Xusong — The Need for Praise須頌篇
古之帝王建鴻德者，須鴻筆之臣。褒頌紀載，鴻德乃彰，萬世乃聞。
Among the emperors and kings of old, those who established great virtue waited for ministers of the great brush. Only when they are praised and sung, recorded and set down, does great virtue become manifest and is heard for ten thousand generations.
問說《書》者：「『欽明文思』以下，誰所言也？」曰：「篇家也。」「篇家誰也？」「孔子也。」然則孔子鴻筆之人也，自衛反魯，然後樂正，《雅》、《頌》各得其所也。
I ask those who explain the Documents, "From 'Qin ming wen si' onward, whose words are these?" They say, "The house that made the chapters." "Who is the house that made the chapters?" "Confucius." Then Confucius was a man of the great brush, for it was only after he came back from Wei (衛) to Lu that the music was set right and the Ya and the Song each got its place.
鴻筆之奮，蓋斯時也。或說《尚書》曰：「尚者，上也；上所為，下所書也。」「下者誰也？」曰：「臣子也。」然則臣子書上所為矣。
The rousing of the great brush was, it seems, at this time. Some explain the Documents (尚書, Shang shu) and say, "Shang means above. What those above do, those below write down." "Who are those below?" They say, "The ministers." Then it is the ministers who write down what those above do.
問儒者：「禮言制，樂言作，何也？」曰：「禮者，上所制，故曰制；樂者，下所作，故曰作。天下太平，頌聲作。」
I ask the Confucian scholars, "Why is it that of the Rites one says instituted and of music one says made?" They say, "The Rites are what those above institute, and so one says instituted. Music is what those below make, and so one says made. When the world is at great peace, the sound of song is made."
方今天下太平矣，頌詩樂聲，可以作未？傳者不知也，故曰拘儒。衛孔悝之鼎銘，周臣勸行。孝宣皇帝稱潁川太守黃霸有治狀，賜金百斤，漢臣勉政。夫以人主頌稱臣子，臣子當褒君父，於義較矣。虞氏天下太平，夔歌舜德。宣王惠周，《詩》頌其行。召伯述職，周歌棠樹。
Now the world is at great peace. Can songs and odes and the sounds of music be made, or not? Those who hand down the texts do not know, and so they are called cramped Confucian scholars. The cauldron inscription for Kong Kui of Wei urged the ministers of Zhou to good conduct. When Emperor Xuan declared that Huang Ba, governor of Yingchuan, had a record of good government and gave him a hundred catties of gold, the ministers of Han put their strength into their offices. Now when a lord of men praises and declares his ministers, that the ministers ought to praise their ruler and father is plain in right. The world of the house of Yu was at great peace, and Kui sang the virtue of Shun. King Xuan was kind to Zhou, and the Odes sang his conduct. The Earl of Shao made his rounds of duty, and Zhou sang of the wild pear tree.
是故《周頌》三十一，《殷頌》五，《魯頌》四，凡頌四十篇，詩人所以嘉上也。由此言之，臣子當頌，明矣。
Therefore the Hymns of Zhou are thirty-one, the Hymns of Yin five, the Hymns of Lu four, forty pieces of hymn in all, and this is how the poets found beauty in those above. Speaking from this, that ministers ought to sing is clear.
儒者謂漢無聖帝，治化未太平。《宣漢》之篇，論漢已有聖帝，治已太平。《恢國》之篇，極論漢德非常，實然乃在百代之上。表德頌功，宣褒主上，詩之頌言，右臣之典也。舍其家而觀他人之室，忽其父而稱異人之翁，未為德也。漢，今天下之家也；先帝、今上民臣之翁也。夫曉主德而頌其美，識國奇而恢其功，孰與疑暗不能也！孔子稱「大哉，堯之為君也！唯天為大，唯堯則之。蕩蕩乎民無能名焉」。或年五十，擊壤於塗，或曰：「大哉，堯之德也！」擊壤者曰：「吾日出而作，日入而息，鑿井而飲，耕田而食，堯何等力？」
The Confucian scholars say that Han has no sage emperor and that its government and transforming are not yet at great peace. The chapter Xuan Han argues that Han already has a sage emperor and that its government is already at great peace. The chapter Hui guo argues to the end that the virtue of Han is out of the common, that it is truly so, and that it stands above the hundred generations. To set forth virtue and sing of merit, to spread praise of the lord above, is the language of hymn in the Odes and the rule for the minister who helps. To leave one's own house and look at another man's rooms, to make light of one's own father and declare another man's elder, is not virtue. Han is the house of the world today, and the former emperors and the present sovereign are the elders of the people and their ministers. Now to know the lord's virtue and sing its beauty, to see what is rare in the state and enlarge its merit: how does this compare with doubting in the dark and being unable! Confucius declared, "Great was Yao as a ruler. Heaven alone is great, and Yao alone took it for his pattern. So vast that the people could find no name for him." A man of fifty was beating clods on the road, and another said, "Great is the virtue of Yao." The clod-beater said, "I go out to work when the sun rises and rest when the sun sets. I dig a well and drink, I plow a field and eat. What strength has Yao in it?"
