On Caution to the End論慎終第四十
貞觀五年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「自古帝王亦不能常化，假令內安，必有外擾。當今遠夷率服，百穀豐稔，盜賊不作，內外寧靜。此非朕一人之力，實由公等共相匡輔。然安不忘危，治不忘亂，雖知今日無事，亦須思其終始。常得如此，始是可貴也。」魏徵對曰：「自古已來，元首股肱不能備具，或時君稱聖，臣即不賢，或遇賢臣，即無聖主。今陛下明，所以致治。向若直有賢臣，而君不思化，亦無所益。天下今雖太平，臣等猶未以為喜，惟願陛下居安思危，孜孜不怠耳！」
In the fifth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"From of old even emperors and kings could not keep the work of governing going on for ever. If it was quiet within, there was sure to be trouble without. Now the far tribes all submit, the hundred grains ripen in plenty, robbers and thieves do not rise, and within and without all is quiet and still. This is not the strength of me alone. It comes truly from you gentlemen setting things right and helping one another together.
"Yet in safety one must not forget danger, and in order one must not forget disorder. Though I know that today there is nothing amiss, still I must think of the beginning and the end of it. Only when one can always be like this is the thing worth prizing."
Wei Zheng answered:
"From of old the head and the limbs have not been complete together. Sometimes the ruler of the time was called a sage, but the ministers were not worthy. Sometimes worthy ministers were met with, but there was no sage ruler. Now Your Majesty is enlightened, and so good order has been reached. If there were only worthy ministers and the ruler gave no thought to governing, there would be no gain in that either. All under heaven is now at peace, yet we your servants do not take this for gladness. We wish only that Your Majesty dwell in safety and think of danger, and be diligent and not slack."
貞觀六年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「自古人君為善者，多不能堅守其事。漢高祖，泗上一亭長耳，初能拯危誅暴，以成帝業，然更延十數年，縱逸之敗，亦不可保。何以知之？孝惠為嫡嗣之重，溫恭仁孝，而高帝惑於愛姬之子，欲行廢立，蕭何、韓信功業既高，蕭既妄系，韓亦濫黜，自餘功臣黥布之輩懼而不安，至於反逆。君臣父子之間悖謬若此，豈非難保之明驗也？朕所以不敢恃天下之安，每思危亡以自戒懼，用保其終。」
In the sixth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"From of old, rulers of men who did good were for the most part unable to hold firmly to what they did. Emperor Gao of Han was no more than the headman of a post station by the Si. At the first he could save men from danger and cut down the violent, and so he made the work of an emperor. But had his years been stretched another ten or more, the ruin that comes of unchecked ease could not have been kept off either.
"How do I know this? Emperor Xiaohui had the weight of the rightful heir and was mild and respectful, kind and filial, yet Emperor Gao was led astray by the son of a favored woman and would have put one down and set up another. Xiao He and Han Xin were already high in merit and achievement, yet Xiao He was recklessly put in bonds and Han Xin was recklessly cast out. The other meritorious ministers, Qing Bu and his like, grew afraid and were not at ease, and so came to turn and rebel. Between ruler and minister, between father and son, things went as awry and as wrong as this. Is this not a plain proof of how hard it is to hold what one has? For this reason I dare not lean upon the safety of all under heaven. I always think of danger and ruin, so as to warn and fear myself and to keep the end of it."
