On Pacifying the Frontiers論安邊第三十六
貞觀四年，李靖擊突厥頡利，敗之，其部落多來歸降者。詔議安邊之策，中書令溫彥博議：「請於河南處之。準漢建武時，置降匈奴於五原塞下，全其部落，得為捍蔽，又不離其土俗，因而撫之，一則實空虛之地，二則示無猜之心，是含育之道也。」太宗從之。秘書監魏徵曰：「匈奴自古至今，未有如斯之破敗，此是上天剿絕，宗廟神武。且其世寇中國，萬姓冤仇，陛下以其為降，不能誅滅，即宜遣發河北，居其舊土。匈奴人面獸心，非我族類，強必寇盜，弱則卑伏，不顧恩義，其天性也。秦、漢患之者若是，故時發猛將以擊之，收其河南以為郡縣。陛下以內地居之，且今降者幾至十萬，數年之後，滋息過倍，居我肘腋，甫邇王畿，心腹之疾，將為後患，尤不可處以河南也。」溫彥博曰：「天子之於萬物也，天覆地載，有歸我者則必養之。今突厥破除，餘落歸附，陛下不加憐湣，棄而不納，非天地之道，阻四夷之意，臣愚甚謂不可，宜處之河南。所謂死而生之，亡而存之，懷我厚恩，終無叛逆。」魏徵曰：「晉代有魏時，胡部落分居近郡，江統勸逐出塞外，武帝不用其言，數年之後，遂傾瀍、洛。前代覆車，殷鑒不遠。陛下必用彥博言，遣居河南，所謂養獸自遺患也。」彥博又曰：「臣聞聖人之道，無所不通。突厥餘魂，以命歸我，收居內地，教以禮法，選其酋首，遣居宿衛，畏威懷德，何患之有？且光武居河南單於於內郡，以為漢藩翰，終於一代，不有叛逆。」又曰：「隋文帝勞兵馬，費倉庫，樹立可汗，令復其國，後孤恩失信，圍煬帝於雁門。今陛下仁厚，從其所欲，河南、河北，任情居住，各有酋長，不相統屬，力散勢分，安能為害？」給事中杜楚客進曰：「北狄人面獸心，難以德懷，易以威服。今令其部落散處河南，逼近中華，久必為患。至如雁門之役，雖是突厥背恩，自由隋主無道。中國以之喪亂，豈得云興復亡國以致此禍？夷不亂華，前哲明訓，存亡繼絕，列聖通規。臣恐事不師古，難以長久。」太宗嘉其言，方務懷柔，未之從也。卒用彥博策，自幽州至靈州，置順、祐、化、長四州都督府以處之，其人居長安者近且萬家。
In the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing struck Xieli of the Tujue and broke him, and many of his tribes came over and submitted. By edict the court was bidden to debate a plan for settling the frontier. Wen Yanbo, director of the Secretariat, gave his view:
"I ask that they be settled in Henan. Take for your measure the time of Jianwu under the Han, when the Xiongnu who had submitted were placed below the frontier forts of Wuyuan, so that their tribes were kept whole and became a shield, and when they were not made to leave the ways of their own soil but were comforted where they were. The first thing is that empty land is filled; the second is that a heart without suspicion is shown. This is the way of nurture and care."
Taizong followed this. Wei Zheng, director of the Palace Library, said:
"From of old until now the Xiongnu have never been broken and ruined as they are now. This is Heaven above cutting them off, and the divine might of the ancestral temple. They have robbed the Middle Kingdom age after age and are the foe of the ten thousand families. If Your Majesty cannot cut them down because they have submitted, then they should be sent away to Hebei to live in their old land.
"The Xiongnu have the face of men and the heart of beasts, and they are not of our kind. When strong they are sure to rob, when weak they bow low, and they look to no kindness and no right. This is their inborn nature. Qin and Han were troubled by them in just this way, and so from time to time they sent out fierce generals to strike them, and took back Henan and made it into commanderies and counties.
"Your Majesty would have them live in the inner land. Already those who have submitted come to nearly a hundred thousand, and in a few years their increase will be more than double. They would live at our elbow and our armpit, hard by the royal capital, a sickness of the heart and the belly, and they will become a trouble hereafter. Least of all may they be settled in Henan."
