史记（四：列传）

Biography of Lord Pingyuan and Yu Qing: Lord Pingyuan, Zhao Sheng, was one of the Princes of Zhao. Among the princes Sheng was the worthiest; he was fond of retainers, and the retainers who came to him numbered some several thousand. Lord Pingyuan was Chancellor to King Huiwen of Zhao and to King Xiaocheng; three times he left the chancellorship and three times he was restored to it. He was enfeoffed at Dongwucheng.

A storeyed building of Lord Pingyuan's house overlooked the house of a commoner. In the commoner's house there was a lame man, who hobbled¹ out to draw water. A beauty of Lord Pingyuan's who lived in the upper storey looked down, saw him and laughed loudly at him. The next day the lame man came to Lord Pingyuan's gate and begged: "Your servant has heard that you, my lord, are fond of gentlemen, and that gentlemen do not think a thousand li too far to come to you, because you are able to honour gentlemen and hold women cheap. Your servant has the misfortune to be afflicted with a crooked back², and a woman of your rear palace looked down and laughed at me. I beg to be given the head of the one who laughed at me." Lord Pingyuan laughed and answered: "Agreed." When the lame man had gone, Lord Pingyuan laughed and said: "Look at this fellow: for the sake of a single laugh he wants to kill my beauty. Is that not going too far?" In the end he did not kill her. A year or more passed, and more than half of his retainers and the household retainers under his gate drifted away. Lord Pingyuan thought it strange and said: "In my treatment of you gentlemen I, Sheng, have never dared to fail in courtesy; why then are so many leaving?" One of those under his gate came forward and answered: "Because you did not kill the one who laughed at the lame man, they take you for one who loves beauty and holds gentlemen cheap, and so the gentlemen leave." Thereupon Lord Pingyuan cut off the head of the beauty who had laughed at the lame man, went in person to his door, presented it to the lame man, and apologised to him. After that those under his gate gradually came back. At that time Qi had Mengchang, Wei had Xinling and Chu had Chunshen, and so they competed to outdo one another in receiving³ gentlemen.

When Qin besieged Handan, Zhao sent Lord Pingyuan to seek relief and to join the Vertical Alliance with Chu; he arranged to take with him twenty of the retainers under his gate who had courage and strength and were complete in both civil and martial accomplishments. Lord Pingyuan said: "If the victory can be won by civil means, very good. If it cannot be won by civil means, then we shall smear the blood beneath the splendid hall, and I shall without fail settle the Alliance before I return. Gentlemen are not to be sought outside; to take them from the retainers under my gate will suffice." He found nineteen, and among the rest there was none fit to take, so he had no way to make up the twenty. Among those under his gate was one Mao Sui, who came forward and commended himself to Lord Pingyuan: "Sui⁴ has heard that you, my lord, are about to join the Vertical Alliance with Chu and have arranged to take twenty of the retainers under your gate with you, not seeking outside. Now you are one man short; I beg you, my lord, to make up the number with Sui and set out." Lord Pingyuan said: "How many years, sir, have you been under my gate?" Mao Sui said: "Three years now." Lord Pingyuan said: "A worthy gentleman's place in the world is like an awl's place in a bag: its point shows at once. Now you, sir, have been under my gate three years, and those about me have had nothing to say in your praise, nor have I heard anything of you; that means you have nothing in you, sir. You are not able, sir; you will stay." Mao Sui said: "It is only today that your servant asks to be put in the bag. Had Sui been put in the bag earlier, the whole of him would have come through⁵, not merely his point." In the end Lord Pingyuan took Mao Sui with him. The nineteen exchanged glances and smiled at him, but did not yet cast him off⁶.

By the time Mao Sui reached Chu he had debated with the nineteen, and all nineteen submitted to him. Lord Pingyuan treated with Chu for the Vertical Alliance, setting out its advantages and disadvantages; he spoke of it from sunrise, and by midday nothing was decided. The nineteen said to Mao Sui: "Go up, sir." Mao Sui, his hand on his sword, mounted the steps and went up, and said to Lord Pingyuan: "The advantages and disadvantages of the Alliance can be decided in two words. Today you have spoken of the Alliance since sunrise and by midday it is not decided; why is that?" The King of Chu said to Lord Pingyuan: "What is this guest?" Lord Pingyuan said: "This is a household retainer of mine." The King of Chu shouted at him: "Why do you not go down! I am speaking with your master; what are you!" Mao Sui, his hand on his sword, stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty shouts at Sui because of the multitude of the state of Chu. But now, within these ten paces, Your Majesty cannot rely on the multitude of Chu: Your Majesty's life hangs in Sui's hand. My master is before you; what is this shouting? Moreover, Sui has heard that Tang with seventy li of land became king of all under heaven, and King Wen with a hundred li of soil made the Lords his subjects. Was it that their soldiers were many? It was that they were truly able to hold their position and put forth their might. Now Chu's territory is five thousand li square, and it has a million halberd-bearers: that is the stuff of a hegemon king. With Chu's strength nothing under heaven can withstand it. Bai Qi is a mere stripling, yet at the head of a few tens of thousands he raised an army to fight Chu: in one battle he took Yan and Ying, in a second he burned Yiling, in a third he disgraced Your Majesty's ancestors. That is a grudge for a hundred generations and a thing Zhao is ashamed of on your behalf, yet Your Majesty does not know to hate⁷ it. The Alliance is for Chu's sake, not for Zhao's. My master is before you; what is this shouting?" The King of Chu said: "Yes, yes. It is truly as you say, sir: I shall reverently commit the altars of soil and grain to the Alliance." Mao Sui said: "Is the Alliance settled?" The King of Chu said: "It is settled." Mao Sui said to the King of Chu's attendants: "Bring the blood of a cock, a dog and a horse⁸." Mao Sui held up the bronze basin⁹, knelt and offered it to the King of Chu, saying: "Your Majesty should smear the blood and settle the Alliance; next my master, next Sui." So the Alliance was settled in the upper hall. Mao Sui, holding the basin of blood in his left hand, beckoned with his right to the nineteen and said: "You gentlemen shall smear this blood together below the hall. You, sirs, are mere followers¹⁰, what is called accomplishing things through others."