貞觀九年，太宗謂公卿曰：「朕端拱無為，四夷咸服，豈朕一人之所致，實賴諸公之力耳！當思善始令終，永固鴻業，子子孫孫，遞相輔翼。使豐功厚利施於來葉，令數百年後讀我國史，鴻勛茂業粲然可觀，豈惟稱隆周、炎漢及建武、永平故事而已哉！」房玄齡因進曰：「陛下撝挹之志，推功群下，致理升平，本關聖德，臣下何力之有？惟願陛下有始有卒，則天下永賴。」太宗又曰：「朕觀古先撥亂之主皆年逾四十，惟光武年三十三。但朕年十八便舉兵，年二十四定天下，年二十九升為天子，此則武勝於古也。少從戎旅，不暇讀書，貞觀以來，手不釋卷，知風化之本，見政理之源。行之數年，天下大治而風移俗變，子孝臣忠，此又文過於古也。昔周、秦以降，戎狄內侵，今戎狄稽顙，皆為臣妾，此又懷遠勝古也。此三者，朕何德以堪之？既有此功業，何得不善始慎終耶！」
In the ninth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the high officers:
"I straighten my robe and fold my hands and do nothing, and yet the tribes of the four quarters all submit. How could this be the doing of me alone? It rests truly on the strength of you gentlemen. We must think to begin well and to end well, to make this great work firm for all time, and to have sons and grandsons in their turn help one another and be wings to one another. Let rich merit and thick benefit be spread upon the ages to come. Let those who read the history of our state some hundreds of years hence find great achievement and flourishing work shining and worth the sight. Why should it be only the flourishing house of Zhou and the fiery house of Han and the old affairs of the Jianwu and Yongping years that men speak of?"
Fang Xuanling thereupon came forward and said:
"By your will to yield and give way, Your Majesty pushes the merit off upon your many servants below. That good order has risen to great peace hangs, in truth, upon your sage virtue. What strength have your servants below in it? We wish only that Your Majesty have a beginning and have an end, and then all under heaven will lean upon you for ever."
Taizong said again:
"I see that the rulers of old who set right a time of disorder were all past forty in years, and only Emperor Guangwu was thirty-three. But I raised troops at eighteen, settled all under heaven at twenty-four, and rose to be Son of Heaven at twenty-nine. In this my arms are better than those of old.
"Young, I followed the camps and had no leisure to read. But since the Zhenguan years my hand has not let go of a book. I have come to know the root of custom and of governing and to see the source of policy and of rule. Some years of doing this, and all under heaven is greatly ordered, custom has shifted and manners have changed, sons are filial and ministers are loyal. In this again my letters are better than those of old.
"From the houses of Zhou and Qin onward the border tribes pressed in upon the land. Now the border tribes knock their foreheads on the ground and are all servants and handmaids. In this again my drawing in of the far peoples is better than of old. By what virtue of mine could I bear these three things? Since there is such work and merit, how can I not begin well and be careful of the end?"
貞觀十二年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「朕讀書見前王善事，皆力行而不倦，其所任用公輩數人，誠以為賢。然致理比於三、五之代，猶為不逮，何也？」魏徵對曰：「今四夷賓服，天下無事，誠曠古所未有。然自古帝王初即位者，皆欲勵精為政，比跡於堯、舜；及其安樂也，則驕奢放逸，莫能終其善。人臣初見任用者，皆欲匡主濟時，追縱於稷、契；及其富貴也，則思茍全官爵，莫能盡其忠節。若使君臣常無懈怠，各保其終，則天下無憂不理，自可超邁前古也。」太宗曰：「誠如卿言。」
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"When I read books and see the good deeds of the kings before me, I set myself to do them all and do not tire, and I hold the several gentlemen I have given office to be truly worthy. Yet if the order we have reached is set beside the age of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, it still falls short. Why is this?"
Wei Zheng answered:
"Now the tribes of the four quarters come as guests and submit, and all under heaven is without trouble. This is truly what the far ages of old did not have. Yet from of old those emperors and kings who had newly come to the seat all wished to gather their spirit and govern and to match their tracks with Yao and Shun. But when they came to be at ease and happy, then they grew proud and extravagant and gave themselves to idle pleasure, and none could carry their goodness to the end. Those ministers who had newly been given office all wished to set the ruler right and to save the age, and to follow the tracks of Houji and Xie. But when they came to be rich and honored, then they thought only of keeping office and rank as best they could, and none could fulfil their loyal duty.
"If ruler and minister were never slack and each kept the end of it, then there would be no fear that all under heaven should not be ordered, and of itself it could stride past the ages before us."
Taizong said:
"It is truly as you say."
