This introduction1 appears in Li Zhi’s A Book to Keep (Hidden), a work modeled in form on the great Han historian Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian yet deeply subversive in content. The text reproduces Sima Qian’s biographical accounts of rulers, ministers, and scholars, among others, but Li interpolates biting commentary—ranging from single words to several lines—to undermine the moral messages encoded in those canonical narratives. Li’s unrelentingly unorthodox judgments on historical figures prompted the imperial censor Zhang Wenda to observe that Li’s writings “throw men’s minds into confusion” (see p. 335). As this introduction shows, the effect was deliberate and premeditated. (PCL)
Master Li [Zhi] said, “Concerning what people view as right and wrong, there is no determined standard. As for people judging others as right or wrong, here too there is no established view. If standards are not determined, then what this person views as right and that as wrong are both nurtured; they are not in contention. If there exists no established view, then judging this as right and that as wrong are also simply two views; they do not work against each other.
“And so, as for the judgments of right and wrong presented here, if one would like to say that these are the judgments of just one person—me, Li Zhuowu—that is fine; if one says these are the collective judgments of millions upon millions of generations of great sages and worthies, that is fine too; and if one says that I am turning on their head judgments of right and wrong established through millions and millions of generations and—as I have done before—once again judging wrong what is in fact right, that is also fine. Well then, these views I have of what right and wrong mean, in the end I think they might be just fine.
“As for the earliest three periods of history,2 I cannot say much. With the later three dynasties—the Han, Tang, and Song—the time spanned is over eleven hundred years, and yet throughout there was no person to set down authoritative judgments of right and wrong. But could it be that these people held no views on what was right and wrong? No. Rather, it was simply that every single person accepted Confucius’s views on right and wrong as what indeed was right and wrong; never did anyone pronounce a judgment of right or wrong. So if here I praise and censure people—how could one stop with my judgments?
“Disputes about right and wrong are just like the passing of the four seasons or the alternating of day and night; never do these become one. Yesterday it was right, today it is wrong; today it is wrong, and tomorrow it is once again right. Even if Confucius and Zixia were to be reborn again in these times, I am not sure what kinds of judgments of right and wrong they would make.3 So how can people rashly issue blame and praise based on what Confucius is supposed to have said in the Spring and Autumn Annals?
“When I found myself old and unoccupied, I grew fond of looking over the tables of contents of some earlier historical works. I composed my own beginning from the Spring and Autumn period and ending with the Song and Yuan dynasties, separating it into “Annals,” “Biographies,” and “General Surveys.” This book is for my own pleasure.4 I have titled it A Book to Keep (Hidden). Why A Book to Keep (Hidden)? It is saying that this book is simply for my own pleasure and not to be shown to others. That’s why it is titled A Book to Keep (Hidden). But what am I to do if a few meddlesome friends insistently ask to borrow this book? How am I able to stop them? I only say as a warning: if you read this, judge it based on your own opinions. As long as you do not use it like Confucius’s editing of the Spring and Autumn Annals to dispense rewards and punishments, then it will be fine.”
TRANSLATED BY PAULINE C. LEE
Li Zhi’s evaluation of the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty,1 founder of the Chinese imperial system, is expressed in marginal comments to a condensed transcription of the corresponding chapter, “Qin Shihuang benji” 秦始皇本紀 [The basic annals of Qin Shihuang], in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian. Rather than reproduce the entire transcription here, we give extracts followed by Li’s comments. The reversal of the standard judgments applied to the First Emperor by Confucian historiographers who saw him as wantonly cruel, destructive, and tyrannical was among the “exorbitant, mad, and flagitious opinions” that raised the hackles of Zhang Wenda and other figures at court in 1601–1602. But a careful reading of this historical commentary shows Li Zhi laying the blame for the cruelty and repression of the Qin dynasty on the First Emperor’s subordinates, whose unwise policies the headstrong emperor failed to moderate. (HS)
“BASIC ANNALS”: THE FIRST EMPEROR OF QIN, WITH AS APPENDIX THE BIOGRAPHY OF HUHAI
[Li’s comment:] As a ruler, the First Emperor is unparalleled in all history. Why is the record of Huhai titled “an appendix”?2 If Huhai were not appended, how could the First Emperor’s [uniqueness] become manifest?
Liao of Da Liang said, “The King of Qin … seldom extends favor and has the heart of a tiger or wolf.3 When in straits, he can submit to others, but when he has his way, he can easily eat you alive. I am a commoner. Nevertheless, when he receives me, he always humbles himself before me. Once he really has his way in the world, the whole world will be held captive by him. One cannot consort with him too long.” Then he ran away. When the King of Qin discovered it, he obstinately stopped him, appointed him commandant, and in the end adopted his plans. But Li Si was in charge of affairs.
[Li’s comment:] Obviously Li Si is a stand-in for Liao.
In the twenty-sixth year of his reign … Qin first unified the world. The king issued an order to the chancellor and the imperial scribes: … “The land within the seas has been made into commanderies and counties. Since antiquity it has never been so. Not even the Five Emperors could reach this. … [And therefore] I will be called the First Emperor. Later generations will follow with titles ordered numerically.”
[Li’s comment:] He had it all planned out.
