Shujie — Why Scholars Write書解篇
或曰：「士之論高，何必以文？」
Someone says, "It is the discourse of a scholar that stands high. Why must it be done with writing?"
答曰：夫人有文質乃成。物有華而不實，有實而不華者。《易》曰：「聖人之情見乎辭。」出口為言，集札為文，文辭施設，實情敷烈。夫文德，世服也。空書為文，實行為德，著之於衣為服。故曰：德彌盛者文彌縟，德彌彰者人彌明。大人德擴其文炳。小人德熾其文斑。官尊而文繁，德高而文積。華而晥者，大夫之簀，曾子寢疾，命元起易。由此言之，衣服以品賢，賢以文為差。愚傑不別，須文以立折。非唯於人，物亦咸然。龍鱗有文，於蛇為神；鳳羽五色，於鳥為君；虎猛，毛蚡蚖；龜知，背負文：四者體不質，於物為聖賢。且夫山無林，則為土山，地無毛，則為瀉土；人無文，則為僕人。土山無麋鹿，瀉土無五穀，人無文德，不為聖賢。上天多文而後土多理。二氣協和，聖賢稟受，法像本類，故多文彩。瑞應符命，莫非文者。晉唐叔虞、魯成季友、惠公夫人號曰仲子，生而怪奇，文在其手。張良當貴，出與神會，老父授書，卒封留侯。河神，故出圖，洛靈，故出書。竹帛所記怪奇之物，不出潢洿。物以文為表，人以文為基。棘子成欲彌文，子貢譏之。謂文不足奇者，子成之徒也。
I answer: A man is made complete only when he has both writing and substance. Among things there are those that blossom and do not fruit, and those that fruit and do not blossom. The Changes says, "The feelings of the sage are seen in his words." What comes out of the mouth becomes speech, and what is gathered on tablets becomes writing. When writing and phrasing are set forth, the true feeling is spread out and made plain. The virtue of letters is the garment of the age. Set down on empty paper it is writing; carried out in deed it is virtue; shown upon the clothes it is dress. So it is said: the fuller the virtue, the richer the writing; the plainer the virtue, the brighter the man. The great man's virtue is broad and his writing shines. The small man's virtue burns and his writing is blotched. When the office is honored the writing is abundant, and when the virtue is high the writing is heaped up. The bright and smooth mat was a high officer's mat. Zengzi lay ill and ordered Yuan to raise him and change it. Speaking from this, clothing is how the worthy are graded, and the worthy are ranked by their writing. The fool and the outstanding man are not told apart, so writing is awaited to settle which is which. This is not so of men alone. Things too are all like this. The dragon's scales have markings, so among snakes it is a spirit. The phoenix's feathers have five colors, so among birds it is the lord. The tiger is fierce, and its fur is mottled. The turtle knows, and it carries markings on its back. These four are not plain in body, so among things they are the sages and the worthies. Again, a mountain without forest is a mound of earth, ground without hair is salt flat, and a man without writing is a servant. On a mound of earth there are no elk and no deer. On salt flat there are no five grains. When a man has no virtue of letters, he does not become a sage or a worthy. Heaven above has much writing, and the earth below has many veins. The two breaths join in harmony, and the sages and the worthies receive them and take their pattern from the kind they came from, so their colors of writing are many. The auspicious responses and the tokens of mandate are none of them without writing. Tang Shuyu of Jin, Cheng Jiyou of Lu, and the wife of Duke Hui who was called Zhongzi were strange and wondrous at birth, for there was writing on their hands. Zhang Liang was due for honor. He went out and met a spirit, and an old man handed him a book, and in the end he was enfeoffed as marquis of Liu. The Yellow River has its god, so it sent forth the chart. The Luo has its spirit, so it sent forth the writing. The strange and wondrous things that bamboo and silk record do not come out of a puddle. Things take writing for their outside, and men take writing for their foundation. Ji Zicheng wished to do away with writing, and Zigong rebuked him. Those who say that writing is not enough to be wondrous are the followers of Zicheng.
