Duizuo — Why This Book Was Written對作篇
或問曰：「賢聖之空生，必有以用其心。上自孔、墨之黨，下至苟、孟之徒，教訓必作垂文。何也？」
Someone asks, "When the worthy and the sage are born in vain, they must have something on which to use their minds. From Confucius and Mozi and their followers above, down to Xun and Meng and their disciples below, in teaching they always make writings and leave them behind. Why is this?"
對曰：聖人作經，藝者傳記，匡濟薄俗，驅民使之歸實誠也。案六略之書，萬三千篇，增善消惡，割截橫拓，驅役遊慢，期便道善，歸政道焉。孔子作《春秋》，周民弊也。故採求毫毛之善，貶纖介之惡，撥亂世，反諸正，人道浹，王道備，所以檢押靡薄之俗者，悉具密致。夫防決不備，有水溢之害；網解不結，有獸失之患。是故周道不弊，則民不文薄；民不文薄，《春秋》不作。楊、墨之學不亂〔儒〕義，則孟子之傳不造；韓國不小弱，法度不壞廢，則韓非之書不為；高祖不辨得天下，馬上之計未轉，則陸賈之語不奏；眾事不失實，凡論不壞亂，則桓譚之論不起。故夫賢聖之興文也，起事不空為，因因不妄作。作有益於化，化有補於正。故漢立蘭台之官，校審其書，以考其言。董仲舒作道術之書，頗言災異政治所失，書成文具，表在漢室。主父偃嫉之，誣奏其書。天子下仲舒於吏，當謂之下愚。仲舒當死，天子赦之。夫仲舒言災異之事，孝武猶不罪而尊其身，況所論無觸忌之言，核道實之事，收故實之語乎！故夫賢人之在世也，進則盡忠宣化，以明朝廷；退則稱論貶說，以覺失俗。俗也不知還，則立道輕為非；論者不追救，則迷亂不覺悟。
I answer. The sages made the classics and men of skill made the commentaries and records, to set right and save shallow customs and to drive the people back to real sincerity. Look at the books of the Six Sections, thirteen thousand pieces. They add to the good and wear away the bad, they cut off and sever what spreads crosswise, they drive and put to work the idle and the slack, and they aim straight at the good of the Way and turn men back to the way of government. Confucius made the Spring and Autumn because the people of Zhou had decayed. So he gathered and sought out good the size of a hair and cut down evil the size of a thread, put the disordered age in order and turned it back to the right. The way of man was made whole and the way of the king complete, and what he used to hold in check the fallen and shallow customs is all there, close and fine. When a dyke bursts and nothing is made ready, there is the harm of overflowing water. When a net comes loose and is not tied, there is the trouble of beasts getting away. So if the way of Zhou had not decayed, the people would not have grown showy and shallow; if the people had not grown showy and shallow, the Spring and Autumn would not have been made. If the learning of Yang and Mo had not thrown the meaning of the Confucians into disorder, the commentary of Mencius would not have been made. If the state of Han had not been small and weak and its laws and measures had not fallen into ruin, the book of Han Fei would not have been written. If Gaozu had not argued over how he won the world and the counsel of the saddle had not been turned, the words of Lu Jia would not have been presented. If the many affairs had not lost the real and common discussion had not broken down into disorder, the discourse of Huan Tan would not have arisen. So when the worthy and the sage raise up writing, they do not start a matter for nothing, and following what they follow they do not make things wildly. What they make profits the transforming of men, and that transforming helps what is right. So Han set up the office of the Orchid Terrace, to collate and examine such books and weigh their words. Dong Zhongshu made a book on the arts of the Way, and said much of how disasters and strange events come from what government loses. The book was finished and the writing complete, and it stood out in the house of Han. Zhufu Yan hated it and made a false report about the book. The Son of Heaven sent Zhongshu down to the officers, and they said he should be called of the lowest folly. Zhongshu should have died, but the Son of Heaven pardoned him. Zhongshu spoke of disasters and strange events, and even so the filial Emperor Wu did not punish him but honored his person. How much more when what is discussed has no word that touches on what is forbidden, but examines the real matter of the Way and gathers up words about what truly happened! So when a worthy man is in the world, if he advances he gives his loyalty to the full and spreads the transforming teaching, and makes the court bright; if he withdraws he sets out discourse and cuts down bad theories, and wakes up the customs that have gone wrong. If customs do not know how to come back, then in setting up the Way men lightly go wrong; if those who discuss do not chase after them and save them, they stay lost and disordered and never wake.