Wen Yanbo said:
"The Son of Heaven stands to all things as Heaven covers and Earth bears up, and if any turn to me, then they must be nurtured. Now the Tujue are broken and gone, and the remnant of their tribes has come over and joined us. If Your Majesty does not pity them but casts them away and does not take them in, this is not the way of Heaven and Earth, and it blocks the will of the barbarians of the four quarters. Your servant is foolish, yet I hold it very wrong. They should be settled in Henan. This is what is called giving life to what would die and keeping what would be lost. They will cherish our thick kindness, and in the end there will be no rebelling and no turning against us."
Wei Zheng said:
"In the age of Jin there were Hu tribes from the time of Wei who lived apart in the nearby commanderies. Jiang Tong urged that they be driven out beyond the frontier forts, but Emperor Wu did not use his words, and a few years later the lands of the Chan and the Luo were overthrown. It is the overturned cart of an age before us, and the mirror of Yin is not far off. If Your Majesty must use Yanbo's words and settle them in Henan, this is what is called rearing a beast and leaving trouble for oneself."
Yanbo spoke again:
"Your servant has heard that there is nothing the way of the sage does not reach. The remnant souls of the Tujue have come to us with their lives in their hands. Gather them in, settle them in the inner land, teach them rites and law, choose out their chiefs and send them to stand guard in the palace, and they will fear our majesty and cherish our virtue. What trouble can there be? Moreover Emperor Guangwu settled the chanyu of Henan in an inner commandery and made him a fence and a wall for the Han, and to the end of that age there was no rebelling and no turning against."
He said again:
"Emperor Wen of the Sui wore out his soldiers and horses and spent his storehouses to set up a khan and let him win his country back, and afterward that khan turned his back on the kindness and broke faith and hemmed in Emperor Yang at Yanmen. Now Your Majesty is kind and generous and follows what they wish. Let them live as they please in Henan and in Hebei, each with his own chief, so that they are not gathered one under another. Then their strength is scattered and their power divided. How can they do harm?"
Du Chuke, a supervising secretary, came forward and said:
"The barbarians of the north have the face of men and the heart of beasts. They are hard to cherish with virtue and easy to subdue with majesty. Now to scatter their tribes to live in Henan, pressing close upon Huaxia, will surely be a trouble in the long run.
"As for the battle at Yanmen, though it was the Tujue turning their backs on kindness, it came of itself from the lord of Sui having no way. The Middle Kingdom was hurt and thrown into disorder by this. How can it be said that raising up a fallen state and winning it back brought on this calamity? That the barbarians must not throw Huaxia into disorder is the clear teaching of the wise men before us, and to keep what is lost and to join what is cut off is the common rule of the many sages. Your servant fears that if a matter does not take the old ways for its teacher it will be hard to make it long endure."
Taizong thought his words fine, but he was then bent on cherishing and gentling them, and did not follow him. In the end he used Yanbo's plan. From Youzhou as far as Lingzhou he set up area commands in the four prefectures of Shun, You, Hua and Chang, and settled them there; and of their people who lived in Chang'an there were nearly ten thousand households.
自突厥頡利破後，諸部落首領來降者，皆拜將軍中郎將，布列朝廷，五品以上百餘人，殆與朝士相半。惟拓拔不至，又遣招慰之，使者相望於道。涼州都督李大亮以為於事無益，徒費中國，上疏曰：「臣聞欲綏遠者必先安近。中國百姓，天下根本，四夷之人，猶於枝葉，擾其根本以厚枝葉，而求久安，未之有也。自古明王，化中國以信，馭夷狄以權。故《春秋》云：『戎狄豺狼，不可厭也；諸夏親昵，不可棄也。』自陛下君臨區宇，深根固本，人逸兵強，九州殷富，四夷自服。今者招致突厥，雖入提封，臣愚稍覺勞費，未悟其有益也。然河西民庶，鎮禦藩夷，州縣蕭條，戶口鮮少，加因隋亂，減耗尤多，突厥未平之前，尚不安業，匈奴微弱以來，始就農畝，若即勞役，恐致防損，以臣愚惑，請停招慰。且謂之荒服者，故臣而不納。是以周室愛民攘狄，竟延八百之齡；秦王輕戰事胡，故四十載而絕滅。漢文養兵靜守，天下安豐；孝武揚威遠略，海內虛耗，雖悔輪臺，追已不及。至於隋室，早得伊吾，兼統鄯善，且既得之後，勞費日甚，虛內致外，竟損無益。遠尋秦、漢，近觀隋室，動靜安危，昭然備矣。伊吾雖已臣附，遠在藩磧，民非夏人，地多沙鹵。其自豎立稱藩附庸者，請羈縻受之，使居塞外，必畏威懷德，永為藩臣，蓋行虛惠而收實福矣。近日突厥傾國入朝，既不能俘之江淮，以變其俗，乃置於內地，去京不遠，雖則寬仁之義，亦非久安之計也。每見一人初降，賜物五匹，袍一領，酋長悉授大官，祿厚位尊，理多糜費。以中國之租賦，供積惡之兇虜，其眾益多，非中國之利也。」太宗不納。
After Xieli of the Tujue was broken, the chiefs of the many tribes who came and submitted were all given the rank of general or of general of the household, and they stood ranged in the court. Those of the fifth rank and above were more than a hundred men, making up nearly half the officers of the court. Only the Tuoba did not come, and men were sent again to call them and comfort them, so that the envoys were within sight of one another on the road.