孔子乃言「大哉堯之德」者，乃知堯者也。涉聖世不知聖主，是則盲者不能別青黃也；知聖主不能頌，是則暗者不能言是非也。然則方今盲喑之儒，與唐擊壤之民，同一才矣。夫孔子及唐人言「大哉」者，知堯德，蓋堯盛也。擊壤之民云「堯何等力」，是不知堯德也。
That Confucius said "Great is the virtue of Yao" is that he knew Yao. To pass through a sage age and not know a sage lord is like a blind man who cannot tell blue from yellow. To know a sage lord and be unable to sing him is like a mute who cannot say what is right and wrong. Then the blind and mute Confucian scholars of today have one and the same gift as the clod-beating people of Tang. Now when Confucius and the man of Tang said "Great," they knew the virtue of Yao, and it was because Yao was at his height. When the clod-beating people said "What strength has Yao in it," this was not to know the virtue of Yao.
夜舉燈燭，光曜所及，可得度也。日照天下，遠近廣狹，難得量也。浮於淮、濟，皆知曲折；入東海者，不曉南北。故夫廣大從橫難數，極深揭歷難測。漢德酆廣，日光海外也。知者知之，不知者不知漢盛也。漢家著書，多上及殷、周，諸子并作，皆論他事，無褒頌之言，《論衡》有之。又《詩》頌國名《周頌》，與杜撫、〔班〕固所上《漢頌》，相依類也。
If a lamp or a candle is raised at night, the reach of its light can be measured. When the sun shines on the world, its far and near, its wide and narrow, are hard to measure. Those who float on the Huai and the Ji all know their bends, but a man who enters the Eastern Sea does not know north from south. Therefore what is wide and great, across and along, is hard to count, and what is deepest is hard to fathom by hitching up one's clothes and wading. The virtue of Han is abundant and wide, sunlight reaching beyond the seas. Those who know it know it, and those who do not know it do not know how Han flourishes. When the house of Han composes books, they mostly reach back to Yin and Zhou, and when the masters write together they all discuss other matters and have no word of praise and hymn. The Lunheng has it. Again, the hymns of the Odes are named by the state, as in the Hymns of Zhou, and the Hymns of Han presented by Du Fu and Ban Gu are of a kind with them.
宣帝之時，畫圖漢列士，或不在於畫上者，子孫恥之。何則？父祖不賢，故不畫圖也。夫頌言，非徒畫文也。如千世之後，讀經書不見漢美，後世怪之。故夫古之通經之臣，紀主令功，記於竹帛；頌上令德，刻於鼎銘。文人涉世，以此自勉。漢德不及六代，論者不德之故也。
In the time of Emperor Xuan the men of standing of Han were drawn in pictures, and the sons and grandsons of any who were not on the pictures were ashamed. Why? Because their fathers and grandfathers were not worthy, and so they were not drawn. Now the words of hymn are not merely the writing on a picture. If a thousand generations hence men read the classics and do not see the beauty of Han, later ages will think it strange. Therefore the ministers of old who had mastered the classics recorded the fine merits of their lord and set them down on bamboo and silk, and sang the fine virtue of those above and cut it into cauldron inscriptions. Men of letters passing through the world took this as their spur. That the virtue of Han does not reach the six generations is because those who discuss it do not count it virtue.