是故《論衡》之造也，起眾書並失實，虛妄之言勝真美也。故虛妄之語不黜，則華文不見息；華文放流，則實事不見用。故《論衡》者，所以銓輕重之言，立真偽之平，非苟調文飾辭，為奇偉之觀也。其本皆起人間有非，故盡思極心，以〔譏〕世俗。世俗之性，好奇怪之語，說虛妄之文。何則？實事不能快意，而華虛驚耳動心也。是故才能之士，好談論者，增益實事，為美盛之語；用筆墨者，造生空文，為虛妄之傳。聽者以為真然，說而不捨；覽者以為實事，傳而不絕。不絕，則文載竹帛之上；不捨，則誤入賢者之耳。至或南面稱師，賦姦偽之說；典城佩紫，讀虛妄之書。明辨然否，疾心傷之，安能不論？孟子傷楊、墨之議大奪儒家之論，引平直之說，褒是抑非，世人以為好辯。孟子曰：「予豈好辯哉？予不得已！」今吾不得已也！虛妄顯於真，實誠亂於偽，世人不悟，是非不定，紫失雜廁，瓦玉集糅，以情言之，豈吾心所能忍哉！衛驂乘者越職而呼車，惻怛發心，恐〔上〕之危也。夫論說者閔世憂俗，與衛驂乘者同一心矣。愁精神而幽魂魄。動胸中之靜氣，賊年損壽，無益於性，禍重於顏回，違負黃、老之教，非人所貪，不得已，故為《論衡》。文露而旨直，辭姦而情實。其《政務》言治民之道。《論衡》諸篇，實俗間之凡人所能見，與彼作者無以異也。若夫九《虛》、三《增》、《論死》、《訂鬼》，世俗所久惑，人所不能覺也。人君遭弊，改教於上；人臣愚惑，作論於下。〔下〕實得，則上教從矣。冀悟迷惑之心，使知虛實之分。實虛之分定，而華偽之文滅。華偽之文滅，則純誠之化日以孽矣。
So the making of the Lunheng arose because the many books had all lost the real, and empty and wild words were beating what is true and fine. If empty and wild talk is not driven out, showy writing will never rest; if showy writing is let loose and flows on, real matters will never be used. So the Lunheng is what weighs words light and heavy and sets up a balance for true and false. It is not a careless tuning of writing and dressing up of phrases, to make a strange and grand show. Its root all rises from the wrongs there are among men, and so I use up my thought and stretch my mind to the end, and blame the customs of the age. The nature of common custom loves strange and odd talk and delights in empty and wild writing. Why? Real matters cannot make the heart glad, while show and emptiness startle the ear and move the heart. So gifted and able men who love to talk add to real matters and make fine and swelling speech, and those who use brush and ink give birth to empty writing and make empty and wild accounts. Those who hear think it truly so, delight in it and will not let it go; those who read think it a real matter, hand it on and never break off. Never breaking off, the writing is loaded onto bamboo and silk; never let go, it enters by mistake into the ears of worthy men. It comes even to this, that some face south and are called masters and spread crooked and false theories, and some hold a city and wear the purple and read empty and wild books. One who tells clearly what is so and what is not aches in his heart and is hurt by it. How can he not discuss? Mencius was hurt that the arguments of Yang and Mo were taking away so much from the discourse of the Confucians. He drew on level and straight theories, praised the right and pressed down the wrong, and the people of the age thought he loved to dispute. Mencius said, "Do I love to dispute? I cannot help it!" Now I too cannot help it. Empty and wild things show brighter than the true, real sincerity is confused by the false, the people of the age do not wake, right and wrong are not settled, purple and vermilion lie mixed together, tiles and jade are gathered and jumbled. Speaking from the feeling of it, how could my heart bear it! When the side rider of Wei overstepped his office and called out to the carriage, it was because a grieving heart rose in him and he feared that the one above was in danger. One who discusses and explains pities the age and worries over its customs, and he is of one heart with the side rider of Wei. It saddens the spirit and darkens the soul, it stirs the still breath within the breast, it robs the years and takes from the span of life, and it does the nature no good. The harm is heavier than what fell on Yan Hui, and it turns its back on the teaching of Huang and Lao. It is not what a man covets, but I could not help it, and so I made the Lunheng. Its writing is open and its meaning straight; its phrases are crooked but its feeling is real. Its Zhengwu speaks of the way of governing the people. The several chapters of the Lunheng are truly what an ordinary man among the common world can see, and in that there is nothing to tell them from those other makers. As for the nine Xu chapters and the three Zeng chapters, the Lun si and the Ding gui, these are what the common world has long been deluded about and what men cannot wake to. When the ruler of men meets with decay, he changes his teaching above; when the servants of men are foolish and deluded, they make discourse below. If below gets hold of the real, then the teaching above follows. I hope to wake the deluded heart and make it know the division between empty and real. When the division of real and empty is settled, showy and false writing dies out. When showy and false writing dies out, the transforming power of pure sincerity grows day by day.
