卷十二·孝武本纪第十二
卷十二·孝武本纪第十二
司马迁
孝武皇帝者，孝景中子也。母曰王太后。孝景四年，以皇子为胶东王。孝景七年，栗太子废为临江王，以胶东王为太子。孝景十六年崩，太子即位，为孝武皇帝。孝武皇帝初即位，尤敬鬼神之祀。
元年，汉兴已六十余岁矣，天下乂安，荐绅之属皆望天子封禅改正度也。而上乡儒术，招贤良，赵绾、王臧等以文学为公卿，欲议古立明堂城南，以朝诸侯。草巡狩封禅改历服色事未就。会窦太后治黄老言，不好儒术，使人微得赵绾等奸利事，召案绾、臧，绾、臧自杀，诸所兴为者皆废。
后六年，窦太后崩。其明年，上徵文学之士公孙弘等。
明年，上初至雍，郊见五畤。后常三岁一郊。是时上求神君，舍之上林中虒氏观。神君者，长陵女子，以子死悲哀，故见神于先后宛若。宛若祠之其室，民多往祠。平原君往祠，其后子孙以尊显。及武帝即位，则厚礼置祠之内中，闻其言，不见其人云。
是时而李少君亦以祠灶、谷道、卻老方见上，上尊之。少君者，故深泽侯入以主方。匿其年及所生长，常自谓七十，能使物，卻老。其游以方遍诸侯。无妻子。人闻其能使物及不死，更馈遗之，常余金钱帛衣食。人皆以为不治产业而饶给，又不知其何所人，愈信，争事之。少君资好方，善为巧发奇中。尝从武安侯饮，坐中有年九十余老人，少君乃言与其大父游射处，老人为儿时从其大父行，识其处，一坐尽惊。少君见上，上有故铜器，问少君。少君曰：“此器齐桓公十年陈于柏寝。”已而案其刻，果齐桓公器。一宫尽骇，以少君为神，数百岁人也。
少君言于上曰：“祠灶则致物，致物而丹沙可化为黄金，黄金成以为饮食器则益寿，益寿而海中蓬莱仙者可见，见之以封禅则不死，黄帝是也。臣尝游海上，见安期生，食臣枣，大如瓜。安期生仙者，通蓬莱中，合则见人，不合则隐。”于是天子始亲祠灶，而遣方士入海求蓬莱安期生之属，而事化丹沙诸药齐为黄金矣。
居久之，李少君病死。天子以为化去不死也，而使黄锤史宽舒受其方。求蓬莱安期生莫能得，而海上燕齐怪迂之方士多相效，更言神事矣。
亳人薄诱忌奏祠泰一方，曰：“天神贵者泰一，泰一佐曰五帝。古者天子以春秋祭泰一东南郊，用太牢具，七日，为坛开八通之鬼道。”于是天子令太祝立其祠长安东南郊，常奉祠如忌方。其后人有上书，言“古者天子三年一用太牢具祠神三一：天一，地一，泰一”。天子许之，令太祝领祠之忌泰一坛上，如其方。后人复有上书，言“古者天子常以春秋解祠，祠黄帝用一枭破镜；冥羊用羊；祠马行用一青牡马；泰一、皋山山君、地长用牛；武夷君用乾鱼；阴阳使者以一牛”。令祠官领之如其方，而祠于忌泰一坛旁。
其后，天子苑有白鹿，以其皮为币，以发瑞应，造白金焉。
其明年，郊雍，获一角兽，若麃然。有司曰：“陛下肃祗郊祀，上帝报享，锡一角兽，盖麟云。”于是以荐五畤，畤加一牛以燎。赐诸侯白金，以风符应合于天地。
于是济北王以为天子且封禅，乃上书献泰山及其旁邑。天子受之，更以他县偿之。常山王有罪，迁，天子封其弟于真定，以续先王祀，而以常山为郡。然后五岳皆在天子之郡。
其明年，齐人少翁以鬼神方见上。上有所幸王夫人，夫人卒，少翁以方术盖夜致王夫人及灶鬼之貌云，天子自帷中望见焉。于是乃拜少翁为文成将军，赏赐甚多，以客礼礼之。文成言曰：“上即欲与神通，宫室被服不象神，神物不至。”乃作画云气车，及各以胜日驾车辟恶鬼。又作甘泉宫，中为台室，画天、地、泰一诸神，而置祭具以致天神。居岁余，其方益衰，神不至。乃为帛书以饭牛，详弗知也，言此牛腹中有奇。杀而视之，得书，书言甚怪，天子疑之。有识其手书，问之人，果伪书。于是诛文成将军而隐之。
其后则又作柏梁、铜柱、承露仙人掌之属矣。
