Frugality and Stinginess世説新語 儉嗇第二十九
1How do they compare with your plums?
和嶠性至儉，家有好李，王武子求之，與不過數十。王武子因其上直，率將少年能食之者，持斧詣園，飽共噉畢，伐之，送一車枝與和公。問曰：「何如君李？」和既得，唯笑而已。
He Qiao was sparing by nature to the utmost.
There were fine plums at his house, and when Wang Wuzi asked for some he gave him no more than a few dozen.
Wang Wuzi took the chance while He Qiao was on night duty. He led along those of the young men who could eat well, took an axe, went to the orchard, and when they had eaten their fill together he cut the trees down.
He sent a cartload of branches to Lord He and asked, "How do they compare with your plums?"
When He Qiao received them he only laughed.
Interlinear notes 1
《晉諸公贊》曰：「嶠性不通，治家富擬王公，而至儉，將有犯義之名。」《語林》曰：「嶠諸弟往園中食李，而皆計核責錢。故嶠婦弟王濟伐之也。」
The Jin zhugong zan says, "Qiao's nature was not open. He managed his household with the wealth of a prince, yet he was sparing to the utmost, and he was coming to have the name of one who offends against right." The Yulin says, "When Qiao's younger brothers went into the orchard and ate the plums, he counted the stones and charged them money for every one. That is why Wang Ji, the brother of Qiao's wife, cut the trees down."
2Afterward he asked for it back again
王戎儉吝，其從子婚，與一單衣，後更責之。
Wang Rong was sparing and grudging. When his brother's son married he gave him a single unlined robe, and afterward he asked for it back again.
Interlinear notes 1
王隱《晉書》曰：「戎性至儉，不能自奉養，財不出外，天下人謂為膏肓之疾。」
Wang Yin's Jin shu says, "Rong was sparing by nature to the utmost. He could not keep himself in any comfort, and no goods went out of his house, so that the people of the empire called it a sickness past cure in his vitals."
3He always scattered the counting rods with his wife by candlelight and reckoned up the sums
司徒王戎，既貴且富，區宅僮牧，膏田水碓之屬，洛下無比。契疏鞅掌，每與夫人燭下散籌算計。
Wang Rong, Minister over the Masses, was both noble and rich, and in dwellings and houses, in slaves and herds, in fat fields and water mills and the like, there was no match for him below Luoyang.
His deeds and contracts were piled up and pressing, and he always scattered the counting rods with his wife by candlelight and reckoned up the sums.
Interlinear notes 1
《晉諸公贊》曰：「戎性簡要，不治儀望，自遇甚薄，而產業過豐，論者以為台輔之望不重。」王隱《晉書》曰：「戎好治生，園田周遍天下，翁嫗二人，常以象牙籌晝夜筭計家資。」《晉陽秋》曰：「戎多殖財賄，常若不足。或謂戎故以此自晦也。」戴逵論之曰：「王戎晦默於危亂之際，獲免憂禍，既明且哲，於是在矣。或曰：『大臣用心，豈其然乎？』逵曰：『運有險易，時有昏明，如子之言，則蘧瑗、季札之徒，皆負責矣。自古而觀，豈一王戎也哉？』」
The Jin zhugong zan says, "Rong was plain and to the point by nature. He did not cultivate his bearing or his repute, and he treated himself very meanly, yet his holdings were more than ample, so that those who judged him held that he did not carry the weight to be looked to as a pillar of the court." Wang Yin's Jin shu says, "Rong was fond of managing his living, and his orchards and fields were spread over the empire. An old man and an old woman, two of them, were always reckoning the family's means day and night with ivory counting rods." The Jinyang qiu says, "Rong increased his goods and wealth greatly, yet he always seemed to think it not enough. Some say that Rong did this on purpose to keep himself in the dark." Dai Kui discussed it, saying, "Wang Rong kept dark and silent in a time of danger and disorder, and so he was able to escape sorrow and calamity. Here is a man both clear-sighted and wise. Some say, 'Would a great minister set his mind on such a thing?' Kui says, 'Fortune has its rough times and its smooth, and the age has its dark days and its bright. If it were as you say, then Qu Boyu and Ji Zha and their like would all bear the blame. Looking back from of old, how should it be Wang Rong alone?'"
4Fearing that others would get his stock, he always bored through the stones
王戎有好李，賣之，恐人得其種，恆鑽其核。
Wang Rong had fine plums, and he sold them. Fearing that others would get his stock, he always bored through the stones.