著作者為文儒，說經者為世儒。二儒在世，未知何者為優。或曰：「文儒不若世儒。世儒說聖人之經，解賢者之傳，義理廣博，無不實見，故在官常位，位最尊者為博士，門徒聚眾，招會千里，身雖死亡，學傳於後。文儒為華淫之說，於世無補，故無常官，弟子門徒不見一人，身死之後，莫有紹傳，此其所以不如世儒者也。」
One who composes is a literary scholar. One who expounds the classics is a scholar of the age. The two scholars are both in the world, and it is not known which of them is the better. Someone says, "The literary scholar is not the equal of the scholar of the age. The scholar of the age expounds the classics of the sages and explains the commentaries of the worthies. His meaning and his reasoning are broad, and there is nothing he does not truly see. So he holds a settled place in office, and the highest in place becomes an erudite. His followers gather in crowds and are called together from a thousand li away, and though his body dies his learning is handed down to those who come after. The literary scholar makes showy and loose talk that is of no help to the age. So he has no settled office, and not one disciple or follower is to be seen, and after his body dies there is no one to carry it on and hand it down. This is why he is not the equal of the scholar of the age."
答曰：不然。夫世儒說聖情，□□□□，共起並驗，俱追聖人。事殊而務同，言異而義鈞。何以謂之文儒之說無補於世？世儒業易為，故世人學之多；非事可析第，故宮廷設其位。文儒之業，卓絕不循，人寡其書，業雖不講，門雖無人，書文奇偉，世人亦傳。彼虛說，此實篇。折累二者，孰者為賢？案古俊又著作辭說，自用其業，自明於世。世儒當時雖尊，不遭文儒之書，其跡不傳。周公制禮樂，名垂而不滅。孔子作《春秋》，聞傳而不絕。周公、孔子，難以論言。漢世文章之徒，陸賈、司馬遷、劉子政、揚子雲，其材能若奇，其稱不由人。世傳《詩》家魯申公，《書》家千乘歐陽、公孫，不遭太史公，世人不聞。夫以業自顯，孰與須人乃顯？夫能紀百人，孰與廑能顯其名？
I answer: It is not so. When the scholar of the age expounds the feelings of the sage, they rise together and prove together, and both of them follow after the sage. Their tasks differ but their striving is the same. Their words differ but their meaning is level. On what ground is it said that the talk of the literary scholar is of no help to the age? The work of the scholar of the age is easy to do, so many men of the age study it; and it is not a thing that can be split apart and ranked, so the court sets out a place for it. The work of the literary scholar stands far out and follows no one, so few men take up his books. Though his work is not lectured on and though there is no one at his gate, his writing is strange and grand, and men of the age hand it down all the same. That one is empty talk. This one is a solid piece. Weigh the two against each other. Which is the worthy one? Consider that the outstanding men of old also made discourses, used their own work themselves, and made themselves known to the age by themselves. The scholar of the age may be honored in his own time, but if he does not meet with the book of a literary scholar his traces are not handed down. The Duke of Zhou laid down the rites and the music, and his name hangs down and is not blotted out. Confucius made the Spring and Autumn, and it is heard and handed down without end. The Duke of Zhou and Confucius are hard to weigh in a discussion. In the age of Han the men of letters were Lu Jia, Sima Qian, Liu Zizheng and Yang Ziyun. Their talent and ability were like something strange, and their fame did not come by way of other men. The world hands down Master Shen of Lu for the Odes, and Ouyang of Qiancheng and Gongsun for the Documents. Had they not met the Grand Historian, men of the age would not have heard of them. To be made known by one's own work, or to wait for another man and then be made known: which is better? To be able to record a hundred men, or barely to be able to make one's own name known: which is better?
或曰：「著作者，思慮間也，未必材知出異人也。居不幽，思不至。使著作之人，總眾事之凡，典國境之職，汲汲忙忙，〔何〕暇著作？試使庸人積閒暇之思，亦能成篇八十數。文王日昃不暇食，周公一沐三握發，何暇優游為麗美之文於筆札？孔子作《春秋》，不用於周也。司馬長卿不預公卿之事，故能作子虛之賦。揚子雲存中郎之官，故能成《太玄經》，就《法言》。使孔子得王，《春秋》不作。〔籍〕長卿、子雲為相，賦玄不工。」
Someone says, "One who composes has leisure in his thinking. It does not follow that his talent and knowledge come out beyond other men. If his dwelling is not secluded, his thought does not arrive. Set the man who composes to gather up the whole of the many affairs and to hold an office over the borders of the state, and he is pressed and hurried. What leisure has he to compose? Try letting a common man pile up leisured thought, and he too can finish some eighty pieces. King Wen had no leisure to eat until the sun sank, and the Duke of Zhou gripped his hair three times in one washing. What leisure had they to take their ease and make fine and lovely writing with brush and tablet? Confucius made the Spring and Autumn because he was not used by Zhou. Sima Changqing took no part in the affairs of the high ministers, so he was able to make the Zixu rhapsody. Yang Ziyun held the office of gentleman of the household, so he was able to finish the Taixuan jing and complete the Fayan. Had Confucius gained a king's place, the Spring and Autumn would not have been made. Had Changqing and Yang Ziyun become chief ministers, the rhapsody and the Mystery would not have been finely wrought."
