Infatuation and Folly世説新語 惑溺第三十五
1This year's breaking of the bandits was all for that slave
魏甄后惠而有色，先為袁熙妻，甚獲寵。曹公之屠鄴也，令疾召甄，左右白：「五官中郎已將去。」公曰：「今年破賊正為奴。」
Empress Zhen of Wei was wise and she had beauty. She first became the wife of Yuan Xi, and she won much favor.
When Lord Cao put Ye to the sword, he ordered that Zhen be called at once. Those beside him reported, "The Gentleman of the Household for the Five Offices has already taken her away."
The Lord said, "This year's breaking of the bandits was all for that slave."
Interlinear notes 1
《魏略》曰：「建安中，袁紹為中子熙娶甄會女。紹死，熙出在幽州，甄留侍姑。及鄴城破，五官將從而入紹舍，見甄怖，以頭伏姑膝上。五官將謂紹妻袁夫人：『扶甄令舉頭。』見其色非凡，稱歎之。太祖聞其意，遂為迎娶，擅室數歲。」《世語》曰：「太祖下鄴，文帝先入袁尚府，見婦人被髮垢面垂涕，立紹妻劉後。文帝問，知是熙妻，使令攬髮，以袖拭面，姿貌絕倫。既過，劉謂甄曰：『不復死矣。』遂納之，有子。」《魏氏春秋》曰：「五官將納熙妻也，孔融與太祖書曰：『武王伐紂，以妲己賜周公。』太祖以融博學，真謂書傳所記。後見融問之，對曰：『以今度古，想其然也。』」
The Wei lüe says, "In the Jian'an years Yuan Shao took the daughter of Zhen Hui as a wife for his middle son, Xi. When Shao died, Xi went out to Youzhou, and Zhen stayed behind to serve her husband's mother. When the walls of Ye were broken, the Gentleman of the Five Offices followed the troops in and came to Shao's house. He saw Zhen in fear, her head bowed down on her mother-in-law's knees. The Gentleman of the Five Offices said to Shao's wife, Lady Yuan, 'Hold Zhen up and make her raise her head.' He saw that her beauty was beyond the common, and he praised her with a sigh. Taizu heard what he wished, and so took her in marriage for him, and she had his chamber to herself for some years." The Shiyu says, "When Taizu came down on Ye, Emperor Wen entered the mansion of Yuan Shang first. He saw a woman with her hair loose and her face soiled, letting her tears fall, standing behind Shao's wife, Lady Liu. Emperor Wen asked, and learned that this was Xi's wife. He had her gather up her hair, and he wiped her face with his sleeve, and her form and her looks were beyond compare. When he had gone by, Liu said to Zhen, 'We shall not die after all.' So he took her in, and there was a son." The Weishi chunqiu says, "When the Gentleman of the Five Offices took in Xi's wife, Kong Rong sent a letter to Taizu saying, 'When King Wu struck King Zhou, he gave Daji to the Duke of Zhou.' Taizu, since Rong was widely learned, truly thought this was set down in the books and records. Later he saw Rong and asked him about it. Rong answered, 'I measured antiquity by the present, and supposed that it was so.'"
2A woman's virtue is not enough to praise, and beauty should be held the chief thing
荀奉倩與婦至篤，冬月婦病熱，乃出中庭自取冷，還以身熨之。婦亡，奉倩後少時亦卒。以是獲譏於世。奉倩曰：「婦人德不足稱，當以色為主。」裴令聞之曰：「此乃是興到之事，非盛德言，冀後人未昧此語。」
Xun Fengqian was utterly devoted to his wife. In a winter month his wife fell ill with a fever, so he went out into the middle of the courtyard and took the cold into himself, then came back and pressed his body to her to cool her.
When his wife died, Fengqian too died a short while after.
For this he drew the reproach of the world.
Fengqian said, "A woman's virtue is not enough to praise. Beauty should be held the chief thing."
Director Pei heard it and said, "This was a thing said on a rush of feeling, not the word of full virtue. I hope that those who come after will not be in the dark about these words."