地有丘，故有高平，或以鍤平而夷之，為平地矣。世見五帝、三王為經書，漢事不載，則謂五、三優於漢矣。或以論為鍤，損（三）五、〔三〕，少丰滿漢家之下，豈徒并為平哉！漢將為丘，五、三轉為矣。湖池非一，廣狹同也，樹竿測之，深淺可度。漢與百代俱為主也，實而論之，優劣可見。故不樹長竿，不知深淺之度；無《論衡》之論，不知優劣之實。漢在百代之末，上與百代料德，湖池相與比也。無鴻筆之論，不免庸庸之名。論好稱古而毀今，恐漢將在百代之下，豈徒同哉！
The earth has mounds, and so there is high ground and level ground, and if one levels it with a spade and makes it even it becomes level ground. The world sees that the Five Emperors and the Three Kings became the classics and that the affairs of Han are not set down, and so says that the Five and the Three are richer than Han. If one takes discussion for a spade, takes away from the Five and the Three, and fills up a little the low ground of the house of Han, how would it be merely made level! Han would become the mound, and the Five and the Three would turn into the hollow. Lakes and ponds are not one, and where their width is the same a pole set up in them can measure their depth. Han and the hundred generations were all rulers, and if they are discussed by the fact, the better and the worse can be seen. Therefore if a long pole is not set up, the measure of deep and shallow is not known, and without the discussions of the Lunheng the fact of better and worse is not known. Han stands at the end of the hundred generations and weighs its virtue against them all, and lakes and ponds are being compared with one another. Without the discussion of the great brush it will not escape a common and middling name. Discussion loves to praise the old and pull down the present, and it is to be feared that Han will come to stand below the hundred generations. How would it be merely made equal!
謚者，行之跡也。謚之美者，成、宣也；惡者，靈、歷也。成湯遭旱，周宣亦然。然而成湯加「成」，宣王言〔宣〕，無妄之災，不能虧政，臣子累謚，不失實也。由斯以論堯，堯亦美謚也，時亦有洪水，百姓不安，猶言堯者，得實考也。夫一字之謚，尚猶明主，況千言之論，萬文之頌哉！
A posthumous name is the trace of conduct. Among posthumous names the fine ones are Cheng and Xuan, the bad ones Ling and Li. Cheng Tang met with drought, and King Xuan of Zhou did too. Yet Cheng Tang had Cheng added to him and King Xuan was called Xuan, for the calamity of Wuwang (無妄) cannot spoil a government, and the ministers who piled up their posthumous names did not lose the fact. Discussing Yao from this, Yao too is a fine posthumous name. In his time there was the great flood as well and the people were not at ease, and still he is called Yao, and this is to have got a true weighing. Now a posthumous name of a single character still makes a lord's brightness plain. How much more a discussion of a thousand words and a hymn of ten thousand characters!
船車載人，孰與其徒多也？素車朴船，孰與加漆采畫也？
For carrying men, how do a boat and a cart compare with going on foot? How does a plain cart and a bare boat compare with one that has lacquer and painted colors added?
然則鴻筆之人，國之船車采畫也。農無（疆）〔強〕夫，谷粟不登；國無強文，德暗不彰。漢德不休，亂在百代之間，強筆之儒不著載也。高祖以來，著書非不講論。漢司馬長卿為《封禪書》，文約不具。司馬子長紀黃帝以至孝武，揚子雲錄宣帝以至哀、平，陳平仲紀光武，班孟堅頌孝明，漢家功德，頗可觀見。今上即命，未有褒載，《論衡》之人，為此畢精，故有《齊世》、《宣漢》、《恢國》、《驗符》。
Then the man of the great brush is the lacquer and painting on the boats and carts of a state. If farming has no strong men the grain does not ripen, and if a state has no strong writing its virtue is dark and not manifest. That the virtue of Han is not counted fine, and lies in disorder among the hundred generations, is because the scholars of the strong brush did not write it down and set it in record. Since Gaozu it is not that men composed books without discussing. Sima Changqing of Han made the Feng shan shu, but the writing was brief and not complete. Sima Zichang recorded from the Yellow Emperor down to Emperor Wu, Yang Ziyun set down from Emperor Xuan down to Emperors Ai and Ping, Chen Pingzhong recorded Guangwu, Ban Gu sang Emperor Ming, and the merit and virtue of the house of Han can thus be seen in good part. Since the present sovereign came to his command there has been no praising record, and the man of the Lunheng has spent all his care on this, and so there are the chapters Qi shi, Xuan Han, Hui guo, and Yan fu.