或曰：「聖人作，賢者述。以賢而作者，非也。《論衡》、《政務》，可謂作者。」曰：〔非〕作也，亦非述也，論也。論者，述之次也。《五經》之興，可謂作矣。太史公《書》、劉子政《序》、班叔皮《傳》，可謂述矣。桓君山《新論》、鄒伯奇《檢論》，可謂論矣。今觀《論衡》、《政務》，桓、鄒之二論也，非所謂作也。造端更為，前始未有，若倉頡作書，奚仲作車是也。《易》言伏羲作八卦，前是未有八卦，伏羲造之，故曰作也。文王圖八，自演為六十四，故曰衍。謂《論衡》之成，猶六十四卦，而又非也。六十四卦以狀衍增益，其卦溢，其數多。今《論衡》就世俗之書，訂其真偽，辯其實虛，非造始更為，無本於前也。儒生就先師之說，詰而難之；文吏就獄之事，覆而考之，謂《論衡》為作，儒生、文吏謂作乎？
Someone says, "The sage makes, the worthy hands on. To be worthy and yet to make is wrong. The Lunheng and the Zhengwu may be called making." I say: it is not making, nor is it handing on; it is discussing. Discussing comes next after handing on. The rise of the Five Classics may be called making. The Book of the Grand Historian, the Preface of Liu Zizheng and the Commentary of Ban Shupi may be called handing on. The Xin lun of Huan Junshan and the Jian lun of Zou Boqi may be called discussing. Now look at the Lunheng and the Zhengwu: they are the two discourses of Huan and Zou, not what is called making. To begin a thing anew, where before there was no start of it, is like Cangjie making writing and Xizhong making the cart. The Yi says that Fuxi made the eight trigrams. Before that there were no eight trigrams, and Fuxi made them, so it is called making. King Wen drew the eight and of himself spread them out into sixty-four, so that is called spreading. To say that the making of the Lunheng is like the sixty-four hexagrams is also wrong. The sixty-four hexagrams spread out the figures and added to them, so the figures overflowed and their number grew many. Now the Lunheng goes to the books of the common world, sets right what is true and false in them and tells apart what is real and empty. It does not make a beginning anew, with no root in what came before. A Confucian scholar goes to the theories of the earlier masters and questions and presses them; a clerk goes to the matters of a prison case and turns them over and examines them. If the Lunheng is called making, are the Confucian scholar and the clerk called makers too?
上書奏記，陳列便宜，皆欲輔政。今作書者，猶〔上〕書奏記，說發胸臆，文成手中，其實一也。夫上書謂之奏記，轉易其名謂之書。建初孟年，中州頗歉，潁川、汝南民流四散，聖主憂懷，詔書數至。《論衡》之人，奏記郡守，宜禁奢侈，以備睏乏。言不納用，退題記草，名曰《備乏》。酒縻五穀，生起盜賊，沉湎飲酒，盜賊不絕，奏記郡守，禁民酒。退題記草，名曰《禁酒》。由此言之，夫作書者，上書奏記之文也。記謂之造作上書，上書奏記是作也？
Those who send up letters and present memoranda set out what is fitting, and all of them wish to help the government. Now one who makes a book is like one who sends up a letter or presents a memorandum: the theory comes out of his breast and the writing takes shape in his hand. In truth they are one. To send up a letter is called presenting a memorandum, and when the name is changed it is called a book. In the first year of Jianchu the middle provinces had a poor harvest, and the people of Yingchuan and Runan drifted and scattered in all four directions. The sage ruler was troubled in heart, and edicts came down again and again. The man of the Lunheng presented a memorandum to the governor of the commandery, saying that extravagance should be forbidden so as to be ready for want and hardship. The words were not taken up, so he withdrew and put a title on the draft of that memorandum and named it Beifa. Wine wastes the five grains and gives rise to robbers and thieves; men sink and drown in drinking, and robbers and thieves never cease. So he presented a memorandum to the governor of the commandery, to forbid the people wine. He withdrew and put a title on the draft of that memorandum and named it Jinjiu. Speaking from this, one who makes a book is writing the writing of a letter sent up and a memorandum presented. If a memorandum is called making, then are sending up letters and presenting memoranda making?