答曰：文王日昃不暇食，此謂演《易》而益卦。周公一沐三握發，為周改法而製。周道不弊，孔子不作，休思慮間也！周法闊疏，不可因也。夫稟天地之文，發於胸臆，豈為間作不暇日哉？感偽起妄，源流氣。管仲相桓公，致於九合。商鞅相孝公，為秦開帝業。然而二子之書，篇章數十。長卿、子雲，二子之倫也。俱感，故才並；才同，故業鈞。皆士而各著，不以思慮間也。問事彌多而見彌博，官彌劇而識彌泥。居不幽則思不至，思不至則筆不利。嚚頑之人，有幽室之思，雖無憂，不能著一字。蓋人材有能，無有不暇。有無材而不能思，無有知而不能著。有鴻材欲作而無起，細知以問而能記。蓋奇有無所因，無有不能言，兩有無所睹，無不暇造作。
I answer: That King Wen had no leisure to eat until the sun sank speaks of his drawing out the Changes and adding to the hexagrams. That the Duke of Zhou gripped his hair three times in one washing was his changing the laws and laying them down for Zhou. To say that Confucius would not have composed had the Way of Zhou not decayed is to praise leisure of thought! The laws of Zhou were wide and loose and could not be followed. To receive the writing of heaven and earth and send it forth from the breast: how should this be made only in leisure and not on a day without leisure? To be stirred by falsehood and raise up wild talk is the breath of the source and of the stream. Guan Zhong aided Duke Huan and brought him to the nine gatherings. Shang Yang aided Duke Xiao and opened the imperial work for Qin. Yet the books of these two men run to tens of chapters. Changqing and Yang Ziyun are of the same sort as these two. They were stirred alike, so their talents stand side by side. Their talents were the same, so their work is level. All of them were scholars and each of them composed, and it was not for leisure of thought. The more affairs a man asks about, the wider his sight; the more crowded his office, the more his knowledge is clogged. If the dwelling is not secluded the thought does not arrive, and if the thought does not arrive the brush is not sharp. A stupid and stubborn man may have the thought of a secluded room, and though he has no cares he cannot compose a single word. It seems that where a man's talent has ability there is no lack of leisure. There are men who have no talent and cannot think; there is no man who has knowledge and cannot compose. There are men of great talent who wish to compose and have no beginning, and men of slight knowledge who can ask and record. It seems that the strange may have nothing to draw upon, yet there is no one who cannot speak; and where the two are present a man may have nothing to look upon, yet there is never a lack of leisure to make something.
或曰：「凡作者精思已極，居位不能領職。蓋人思有所倚著，則精有所盡索。著作之人，書言通奇，其材已極，其知已罷。案古作書者，多位布散盤解，輔傾寧危，非著作之人所能為也。夫有所逼，有所泥，則有所自，篇章數百。呂不韋作《春秋》舉家徙蜀；淮南王作道書，禍至滅族；韓非著治術，身下秦獄。身且不全，安能輔國？夫有長於彼，安能不短於此？深於作文，安能不淺於政治？」
Someone says, "In every case one who composes has driven his fine thought to the utmost, and though he holds a place he cannot manage the office. It seems that when a man's thought has something to lean upon, his essence has been used up and spent. The man who composes has writing and words that reach the strange. His talent is already at its end and his knowledge is already worn out. Consider the men of old who made books: many of them were scattered from their places and undone. To prop up what leans and settle what is in danger is not what the man who composes is able to do. Where a man is pressed by something and blocked by something, he has something he does of himself, and his chapters run to hundreds. Lü Buwei made a Spring and Autumn, and his whole house was moved to Shu. The king of Huainan made books of the Way, and the disaster came and his clan was wiped out. Han Fei wrote on the arts of rule, and his body went down into a Qin prison. If they could not keep their own bodies whole, how could they aid a state? Where a man is long in that, how can he not be short in this? Where he is deep in the making of writing, how can he not be shallow in government?"