龍無雲雨不能參天。鴻筆之人，國之雲雨也。載國德於傳書之上，宣昭名於萬世之後，厥高非徒參天也。城牆之土，平地之壤也，人加筑蹈之力，樹立臨池。國之功德崇於城牆，文人之筆勁於筑蹈。聖主德盛功立，（莫）〔若〕不褒頌紀載，奚得傳馳流去無疆乎？人有高行，或譽得其實，或欲稱之不能言，或謂不善不肯陳（一）。斷此三者，孰者為賢？五、三之際，於斯為盛。孝明之時，眾瑞并至，百官臣子不為少矣，唯班固之徒稱頌國德，可謂譽得其實矣。頌文譎以奇，彰漢德於百代，使帝名如日月，孰與不能言，言之不美善哉！
A dragon without cloud and rain cannot climb to heaven. The man of the great brush is the cloud and rain of a state. He sets the state's virtue upon the books that are handed down and spreads its bright name ten thousand generations after, and its height is not merely climbing to heaven. The earth of a city wall is the soil of level ground, and men add to it the strength of pounding and treading, and it stands up and looks down on the moat. The merit and virtue of a state are higher than a city wall, and the brush of a man of letters is stronger than pounding and treading. If a sage lord's virtue flourishes and his merit stands, and he is not praised and sung, recorded and set down, how shall it be handed on and run and flow away without bound? When a man has high conduct, sometimes the praise of him gets the fact, sometimes men wish to declare it and cannot speak, and sometimes they call it not good and will not set it forth. Cut these three apart: which of them is worthy? At the time of the Five and the Three it flourished in this. In the time of Emperor Ming many auspicious signs came together, and the officials and ministers were not few, yet only Ban Gu and his like declared and sang the virtue of the state, and their praise may be said to have got the fact. The writing of hymn is subtle in its strangeness, and it shows the virtue of Han to the hundred generations and makes the emperor's name like the sun and moon. How does this compare with being unable to speak, or with speaking and not speaking well!
秦始皇東南游，升會稽山，李斯刻石，紀頌帝德，至琅琊亦然。秦無道之國，刻石文世，觀讀之者見堯、舜之美。由此言之，須頌明矣。當今非無李斯之才也，無從升會稽歷琅琊之階也。弦歌為妙異之曲，坐者不曰善，弦歌之人必怠不精。何則？妙異難為，觀者不知善也。聖國揚妙異之政，眾臣不頌，將順其美，安得所施哉！今方（板）〔技〕之書在竹帛，無主名所從生出，見者忽然不卸服也。如題曰（甲）〔某〕甲某子之方，若言已驗嘗試，人爭刻寫，以為珍秘。上書於國，（記）奏〔記〕於郡，譽荐士吏，稱術行能，章下記出，士吏賢妙。何則？章表其行，記明其才也。國德溢熾，莫有宣褒，使聖國大漢有庸庸之名，咎在俗儒不實論也。
The First Emperor of Qin traveled to the southeast and climbed Mount Kuaiji, and Li Si cut it in stone, recording and singing the emperor's virtue, and when he came to Langye he did the same. Qin was a state without the Way, yet it cut stone and left writing to the world, and those who look and read see in it the beauty of Yao and Shun. Speaking from this, that hymn is needed is clear. Today it is not that the talent of a Li Si is wanting, but that there are no steps to follow for climbing Kuaiji and passing Langye. If strings and voices make a subtle and unusual tune and those who sit by do not call it good, the players and singers will surely grow slack and not be exact. Why? Because the subtle and unusual is hard to do, and those who watch do not know that it is good. When a sage state sets forth a subtle and unusual government and the many ministers do not sing it, where shall the upholding and following of its beauty find a place to be applied! Today, when a book of recipes and arts is on bamboo and silk with no master's name and no place it came from, those who see it make light of it and do not receive it with care. But if the title says it is the recipe of such and such a man, and says that it has been proved and tried, men vie to cut it and copy it and hold it a precious secret. When a document is presented to the state and a memorandum is submitted to the commandery, praising and recommending a scholar or a clerk and declaring his arts and his conduct and his ability, then the memorial comes down and the memorandum goes out, and the scholar or clerk is worthy and fine. Why? Because the memorial sets forth his conduct and the memorandum makes his talent plain. The virtue of the state overflows and burns, and there is no one to spread its praise, so that the sage state of great Han has a common and middling name. The fault lies with the common Confucian scholars, who do not discuss by the fact.