晉之乘，而楚之檮杌，魯之春秋，人事各不同也。《易》之乾坤，《春秋》之「元」，楊氏之「玄」，卜氣號不均也。由此言之，唐林之奏，谷永之章，《論衡》、《政務》，同一趨也。漢家極筆墨之林，書論之造，漢家尤多。陽成子張作「樂」，揚子雲造「玄」，二經發於臺下，讀於闕掖，卓絕驚耳，不述而作，材疑聖人，而漢朝不譏。況《論衡》細說微論，解釋世俗之疑，辯照是非之理，使後進曉見然否之分，恐其廢失，著之簡牘，祖經章句之說，先師奇說之類也。其言伸繩，彈割俗傳。俗傳蔽惑，偽書放流，賢通之人，疾之無已。孔子曰：「詩人疾之不能默，丘疾之不能伏。」是以論也。玉亂於石，人不能別。或若楚之王尹以玉為石，卒使卞和受刖足之誅。是反為非，虛轉為實，安能不言？俗傳既過，俗書之偽。若夫鄒衍謂今天下為一州，四海之外有若天下者九州。《淮南書》言共工與顓頊爭為天子，不勝，怒而觸不周之山，使天柱折，地維絕。堯時十日並出，堯上射九日；魯陽戰而日暮，援戈麾日，日為卻還。世間書傳，多若等類，浮妄虛偽，沒奪正是。心漬湧，筆手擾，安能不論？論則考之以心，效之以事，浮虛之事，輒立證驗。若太史公之書，據許由不隱，燕太子丹不使日再中。讀見之者，莫不稱善。
The Sheng of Jin, the Taowu of Chu and the Spring and Autumn of Lu are each not the same in the affairs of men. The Qian and Kun of the Changes, the Yuan of the Spring and Autumn and the Xuan of Master Yang are names for the breath that is divined, and they are not even. Speaking from this, the memorial of Tang Lin, the petition of Gu Yong, the Lunheng and the Zhengwu all run the same way. The house of Han has carried the forest of brush and ink to its limit, and the making of books and discourses is more plentiful in the house of Han than anywhere. Yangcheng Zizhang made the Yue and Yang Ziyun made the Xuan. The two classics came forth below the terrace and were read beside the palace gate. They stood out and startled the ear, and they did not hand on but made, so that their talent was taken for a sage's, and yet the court of Han did not blame them. How much more the Lunheng, with its fine explanations and small discussions, which undo the doubts of the common world and tell apart and light up the pattern of right and wrong, so that those who come after may see clearly the division between what is so and what is not. Fearing that this would be dropped and lost, I set it down on tablets and slips. It takes as its ancestors the theories of chapter and verse on the classics, and it is of a kind with the strange theories of the earlier masters. Its words stretch out the marking line and snap and cut at what custom hands down. What custom hands down covers men and deludes them, and false books are let loose and flow on, so that worthy and penetrating men hate it without end. Confucius said, "The poet hated it and could not keep silent; Qiu hates it and cannot lie low." And so I discuss. When jade is confused with stone, men cannot tell them apart. It is like the king and the warden of Chu taking jade for stone, so that in the end Bian He suffered the punishment of having his feet cut off. The right turns instead into the wrong and the empty is turned into the real. How can I not speak? What custom hands down has already gone too far, and the books of custom are false. So Zou Yan said that the world today is one province, and that beyond the four seas there are nine provinces such as this world. The Book of Huainan says that Gonggong fought with Zhuanxu to be Son of Heaven, and when he did not win he grew angry and butted against Mount Buzhou, so that the pillar of heaven broke and the cord of earth snapped. In the time of Yao ten suns came out together and Yao shot down nine of them; Luyang was in battle and the sun went down, and he took up his halberd and waved it at the sun, and the sun went back for him. The books and accounts of the world are full of things of this kind, floating and wild, empty and false, and they sink and take away what is upright and right. My heart is soaked and boils up, my brush and my hand are stirred. How can I not discuss? In discussing I weigh a thing with the mind and prove it by matters, and for floating and empty matters I always set up proof and test. The book of the Grand Historian holds that Xu You did not hide away, and that Prince Dan of Yan did not make the sun stand at noon a second time. None who read and see it fail to call it good.
