed and he was deeply ashamed.
"A man reads books only to widen what he hears and sees, and so to add to himself. I have seen this affair, and it may be taken as a deep warning. Of late I wished to build one hall and to frame a double pavilion with it, and timber was cut at Lantian and all of it made ready, but I thought back to the affair of Liu Cong, and in the end this building was stopped."
貞觀十一年，詔曰：「朕聞死者終也，欲物之反真也；葬者藏也，欲令人之不得見也。上古垂風，未聞於封樹；後世貽則，乃備於棺槨。譏僭侈者，非愛其厚費；美儉薄者，實貴其無危。是以唐堯，聖帝也，谷林有通樹之說；秦穆，明君也，橐泉無丘隴之處。仲尼，孝子也，防墓不墳；延陵，慈父也，嬴、博可隱。斯皆懷無窮之慮，成獨決之明，乃便體於九泉，非徇名於百代也。洎乎闔閭違禮，珠玉為鳧雁；始皇無度，水銀為江海；季孫擅魯，斂以玙璠；桓魋專宋，葬以石槨，莫不因多藏以速禍，由有利而招辱。玄廬既發，致焚如於夜臺；黃腸再開，同暴骸於中野。詳思曩事，豈不悲哉？由此觀之，奢侈者可以為戒，節儉者可以為師矣。朕居四海之尊，承百王之弊，未明思化，中宵戰惕。雖送往之典詳諸儀制，失禮之禁著在刑書，而勛戚之家多流遁於習俗，閭閻之內或侈靡而傷風，以厚葬為奉終，以高墳為行孝，遂使衣衾棺槨極雕刻之華，靈輀冥器窮金玉之飾。富者越法度以相尚，貧者破資產而不逮，徒傷教義，無益泉壤，為害既深，宜為懲革。其王公以下，爰及黎庶，自今以後，送葬之具有不依令式者，仰州府縣官明加檢察，隨狀科罪。在京五品以上及勛戚家，仍錄奏聞。」
In the eleventh year of Zhenguan an edict came down:
"I have heard that death is an ending, and that it wishes things to return to what is true, and that burial is a hiding away, and that it wishes men not to see. In the customs handed down from the far past nothing is heard of raising mounds and planting trees, and it was in the rules left to later ages that coffin and outer coffin were provided. To laugh at what is overweening and extravagant is not to begrudge its heavy cost. To find beauty in what is frugal and spare is truly to hold precious that it brings no danger.
"So Yao was a sage emperor, yet at Gulin it is said that a tree was pierced for him. Duke Mu of Qin was a bright ruler, yet at Tuoquan there is no place of mound or grave. Zhongni was a filial son, yet he raised no mound over the grave at Fang. The lord of Yanling was a loving father, yet he said the ground between Ying and Bo would serve to hide his son. All of these harbored a thought that had no end and reached a brightness they decided alone. They made the body easy beneath the nine springs. They did not chase a name through a hundred generations.
"But when Helü broke the rites and made ducks and geese of pearl and jade, when the First Emperor knew no measure and made rivers and seas of quicksilver, when Jisun took Lu into his own hands and shrouded his dead in yufan jade, when Huan Tui held Song alone and buried in an outer coffin of stone, there was not one of them who did not hasten disaster by hiding much, and call down disgrace because there was profit to be had. The dark tomb was broken open, and it came to burning at the terrace of night. The yellow-heart cypress was opened a second time, and it was the same as bones laid bare in the open fields. Think carefully on the affairs that are past. Is it not grievous? Seen in this way, the extravagant may be taken as a warning and the frugal may be taken as teachers.
"I hold the honored place of all within the four seas, and I have taken up the ills left by a hundred kings. Before the day is bright I think how things are to be made better, and in the middle of the night I tremble in fear. The rules for sending off the dead are set out in detail in the codes of ceremony, and the prohibitions against failing in the rites are written in the books of punishment. Yet the houses of the meritorious and of the imperial kin often drift away into habit and custom, and within the lanes and gates there are those who are extravagant and harm the customs. They call heavy burial the honoring of the end and a high mound the practice of filial duty, and so clothes and quilts, coffin and outer coffin have come to exhaust the splendor of carving, and the hearse and the vessels buried with the dead exhaust the adornment of gold and jade. The wealthy go beyond the measure of the law and vie with one another, and the poor break their property and still cannot match them. This only harms teaching and righteousness, and it is of no help beneath the ground. The harm is already deep, and it ought to be checked and set right.
"From the princes and dukes downward to the common people, from this day on, if in the gear for sending off the dead there is anything that does not follow the ordinances and forms, the officials of the prefectures and the departments and the districts are to examine it clearly and set the punishment according to the case. For those of the fifth rank and above in the capital, and for the houses of the meritorious and of the imperial kin, let it also be written down and reported to me."
岑文本為中書令，宅卑濕，無帷帳之飾。有勸其營產業者，文本嘆曰：「吾本漢南一布衣耳，竟無汗馬之勞，徒以文墨致位中書令，斯亦極矣。荷俸祿之重，為懼已多，更得言產業乎？」言者嘆息而退。
Cen Wenben became director of the Secretariat, and his house was low and damp and had no adornment of curtains and hangings. Someone urged him to set up an estate, and Wenben sighed.
"I was at first only a man in plain cloth from south of the Han, and in the end I never had the labor of a sweating horse. With nothing but brush and ink I came to the place of director of the Secretariat, and that too is the utmost. I bear the weight of a salary, and my fear is already great. Shall I speak of an estate besides?"
The man who had spoken sighed and withdrew.
戶部尚書戴胄卒，太宗以其居宅弊陋，祭享無所，令有司特為之造廟。
Dai Zhou, the minister of revenue, died, and Taizong, holding that the house he had lived in was old and mean and that there was no place for the sacrifices, ordered the office in charge to build a shrine for him.
溫彥博為尚書右仆射，家貧無正寢，及薨，殯於旁室。太宗聞而嗟嘆，遽命所司為造，當厚加賻贈。
Wen Yanbo became right vice director of the Department of State Affairs. His house was poor and had no main chamber, and when he died his coffin was laid in a side room. Taizong heard of it and sighed, and at once ordered the office in charge to build one for him, and had a generous gift added for the funeral.
魏徵宅內，先無正堂。及遇疾，太宗時欲造小殿，而輟其材為徵營構，五日而就。遣中使齎素褥布被而賜之，以遂其所尚。
There had been no main hall in Wei Zheng's house. When he fell ill, Taizong stopped the small hall he was about to build at that time and used its timber to frame one for Wei Zheng, and it was finished in five days. He sent a palace messenger with a plain mattress and a cloth quilt to bestow on him, and so let him have what he valued.