答曰：人有所優，固有所劣；人有所工，固有所拙。非劣也，志意不為也，非拙也，精誠不加也。誌有所存，顧不見泰山；思有所至，有身不暇徇也。稱干將之利，刺則不能擊，擊則不能刺，非刃不利，不能一旦二也。蛢彈雀則失鷃，射鵲則失雁，方員畫不俱成，左右視不並見，人材有兩為，不能成一。使乾將寡刺而更擊，舍鵲而射雁，則下射無失矣。人委其篇章，專為〔政〕治，則子產、子賤之跡不足侔也。古作書者，多立功不用也。管仲、晏嬰，功書並作；商鞅、虞卿，篇治俱為。高祖既得天下，馬上之計未敗，陸賈造《新語》，高祖粗納採。呂氏橫逆，劉氏將傾，非陸賈之策，帝室不寧。蓋材知無不能，在所遭遇，遇亂則知立功，有起則以其材著書者也。出口為言，著文為篇。古以言為功者多，以文為敗者希。呂不韋、淮南王以他為過，不以書有非，使客作書，不身自為；如不作書，猶蒙此章章之禍。人古今違屬，未必皆著作材知極也。鄒陽舉疏，免罪於梁。徐樂上書，身拜郎中。材能以其文為功於人，何嫌不能營衛其身？韓蚤信公子非，國不傾危。及非之死，李斯如奇，非以著作材極，不能複有為也。春物之傷，或死之也，殘物不傷，秋亦不長。假令非不死，秦未可知。故才人能令其行可尊，不能使人必法己；能令其言可行，不能使人必採取之矣。
I answer: Where a man is better at one thing he is surely worse at another, and where he is skilled at one thing he is surely clumsy at another. It is not that he is worse: his will does not go there. It is not that he is clumsy: his whole heart is not put into it. When the will is set on something, a man may look and not see Mount Tai. When the thought has arrived somewhere, he has a body and no leisure to attend to it. Praise the sharpness of Ganjiang: if it stabs it cannot strike, and if it strikes it cannot stab. It is not that the blade is not sharp. It cannot do two things in one morning. Shoot at the sparrow and you lose the quail. Shoot at the magpie and you lose the wild goose. In drawing, the square and the round are not finished together. In looking left and right, the two are not seen at once. When a man's talent does two things, it cannot finish one. Let Ganjiang stab less and strike instead, let him leave the magpie and shoot the goose, and there will be no miss in his shooting. If a man lays aside his chapters and gives himself to government alone, then even the traces of Zichan and Zijian would not be enough to match him. Of the men of old who made books, many set up merit and were not used. With Guan Zhong and Yan Ying, merit and books were made together. With Shang Yang and Yu Qing, the writing and the governing were done together. When Gaozu had won the empire and the plan made on horseback had not yet failed, Lu Jia made the Xinyu, and Gaozu took up the gist of it. When the Lü clan ran wild and against him and the house of Liu was about to fall, had it not been for Lu Jia's plan the imperial house would not have been made secure. It seems there is nothing that talent and knowledge cannot do: it lies in what a man meets with. Meeting disorder, his knowledge sets up merit; and when there is a rising, he uses that talent to write books. What comes out of the mouth is speech, and what is set down in writing is a chapter. In old times many made merit by their words, and few came to ruin by their writing. Lü Buwei and the king of Huainan were at fault through other things, not because there was anything wrong in their books. They had their guests make the books and did not do it themselves. Had they made no books, they would still have met this plain disaster. Men of old and of today go against and go along, and it does not follow that all of them had the talent and knowledge of composing at its end. Zou Yang sent up a memorial and was freed of his crime in Liang. Xu Le sent up a writing, and his person was appointed gentleman of the palace. Their talent and ability made merit for them with other men through their writing. Why suspect that they could not guard and protect their own bodies? Had Han trusted the prince Fei early, the state would not have leaned and fallen into danger. When Fei died, it was as though Li Si thought him strange. It was not that Fei's talent for composing was at its end and he could do nothing more. When a thing of spring is hurt, it may be killed by it; and when what is left of a thing is not hurt, still it does not grow in autumn. Suppose Fei had not died: what would have become of Qin cannot be known. So a man of talent can make his conduct fit to be honored, but he cannot make other men take him for their model; and he can make his words fit to be carried out, but he cannot make other men pick them up and use them.
或曰：「古今作書者非一，各穿鑿失經之實傳，違聖人質，故謂之蕞殘，比之玉屑。故曰：「蕞殘滿車，不成為道；玉屑滿篋，不成為寶。」前人近聖，猶為蕞殘，況遠聖從後復重為者乎？其作必為妄，其言必不明，安可採用而施行？」
Someone says, "Those who have made books, in old times and today, are not one man, and each of them bores and digs and loses the true tradition of the classics and goes against the substance of the sages. So they are called scraps and leavings and are likened to jade dust. Hence it is said, 'Scraps and leavings may fill a cart, but they do not make a Way. Jade dust may fill a box, but it does not make a treasure.' The men before us were near the sages, and still they are scraps and leavings. How much more those who are far from the sages and come after and do the same thing over again? What they make must be wild, and their words must be unclear. How can they be picked up and put into practice?"