貞觀十三年，魏徵恐太宗不能克終儉約，近歲頗好奢縱，上疏諫曰：
In the thirteenth year of Zhenguan, Wei Zheng feared that Taizong could not carry thrift and sparing through to the end, for in the last few years he had grown rather fond of extravagance and license. So he sent up a memorial of remonstrance saying:
臣觀自古帝王受圖定鼎，皆欲傳之萬代，貽厥孫謀。故其垂拱巖廊，布政天下。其語道也，必先淳樸而抑浮華；其論人也，必貴忠良而鄙邪佞；言制度也，則絕奢靡而崇儉約；談物產也，則重穀帛而賤珍奇。然受命之初，皆遵之以成治；稍安之後，多反之而敗俗。其故何哉？豈不以居萬乘之尊，有四海之富，出言而莫己逆，所為而人必從，公道溺於私情，禮節虧於嗜欲故也？語曰：「非知之難，行之為難；非行之難，終之斯難。」所言信矣。
I see that from of old the emperors and kings who received the chart and set down the caldrons all wished to hand it on for ten thousand generations and to leave a plan for their grandsons. Therefore they let their robes hang down in the high hall and spread their government over all under heaven.
When they spoke of the way, they always put plainness first and held down floating splendor. When they judged men, they always prized the loyal and the good and thought little of the crooked and the flattering. When they spoke of institutions, they cut off extravagance and display and held thrift and sparing high. When they talked of the goods of the land, they held grain and silk to be weighty and thought jewels and rarities cheap.
Yet at the beginning, when they had newly received the mandate, they all followed this and made good order. After a little ease had come, they often turned it about and broke down the custom. What is the reason for this? Is it not that they sat in the honor of ten thousand chariots and held the riches of the four seas, so that when they spoke out none could cross them and what they did men were bound to follow, and thus the public way sank into private feeling and the bounds of propriety were broken by their appetites and desires?
An old saying runs, "It is not the knowing that is hard; the doing is hard. It is not the doing that is hard; the ending of it is what is hard." What it says is worthy of trust.
伏惟陛下年甫弱冠，大拯橫流，削平區宇，肇開帝業。貞觀之初，時方克壯，抑損嗜欲，躬行節儉，內外康寧，遂臻至治。論功則湯、武不足方，語德則堯、舜未為遠。臣自擢居左右，十有餘年，每侍帷幄，屢奉明旨。常許仁義之道，守之而不失；儉約之志，終始而不渝。一言興邦，斯之謂也。德音在耳，敢忘之乎？而頃年以來，稍乖曩志，敦樸之理，漸不克終。謹以所聞，列之於左：
I bow and consider that Your Majesty, when your years had just reached the cap of manhood, saved the age from the flood of disorder that ran across it, cut down and made level the whole region, and first opened the work of an emperor. At the beginning of Zhenguan, when the time was at its strongest, you held down and cut back your appetites and desires and yourself practiced restraint and thrift, so that within and without were sound and at rest, and the utmost good order was reached at last. If your merit be weighed, Tang of Shang and Wu are not enough to be set beside it. If your virtue be spoken of, Yao and Shun are not far off.
Since I was picked out to stand at your left and right it is more than ten years, and whenever I attended within the tent I received your clear intent again and again. You always granted that you would hold the way of benevolence and right conduct and not lose it, and that the will to thrift and sparing would not change from the beginning to the end. That a single word raises up a state is said of this. Your virtuous words are in my ears. Would I dare forget them?
Yet in the last few years there has been a little going astray from the will of former days, and the rule of plain and honest ways is by degrees not carried to the end. I respectfully set out below what I have heard.
Interlinear notes 1
The text writes Tang here, Cheng Tang further on, and Tang of Yin later; all are the same king of Shang, so one name is used throughout. — translator
陛下貞觀之初，無為無欲，清靜之化，遠被遐荒。考之於今，其風漸墜，聽言則遠超於上聖，論事則未逾於中主。何以言之？漢文、晉武俱非上哲，漢文辭千里之馬，晉武焚雉頭之裘。今則求駿馬於萬里，市珍奇於域外，取怪於道路，見輕於戎狄，此其漸不克終一也。
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty did nothing and desired nothing, and the change worked by that clear stillness reached far into the waste lands. Look at it now, and that wind has fallen away by degrees. When one hears your words, they go far beyond the highest sages. When one judges your acts, they do not pass beyond a middling ruler.
