On Imperial Progresses論行幸第三十七
貞觀初，太宗謂侍臣曰：「隋煬帝廣造宮室，以肆行幸。自西京至東都，離宮別館，相望道次，乃至并州、涿郡，無不悉然。馳道皆廣數百步，種樹以飾其傍。人力不堪，相聚為賊。逮至末年，尺土一人，非復己有。以此觀之，廣宮室，好行幸，竟有何益？此皆朕耳所聞，目所見，深以自誡。故不敢輕用人力，惟令百姓安靜，不有怨叛而已。」
At the beginning of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"Emperor Yang of the Sui built palaces and halls far and wide so that he might go out on progress as he pleased. From the Western Capital to the Eastern Capital, detached palaces and lodges stood within sight of one another along the road, and so it was as far as Bingzhou and the commandery of Zhuo, with no place left out. The running roads were all some hundreds of paces wide, and trees were planted to adorn their sides. The strength of men could not bear it, and they gathered together and became robbers. By his last years not a foot of land and not one man was his own any longer.
"Seen by this, what gain is there in the end in making palaces and halls wide and in loving to go out on progress? All this I have heard with my ears and seen with my eyes, and I take it deeply as a warning to myself. Therefore I do not dare to use the strength of men lightly, but only make the people quiet and at rest, so that there is no resentment and no rebelling."
貞觀十一年，太宗幸洛陽宮，泛舟於積翠池，顧謂侍臣曰：「此宮觀臺沼並煬帝所為，所謂驅役生民，窮此雕麗，復不能守此一都，以萬民為慮。好行幸不息，民所不堪。昔詩人云：『何草不黃？何日不行？』『小東大東，杼軸其空。』正謂此也。遂使天下怨叛，身死國滅，今其宮苑盡為我有。隋氏傾覆者，豈惟其君無道，亦由股肱無良。如宇文述、虞世基、裴蘊之徒，居高官，食厚祿，受人委任，惟行諂佞，蔽塞聰明，欲令其國無危，不可得也。」司空長孫無忌奏言：「隋氏之亡，其君則杜塞忠讜之言，臣則茍欲自全，左右有過，初不糾舉，寇盜滋蔓，亦不實陳。據此，即不惟天道，實由君臣不相匡弼。」太宗曰：「朕與卿等承其餘弊，惟須弘道移風，使萬世永賴矣。」
In the eleventh year of Zhenguan, Taizong went out to the Luoyang Palace, and as he floated a boat on Jicui Pond he looked round at the ministers in attendance and said:
"This palace and its towers and terraces and pools were all made by Emperor Yang. It is what is called driving the living people to labor and spending to the end all this carving and beauty; and then he could not hold even this one capital, nor take the ten thousand families for his care. He loved to go out on progress and did not stop, and the people could not bear it.
"The poet of old said, 'What plant does not turn yellow? What day do we not march?' and, 'In the small east and the great east the shuttles of the looms are empty.' It is just this that is meant. So in the end all under heaven resented him and rebelled, his body was slain and his state was lost, and now his palaces and his parks have all become mine.
"That the house of Sui was overturned, was it only that its lord had no way? It also came of the ministers who were his arms and legs not being good. Such men as Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji and Pei Yun held high office and ate thick pay and received what was entrusted to them by others, and yet they practiced nothing but flattery and blocked and shut off what he heard and saw. To wish that such a state should be without danger was not to be had."
Zhangsun Wuji, minister of works, said:
"In the fall of the house of Sui, the lord shut off and blocked loyal and straight words, while the ministers meanly wished only to keep themselves whole; when there was a fault at his right hand and his left they did not from the first bring it out and set it straight, and when robbers grew and spread they did not lay out the truth either. Going by this, it was not the way of Heaven alone; it truly came of lord and minister not setting each other straight and helping each other."
Taizong said:
"I and you, my lords, have taken over what remains of that ruin. We must only make the way broad and shift the customs, so that ten thousand ages may lean upon it for ever."
