On Compassion論仁惻第二十
貞觀初，太宗謂侍臣曰：「婦人幽閉深宮，情實可湣。隋氏末年，求采無已，至於離宮別館，非幸御之所，多聚宮人。此皆竭人財力，朕所不取。且灑掃之餘，更何所用？今將出之，任求伉儷，非獨以省費，兼以息人，亦各得遂其情性。」於是後宮及掖庭前後所出三千餘人。
At the beginning of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"Women are shut away in the deep palace, and their lot is truly to be pitied. In the last years of the house of Sui there was no end to the seeking and choosing of them, and palace women were gathered in numbers even in the separate palaces and lodges where the ruler never went. All this spends the goods and the strength of men, and it is not what I will take. And beyond sprinkling and sweeping, what use is there for them? Now I mean to send them out and leave them free to seek husbands. This is not only to save expense. It is also to give the people rest, and to let each of them fulfill her feelings and her nature."
At this, more than three thousand were sent out from the inner palace and the women's quarters, first and last.
貞觀二年，關中旱，大饑。太宗謂侍臣曰：「水旱不調，皆為人君失德。朕德之不修，天當責朕，百姓何罪，而多遭困窮！聞有鬻男女者，朕甚湣焉。」乃遣御史大夫杜淹巡檢，出御府金寶贖之，還其父母。
In the second year of Zhenguan there was drought in Guanzhong and a great famine. Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"When flood and drought are out of order, it is always because the ruler has lost his virtue. I have not cultivated my virtue, so Heaven ought to reproach me. What is the crime of the people, that they should meet such hardship and want? I hear that there are those who sell their sons and daughters, and I pity them greatly."
At this he sent Du Yan, the censor-in-chief, to go about and look into it, and he brought out gold and treasure from the imperial storehouse to buy the children back and return them to their parents.
貞觀七年，襄州都督張公謹卒。太宗聞而嗟悼，出次發哀。有司奏言：「《準陰陽書》云：『日在辰，不可哭泣。』此亦流俗所忌。」太宗曰：「君臣之義，同於父子，情發於中，安避辰日？」遂哭之。
In the seventh year of Zhenguan Zhang Gongjin, the area commander of Xiangzhou, died. Taizong heard of it and sighed and grieved, and he went out and took his place to raise the wailing. The office in charge said:
"Measured by the book of yin and yang, it says, 'When the sun is in chen, the fifth of the earthly branches, one may not weep.' This too is something the common custom shuns."
Taizong said:
"The righteous bond of ruler and official is the same as that of father and son. The feeling comes out from within. How should I avoid a chen day?"
And so he wept for him.
貞觀十九年，太宗征高麗，次定州，有兵士到者，帝御州城北門樓撫慰之。有從卒一人病，不能進。詔至床前，問其所苦，仍敕州縣醫療之。是以將士莫不欣然願從。及大軍回次柳城，詔集前後戰亡人骸骨，設太牢致祭，親臨，哭之盡哀，軍人無不灑泣。兵士觀祭者，歸家以言，其父母曰：「吾兒之喪，天子哭之，死無所恨。」太宗征遼東，攻白巖城，右衛大將軍李思摩為流矢所中，帝親為吮血，將士莫不感勵。
In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, when Taizong went to strike Goguryeo, he halted at Dingzhou, and whenever soldiers arrived the emperor went out to the tower of the north gate of the prefectural wall and comforted them. One of the soldiers who had come with the army was ill and could not go on. By edict the man was brought before his couch, and he asked what ailed him, and then ordered the prefecture and the district to treat him. Because of this there was not an officer or a soldier who was not glad to follow him.
When the great army came back and halted at Liucheng, he ordered by edict that the bones of those who had fallen in battle, first and last, be gathered, and that the great sacrifice be set out for them. He came in person and wept and gave his grief its full course, and there was not a soldier who did not shed tears. A soldier who had watched the sacrifice went home and spoke of it, and his father and mother said:
"The Son of Heaven wept at our son's funeral. We may die with nothing to regret."
When Taizong struck Liaodong and was attacking Baegamseong, Li Simo, the general-in-chief of the Right Guard, was hit by a stray arrow, and the emperor sucked the blood from the wound himself. There was not an officer or a soldier who was not moved and stirred.