How do I say this? Emperor Wen of Han and Emperor Wu of Jin were neither of them of the highest wisdom, yet Emperor Wen of Han refused the horse that could run a thousand li, and Emperor Wu of Jin burned the coat of pheasant heads. But now fine steeds are sought ten thousand li away and jewels and rarities are bought beyond the borders, so that we are held strange upon the roads and thought light of by the border tribes. This is the first of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
昔子貢問理人於孔子，孔子曰：「懍乎，若朽索之馭六馬。」子貢曰：「何其畏哉？」子曰：「不以道導之，則吾仇也，若何其無畏？」故《書》曰：「民惟邦本，本固邦寧。」為人上者，奈何不敬？陛下貞觀之始，視人如傷，恤其勤勞，愛民猶子，每存簡約，無所營為。頃年以來，意在奢縱，忽忘卑儉，輕用人力，乃云：「百姓無事則驕逸，勞役則易使。」自古以來，未有由百姓逸樂而致傾敗者也，何有逆畏其驕逸而故欲勞役者哉？恐非興邦之至言，豈安人之長算？此其漸不克終二也。
Long ago Zigong asked Confucius about the ordering of men, and Confucius said, "It is a fearful thing, like driving six horses with a rotten rope." Zigong said, "Why is it so fearful?" The master said, "If you do not lead them with the way, then they are my enemies. How should there be no fear in it?"
Therefore the Book of Documents says, "The people are the root of the state. When the root is firm, the state is at peace." How should he who is above men not hold them in reverence?
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty looked on the people as on the wounded, pitied their toil and labor, loved the people as your own children, always kept to what was simple and sparing, and built and made nothing. In the last few years your will has been on extravagance and license. You have suddenly forgotten lowliness and thrift and you use men's strength lightly, and you go so far as to say, "When the people have nothing to do, then they grow proud and idle. Set them to labor and they are easy to handle."
From of old there has never been a case of ruin and overthrow that came of the people being at ease and glad. How can you turn it about, fear that they will grow proud and idle, and therefore mean to set them to labor? I am afraid this is not the utmost word for raising up a state. How can it be a long reckoning for setting men at peace? This is the second of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
陛下貞觀之初，損己以利物，至於今日，縱欲以勞人，卑儉之跡歲改，驕侈之情日異。雖憂人之言不絕於口，而樂身之事實切於心。或時欲有所營，慮人致諫，乃云：「若不為此，不便我身。」人臣之情，何可復爭？此直意在杜諫者之口，豈曰擇善而行者乎？此其漸不克終三也。
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty took from yourself to profit others. Today you give rein to desire and set men to toil. The traces of lowliness and thrift change from year to year, and the temper of pride and extravagance is other with each day. Though words of care for the people never stop coming from your mouth, the things that give your own body pleasure are what press upon your heart.
Sometimes you wish to build something and fear that men will remonstrate, and then you say, "If this is not done, my body is not at ease." With the feeling of a servant, how can one strive against it further? This is simply a will to stop the mouths of those who remonstrate. How can it be called choosing the good and doing it? This is the third of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
立身成敗，在於所染，蘭芷鮑魚，與之俱化，慎乎所習，不可不思。陛下貞觀之初，砥礪名節，不私於物，惟善是與，親愛君子，疏斥小人。今則不然，輕褻小人，禮重君子。重君子也，敬而遠之；輕小人也，狎而近之。近之則不見其非，遠之則莫知其是。莫知其是，則不間而自疏；不見其非，則有時而自昵。昵近小人，非致理之道；疏遠君子，豈興邦之義？此其漸不克終四也。
Whether a man stands or falls lies in what he is dyed with. Put him among orchid and angelica or among salted fish, and he is changed together with them. One must be careful of what one grows used to, and it cannot be left unconsidered.
