On Caution in One's Likings論慎所好第二十一
貞觀二年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「古人云『君猶器也，人猶水也，方圓在於器，不在於水。』故堯、舜率天下以仁，而人從之；桀、紂率天下以暴，而人從之。下之所行，皆從上之所好。至如梁武帝父子志尚浮華，惟好釋氏、老氏之教；武帝末年，頻幸同泰寺，親講佛經，百寮皆大冠高履，乘車扈從，終日談論苦空，未嘗以軍國典章為意。及侯景率兵向闕，尚書郎以下，多不解乘馬，狼狽步走，死者相繼於道路。武帝及簡文卒被侯景幽逼而死。孝元帝在於江陵，為萬紐於謹所圍，帝猶講《老子》不輟，百寮皆戎服以聽。俄而城陷，君臣俱被囚摯。庾信亦嘆其如此，及作《哀江南賦》，乃云：『宰衡以干戈為兒戲，縉紳以清談為廟略。』此事亦足為鑒戒。朕今所好者，惟在堯、舜之道，周、孔之教，以為如鳥有翼，如魚依水，失之必死，不可暫無耳。」
In the second year of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"The men of old said, 'The ruler is like a vessel and the people are like water. Square or round lies in the vessel, not in the water.' So when Yao and Shun led the world with benevolence, the people followed them, and when Jie and the tyrant Zhou led the world with cruelty, the people followed them too. What those below do always follows what the man above loves.
"Emperor Wu of Liang and his sons set their minds on empty splendor and loved only the teachings of Shakya and of Laozi. In his last years Emperor Wu went often to the Tongtai Temple and expounded the sutras himself, and every officer of the court followed his carriage in a great cap and high shoes, and talked all day of suffering and emptiness, and never once gave a thought to the army or to the ordinances of the state. When Hou Jing led troops against the palace, most men from the gentlemen of the Department of State Affairs downward did not know how to ride a horse, and they fled on foot in confusion, and the dead lay one after another along the roads. Emperor Wu and Emperor Jianwen were at last shut up by Hou Jing and driven to their deaths. Emperor Xiaoyuan was at Jiangling and was surrounded by Wanniu Yujin, and still the emperor did not break off his lectures on the Laozi, and all his officers listened to him in armor. Before long the city fell, and ruler and officials alike were taken prisoner.
"Yu Xin too sighed over this, and when he made the Lament for Jiangnan he said, 'The chancellors made a child's game of spear and shield, and the men in office made pure talk the plan of the court.' This affair too is enough to serve as a mirror and a warning.
"What I love now lies only in the way of Yao and Shun and the teaching of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius. It is as a bird has wings and a fish leans on water. Lose it and you must die. I hold that one cannot be without it for a moment."
貞觀二年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「神仙事本是虛妄，空有其名。秦始皇非分愛好，為方士所詐，乃遣童男童女數千人，隨其入海求神仙。方士避秦苛虐，因留不歸，始皇猶海側踟躕以待之，還至沙丘而死。漢武帝為求神仙，乃將女嫁道術之人，事既無驗，便行誅戮。據此二事，神仙不煩妄求也。」
In the second year of Zhenguan Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"The affair of the immortals is empty and false from the first, and only the name of it is there. The First Emperor of Qin loved what was not his portion and was deceived by a magician, and he sent several thousand boys and girls to follow the man into the sea to seek the immortals. The magician fled the harshness and cruelty of Qin, and stayed there and did not come back, and still the First Emperor lingered by the sea waiting for him, and then came back to Shaqiu and died. Emperor Wu of Han, to seek the immortals, gave his daughter in marriage to a man of the magic arts, and when the thing proved to have no effect he had the man cut down. Going by these two affairs, the immortals are not worth the trouble of a false search."
貞觀四年，太宗曰：「隋煬帝性好猜防，專信邪道，大忌胡人，乃至謂胡床為交床，胡瓜為黃瓜，築長城以避胡。終被宇文化及使令狐行達殺之。又誅戮李金才，及諸李殆盡，卒何所益？且君天下者，惟須正身修德而已，此外虛事，不足在懷。」
In the fourth year of Zhenguan Taizong said:
"Emperor Yang of Sui was by nature fond of suspicion and of guarding himself, and he trusted only crooked ways and greatly shunned the barbarians. He went so far as to have the barbarian couch called the folding couch and the barbarian melon called the yellow melon, and he raised the long wall to keep the barbarians off. Yet in the end Yuwen Huaji had Linghu Xingda kill him. He also cut down Li Jincai and made away with nearly all of the Li, and what did it profit him in the end? Moreover, one who is ruler of the world need only make his own person upright and cultivate his virtue. The empty matters outside this are not worth keeping in mind."
貞觀七年，工部尚書段綸奏進巧人楊思齊至。太宗令試，綸遣造傀儡戲具。太宗謂綸曰：「所進巧匠，將供國事，卿令先造此物，是豈百工相戒無作奇巧之意耶？」乃詔削綸階級，並禁斷此戲。
In the seventh year of Zhenguan Duan Lun, the minister of works, brought forward a skilled man named Yang Siqi and presented him. Taizong had him tested, and Duan Lun had him make the gear for a puppet show. Taizong said to Duan Lun:
"The skilled craftsman you have presented is to serve the affairs of the state, and you had him make a thing like this first. How is that the meaning of the warning the craftsmen give one another, that they are not to make what is strange and cunning?"
At this he lowered Duan Lun's rank by edict, and forbade this kind of show and cut it off.