文成死明年，天子病鼎湖甚，巫医无所不致，不愈。游水发根乃言曰：“上郡有巫，病而鬼下之。”上召置祠之甘泉。及病，使人问神君。神君言曰：“天子毋忧病。病少愈，强与我会甘泉。”于是病愈，遂幸甘泉，病良已。大赦天下，置寿宫神君。神君最贵者太一，其佐曰大禁、司命之属，皆从之。非可得见，闻其音，与人言等。时去时来，来则风肃然也。居室帷中。时昼言，然常以夜。天子祓，然后入。因巫为主人，关饮食。所欲者言行下。又置寿宫、北宫，张羽旗，设供具，以礼神君。神君所言，上使人受书其言，命之曰“画法”。其所语，世俗之所知也，毋绝殊者，而天子独喜。其事秘，世莫知也。
其后三年，有司言元宜以天瑞命，不宜以一二数。一元曰建元，二元以长星曰元光，三元以郊得一角兽曰元狩云。
其明年冬，天子郊雍，议曰：“今上帝朕亲郊，而后土毋祀，则礼不答也。”有司与太史公、祠官宽舒等议：“天地牲角茧栗。今陛下亲祀后土，后土宜于泽中圜丘为五坛，坛一黄犊太牢具，已祠尽瘗，而从祠衣上黄。”于是天子遂东，始立后土祠汾阴脽上，如宽舒等议。上亲望拜，如上帝礼。礼毕，天子遂至荥阳而还。过雒阳，下诏曰：“三代邈绝，远矣难存。其以三十里地封周后为周子南君，以奉先王祀焉。”是岁，天子始巡郡县，侵寻于泰山矣。
其春，乐成侯上书言栾大。栾大，胶东宫人，故尝与文成将军同师，已而为胶东王尚方。而乐成侯姊为康王后，毋子。康王死，他姬子立为王。而康后有淫行，与王不相中，相危以法。康后闻文成已死，而欲自媚于上，乃遣栾大因乐成侯求见言方。天子既诛文成，后悔恨其早死，惜其方不尽，及见栾大，大悦。大为人长美，言多方略，而敢为大言，处之不疑。大言曰：“臣尝往来海中，见安期、羡门之属。顾以为臣贱，不信臣。又以为康王诸侯耳，不足予方。臣数言康王，康王又不用臣。臣之师曰：‘黄金可成，而河决可塞，不死之药可得，仙人可致也。’臣恐效文成，则方士皆掩口，恶敢言方哉！”上曰：“文成食马肝死耳。子诚能脩其方，我何爱乎！”大曰：“臣师非有求人，人者求之。陛下必欲致之，则贵其使者，令有亲属，以客礼待之，勿卑，使各佩其信印，乃可使通言于神人。神人尚肯邪不邪。致尊其使，然后可致也。”于是上使先验小方，斗旗，旗自相触击。
是时上方忧河决，而黄金不就，乃拜大为五利将军。居月余，得四金印，佩天士将军、地士将军、大通将军、天道将军印。制诏御史：“昔禹疏九江，决四渎。间者河溢皋陆，隄繇不息。朕临天下二十有八年，天若遗朕士而大通焉。乾称‘蜚龙’，‘鸿渐于般’，意庶几与焉。其以二千户封地士将军大为乐通侯。”赐列侯甲第，僮千人。乘舆斥车马帷帐器物以充其家。又以卫长公主妻之，赍金万斤，更名其邑曰当利公主。天子亲如五利之第。使者存问所给，连属于道。自大主将相以下，皆置酒其家，献遗之。于是天子又刻玉印曰“天道将军”，使使衣羽衣，夜立白茅上，五利将军亦衣羽衣，立白茅上受印，以示弗臣也。而佩“天道”者，且为天子道天神也。于是五利常夜祠其家，欲以下神。神未至而百鬼集矣，然颇能使之。其后治装行，东入海，求其师云。大见数月，佩六印，贵振天下，而海上燕齐之间，莫不搤捥而自言有禁方，能神仙矣。
其夏六月中，汾阴巫锦为民祠魏脽后土营旁，见地如钩状，掊视得鼎。鼎大异于众鼎，文镂毋款识，怪之，言吏。吏告河东太守胜，胜以闻。天子使使验问巫锦得鼎无奸诈，乃以礼祠，迎鼎至甘泉，从行，上荐之。至中山，晏温，有黄云盖焉。有麃过，上自射之，因以祭云。至长安，公卿大夫皆议请尊宝鼎。天子曰：“间者河溢，岁数不登，故巡祭后土，祈为百姓育谷。今年丰庑未有报，鼎曷为出哉？”有司皆曰：“闻昔大帝兴神鼎一，一者一统，天地万物所系终也。黄帝作宝鼎三，象天地人也。禹收九牧之金，铸九鼎，皆尝鬺烹上帝鬼神。遭圣则兴，迁于夏商。周德衰，宋之社亡，鼎乃沦伏而不见。颂云‘自堂徂基，自羊徂牛；鼐鼎及鼒，不虞不骜，胡考之休’。今鼎至甘泉，光润龙变，承休无疆。合兹中山，有黄白云降盖，若兽为符，路弓乘矢，集获坛下，报祠大飨。惟受命而帝者心知其意而合德焉。鼎宜见于祖祢，藏于帝廷，以合明应。”制曰：“可。”