Interlinear notes 2
《粲別傳》曰：「粲常以婦人才智不足論，自宜以色為主。驃騎將軍曹洪女有色，粲於是聘焉。容服帷帳甚麗，專房燕婉。歷年後婦病亡。未殯，傅嘏往喭粲，粲不明而神傷。嘏問曰：『婦人才色，並茂為難。子之聘也，遺才存色，非難遇也，何哀之甚？』粲曰：『佳人難再得！顧逝者不能有傾城之異，然未可易遇也。』痛悼不能已已。歲餘亦亡。亡時年二十九。粲簡貴，不與常人交接，所交者一時俊傑。至葬夕，赴期者裁十餘人，悉同年相知名士也。哭之，感慟路人。粲雖褊隘，以燕婉自喪，然有識猶追惜其能言。」
The Can biezhuan says, "Can always held that a woman's talent and wisdom were not enough to discuss, and that beauty was of itself the thing to hold chief. The General of Agile Cavalry Cao Hong had a daughter who had beauty, and so Can sought her hand. Her looks, her dress, and the hangings of her room were most fine, and he had her chamber to himself in ease and harmony. After some years his wife fell ill and died. Before she was laid in her coffin, Fu Gu went to condole with Can. Can did not wail, but his spirit was wounded. Gu asked, 'In a woman, talent and beauty are hard to find flourishing together. In your match you let talent go and kept beauty, and such a one is not hard to meet with. Why is your grief so deep?' Can said, 'A beautiful woman is hard to find a second time. Looking back, she who is gone had no such rare beauty as would topple a city, and yet she was not easy to meet with.' He mourned and grieved and could not have done with it, and in a year and more he too died. He was twenty-nine when he died. Can was spare and proud, and did not mix with common people. Those he mixed with were the finest men of the day. When the evening of the burial came, those who came at the appointed time were no more than ten and a few, and all were men of the same years, known to one another, men of name. They wept for him, and their grief moved those who passed on the road. Can was narrow, and he brought his own death on himself through the ease of his chamber, yet those with discernment still looked back and mourned that he could speak so well."
何劭論粲曰：「仲尼稱『有德者有言』。而荀粲減於是，力顧所言有餘，而識不足。」
He Shao, discussing Can, said, "Zhongni said, 'He who has virtue has words.' But Xun Can falls short of this. Weigh it hard, and what he said was more than enough, while his understanding was not enough."
3In the end Lady Guo had no son
賈公閭後妻郭氏酷妒，有男兒名黎民，生載周，充自外還，乳母抱兒在中庭，兒見充喜踊，充就乳母手中嗚之。郭遙望見，謂充愛乳母，即殺之。兒悲思啼泣，不飲它乳，遂死。郭后終無子。
The second wife of Jia Gonglü, Lady Guo, was cruelly jealous.
There was a boy named Limin, who had been born and had come to his first year.
Chong came back from outside, and the wet nurse was holding the child in the middle of the courtyard. The child saw Chong and leapt for joy, and Chong kissed him there in the wet nurse's arms.
Guo saw it from far off, and thinking that Chong loved the wet nurse, she killed her at once.
The child cried and wept in grief and longing, and he would drink no other milk, and so he died.
In the end Lady Guo had no son.
Interlinear notes 2
《充別傳》曰：「充父逵，晚有子，故名曰充，字公閭，言後必有充閭之異。」
The Chong biezhuan says, "Chong's father, Kui, came late to a son, and so he named him Chong (充) and gave him the style Gonglü (公閭), meaning that afterward there would surely be the rare fortune of filling the ward."