《政務》為郡國守相、縣邑令長陳通政事所當尚務，欲令全民立化，奉稱國恩。《論衡》九《虛》三《增》，所以使浴務實誠也；《論死》、《訂鬼》，所以使浴薄喪葬也。孔子徑庭麗級，被棺斂者不省。劉子政上薄葬，奉送藏者不約。光武皇帝草車茅馬，為明器者不姦。何世書俗言不載？信死之語汶濁之也。今著《論死》及《死偽》之篇，明死無知，不能為鬼，冀觀覽者將一曉解約葬，更為節儉。斯蓋《論衡》有益之驗也。言苟有益，雖作何害？倉頡之書，世以紀事；奚仲之車，世以自載；伯餘之衣，以辟寒暑；桀之瓦屋，以辟風雨。夫不論其利害，而徒譏其造作，是則倉頡之徒有非，《世本》十五家皆受責也。故夫有益也，雖作無害也。雖無害，何補？
The Zhengwu, for the governors and chancellors of commanderies and states and the prefects and chiefs of districts and towns, sets out and makes clear what in government should be honored and worked at, wishing that the whole people should set up the transforming teaching and hold up and answer the kindness of the state. The nine Xu chapters and the three Zeng chapters of the Lunheng are how custom is made to work at real sincerity, and the Lun si and the Ding gui are how custom is made to keep mourning and burial light. Confucius went straight across the courtyard and trod the steps, but those who shroud and coffin the dead took no notice. Liu Zizheng sent up a plea for light burial, but those who escort the dead and lay them away did not cut back. Emperor Guangwu used carts of straw and horses of thatch, but those who make grave goods were not crooked. What age is there whose books and common sayings do not carry these things? It is talk that believes in the dead that has muddied them. Now I have written the chapters Lun si and Si wei, to make clear that the dead have no knowledge and cannot become ghosts, hoping that those who look and read will once understand, cut back on burial and turn again to thrift. This may be the proof that the Lunheng has its use. If words truly have use, what harm is there even in making? By the writing of Cangjie the world records its affairs; by the cart of Xizhong the world carries itself; by the clothing of Boyu men keep off cold and heat; by the tiled house of Jie men keep off wind and rain. If one does not discuss whether a thing profits or harms and only blames the making of it, then Cangjie and his like are in the wrong, and the fifteen houses of the Shiben all take the blame. So where there is use, there is no harm even in making. But though there is no harm, what does it help?
Interlinear notes 1
被棺斂者不省
The source text has no 玉 ("jade"). Following the commentary this is taken to mean shrouding with jade, but nothing is supplied in the main text. ― translator
古有命使採爵，欲觀風俗知下情也。《詩》作民間，聖王可雲「汝民也，何發作」，囚罪其身，歿滅其詩乎？今已不然，故《詩》傳〔至〕今。《論衡》、《政務》，其猶《詩》也，冀望見採，而雲有過。斯蓋《論衡》之書所以興也。且凡造作之過，意其言妄而謗誹也。《論衡》實事疾妄，《齊世》、《宣漢》、《恢國》、《驗符》、《盛褒》、《須頌》之言，無誹謗之辭。造作如此，可以免於罪矣。
In old times men were ordered and sent out to gather the Odes, so as to look at the customs and know the feeling below. The Odes were made among the people. Could a sage king say, "You are one of the people; how do you set to making?" and shut him up and punish his person and wipe out his poem? Now it is not so, and that is why the Odes have been handed down to this day. The Lunheng and the Zhengwu are like the Odes. I hope to be gathered up, and yet men say there is a fault in it. This may be why the book of the Lunheng arose. Besides, the fault found in making is the thought that its words are wild and slander men. The Lunheng makes matters real and hates the wild, and in the words of Qi shi, Xuan Han, Hui guo, Yan fu, Sheng bao and Xu song there is no phrase of slander. Making that is like this can be free of blame.