Li Daliang, area commander in chief of Liangzhou, held that this was of no gain to the matter and only spent the Middle Kingdom, and he sent up a memorial:
"Your servant has heard that one who would make the far places quiet must first make the near places safe. The people of the Middle Kingdom are the root and the stock of all under heaven, and the men of the barbarians of the four quarters are as branches and leaves. To shake the root and the stock in order to thicken the branches and the leaves, and to look for long safety, has never yet been.
"From of old the bright kings led the Middle Kingdom by good faith and handled the barbarians by weighing the scales. Therefore the Chunqiu says, 'The Rong and the Di are jackals and wolves, and there is no sating them; the many states of Huaxia are near and dear, and they may not be cast away.'
"Since Your Majesty came as lord over the whole region, the root has been deepened and the stock made firm, the people are at ease and the soldiers strong, the nine provinces are rich and full, and the barbarians of the four quarters submit of themselves. Yet now the Tujue have been called in, and though they have entered within our bounds, your servant is foolish and feels only that the toil and the cost grow, and does not see where the gain lies.
"The common people of Hexi hold down and ward off the barbarians of the frontier, and their prefectures and counties are desolate and their households few and thin. Added to this, the losses through the disorder of the Sui were greater still. Before the Tujue were put down they were not yet settled in their work, and only after the Xiongnu grew weak did they go out to the fields. If they are now put at once to forced labor, I fear it will take away from the guarding and the warding. In the foolish and clouded thought of your servant, I ask that the calling and comforting be stopped.
"Moreover, what is called the wild land is for that reason made to serve without being taken in. So the house of Zhou loved its people and thrust back the barbarians, and in the end stretched out its years to eight hundred; the king of Qin made light of war and busied himself with the Hu, and so was cut off and gone in forty years. Emperor Wen of the Han reared his soldiers and kept still, and all under heaven was safe and full; Emperor Xiaowu spread his majesty and schemed far, and all within the seas was emptied and worn, and though he repented at Luntai, he ran after it and could no longer reach it.
"When it came to the house of Sui, it gained Yiwu early and took Shanshan under its rule as well; yet after it had them the toil and the cost grew heavier by the day, and the inside was emptied to reach the outside, so that in the end there was only loss and no gain. Seek back to Qin and Han far off, look at the house of Sui near at hand, and moving and staying still, safety and danger, are all set out plainly.
"Though Yiwu has already submitted and joined us, it lies far off in the sands of the frontier, its people are not men of Huaxia, and its land is much sand and salt. As for those who set themselves up, call themselves a border state and come as dependents, I ask that you take them in with a loose halter and let them live beyond the frontier forts. Then they will surely fear our majesty and cherish our virtue and be fence and wall for long years. This is to deal out an empty kindness and gather in a solid blessing.
"Of late the Tujue have come into the court with their whole country. Since they could not be carried off to the lands of the Jiang and the Huai so as to change their ways, they have been set in the inner land, not far from the capital. Though this is the meaning of generosity and kindness, it is not a plan for long safety either. Each time one man first submits, five bolts of goods and one robe are given him, and the chiefs are all given great office, so that their pay is thick and their seats high, and by rights much of it is spent for nothing. To use the taxes of the Middle Kingdom to keep fierce barbarians who have heaped up cruelty, and to make their host greater still, is no gain to the Middle Kingdom."
Taizong did not take this in.