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty whetted your name and your honor. You showed no private favor to anything and were with the good alone. You were close to the gentleman and loved him, and you kept the small man far off. Now it is not so. You treat the small man lightly and with ease, and you meet the gentleman with the weight of rite. Because you hold the gentleman weighty, you revere him and keep him at a distance. Because you hold the small man light, you grow familiar with him and keep him near. When a man is near, his wrong is not seen. When a man is far, his right is not known. When his right is not known, then without anything coming between he grows distant of himself. When his wrong is not seen, then in time he grows close of himself. To be close and familiar with small men is not the way to reach good order. And to keep gentlemen distant and far, how can that be the meaning of raising up a state? This is the fourth of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
《書》曰：「不作無益害有益，功乃成；不貴異物賤用物，人乃足。犬馬非其土性不畜，珍禽奇獸弗育於國。」陛下貞觀之初，動遵堯、舜，捐金抵璧，反樸還淳。頃年以來，好尚奇異，難得之貨，無遠不臻，珍玩之作，無時能止。上好奢靡而望下敦樸，未之有也。末作滋興，而求豐實，其不可得亦已明矣。此其終不克終五也。
The Book of Documents says, "Do not make what is of no use and so harm what is of use, and merit will then be made. Do not prize strange things and hold cheap the things that are used, and the people will then have enough. Dogs and horses that are not of the nature of the land are not kept. Rare birds and strange beasts are not reared in the state."
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty followed Yao and Shun in what you did. You threw away gold and cast down jade, went back to the plain and returned to the simple. In the last few years you have taken to liking and prizing what is strange. Goods hard to come by arrive from every distance, and the making of rare playthings has no time when it stops. That those above should love extravagance and display while looking for plainness and honesty below has never been. When trade and craft spring up and spread, it is plain enough that plenty and substance cannot be got. This is the fifth of the things you at last do not carry to the end.
貞觀之初，求賢如渴，善人所舉，信而任之，取其所長，恒恐不及。近歲以來，由心好惡，或眾善舉而用之，或一人毀而棄之，或積年任而用之，或一朝疑而遠之。夫行有素履，事有成跡，所毀之人，未必可信於所舉，積年之行，不應頓失於一朝。君子之懷，蹈仁義而弘大德；小人之性，好讒佞以為身謀。陛下不審察其根源，而輕為之臧否，是使守道者日疏，幹求者日進。所以人思茍免，莫能盡力。此其漸不克終六也。
At the beginning of Zhenguan you sought worthy men as a thirsty man seeks water. What good men put forward you trusted and gave office to; you took them for what they were strong in, and you always feared that you would fall short. In these last years it has gone by the liking and disliking of your heart. Sometimes a crowd of good men put a man forward and you use him; sometimes one man slanders him and you cast him away. Sometimes you have given a man office and used him for years; sometimes in a single morning you doubt him and put him far off.
Now conduct has a course already walked, and affairs have traces already made. The man who slanders is not of necessity more to be trusted than the man who recommends, and the conduct of many years cannot rightly be lost all at once in a single morning. The heart of a gentleman treads benevolence and right conduct and widens great virtue. The nature of a small man loves slander and flattery and makes of them a plan for his own body. Your Majesty does not look into the source of the thing and lightly sets down whether a man is good or bad. This makes those who hold to the way grow more distant by the day, and those who scramble and beg come forward by the day. Therefore men think only of getting off as best they can, and none can spend their strength. This is the sixth of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
陛下初登大位，高居深視，事惟清靜，心無嗜欲，內除畢弋之物，外絕畋獵之源。數載之後，不能固志，雖無十旬之逸，或過三驅之禮。遂使盤遊之娛，見譏於百姓，鷹犬之貢，遠及於四夷。或時教習之處，道路遙遠，侵晨而出，入夜方還。以馳騁為歡，莫慮不虞之變，事之不測，其可救乎？此其漸不克終七也。
When Your Majesty first came up to the great seat, you dwelt on high and looked deep. Your affairs were nothing but clear and still, and your heart had no appetite or desire. Within, you did away with nets and stringed arrows for taking birds; without, you cut off the source of hunting. Some years after, you could not hold your will firm. Though there is not the idleness of a hundred days, at times you go beyond the rite of driving the game from three sides. So it has come about that the pleasure of roaming about is laughed at by the people, and the offering of hawks and hounds reaches as far as the tribes of the four quarters. Sometimes the place where the troops are drilled and taught is far off along the road, and you go out before the dawn and come back only when night has fallen. You make your gladness of galloping and do not reckon with a change that was not looked for. If a thing should come that cannot be reckoned, could it then be saved? This is the seventh of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
孔子曰：「君使臣以禮，臣事君以忠。」然則君之待臣，義不可薄。陛下初踐大位，敬以接下，君恩下流，臣情上達，咸思竭力，心無所隱。頃年以來，多所忽略。或外官充使，奏事入朝，思睹闕庭，將陳所見，欲言則顏色不接，欲請又恩禮不加，間因所短，詰其細過，雖有聰辯之略，莫能申其忠款。而望上下同心，君臣交泰，不亦難乎？此其漸不克終八也。
Confucius said, "The ruler employs his ministers by rite, and the minister serves his ruler with loyalty." That being so, in the ruler's treatment of his ministers the right of it must not be thin.