When Lord Pingyuan had settled the Alliance and returned, on reaching Zhao he said: "Sheng will never again dare to judge gentlemen. Of the gentlemen Sheng has judged, at most a thousand, at least some hundreds, I thought I had let no gentleman of the world slip past me; and now in Master Mao I let one slip. Master Mao went once to Chu and made Zhao weightier than the Nine Tripods and the Great Lü¹¹. With a tongue three inches long Master Mao was stronger than an army of a million. Sheng will never again dare to judge gentlemen." And he made him a guest of the first rank.

When Lord Pingyuan had returned to Zhao, Chu sent Lord Chunshen at the head of troops to hasten to Zhao's relief, and Lord Xinling of Wei too, feigning a command, seized Jin Bi's army and went to Zhao's relief; but neither had yet arrived. Qin pressed the siege of Handan hard; Handan was in straits and about to surrender, and Lord Pingyuan was greatly troubled by it. Li Tong, son of an officer of the post-house of Handan, advised Lord Pingyuan: "Are you not anxious, my lord, that Zhao will perish?" Lord Pingyuan said: "If Zhao perishes, Sheng will be a captive; how could I not be anxious?" Li Tong said: "The people of Handan cook bones for fuel and exchange their children to eat: that may be called straits indeed. Yet your rear palace numbers its women by the hundred, your maids and concubines are clothed in figured silk and gauze and have fine grain and meat to spare, while the people's coarse clothes are in tatters and they cannot get their fill of husks and chaff. The people are exhausted and the weapons used up, some sharpening wood into spears and arrows, while your vessels, your bells and chimes, remain as they were. If Qin breaks Zhao, how will you keep these, my lord? If Zhao comes through whole, what fear have you of lacking them? Now if you, my lord, could truly have your ladies and those below them enrolled among the soldiers, sharing the work according to their tasks, and could disperse all that your house holds to feast the gentlemen: gentlemen in their hour of danger and hardship are easily won by kindness¹²." Thereupon Lord Pingyuan followed his advice and obtained three thousand gentlemen ready to die. Li Tong then went with the three thousand against the Qin army, and the Qin army fell back thirty li before them. It happened too that the relief from Chu and Wei arrived; the Qin troops then withdrew, and Handan survived. Li Tong died in the fighting, and his father was enfeoffed as Marquis of Li.

Yu Qing wished to ask a fief for Lord Pingyuan on the ground that Lord Xinling had saved Handan. When Gongsun Long heard of it, he drove by night to see Lord Pingyuan and said: "Long¹³ has heard that Yu Qing wishes to ask a fief for you, my lord, on the ground that Lord Xinling saved Handan. Is it so?" Lord Pingyuan said: "It is." Long said: "This is quite wrong. The King raised you to be Chancellor of Zhao not because there was no one in the state of Zhao with your wisdom and ability; he cut off Dongwucheng and enfeoffed you not because you had merit, nor because the men of the state had no achievements, but because you are his kin. When you accepted the Chancellor's seal you did not decline it as beyond your ability, and when land was cut off for you you did not say you had no merit, because you too held it to be on account of your kinship. Now, when Lord Xinling has saved Handan, to ask for a fief would be for a kinsman to receive a Fortress while the men of the state reckon up merit¹⁴. This is quite wrong. Besides, Yu Qing holds both ends: if the affair succeeds, he holds the right-hand tally and claims his due¹⁵; if it fails, he puts you in his debt for the empty name of it. You must not listen to him." So Lord Pingyuan did not listen to Yu Qing.

Lord Pingyuan died in the fifteenth year of King Xiaocheng of Zhao¹⁶. His sons and grandsons succeeded him, and in the end they perished together with Zhao.

Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru: Five years after the siege of Handan was raised, Yan adopted Li Fu's plan — "those of Zhao in their prime were all used up at Changping, and their orphans are not yet grown" — and raised troops to strike at Zhao. Zhao sent Lian Po in command; he struck and heavily defeated the Yan army at Hao, killed Li Fu, and went on to besiege Yan. Yan ceded five Fortresses and sued for peace, and this was granted. Zhao enfeoffed Lian Po with Weiwen¹⁷ as Lord Xinping and made him Acting Chancellor of State.

When Lian Po had been dismissed at Changping and returned home, in the time when he had lost his position, his old retainers all left. When he was again employed as general, the retainers came back again. Lian Po said: "Retainers, withdraw!" A retainer said: "Ah! How late you are in seeing it, my lord! All under heaven make their friendships as in the market: when you have position I follow you, and when you have none I leave. That is the plain principle of it; what is there to resent?" After six years, Zhao sent Lian Po to attack Wei's Fanyang, and he took it.