十三年，太宗幸九成宮。突利可汗弟中郎將阿史那結社率陰結所部，並擁突利子賀羅鶻夜犯御營，事敗，皆捕斬之。太宗自是不直突厥，悔處其部眾於中國，還其舊部於河北，建牙於故定襄城，立李思摩為乙彌泥熟俟利苾可汗以主之。因謂侍臣曰「中國百姓，實天下之根本，四夷之人，乃同枝葉，擾其根本以厚枝葉，而求久安，未之有也。初不納魏徵言，遂覺勞費日甚，幾失久安之道。」
In the thirteenth year Taizong went out to the Jiucheng Palace. Ashina Jieshelü, general of the household and younger brother of Tuli Khan, secretly bound his own men to him, and together with Heluogu, the son of Tuli, whom they held with them, he fell upon the imperial camp by night. When the matter came to nothing, they were all seized and cut down.
From this time Taizong no longer thought the Tujue straight. He repented of having settled their tribes in the Middle Kingdom, and he sent their old tribes back to Hebei and had them raise their standard at the old city of Dingxiang, and he set up Li Simo as Yimi Nishu Sili Bi Khan to rule them. Then he said to the ministers in attendance:
"The people of the Middle Kingdom are truly the root and the stock of all under heaven, and the men of the barbarians of the four quarters are as branches and leaves. To shake the root and the stock in order to thicken the branches and the leaves, and to look for long safety, has never yet been. At first I did not take in the words of Wei Zheng, and so I came to feel the toil and the cost grow heavier by the day, and I all but lost the way of long safety."
貞觀十四年，侯君集平高昌之後，太宗欲以其地為州縣。魏徵曰：「陛下初臨天下，高昌王先來朝謁，自後數有商胡稱其遏絕貢獻，加之不禮大國詔使，遂使王誅載加。若罪止文泰，斯亦可矣。未若因撫其民而立其子，所謂伐罪吊民，威德被於遐外，為國之善者也。今若利其土壤以為州縣，常須千餘人鎮守，數年一易。每來往交替，死者十有三四，遣辦衣資，離別親戚。十年之後，隴右空虛，陛下終不得高昌撮谷尺布以助於中國。所謂散有用而事無用，臣未見其可。」太宗不從，竟以其地置西州，仍以西州為安西都護府，每歲調發千餘人防遏其地。
In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, after Hou Junji had put down Gaochang, Taizong wished to make that land into prefectures and counties. Wei Zheng said:
"When Your Majesty first came over all under heaven, the king of Gaochang was the first to come to court and be received. After that, merchants from the barbarians said more than once that he blocked and cut off the tribute, and on top of this he was without ceremony toward the envoys of a great state who bore the edict, and so at last the king was cut down. If the guilt had stopped at Wentai, this too would have served. Yet it would have been better to comfort his people and set up his son. This is what is called striking the guilty and consoling the people, so that majesty and virtue cover the far outer lands. It is the good road for ruling a state.
"If now the land is thought a gain and made into prefectures and counties, more than a thousand men must always be camped there to guard it, and they must be changed once in some years. At every coming and going and changing of the watch, three or four in ten will die, and clothing and means must be got ready and sent, and kinsmen must part. After ten years the region of Longyou will be empty, and in the end Your Majesty will not get from Gaochang a handful of grain or a foot of cloth to help the Middle Kingdom. This is what is called scattering what is of use to do what is of no use, and your servant does not see that it is right."
Taizong did not follow him, and in the end he set up Xizhou in that land, and then made Xizhou into the Protectorate General of Anxi, and every year more than a thousand men were levied and sent to guard and ward that land.
