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Favor and Honor世説新語 寵禮第二十二

Shishuo Xinyu (A New Account of Tales of the World) 世說新語 · Compiled by Liu Yiqing · commentary by Liu Xiaobiao · Southern Dynasties, Song (5th century) · commentary by Liu Xiaobiao of Liang · 6 passages · 318 Chinese characters · reading time 1.3 min

Shishuo Xinyu (A New Account of Tales of the World) “The sun is far. I have never heard of anyone coming from the sun's side, and by that alone one may know it” — the answer a boy of a few years gave on his father's knee. Asked again the next day, he said, “The sun is near. Lift your eyes and you see the sun, but you do not see Chang'an.” For the two hundred years and more from the end of the Later Han down to the Jin, this book gathers nothing but what people said to one another and how they bore themselves, sorted into thirty-six kinds. It begins with virtuous conduct, speech, government and learning, and descends to extravagance, anger, envy and enmity, setting what is to be praised and what is to be blamed on the same scale. The seven men of the bamboo grove appear in it; Wang Xizhi is chosen as a son-in-law; a man rows out on a snowy night to the gate of a friend's house and turns back, saying the mood has run out. A piece usually runs three or four lines, and at its longest does not fill a page. The commentary Liu Xiaobiao drew from more than a hundred books now survives at greater length than the text itself, for nearly all those books are gone.

1If the sun shared its light with the ten thousand things, what would the subject look up to?

元帝正會，引王丞相登御床，王公固辭，中宗引之彌苦。王公曰：「使太陽與萬物同暉，臣下何以瞻仰？」

At Emperor Yuan's New Year assembly he drew Chancellor Wang up onto the imperial couch. Lord Wang firmly refused, and Zhongzong drew him on all the more insistently.

Lord Wang said, "If the sun were made to share its light with the ten thousand things, what would the subject look up to?"

Interlinear notes 1

《中興書》曰：「元帝登尊號，百官陪位，詔王導升御坐，固辭然後止。」

The Zhongxing shu says, "When Emperor Yuan took the honored title and the hundred officers stood in their places, he ordered by rescript that Wang Dao come up to the imperial seat, and only after Wang Dao had firmly refused did he let it rest."

2The Aide is the Yuan of Yuan and Fu. What more is there to doubt?

桓宣武嘗請參佐入宿，袁宏、伏滔相次而至，蒞名府中，復有袁參軍，彥伯疑焉，令傳教更質。傳教曰：「參軍是袁、伏之袁，復何所疑？」

Huan Xuanwu once asked his aides and assistants to come in and stay the night, and Yuan Hong and Fu Tao arrived one after the other.

As the names were given in the headquarters, there was also a Yuan the Aide, and Yanbo doubted it, and had the bearer of orders go and ask again.

The bearer of orders said, "The Aide is the Yuan of Yuan and Fu. What more is there to doubt?"

3The bearded Aide and the short Recorder can make His Excellency glad and can make His Excellency angry

王珣、郗超並有奇才，為大司馬所眷拔。珣為主簿，超為記室參軍。超為人多鬚，珣狀短小。于時荊州為之語曰：「髯參軍，短主簿。能令公喜，能令公怒。」

Wang Xun and Xi Chao both had rare talent, and the Grand Marshal looked on them and picked them out.

Wang Xun became Recorder, and Xi Chao became Aide of the Records Section.

Xi Chao was a man of much beard, and Wang Xun was short and small in build.

At that time they said of them in Jingzhou, "The bearded Aide and the short Recorder. They can make His Excellency glad, and they can make His Excellency angry."

Interlinear notes 1

《續晉陽秋》曰：「超有才能，珣有器望，並為溫所暱。」

The Xu Jinyang qiu says, "Xi Chao had talent and ability, and Wang Xun had capacity and bearing, and both were held close by Huan Wen."

4If you stay a little longer without going, sir, I shall become a frivolous Governor of the Capital

許玄度停都一月，劉尹無日不往，乃歎曰：「卿復少時不去，我成輕薄京尹！」

Xu Xuandu stayed a month in the capital, and there was no day on which Liu the Governor did not go to him, and at last he sighed and said, "If you stay a little longer without going, sir, I shall become a frivolous Governor of the Capital."

Interlinear notes 1

《語林》曰：「玄度出都，真長九日十一詣之，曰：『卿尚不去，使我成薄德二千石。』」

The Yulin says, "When Xu Xuandu came out to the capital, Zhenchang went to call on him eleven times in nine days, and said, 'You still do not go, sir, and you make me a two-thousand-picul officer of thin virtue.'"

5To be a father to a man like this, how is it?

孝武在西堂會，伏滔預坐。還，下車呼其兒，語之曰：「百人高會，臨坐未得他語，先問『伏滔何在？在此不？』此故未易得。為人作父如此，何如？」

When Emperor Xiaowu held a gathering in the West Hall, Fu Tao had a place at it.

On his return he got down from his carriage, called his son, and said to him, "At a high gathering of a hundred men, before he had come to his seat and spoken of anything else, he asked first, 'Where is Fu Tao? Is he here?' This is not a thing easily won. To be a father to a man like this, how is it?"

Interlinear notes 1

兒，即系也。丘淵之《文章錄》曰：「系字敬魯，仕至光祿大夫。」

The son was Fu Xi. Qiu Yuanzhi's Wenzhang lu says, "Fu Xi's courtesy name was Jinglu, and his office reached Grandee of the Palace."

6I look to you, sir, for the first principle. Do not fail me

卞範之為丹陽尹，羊孚南州暫還，往卞許，云：「下官疾動不堪坐。」卞便開帳拂褥，羊徑上大床，入被須枕。卞回坐傾睞，移晨達莫。羊去，卞語曰：「我以第一理期卿，卿莫負我。」

When Bian Fanzhi was Governor of Danyang, Yang Fu came back for a while from Nanzhou and went to Bian's place, and said, "This lesser officer's illness has come on him and he cannot sit up."

Bian at once opened the curtains and shook out the bedding, and Yang Fu went straight up onto the great couch, got under the covers, and drew the pillow to him.

Bian turned his seat about and gazed at him sidelong, and so they passed from morning until evening.

When Yang Fu left, Bian said, "I look to you, sir, for the first principle. Do not fail me."

Interlinear notes 1

丘淵之《文章錄》曰：「範之字敬祖，濟陰冤句人。祖㟪，下邳太守。父循，尚書郎。桓玄輔政，範之遷丹陽尹。玄敗，伏誅。」

Qiu Yuanzhi's Wenzhang lu says, "Bian Fanzhi's courtesy name was Jingzu; he was a man of Yuanju in Jiyin. His grandfather Bian Wei was Governor of Xiapi, and his father Bian Xun was Gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat. When Huan Xuan took charge of the government, Bian Fanzhi was moved to be Governor of Danyang. When Huan Xuan fell, he was put to death."

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