When Your Majesty first trod the great seat, you met those below with reverence. The ruler's favor flowed down and the feeling of the ministers reached up; all thought to spend their strength, and there was nothing hidden in their hearts. In the last few years much has been passed over. Sometimes an officer from outside is sent as an envoy, comes to court to report on his business, thinks to look upon the palace court and means to set forth what he has seen. But when he would speak, your countenance does not meet him, and when he would ask, favor and courtesy are not given him either. You take his weak place and question him closely on his small faults. Then, though he had the wit of a clear and ready speaker, he could not lay out his loyal sincerity. And yet you look for those above and below to be of one heart, and for ruler and minister to meet in great peace. Is this not hard? This is the eighth of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
「傲不可長，欲不可縱，樂不可極，志不可滿。」四者，前王所以致福，通賢以為深誡。陛下貞觀之初，孜孜不怠，屈己從人，恒若不足。頃年以來，微有矜放，恃功業之大，意蔑前王，負聖智之明，心輕當代，此傲之長也。欲有所為，皆取遂意，縱或抑情從諫，終是不能忘懷，此欲之縱也。志在嬉遊，情無厭倦，雖未全妨政事，不復專心治道，此樂將極也。率土乂安，四夷款服，仍遠勞士馬，問罪遐裔，此志將滿也。親狎者阿旨而不肯言，疏遠者畏威而莫敢諫，積而不已，將虧聖德。此其漸不克終九也。
"Pride must not be let grow, desire must not be given rein, joy must not be pushed to the end, the will must not be filled full." These four are that by which the kings before you came to blessing, and what worthy men of understanding have taken as a deep warning.
At the beginning of Zhenguan Your Majesty was diligent and not slack. You bent yourself and followed others, and were always as though you had not enough. In the last few years there has been a little boasting and letting go. Trusting in the greatness of your work and merit, your will makes light of the kings before you. Bearing the brightness of sage wisdom, your heart holds the present age cheap. This is pride let grow.
Whatever you would do, in all of it you take the carrying out of your will. Even if you sometimes hold down your feeling and follow remonstrance, in the end you cannot put it out of your mind. This is desire given rein.
Your will is on play and roaming, and your feeling has no weariness or surfeit. Though it does not yet wholly hinder the business of government, you no longer bend your heart wholly on the way of rule. This is joy that will be pushed to the end.
The whole land is ordered and at peace and the tribes of the four quarters submit in sincerity, and still you wear out soldiers and horses far away and call the distant borders to account. This is the will that will be filled full.
Those close and familiar flatter your intent and will not speak. Those distant and far fear your awe and dare not remonstrate. If this piles up and does not stop, it will in time break down your sage virtue. This is the ninth of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
昔陶唐、成湯之時，非無災患，而稱其聖德者，以其有始有終，無為無欲，遇災則極其憂勤，時安則不驕不逸故也。貞觀之初，頻年霜旱，畿內戶口並就關外，攜負老幼，來往數年，曾無一戶逃亡、一人怨苦，此誠由識陛下矜育之懷，所以至死無攜貳。頃年已來，疲於徭役，關中之人，勞弊尤甚。雜匠之徒，下日悉留和雇；正兵之輩，上番多別驅使。和市之物不絕於鄉閭，遞送之夫相繼於道路。既有所弊，易為驚擾，脫因水旱，穀麥不收，恐百姓之心，不能如前日之寧帖。此其漸不克終十也。
In the time of Taotang and of Tang of Shang there was no want of calamity and trouble, and yet their sage virtue is spoken of. It is because they had a beginning and had an end, did nothing and desired nothing, and because when they met calamity they pushed their care and diligence to the utmost, and when the time was quiet they were neither proud nor idle.
