Knowledge and Penetration

Liu Zizheng, his son Zijun, and Zijun's brother Boyu—three members of the same family—were all broadly learned men. They especially prized the Zuo Tradition, teaching it to their sons and grandsons, down to the women of the household, all of whom read and recited it. This, too, was a blindness. Emperor Gaozu of Han laid a vast foundation, his achievements matching those of Tang and Wu; yet when he fell ill, though a skilled physician was available he did not employ him, entrusting himself solely to a woman and attributing his fate to Heaven—this was surely a mistake. This is certainly a case of a broadly learned man being blind. Emperor Wen of Han, Emperor Taizong, possessed a virtuous, wise, and enlightened nature. Inheriting a realm newly settled, he practiced personal frugality and restraint, bringing benefit and ease to the common people, relieving the distressed and needy, abolishing corporal punishment, reducing the laws, simplifying burials, and cutting back on carriages and ceremonial robes—he may be called one who understood the realities of nurturing life and conducting funerals. Yet when he was first summoned from Dai, his deliberations were full of doubt, and only followed Song Chang's counsel, racing to the capital at once. After ascending the throne he ceased military activity and cultivated letters, spreading great kindness, wishing to end warfare and concluding peace and kinship with the Xiongnu. He grasped the guiding principles, and so was posthumously honored and elevated as Taizong. Yet he was drowned in vulgar opinion, dismissed and cast out talented ministers, and could not overcome private affection, allowing his favored concubine Lady Shen to share a mat with the empress, thus disrupting the order of high and low—this is a case of one who understood yet was blind. Emperor Wu of Han was of lofty natural gifts, with the design of exalting the ancestors and broadening the succession. Thus upon ascending the throne he unfolded great ambitions, examining and combining past and present, modeling himself on the precedents of former sages, establishing the calendar, fixing the institutions; he summoned and selected outstanding men, roused and displayed his majesty and wrath, so that martial righteousness was applied on all sides and all he campaigned against submitted; he raised up the Six Arts and broadly advanced Confucian learning. Since the beginning of the world, none has flourished more than the Han house; thus he was displayed as Shizong, and may be called a lord surpassing all others in his generation.