Mastery of the Arts世説新語 術解第二十

《晉後略》曰：「鐘律之器，自周之未廢，而漢成、哀之間，諸儒修而治之。至後漢末，復隳矣。魏氏使協律知音者杜夔造之，不能考之典禮，徒依于時絲管之聲、時之尺寸而制之，甚乖失禮度。於是世祖命中書監荀勖依典制，定鐘律。既鑄律管，募求古器，得周時玉律數枚，比之不差。又諸郡舍倉庫，或有漢時故鐘，以律命之，皆不叩而應，聲響韻合，又若俱成。」《晉諸公贊》曰：「律成，散騎侍郎阮咸謂『勖所造聲高、高則悲。夫亡國之音哀以思，其民困。今聲不合雅，懼非德政中和之音，必是古今尺有長短所致。然今鐘磬是魏時杜夔所造，不與勖律相應，音聲舒雅，而久不知夔所造，時人為之，不足改易。』勖性自矜，乃因事左遷咸為始平太守，而病卒。後得地中古銅尺，校度勖今尺，短四分，方明咸果解音，然無能正者。」干寶《晉紀》曰：「荀勖始造正德大象之舞，以魏杜夔所制律呂，校大樂本音不和。後漢至魏，尺長於古四分有餘，而夔據之，是以失韻。乃依周禮，積粟以起度量，以度古器，符于本銘，遂以為式，用之郊廟。」

The Jin houlüe says, "The instruments of bell and pitch pipe fell into disuse from the end of the Zhou, and between the reigns of Cheng and Ai of the Han the scholars repaired and set them in order. By the end of the Later Han they had fallen apart again. The Wei had Du Kui, who matched pitch pipes and knew sounds, make them, but he could not look into the statutes and the rites, and made them relying only on the sound of the strings and pipes of his own day and the measures of his own day, so that he strayed far from the measure of the rites. At this Shizu ordered Xun Xu, Director of the Palace Secretariat, to fix the bells and pitch pipes by the statutes and the institutes. When the pitch pipes had been cast, he sought old instruments far and wide, and got several jade pitch pipes of the Zhou, and matching them against his own found no difference. In the houses and storehouses of the commanderies too there were here and there old bells of the Han, and when he called to them with the pitch pipes they all answered without being struck, sound and resonance in accord, as though they had been made together." The Jin zhugong zan says, "When the pitch pipes were finished, Ruan Xian, Gentleman Attendant of the Cavaliers, said, 'What Xun Xu has made is high in sound, and what is high is mournful. The music of a perishing state is sorrowful and full of longing, and its people are in distress. These sounds do not match the elegant music, and I fear they are not the harmonious sounds of virtuous government, and that a difference in length between the foot-rule of old and the foot-rule of today has brought it about. Yet the bells and chime stones of today were made by Du Kui in the time of Wei. They do not answer to Xun Xu's pitch pipes, and their sound is open and elegant. But for long no one knew that Du Kui made them, and it was said that men of this age made them, so there is not ground enough to change them.' Xun Xu's nature was to praise himself, and so he took an occasion to demote Xian to Governor of Shiping, where he fell ill and died. Later an old bronze foot-rule was found in the ground, and measured against Xun Xu's present rule it was four fen short. Then it became clear that Xian had indeed understood sounds, but there was no one who could set them right." Gan Bao's Jin ji says, "When Xun Xu first made the dances of Zhengde and Daxiang, he matched the fundamental notes of the great music against the pitch pipes Du Kui had made in Wei, and they were not in harmony. From the Later Han to the Wei the foot-rule was more than four fen longer than the old one, and Du Kui had relied on it; this was why the resonance was lost. So he followed the Zhou li, heaping millet to raise up the measures, and measured the old instruments by them. They tallied with the original inscriptions, and he took this for the standard and used it at the suburban sacrifices and in the ancestral temple."

《幽明錄》曰：「羊祜工騎乘。有一兒五六歲，端明可喜。掘墓之後，兒即亡。羊時為襄陽都督，因盤馬落地，遂折臂。于時士林咸歎其忠誠。」

The Youming lu says, "Yang Hu was skilled in riding. He had a boy of five or six, well ordered and bright, a joy to see, and after the grave was dug through the boy died. Yang Hu was then Commander at Xiangyang, and while wheeling his horse he fell to the ground and broke his arm. At that time the whole forest of scholars sighed over his loyalty and sincerity."

《語林》曰：「武子性愛馬，亦甚別之。故杜預道『王武子有馬癖，和長輿有錢癖。』武帝問杜預：『卿有何癖？』對曰：『臣有左傳癖。』」

The Yulin says, "Wuzi by nature loved horses, and he told them apart very well. So Du Yu said, 'Wang Wuzi has a craving for horses, and He Changyu has a craving for money.' Emperor Wu asked Du Yu, 'What craving have you, sir?' He answered, 'Your servant has a craving for the Zuo zhuan.'"

《陳氏譜》曰：「述字嗣祖，潁川許昌人。有美名。」

The Chenshi pu says, "Shu's courtesy name was Sizu; he was a man of Xuchang in Yingchuan. He had a fine name."

青鳥子相冢書曰：「葬龍之角，暴富貴，後當滅門。」

The Qingniaozi xiangzhong shu says, "Bury at the dragon's horn and wealth and honor come suddenly, but afterward the house will be wiped out."

《璞別傳》曰：「璞少好經術，明解卜筮。永嘉中，海內將亂，璞投策歎曰：『黔黎將同異類矣！』便結親暱十餘家，南渡江，居於暨陽。」

The Pu biezhuan says, "Pu was fond of the classics and their arts from his youth, and understood divination clearly. In the Yongjia years, when all within the seas was about to fall into disorder, Pu threw down his divining stalks and sighed, 'The black-haired people will soon be one with a kind not their own.' Then he bound together some ten families of those close to him, crossed the river southward, and lived at Jiyang."

王隱《晉書》曰：「璞消災轉禍，扶厄擇勝，時人咸言京、管不及。」

Wang Yin's Jin shu says, "Pu melted away disasters and turned misfortune aside, propped up calamity and chose what was better, and people of the time all said that Jing Fang and Guan Lu did not come up to him."

Qi 齊, the commandery, and qi 臍, the navel, have the same sound, and so do Ge 鬲, the county, and ge 膈, the diaphragm; the saying turns on that. — translator

《晉書》曰：「法開善醫術，嘗行，莫投主人，妻產，而兒積日不墮。法開曰：『此易治耳。』殺一肥羊，食十餘臠而針之。須臾兒下，羊膋裹兒出。其精妙如此。」

The Jin shu says, "Fakai was skilled in the art of medicine. He was once traveling, and at dusk he put up at a house where the wife was in labor, and the child had not come down for several days. Fakai said, 'This is easily dealt with.' He killed a fat sheep, fed her a dozen slices of it, and applied the needle. In a moment the child came down, and the sheep's fat came out wrapped about the child. Such was the fineness of his skill."