At the beginning of Zhenguan there was frost and drought year after year, and the households within the capital region went out together beyond the passes. Leading and carrying their old and their young, they came and went for several years, and yet there was not one household that fled away and not one man who complained of his suffering. This came truly from their knowing the heart with which Your Majesty pitied and reared them, and so even to death they were not of two minds.
In the last few years they have been worn out by forced labor, and the people of Guanzhong are toiled and wasted more than the rest. The crowds of sundry craftsmen are all held on with hire even on their days of rest, and the bodies of regular troops on their tours of duty are often set to other tasks besides. Goods bought in by the state do not stop coming in the villages, and the men who carry the relays follow one another on the roads. Where there is wasting already, alarm and disturbance come easily. If drought or flood should come and the grain and the wheat not be gathered, I fear the heart of the people could not be settled and quiet as it was in former days. This is the tenth of the things by degrees not carried to the end.
臣聞「禍福無門，唯人所召。」「人無釁焉，妖不妄作。」伏惟陛下統天御宇十有三年，道洽寰中，威加海外，年穀豐稔，禮教聿興，比屋喻於可封，菽粟同於水火。暨乎今歲，天災流行。炎氣致旱，乃遠被於郡國；兇醜作孽，忽近起於轂下。夫天何言哉？垂象示誡，斯誠陛下驚懼之辰，憂勤之日也。若見誡而懼，擇善而從，同周文之小心，追殷湯之罪己，前王所以致禮者，勤而行之，今時所以敗德者，思而改之，與物更新，易人視聽，則寶祚無疆，普天幸甚，何禍敗之有乎？然則社稷安危，國家治亂，在於一人而已。當今太平之基，既崇極天之峻；九仞之積，猶虧一簣之功。千載休期，時難再得，明主可為而不為，微臣所以郁結而長嘆者也。
I have heard it said, "Calamity and blessing have no gate of their own; they come only as men call them." And, "When men have no crack in them, the uncanny does not rise up without cause."
I bow and consider that Your Majesty has held heaven and ruled the world for thirteen years. Your way has soaked the whole region within, and your awe is laid upon the lands beyond the sea. Year by year the grain ripens in plenty, and rite and teaching have risen up. It is said that house by house the people might be given fiefs, and beans and millet are as common as water and fire.
But in this present year the calamities of heaven go about. The fiery air has drawn on drought, and that has reached as far as the commanderies and the fiefs. Evil men have worked harm, and that has risen suddenly close at hand, in the capital itself. What indeed does heaven say? It hangs out signs and shows a warning. This is truly the hour for Your Majesty to be startled and to fear, and the day to be careful and diligent.
If you see the warning and fear it, choose the good and follow it, be as small of heart as King Wen of Zhou, follow Tang of Shang in laying the blame upon himself, do diligently what the kings before you did to reach the rite, think upon and change what breaks down virtue in the present time, and so make yourself new together with all things and alter what men see and hear, then the precious blessing will be without bound and all under heaven will be most fortunate. What ruin or overthrow could there be?
That being so, the safety or the danger of the altars of the land, and the order or the disorder of the state, rest in one man and no more. The foundation of the great peace of today has risen already to a height that touches heaven, yet in a mound of nine fathoms the merit of one basketful is still lacking. A fair season of a thousand years is hard to come by twice. That an enlightened ruler can do it and does not do it is why this small servant is knotted up within and sighs long.
臣誠愚鄙，不達事機，略舉所見十條，輒以上聞聖聽。伏願陛下采臣狂瞽之言，參以芻蕘之議，冀千慮一得，袞職有補，則死日生年，甘從斧鉞。
I am truly foolish and mean and do not reach to the springs of affairs, but I have set out in rough the ten articles I have seen and now lay them before your sage hearing. I bow and beg that Your Majesty gather in the mad and blind words of your servant and weigh them with the talk of the grass cutters. If out of a thousand thoughts there be one thing gained, and there be help to the ruler's office, then the day of my death will be as the year of my birth, and I will gladly go to the axe.
