On Tribute and Taxation論貢賦第三十三
貞觀二年，太宗謂朝集使曰：「任土作貢，布在前典，當州所產，則充庭實。比聞都督、刺史邀射聲名，厥土所賦，或嫌其不善，逾意外求，更相仿效，遂以成俗。極為勞擾，宜改此弊，不得更然。」
In the second year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the envoys of the court assembly:
"That tribute is laid on the land and made from it is set out in the statutes of old, and what a prefecture brings forth is what fills the courtyard. Of late I hear that governors general and prefects, seeking a name and a report, are displeased that what their own soil yields is not fine enough, and go beyond their charge to seek elsewhere, and that they copy one another until it has become a custom. It is a heavy trouble and burden. This abuse should be mended, and it must not go on."
貞觀中，林邑國貢白鸚鵡，性辯慧，尤善應答，屢有苦寒之言。太宗湣之，付其使，令還出於林藪。
In the years of Zhenguan the kingdom of Linyi offered a white parrot. Its nature was discerning and clever, and it answered questions especially well, and again and again it said that it was suffering from the cold. Taizong pitied it and gave it over to their envoy, to be sent back and let out into the woods.
貞觀十二年，疏勒、朱俱波、甘棠遣使貢方物，太宗謂群臣曰：「向使中國不安，日南、西域朝貢使亦何緣而至？朕何德以堪之？睹此翻懷危懼。近代平一天下，拓定邊方者，惟秦皇、漢武。始皇暴虐，至子而亡。漢武驕奢，國祚幾絕。朕提三尺劍以定四海，遠夷率服，億兆乂安，自謂不減二主也。然二主末途，皆不能自保，由是每自懼危亡，必不敢懈怠。惟藉公等直言正諫，以相匡弼。若惟揚美隱惡，共進諛言，則國之危亡，可立而待也。」
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Shule and Zhujubo and Gantang sent envoys to offer the goods of their lands. Taizong said to his assembled ministers:
"If the Middle Kingdom were not at peace, on what account would the tribute envoys of Rinan and the Western Regions come at all? By what virtue of mine could I bear it? Seeing this, I feel instead danger and fear.
"In recent ages those who settled all under heaven into one and opened and fixed the borders were only the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han. The First Emperor was cruel, and by his son's time the house was gone. Emperor Wu of Han was proud and extravagant, and the fortune of the state was all but cut off. I took up a three-foot sword and settled the four seas, and the far tribes all submit and the countless people are ordered and at peace. I may say of myself that I am not less than those two rulers. Yet both of those rulers, at the end of their road, could not keep themselves. Because of this I always fear that I may fall into danger and ruin, and I dare not be slack. I rely only on the straight words and upright remonstrance of you gentlemen, that we may correct and help one another. If you only lift up what is fine and hide what is evil, and all bring forward flattering words, then the danger and the ruin of the state may be awaited standing."
貞觀十八年，太宗將伐高麗，其莫離支遣使貢白金。黃門侍郎褚遂良諫曰：「莫離支虐殺其主，九夷所不容，陛下以之興兵，將事吊伐，為遼東之人報主辱之恥。古者討弒君之賊，不受其賂。昔宋督遺魯君以郜鼎，桓公受之於大廟，臧哀伯諫曰：『君人者將昭德塞違，今滅德立違，而置其賂器於大廟，百官象之，又何誅焉？武王克商，遷九鼎於雒邑，義士猶或非之，而況將昭違亂之賂器置諸大廟，其若之何？』夫《春秋》之書，百王取則，若受不臣之筐篚，納弒逆之朝貢，不以為愆，將何致伐？臣謂莫離支所獻，自不合受。」太宗從之。
In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, when Taizong was about to attack Goguryeo, its mangniji sent an envoy to offer white gold. Chu Suiliang, the vice director of the Chancellery, remonstrated:
"The mangniji cruelly killed his own lord, which the nine tribes will not suffer, and for this Your Majesty raises troops and is about to comfort the people and punish the guilty, and to avenge for the men of Liaodong the shame their lord suffered. In old times, when men punished the bandit who had killed his ruler, they did not receive his bribes.
"Long ago Hua Du of Song sent the cauldron of Gao to the lord of Lu, and Duke Huan received it in the great shrine. Zang Aibo remonstrated: 'He who is lord over men should make virtue bright and shut out what is wayward. Now if you put out virtue and set up waywardness, and place this vessel of bribery in the great shrine, the hundred officials will take it as their model, and what will you then punish? When King Wu overcame Shang and moved the nine cauldrons to Luoyi, men of righteousness still found fault with it. How much more, when you would set a vessel of wayward and disorderly bribery openly in the great shrine. What is to be done about it?'
"Now the writing of the Chunqiu is what a hundred kings take as their rule. If you receive the basket of one who is no subject, and take in the tribute of one who has killed his lord, and do not count it a fault, with what will you make your punishing campaign? Your servant holds that what the mangniji has offered should not be received."
Taizong followed this.
貞觀十九年，高麗王高藏及莫離支蓋蘇文遣使獻二美女，太宗謂其使曰：「朕憫此女離其父母兄弟於本國，若愛其色而傷其心，我不取也。」並卻還之本國。
In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, Go Jang, the king of Goguryeo, and Gaesomun the mangniji sent an envoy to present two beautiful women. Taizong said to their envoy:
"I pity these women, who have left their fathers and mothers and brothers in their own country. If I were to love their beauty and wound their hearts, I would not take them."
And he sent them back to their country.