Preface序
1How inner and outer came to be divided
夫恢恢乾德，萬類之所資始；蕩蕩坤儀，九區之所均載。考羲軒於往統，肇承天而理物；訊炎昊於前辟，爰制地而疏疆。襲冠帶以辨諸華，限要荒以殊遐裔，區分中外，其來尚矣。九夷八狄，被青野而亙玄方；七戎六蠻，綿西宇而橫南極。繁種落，異君長，遇有道則時遵聲教，鐘無妄則爭肆虔劉，趨扇風塵，蓋其常性也。詳求遐議，曆選深謨，莫不待以羈縻，防其猾夏。
Vast is the power of Heaven, from which the ten thousand kinds take their beginning; boundless is the bearing of Earth, which carries the nine regions alike. Look back to Fuxi and Xuanyuan in the line of old: they first carried on the work of Heaven and set all things in order. Ask of Yandi and Taihao among the earlier rulers: they laid out the land and marked off its borders. Cap and sash were handed down to tell apart the several lands of China, and the outer domains were fixed as a limit to set the far tribes apart. The dividing of inner and outer comes from far back.
The nine Yi (九夷) and the eight Di (八狄) cover the green plains and stretch across the north; the seven Rong (七戎) and the six Man (六蠻) run along the western sky and lie athwart the far south. Their kinds and settlements are many and their chiefs are each different. When they meet a ruler who has the Way, they follow his teaching (聲敎) for a time; when they meet a lawless age, they vie in killing and plunder. They sweep about like wind and dust, and this is their constant nature. Search out the counsels of far-off days and go through the deep plans one by one: there was never a time when they were not held by a loose rein (羈縻), to keep them from throwing China into disorder.
2Twenty-three states send tribute
武帝受終衰魏，廓境全吳，威略既申，招攜斯廣，迷亂華之議，矜來遠之名，撫舊懷新，歲時無怠，凡四夷入貢者，有二十三國。既而惠皇失德，中宗遷播，凶徒分據，天邑傾淪，朝化所覃，江外而已，賝貢之禮，於茲殆絕，殊風異俗，所未能詳。故采其可知者，爲之傳云。北狄竊號中壤，備於載記；在其諸部種類，今略書之。
Emperor Wu received the abdication of the failing Wei and took in the whole of Wu, and so widened his borders. Once his might and his plans were spread abroad, his gathering in of those who kept apart grew wide as well. He was not swayed by the talk that this would throw China into disorder, and he prized the name of making the distant come. He soothed the old and cherished the new, season after season without slackening, and of the four Yi (四夷) those that came with tribute were twenty-three states.
Then Emperor Hui lost his virtue and Zhongzong, that is Emperor Yuan, moved and wandered. Violent bands held the land in pieces, the heavenly capital toppled and sank, and the court's teaching reached no further than the lands south of the Yangtze. The rites of gift and tribute all but ceased from that time, and the strange manners and different customs could no longer be known in detail. Therefore what could be known was gathered, and this account was made of it. As for the northern Di who usurped titles in the Central Plain, they are set out in full in the Chronicles (載記); only the kinds and branches of their several tribes are briefly written here.