貞觀十三年，太宗謂魏徵等曰：「隋煬帝承文帝餘業，海內殷阜，若能常處關中，豈有傾敗？遂不顧百姓，行幸無期，徑往江都，不納董純、崔象等諫諍，身戮國滅，為天下笑。雖復帝祚長短，委以玄天，而福善禍淫，亦由人事。朕每思之，若欲君臣長久，國無危敗，君有違失，臣須極言。朕聞卿等規諫，縱不能當時即從，再三思審，必擇善而用之。」
In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to Wei Zheng and the others:
"Emperor Yang of the Sui took over the work left by Emperor Wen, and all within the seas was rich and full. If he had been able to stay always in Guanzhong, how could there have been an overturning and a ruin? Yet he did not look to the people, and there was no fixed term to his progresses, and he went straight off to Jiangdu, and he did not take in the remonstrances of Dong Chun and Cui Xiang and the rest, and his body was slain and his state was lost and he became the laughingstock of all under heaven.
"Though the length or the shortness of an emperor's fortune is again entrusted to the dark heaven, yet blessing the good and bringing calamity on the lewd also comes of the doings of men. Whenever I think on this, I see that if lord and minister are to last long and the state to be without danger and ruin, then when the lord has a fault and a failing the minister must speak to the end. When I hear the ordered remonstrance of you, my lords, even if I cannot follow it at once at the time, I think and look it over twice and three times, and I am sure to choose out the good in it and use it."
貞觀十二年，太宗東巡狩，將入洛，次於顯仁宮，宮苑官司多被責罰。侍中魏徵進言曰：「陛下今幸洛州，為是舊征行處，庶其安定，故欲加恩故老。城郭之民未蒙德惠，官司苑監多及罪辜，或以供奉之物不精，又以不為獻食。此則不思止足，志在奢靡，既乖行幸本心，何以副百姓所望？隋主先命在下多作獻食，獻食不多，則有威罰。上之所好，下必有甚，競為無限，遂至滅亡。此非載籍所聞，陛下目所親見。為其無道，故天命陛下代之。當戰戰栗栗，每事省約，參蹤前列，昭訓子孫，奈何今日欲在人之下？陛下若以為足，今日不啻足矣；若以為不足，萬倍於此，亦不足也。」太宗大驚曰：「非公，朕不聞此言。自今已後，庶幾無如此事。」
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Taizong made a round to the east to hunt, and as he was about to enter Luoyang he stopped at the Xianren Palace, where the officers of the palace and the park were often blamed and punished. Wei Zheng, director of the Chancellery, came forward and said:
"That Your Majesty has now gone out to Luozhou is because this is the place where you marched on campaign in the old days, and you hope that the people here are settled and wish to add kindness to the old men of former times. Yet the people of the city walls have not yet received your virtue and your kindness, while the officers and the keepers of the park are often caught in guilt. Sometimes it is said that the things offered up were not fine, and again that no food was presented.
"This, then, is not to think of stopping and of enough, but to have one's mind on extravagance and show. It runs against the first intent of the progress, so with what will you meet what the people hope for?
"The lord of Sui first ordered those below him to make many presentations of food, and if the food presented was not much, then punishment in his majesty followed. What is loved above is sure to be carried further below, and they strove at it without limit, and so he came at last to destruction. This is not something heard from the old records; it is what Your Majesty saw with your own eyes. Because he had no way, Heaven ordered Your Majesty to take his place.
"You ought to tremble and shake, and in every matter cut down and keep within bounds, so as to set your steps beside the ranks that went before and teach your sons and grandsons brightly. How then would you today wish to stand below another man? If Your Majesty holds it enough, then today it is not merely enough, it is more than enough. If Your Majesty holds it not enough, then ten thousand times this would not be enough either."
Taizong was greatly startled and said:
"But for you, my lord, I would not have heard these words. From this day on there will hardly be such a thing again."