答曰：聖人作其經，賢者造其傳，述作者之意，採聖人之志，故經須傳也。俱賢所為，何以獨謂經傳是，他書記非？彼見經傳，傳經之文，經須而解，故謂之是。他書與書相違，更造端緒，故謂之非。若此者，韙是於《五經》。使言非《五經》，雖是不見聽。使《五經》從孔門出，到今常令人不缺滅，謂之純壹，信之可也。今《五經》遭亡秦之奢侈，觸李斯之橫議，燔燒禁防，伏生之休，抱經深藏。漢興，收《五經》，經書缺滅而不明，篇章棄散而不具。晁錯之輩，各以私意分拆文字，師徒相因相授，不知何者為是。亡秦無道，敗亂之也。秦雖無道，不燔諸子。諸子尺書，文篇具在，可觀讀以正說，可採掇以示後人。後人復作，猶前人之造也。夫俱鴻而知，皆傳記所稱，文義與經相薄。何以獨謂文書失經之實？由此言之，經缺而不完，書無佚本，經有遺篇。折累二者，孰與蕞殘？《易》據事象，《詩》採民以為篇，《樂》須〔民〕歡，《禮》待民平。四經有據，篇章乃成。《尚書》、《春秋》，採掇史記。史記興無異，以民事一意，《六經》之作皆有據。由此言之，書亦為本，經亦為末，末失事實，本得道質。折累二者，孰為玉屑？知屋漏者在宇下，知政失者在草野，知經誤者在諸子。諸子尺書，文明實是。說章句者，終不求解扣明，師師相傳，初為章句者，非通覽之人也。
I answer: The sages made their classics and the worthies made their commentaries, setting out the mind of the maker and gathering up the will of the sages, so the classic waits upon the commentary. Both are the work of worthy men. Why then is it said that only the classics and their commentaries are right and other books and records are wrong? They see that the commentary on a classic is writing that hands the classic down, and that the classic waits for it and is explained by it, so they call it right. Other books go against one another and start their threads afresh, so they call them wrong. Men like this put the right in the Five Classics. If words are not from the Five Classics, then though they are right they are not listened to. Suppose the Five Classics came out of Confucius's gate and have been kept down to today with nothing left out or blotted away: then to call them pure and whole and to believe in them would be right. But the Five Classics met the extravagance of the fallen Qin and ran up against the overbearing counsel of Li Si. They were burned and forbidden, and it was the good fortune of Fu Sheng that he held a classic in his arms and hid it deep. When Han arose and gathered the Five Classics, the classic texts were broken and blotted out and unclear, and the chapters were thrown away and scattered and not complete. Men like Chao Cuo each split and divided the words after their own ideas, and master and disciple took from one another and handed on to one another, and no one knows which is right. The fallen Qin had no Way, and it is the Qin that ruined them and threw them into disorder. Yet Qin, though it had no Way, did not burn the books of the masters. The foot-long books of the masters have their writings complete, and they can be looked at and read to set talk straight, and they can be picked out and shown to later men. When later men make something again, it is like the making of the men before them. All of them were great and knowing, all of them are named in the records and traditions, and their writing and meaning come close to the classics. Why then is it said that only their books lose the truth of the classics? Speaking from this, the classics are broken and not whole, the books have no lost copies, while the classics have chapters that are lost. Weigh the two against each other. Which is scraps and leavings? The Changes rests on the images of affairs. The Odes were gathered from the people to make the chapters. The Music waited on the joy of the people, and the Rites waited on the peace of the people. These four classics had something to rest on, and only then were their chapters made. The Documents and the Spring and Autumn were gathered out of the records of the historians. The rise of the historians' records was no different, for the affairs of the people were their one intent. The making of the Six Classics all rested on something. Speaking from this, books too are the root and the classics too are the branch. The branch loses the truth of affairs, and the root gets the substance of the Way. Weigh the two against each other. Which is jade dust? The one who knows the roof leaks is under the eaves. The one who knows where government goes wrong is in the grass and the wilds. The one who knows where the classics are mistaken is among the masters. The foot-long books of the masters are clear in writing and truly right. Those who expound chapter and verse never seek to knock them open and make them clear. Master hands on to master, and the man who first made the chapter and verse was not a man of wide reading.