疏奏，太宗謂徵曰：「人臣事主，順旨甚易，忤情尤難。公作朕耳目股肱，常論思獻納。朕今聞過能改，庶幾克終善事。若違此言，更何顏與公相見？復欲何方以理天下？自得公疏，反復研尋，深覺詞強理直，遂列為屏障，朝夕瞻仰。又尋付史司，冀千載之下識君臣之義。」乃賜徵黃金十斤，廄馬二匹。
When the memorial had been sent up, Taizong said to Wei Zheng:
"For a servant in the service of his lord it is very easy to follow his intent, and harder still to go against his feeling. You are the ears and eyes and the arms and legs of me, and you always weigh and consider and bring in what you have to offer. Now that I can hear my faults and change them, I may perhaps be able to carry good deeds to the end. If I break this word, with what face should I meet you again, and by what way should I order all under heaven?
"Since I got your memorial I have turned it over and searched into it again and again, and I feel deeply how strong the words are and how straight the reasoning. So I have set it out upon a screen and look up at it morning and evening. I mean also before long to hand it to the office of history, that a thousand years hence men may know the right bond of ruler and minister."
He then gave Wei Zheng ten catties of gold and two horses from his stables.
貞觀十四年，太宗謂侍臣曰：「平定天下，朕雖有其事，守之失圖，功業亦復難保。秦始皇初亦平六國，據有四海，及末年不能善守，實可為誡。公等宜念公忘私，則榮名高位，可以克終其美。」魏徵對曰：「臣聞之，戰勝易，守勝難。陛下深思遠慮，安不忘危，功業既彰，德教復洽，恒以此為政，宗社無由傾敗矣。」
In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan, Taizong said to the ministers in attendance:
"The settling of all under heaven is a thing I did, yet if the plan for keeping it be lost, the work and merit is again hard to keep. The First Emperor of Qin also put down the six states at the first and held the four seas, but in his last years he could not keep it well. This may truly be taken as a warning. You gentlemen should think of what is public and forget what is private. Then a glorious name and a high place can be carried to the end of their beauty."
Wei Zheng answered:
"I have heard it said that to win in battle is easy and to keep what is won is hard. Your Majesty thinks deeply and reckons far, and in safety does not forget danger. Your work and merit are plain already, and virtue and teaching have soaked into men besides. If you always govern by this, the ancestral temple and the altars of the land have no cause to fall."
貞觀十六年，太宗問魏徵曰：「觀近古帝王有傳位十代者，有一代兩代者，亦有身得身失者。朕所以常懷憂懼，或恐撫養生民不得其所，或恐心生驕逸，喜怒過度。然不自知，卿可為朕言之，當以為楷則。」徵對曰：「嗜欲喜怒之情，賢愚皆同。賢者能節之，不使過度，愚者縱之，多至失所。陛下聖德玄遠，居安思危，伏願陛下常能自制，以保克終之美，則萬代永賴。」
In the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, Taizong asked Wei Zheng:
"I see that among the emperors and kings of the nearer past some have handed on the seat for ten generations, some for one generation or two, and some have got it in their own person and lost it in their own person. For this reason I always carry care and fear. Sometimes I fear that in soothing and rearing the living people I may not give them their place. Sometimes I fear that pride and idleness may be born in my heart and that my gladness and my anger may go past measure. But I do not know it of myself. You may speak of this for me, and I will take it as a rule and a model."
Wei Zheng answered:
"The feelings of appetite and desire, of gladness and anger, are the same in the worthy and the foolish. The worthy man holds them in check and does not let them pass measure. The foolish man gives them rein and often comes to lose his place. Your Majesty's sage virtue is deep and far reaching, and you dwell in safety and think of danger. I bow and beg that Your Majesty be always able to hold yourself in check and so keep the beauty of carrying things to the end. Then ten thousand generations will lean upon you for ever."