黃門侍郎褚遂良亦以為不可，上疏曰：「臣聞古者哲后臨朝，明王創業，必先華夏而後夷狄，廣諸德化，不事遐荒。是以周宣薄伐，至境而反；始皇遠塞，中國分離。陛下誅滅高昌，威加西域，收其鯨鯢，以為州縣。然則王師初發之歲，河西供役之年，飛芻挽粟，十室九空，數郡蕭然，五年不復。陛下每歲遣千餘人而遠事屯戍，終年離別，萬里思歸。去者資裝，自須營辦，既賣菽粟，傾其機杼。經途死亡，復在言外。兼遣罪人，增其防遏，所遣之內，復有逃亡，官司捕捉，為國生事。高昌途路，沙磧千里，冬風冰冽，夏風如焚，行人遇之多死。《易》云『安不忘危，治不忘亂。』設令張掖塵飛，酒泉烽舉，陛下豈能得高昌一人菽粟而及事乎？終須發隴右諸州，星馳電擊。由斯而言，此河西者方於心腹，彼高昌者他人手足，豈得糜費中華，以事無用？陛下平頡利於沙塞，滅吐渾於西海，突厥餘落，為立可汗，葉渾遺萌，更樹君長，復立高昌，非無前例，此所謂有罪而誅之，既服而存之。宜擇高昌可立者，徵給首領，遣還本國，負戴洪恩，長為藩翰。中國不擾，既富且寧，傳之子孫，以貽後代。」疏奏，不納。
Chu Suiliang, vice director of the Chancellery, also held it wrong, and sent up a memorial:
"Your servant has heard that when the wise lords of old came to court and the bright kings opened their work, they always put Huaxia first and the barbarians after, spread abroad the many virtues and the turning of men, and did not busy themselves with the far wild lands. So King Xuan of Zhou struck lightly and turned back when he reached the border, while the First Emperor built his frontier forts far off, and the Middle Kingdom was split and scattered.
"Your Majesty has cut down Gaochang and laid your majesty upon the Western Regions, and has gathered in its chiefs and made it into prefectures and counties. Yet in the year the royal army first set out, and in the year Hexi served in the labor, fodder was flown and grain was hauled, nine houses in ten stood empty, and several commanderies were left desolate and have not recovered in five years.
"Your Majesty sends more than a thousand men every year to be camped and to guard far away. They are parted from their own to the end of the year and long to go home from ten thousand miles off. The means and the outfit of those who go must be got ready by themselves, so that they sell their beans and grain and turn out even their looms. The deaths along the road lie outside this speech again. Convicts are sent as well to add to the guarding and the warding, and among those sent there are some who run away again, and the offices must seize them, so that the matter breeds trouble for the state.
"The road to Gaochang is a thousand miles of sand and gravel, where the winter wind is cold as ice and the summer wind is as if burning, and travelers who meet with it often die. The Book of Changes says, 'In safety do not forget danger, in order do not forget disorder.' Suppose dust were to fly at Zhangye and the beacons were raised at Jiuquan. How could Your Majesty get one man's beans and grain from Gaochang in time for the matter? In the end the several prefectures of Longyou must be sent out, to run like stars and strike like lightning.
"Speaking from this, Hexi here may be likened to the heart and the belly, while Gaochang there is another man's hands and feet. How can Huaxia be spent for nothing to busy ourselves with what is of no use? Your Majesty put down Xieli at the sand forts and destroyed the Tuyuhun at the Western Sea, and for the remnant tribes of the Tujue you set up a khan, and for the remaining shoots of the Tuyuhun you set up a lord and elder again. To set up Gaochang again is not without a case before it. This is what is called cutting down those who are guilty and keeping those who have submitted.
"One fit to be set up should be chosen from Gaochang, called and given the headship, and sent back to his own country. Then he will bear your great kindness on his back and his head and will be fence and wall for long years. The Middle Kingdom will not be troubled, and will be both rich and quiet, and you will hand this down to your sons and grandsons and leave it to the ages after."
The memorial was laid before him, but he did not take it in.
至十六年，西突厥遣兵寇西州，太宗謂侍臣曰：「朕聞西州有警急，雖不足為害，然豈能無憂乎？往者初平高昌，魏徵、褚遂良勸朕立麴文泰子弟，依舊為國，朕竟不用其計，今日方自悔責。昔漢高祖遭平城之圍而賞婁敬，袁紹敗於官渡而誅田豐，朕恒以此二事為誡，寧得忘所言者乎！」
When it came to the sixteenth year, the Western Tujue sent soldiers to raid Xizhou. Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"I have heard that there is an urgent alarm in Xizhou. Though it is not enough to do harm, how can I be without care? In earlier days, when Gaochang had just been put down, Wei Zheng and Chu Suiliang urged me to set up a son or a younger brother of Qu Wentai and let it be a country as before, and I did not use their plan in the end, and only today do I blame and repent of myself. Long ago Gaozu of the Han met with the encirclement at Pingcheng and then rewarded Lou Jing, and Yuan Shao was broken at Guandu and then cut down Tian Feng. I hold these two matters always as a warning. How could I forget those who have spoken?"