5When his daughter hurried to pay the money back, he was at ease again
王戎女適裴頠，貸錢數萬。女歸，戎色不說。女遽還錢，乃釋然。
Wang Rong's daughter married Pei Wei, and she borrowed some tens of thousands of cash.
When the daughter came home, Wang Rong's face was not pleased.
When she hurried to pay the money back, he was at ease again.
6My uncle is harsh and thin, and now he drives the grasses and trees on his errands too
衛江州在尋陽，有知舊人投之，都不料理，唯餉「王不留行」一斤。此人得餉，便命駕。李弘範聞之曰：「家舅刻薄，乃復驅使草木。」
When Wei of Jiangzhou was at Xunyang, an old acquaintance came to him for help, but he did not see to him at all and only sent him a pound of the herb wangbuliuxing.
When this man received the gift, he called at once for his carriage.
Li Hongfan heard of it and said, "My uncle is harsh and thin, and now he drives the grasses and trees on his errands too."
Interlinear notes 3
《永嘉流人名》曰：「衛展字道舒，河東安邑人。祖列，彭城護軍。父韶，廣平令。展，光熙初除鷹揚將軍、江州刺史。」
The Yongjia liuren ming says, "Wei Zhan's courtesy name was Daoshu, and he was a man of Anyi in Hedong. His grandfather Wei Lie was commandant of the guards at Pengcheng, and his father Wei Shao was prefect of Guangping. At the beginning of the Guangxi period Zhan was appointed General of the Soaring Hawk and Governor of Jiangzhou."
《本草》曰：「王不留行，生太山，治金瘡，除風，久服之，輕身。」
The Bencao says, "Wangbuliuxing grows on Mount Tai. It treats wounds from metal and drives out wind, and taken for a long time it makes the body light."
《中興書》曰：「李軌字弘範，江夏人。仕至尚書郎。」按軌，劉氏之甥，此應弘度，非弘範也。
The Zhongxing shu says, "Li Gui's courtesy name was Hongfan, and he was a man of Jiangxia. He rose in office to gentleman of the Imperial Secretariat." Let this be considered. Gui was the sister's son of the Liu family, so this ought to be Hongdu and not Hongfan.
7Take care not to let the eldest young master know
王丞相儉節，帳下甘果，盈溢不散。涉春爛敗，都督白之，公令舍去。曰：「慎不可令大郎知。」
Wang the Chancellor was thrifty and sparing, so that the sweet fruit under his curtains piled up and overflowed and was never given out.
When spring came on and it had gone rotten and spoiled, the commandant reported it, and the lord had it thrown away, saying, "Take care not to let the eldest young master know."
Interlinear notes 1
王悅也。
This is Wang Yue.
8They could well be planted
蘇峻之亂，庾太尉南奔見陶公。陶公雅相賞重。陶性儉吝，及食，噉薤，庾因留白。陶問：「用此何為？」庾云：「故可種。」於是大嘆庾非唯風流，兼有治實。
In the disorder raised by Su Jun, Yu the Grand Commandant fled south and called on Lord Tao, and Lord Tao praised him and esteemed him in elegant fashion.
Tao was thrifty and grudging by nature. When they came to eat, they ate leeks, and Yu Liang set the white roots aside.
Tao asked, "What will you do with these?"
Yu said, "They could well be planted."
At this he exclaimed aloud that Yu was not a man of style only, but had solid ability in government as well.
9So he opened the storehouse for one day and let him use it as he pleased
郗公大聚歛，有錢數千萬。嘉賓意甚不同，常朝旦問訊。郗家法：子弟不坐。因倚語移時，遂及財貨事。郗公曰：「汝正當欲得吾錢耳！」迺開庫一日，令任意用。郗公始正謂損數百萬許。嘉賓遂一日乞與親友，周旋略盡。郗公聞之，驚怪不能已。
Lord Xi gathered and hoarded on a great scale, and he had some tens of millions of cash.
Jiabin was much of another mind, and he would always pay his respects in the morning.
By the rule of the Xi household the sons and younger men did not sit, and so he would lean there and talk for a good while, and at last he came to the matter of money and goods.
Lord Xi said, "You just want to get my money, that is all."
So he opened the storehouse for one day and let him use it as he pleased.
Lord Xi had thought at first that he would be out a few million or so, but in that one day Jiabin gave it away to his close friends, and among all who came and went it was very nearly gone.
When Lord Xi heard of it he was startled and could not get over it.
Interlinear notes 1
《中興書》曰：「超少卓犖而不羈，有曠世之度。」
The Zhongxing shu says, "Chao in his youth stood out above others and would not be tied down, and he had the breadth of an age."