古今聖王不絕，則其符瑞亦宜累屬。符瑞之出，不同於前，或時已有，世無以知，故有《講瑞》。俗儒好長古而短今，言瑞則渥前而薄後。是應實而定之，漢不為少。漢有實事，儒者不稱；古有虛美，誠心然之。信久遠之偽，忽近今之實。斯蓋三增九虛，所以成也；能聖實聖，所以興也。儒者稱聖過實，稽合於漢，漢不能及。非不能及，儒者之說使難及也。〔如〕實（而）論之，漢更難及。谷熟歲平，聖王因緣以立功化，故《治期》之篇，為漢激發。治有期，亂有時。能以亂為治者優，優者有之。建初孟年，無妄氣至，聖世之期也。皇帝執德，救備其災，故《順鼓》、《明雩》，為漢應變。是故災變之至，或在聖世。時旱禍湛，為漢論災。是故《春秋》為漢制法，《論衡》為漢平說。從門應庭，聽堂室之言，什而失九，如升堂窺室，百不失一。《論衡》之人在古荒流之地，其遠非徒門庭也。
If sage kings have not ceased from old times to now, then their tokens and auspicious signs ought also to have come one after another. The coming out of tokens and signs is not the same as before, and sometimes they are there already and the world has no way to know it, and so there is Jiang rui. The common Confucian scholars love to make the old long and the present short, and when they speak of signs they lay it on thick for the earlier ones and thin for the later. Shi ying settles the matter by the fact, and Han is not the lesser. Han has true deeds and the Confucian scholars do not declare them. The old has empty beauties and they hold them so with a whole heart. They believe the falsehoods of the long ago and the far off and make light of the fact that is near and now. This, it seems, is why San zeng and Jiu xu came to be made, and why Neng sheng and Shi sheng arose. When the Confucian scholars declare the sages beyond the fact and match them against Han, Han cannot reach them. It is not that it cannot reach them: it is the scholars' doctrines that make them hard to reach. If it is discussed by the fact, Han is harder still to reach. When the grain ripens and the year is at peace, a sage king takes his ground from it and sets up merit and transforming, and so the chapter Zhi qi was roused up for Han. Government has its term and disorder has its time. He who can make government out of disorder is the better, and there is such a one. In the first year of Jianchu the breath of Wuwang came, and this was the term of a sage age. The emperor held fast to virtue and rescued and made good its calamity, and so Shun gu and Ming yu answered the change for Han. Therefore the coming of calamity and change is sometimes in a sage age. There was drought in its time and the harm of flooding, and so calamity was discussed for Han. Therefore the Chunqiu made law for Han, and the Lunheng levels doctrine for Han. To answer from the gate to the courtyard and listen to the words of the hall and the chamber is to lose nine in ten, and to climb to the hall and peer into the chamber is not to lose one in a hundred. The man of the Lunheng lives in a land that of old was waste and a place of drifting, and his distance is not merely that of the gate and the courtyard.
日刻徑重千里，人不謂之廣者，遠也。望夜甚雨，月光不暗，人不睹曜者，隱也。聖者垂日月之明，處在中州。隱於百里，遙聞傳授，不實。形耀不實，難論。得詔書到，計吏至，乃聞聖政。
Though the sun's diameter is a thousand li over again, men do not call it wide, because it is far. On the night of the full moon the rain may fall hard and the moonlight not be dark, yet men do not see its shining, because it is hidden. The sage lets down the brightness of the sun and moon, and his place is in Zhongzhou. Hidden a hundred li away, one hears at a distance what is handed on, and it is not the fact. When form and shining are not the fact, they are hard to discuss. Only when an edict arrives and the accounting clerk comes does one hear of the sage government.
是以褒功失丘山之積，頌德遺膏腴之美。使至台閣之下，蹈班、賈之跡，論功德之實，不失毫厘之微。武王封比干之墓，孔子顯三累之行。大漢之德，非直比干三累也。道立（國）〔郵〕表，路出其下，望（國）〔郵〕表者昭然知路。
For this reason, in praising merit they lose the piling up of hills and mountains, and in singing virtue they let slip the beauty of what is rich and fat. Let them come below the Terrace offices and tread the tracks of Ban Gu and Jia Yi and discuss the fact of merit and virtue, and they will not lose the smallest hair's breadth. King Wu raised a mound over the grave of Bi Gan, and Confucius made plain the conduct of the three who piled up. The virtue of great Han is not merely that of Bi Gan and the three who piled up. If a post marker is set up on a road, the road comes out below it, and one who looks at the post marker knows the road plainly.
漢德明著，莫立邦表之言，故浩廣之德未光於世也。
Though the virtue of Han is bright and manifest, there is no one to set up words that are a marker for the state, and so its vast and wide virtue does not yet shine in the world.