“The Second Emperor, the Third Emperor, and on to the Ten Thousandth Emperor shall follow this rule to infinity.” He considered that the Zhou [dynasty] followed the power of fire, and since the Qin had overcome the Zhou, Qin must conform to the power of what Zhou could not overcome. He marked the beginning of the era of the power of water
[Li’s comment:] Not wrong.
by changing the beginning of the year: the court would celebrate the new year on the first of the tenth month. … He divided the world into thirty-six commanderies, each with a governor, a commandant, and a superintendent.
[Li’s comment:] Right.
From the Yong Gate eastward to the Jing and the Wei, the halls and residences [of the imperial palace] were connected by elevated colonnades to the galleries surrounding them.
In the twenty-seventh year of his reign, the First Emperor toured the west and the north … and built the Palace of Trust on the south bank of the Wei.
[Li’s comment:] Foolish.
In the twenty-eighth year of his reign, the First Emperor toured the east. On arriving at Bolang Sands in Yangwu, he was disturbed by bandits.
[Li’s comment:] That was fast.
The First Emperor then had Han Zhong, Master Hou, and Scholar Shi seek for the long-life elixirs of the immortals.
[Li’s comment:] Stupid.
In the thirty-fourth year … the First Emperor gave a feast in the Xianyang Palace. … The erudite Chunyu Yue came forward and said, “I have learned that under the Yin and Zhou dynasties, the kings’ sons, brothers, and meritorious ministers were enfeoffed as support for the court itself. Now Your Majesty possesses all within the seas, but your sons and brothers are ordinary men. If there were [traitorous] vassals like Tian Chang or the Six Ministers [of Jin], you would lack this support, and who would come to your rescue then?”
[Li’s comment:] Exactly right.
The chancellor Li Si said [in response to Chunyu Yue]: “The Five Emperors did not duplicate one another’s way of governing, and the Three Dynasties did not inherit them from one another, but each regulated the world in his own way.”
[Li’s comment:] “Each in his own way” is priceless.
[Li Si continued:] “Now Your Majesty has founded this great enterprise and attained merits that will last for ten thousand generations, which is not the sort of thing an ignorant Confucian can understand. Chunyu Yue spoke of matters concerning the Three Dynasties. Why should they be worth imitating?”
[Li’s comment:] “I hate glib-tonguedness, lest it be confounded with righteousness.”4 This judgment applies to Li Si.
“If such [speech] is not banned, the ruler’s power will be diminished above, and factions will form below. To ban it is appropriate. I would ask that you burn all the records in the scribes’ offices that are not Qin’s. If not needed by the Office of the Erudites, all copies of the Odes, the Documents, and the writings of the Hundred Schools that anyone in the world has ventured to keep shall be brought to the governors and commandants to be thrown together and burned. Anyone who ventures to discuss songs and documents shall be executed in the marketplace.”
[Li’s comment:] Thus it was fitting that [Li Si] was executed and his family extinguished.
Scholar Hou and Scholar Lu conspired with each other: “The way the First Emperor is, he has a disposition to be obstinate and self-willed. … Since His Highness has never been informed of his mistakes, he becomes more arrogant daily. … We cannot look for an elixir of long life for a person obsessed with power as he is.” Then they fled. When the First Emperor heard of it, he was enraged. … He had imperial scribes interrogate the various masters. The masters accused and implicated one another to extricate themselves. Those who had violated prohibitions, more than four hundred sixty of them, he had buried alive.
[Li’s comment:] And as a result, Confucians are terrified up to the present day.
Fusu, the emperor’s eldest son, remonstrated [about the crime of burying scholars alive]. … The emperor was angered. He ordered Fusu to leave for the north to supervise Meng Tian in Shangjun Commandery.
[Li’s comment:] And this triggers the fall of the Qin.
In the thirty-sixth year … a man with a jade disk in his hand stopped an imperial messenger and said, “Give this to the lord of Hao Pond for me.” He asked him to transmit the message, “This year the Dragon Ancestor will die.” The First Emperor had the Imperial Storehouse examine the jade disk. It turned out to be the one he had dropped into the Yellow River as he was crossing it twenty-eight years before. After this, the emperor had a divination performed and obtained the advice, “Traveling and moving is auspicious.”
[Li’s comment:] Heaven and Man agree here.
[The First Emperor dies while traveling. Li Si conceals the fact of his death by sealing the body in a coffin and keeping it in the imperial carriage; documents are carried to the “indisposed” emperor and signed on his behalf. Li Si and Zhao Gao send a letter in the First Emperor’s name to the emperor’s eldest son, Fusu, and Meng Tian, ordering them to commit suicide. They enthrone the young and inexperienced Huhai as the Second Emperor. Huhai’s purges and expenditures stir up discontent, his armies rebel, and he ends his own life. A third heir, Ziying, is enthroned and rules for a month. Afraid to attend court functions lest he be murdered by his subordinates, Ziying stabs his prime minister, Zhao Gao, and has his family exterminated. Surrounded by an insurgent army led by Liu Bang, the future Emperor Gaozu of the Han dynasty,] Ziying surrendered and the Qin were done for.
[Li’s comment:] Too abrupt!
TRANSLATED BY HAUN SAUSSY