《晉諸公贊》云：「郭氏即賈后母也。為性高朗，知后無子，甚憂愛愍懷，每勸厲之。臨亡，誨賈后，令盡意於太子，言甚切至。趙充華及賈謐母，並勿令出入宮中。又曰：『此皆亂汝事！』后不能用，終至誅夷。」臣按：傅暢此言，則郭氏賢明婦人也。向令賈后撫愛愍懷，豈當縱其妒悍，自斃其子。然則物我不同，或老壯情異乎？
The Jin zhugong zan says, "Lady Guo was the mother of Empress Jia. She was lofty and clear by nature. Knowing that the empress had no son, she grieved much over Crown Prince Minhuai and cherished him, and she was always urging and pressing the empress on his behalf. When she was near death she instructed Empress Jia to give her whole mind to the Crown Prince, and her words were most urgent and earnest. She said that Zhao Chonghua and the mother of Jia Mi should both be kept from going in and out of the palace, and she said again, 'These will all throw your affairs into confusion.' The empress could not act on it, and in the end it came to her destruction." Your servant observes: by these words of Fu Chang, Lady Guo was a worthy and clear-sighted woman. She had Empress Jia comfort and cherish Minhuai, so how should she have given free rein to her own jealousy and fierceness and killed her own son with her own hand? Then is it that others and oneself are not the same, or that feeling differs between the old and the young?
4All under heaven is broad and free, so may Lady Kuai too follow that example?
孫秀降晉，晉武帝厚存寵之，妻以姨妹蒯氏，室家甚篤。妻嘗妒，乃罵秀為「貉子」。秀大不平，遂不復入。蒯氏大自悔責，請救於帝。時大赦，群臣咸見。既出，帝獨留秀，從容謂曰：「天下曠蕩，蒯夫人可得從其例不？」秀免冠而謝，遂為夫婦如初。
Sun Xiu surrendered to Jin, and Emperor Wu of Jin kept him in high favor. He gave him as wife a younger cousin on his mother's side, Lady Kuai, and their household was most close.
His wife once grew jealous, and she cursed Xiu, calling him a "barbarian whelp."
Xiu was greatly displeased, and after that he did not go in to her again.
Lady Kuai repented and reproached herself greatly, and asked the emperor to save her.
At that time there was a great amnesty, and all the officials came to the audience.
When they had gone out, the emperor kept Xiu alone, and said to him at his ease, "All under heaven is broad and free. May Lady Kuai too follow that example?"
Xiu took off his cap and begged pardon, and so they were husband and wife again as they were at first.
Interlinear notes 2
《太原郭氏錄》曰：「秀字彥才，吳郡吳人，為下口督，甚有威恩。孫皓憚欲除之，遣將軍何定溯江而上，辭以捕鹿三千口供廚。秀豫知謀，遂來歸化。世祖喜之，以為驃騎將軍、交州牧。」
The Taiyuan Guoshi lu says, "Xiu's style was Yancai, and he was a man of Wu in Wu commandery. He was Overseer of Xiakou, and he had great authority and kindness. Sun Hao feared him and wished to be rid of him, and he sent the general He Ding up the river against the current, giving out as his reason that he was to catch three thousand deer to supply the kitchens. Xiu knew the plot beforehand, and so he came over and gave his allegiance. Shizu was pleased with him, and made him General of Agile Cavalry and Governor of Jiaozhou."
《晉陽秋》曰：「蒯氏，襄陽人，祖良，吏部尚書。父鈞，南陽太守。」
The Jin yangqiu says, "Lady Kuai was a woman of Xiangyang. Her grandfather, Liang, was Minister of Personnel. Her father, Jun, was Grand Administrator of Nanyang."
5He gave his daughter to Han Shou as wife
韓壽美姿容，賈充辟以為掾。充每聚會，賈女於青璅中看，見壽，說之。恆懷存想，發於吟詠。後婢往壽家，具述如此，并言女光麗。壽聞之心動，遂請婢潛修音問。及期往宿。壽蹻捷絕人，踰牆而入，家中莫知。自是充覺女盛自拂拭，說暢有異於常。後會諸吏，聞壽有奇香之氣，是外國所貢，一著人，則歷月不歇。充計武帝唯賜己及陳騫，餘家無此香，疑壽與女通，而垣牆重密，門閤急峻，何由得爾？乃託言有盜，令人修牆。使反曰：「其餘無異，唯東北角如有人跡。而牆高，非人所踰。」充乃取女左右婢考問，即以狀對。充秘之，以女妻壽。
Han Shou was beautiful in form and face, and Jia Chong called him to serve as a clerk under him.
Whenever Chong held a gathering, Jia's daughter would watch from behind the green lattice, and she saw Shou and was delighted with him.
She kept a longing heart always, and it came out in her humming and chanting.
Later a maidservant went to Shou's house, told him all of this, and said as well that the daughter was radiant and lovely.
Shou heard it and his heart was moved, and so he asked the maidservant to carry word between them in secret.
When the appointed time came, he went and stayed the night. Shou was nimble and quick beyond other men, and he went over the wall and in, and no one in the house knew.
From that time Chong noticed that his daughter was brushing and adorning herself greatly, and that her joy and her ease were not what they had been.
Later he gathered his clerks, and he smelled a rare fragrance on Shou. This was a tribute from a foreign country, and once it clings to a person it does not fade though a month goes by.
Chong reckoned that Emperor Wu had given it only to himself and to Chen Qian, and that no other house had this scent, so he suspected that Shou was meeting his daughter. Yet the walls were layer on layer and close, and the gates were strict and stern, so how could it have come about?
He therefore gave out that there had been thieves, and had men repair the wall.
The man he sent came back and said, "The rest is as it should be. Only at the northeast corner there seem to be traces of someone. But the wall is high, and not a thing for a person to go over."
Chong then seized the maidservants who waited on his daughter and questioned them closely, and they answered at once with the whole of it.
Chong kept it secret, and gave his daughter to Han Shou as wife.
Interlinear notes 3
《晉諸公贊》曰：「壽字德真，南陽赭陽人。曾祖暨，魏司徒，有高行。」壽敦家風，性忠厚，豈有若斯之事？諸書無聞，唯見世說，自未可信。
The Jin zhugong zan says, "Shou's style was Dezhen, and he was a man of Zheyang in Nanyang. His great-grandfather Ji was Minister over the Masses under Wei, and he had lofty conduct." Shou kept his family's ways faithfully and was true and generous by nature, so how should there be such a thing as this? No other book tells of it, and it is seen only in the Shishuo, so of itself it cannot be believed.
《十洲記》曰：「漢武帝時，西域月氏國王遣使獻香四兩，大如雀卵，黑如桑椹，燒之，芳氣經三月不歇。」蓋此香也。
The Shizhou ji says, "In the time of Emperor Wu of Han, the king of the Yuezhi country in the Western Regions sent an envoy who presented four ounces of incense. It was as large as a sparrow's egg and as black as a mulberry, and when it was burned its fragrance did not fade though three months went by." This must be that incense.
《郭子》謂與韓壽通者，乃是陳騫女，即以妻壽，未婚而女亡。壽因娶賈氏，故世因傳是充女。
The Guozi says that the one who met with Han Shou was the daughter of Chen Qian, and that she was given to Shou as wife, but that she died before the wedding. Shou then married a woman of the Jia house, and so the world has passed it down that it was Chong's daughter.
6If I do not call you dear, who ought to call you dear?
王安豐婦，常卿安豐。安豐曰：「婦人卿婿，於禮為不敬，後勿復爾。」婦曰：「親卿愛卿，是以卿卿；我不卿卿，誰當卿卿？」遂恆聽之。
Wang Anfeng's wife always called Anfeng "dear."
Anfeng said, "For a wife to call her husband 'dear' is a want of respect by the rites. Do not do so again."
His wife said, "I am close to you, dear, and I love you, dear, and that is why I call you 'dear.' If I do not call you 'dear,' who ought to call you 'dear'?"
And from then on he always let her do it.
7Lord Cai called her Minister Lei
王丞相有幸妾姓雷，頗預政事納貨。蔡公謂之「雷尚書」。
Chancellor Wang had a favored concubine whose surname was Lei. She had a good deal to do with affairs of government, and she took in goods.
Lord Cai called her "Minister Lei."
Interlinear notes 1
《語林》曰：「雷有寵，生恬、洽。」
The Yulin says, "Lei was favored, and she bore Tian and Qia."