入海求蓬莱者，言蓬莱不远，而不能至者，殆不见其气。上乃遣望气佐候其气云。
其秋，上幸雍，且郊。或曰“五帝，泰一之佐也。宜立泰一而上亲郊之”。上疑未定。齐人公孙卿曰：“今年得宝鼎，其冬辛巳朔旦冬至，与黄帝时等。”卿有札书曰：“黄帝得宝鼎宛朐，问于鬼臾区。区对曰：‘帝得宝鼎神筴，是岁己酉朔旦冬至，得天之纪，终而复始。’于是黄帝迎日推筴，后率二十岁得朔旦冬至，凡二十推，三百八十年。黄帝仙登于天。”卿因所忠欲奏之。所忠视其书不经，疑其妄书，谢曰：“宝鼎事已决矣，尚何以为！”卿因嬖人奏之。上大说，召问卿。对曰：“受此书申功，申功已死。”上曰：“申功何人也？”卿曰：“申功，齐人也。与安期生通，受黄帝言，无书，独有此鼎书。曰‘汉兴复当黄帝之时。汉之圣者在高祖之孙且曾孙也。宝鼎出而与神通，封禅。封禅七十二王，唯黄帝得上泰山封’。申功曰：‘汉主亦当上封，上封则能仙登天矣。黄帝时万诸侯，而神灵之封居七千。天下名山八，而三在蛮夷，五在中国。中国华山、首山、太室、泰山、东莱，此五山黄帝之所常游，与神会。黄帝且战且学仙。患百姓非其道，乃断斩非鬼神者。百余岁然后得与神通。黄帝郊雍上帝，宿三月。鬼臾区号大鸿，死葬雍，故鸿冢是也。其后于黄帝接万灵明廷。明廷者，甘泉也。所谓寒门者，谷口也。黄帝采首山铜，铸鼎荆山下。鼎既成，有龙垂胡须下迎黄帝。黄帝上骑，群臣后宫从上龙七十余人，龙乃上去。余小臣不得上，乃悉持龙须，龙须拔，堕黄帝之弓。百姓仰望黄帝既上天，乃抱其弓与龙胡须号。故后世因名其处曰鼎湖，其弓曰乌号。’”于是天子曰：“嗟乎！吾诚得如黄帝，吾视去妻子如脱躧耳。”乃拜卿为郎，东使候神于太室。
上遂郊雍，至陇西，西登空桐，幸甘泉。令祠官宽舒等具泰一祠坛，坛放薄忌泰一坛，坛三垓。五帝坛环居其下，各如其方，黄帝西南，除八通鬼道。泰一所用，如雍一畤物，而加醴枣脯之属，杀一犛牛以为俎豆牢具。而五帝独有俎豆醴进。其下四方地，为餟食群神从者及北斗云。已祠，胙余皆燎之。其牛色白，鹿居其中，彘在鹿中，水而洎之。祭日以牛，祭月以羊彘特。泰一祝宰则衣紫及绣。五帝各如其色，日赤，月白。
十一月辛巳朔旦冬至，昧爽，天子始郊拜泰一。朝朝日，夕夕月，则揖；而见泰一如雍礼。其赞飨曰：“天始以宝鼎神筴授皇帝，朔而又朔，终而复始，皇帝敬拜见焉。”而衣上黄。其祠列火满坛，坛旁烹炊具。有司云“祠上有光焉”。公卿言“皇帝始郊见泰一云阳，有司奉瑄玉嘉牲荐飨。是夜有美光，及昼，黄气上属天。”太史公、祠官宽舒等曰：“神灵之休，祐福兆祥，宜因此地光域立泰畤坛以明应。令太祝领，秋及腊间祠。三岁天子一郊见。”
其秋，为伐南越，告祷泰一，以牡荆画幡日月北斗登龙，以象天一三星，为泰一锋，名曰“灵旗”。为兵祷，则太史奉以指所伐国。而五利将军使不敢入海，之泰山祠。上使人微随验，实无所见。五利妄言见其师，其方尽，多不雠。上乃诛五利。
其冬，公孙卿候神河南，见仙人迹缑氏城上，有物若雉，往来城上。天子亲幸缑氏城视迹。问卿：“得毋效文成、五利乎？”卿曰：“仙者非有求人主，人主求之。其道非少宽假，神不来。言神事，事如迂诞，积以岁乃可致。”于是郡国各除道，缮治宫观名山神祠所，以望幸矣。
其年，既灭南越，上有嬖臣李延年以好音见。上善之，下公卿议，曰：“民间祠尚有鼓舞之乐，今郊祠而无乐，岂称乎？”公卿曰：“古者祀天地皆有乐，而神祇可得而礼。”或曰：“泰帝使素女鼓五十弦瑟，悲，帝禁不止，故破其瑟为二十五弦。”于是塞南越，祷祠泰一、后土，始用乐舞，益召歌儿，作二十五弦及箜篌瑟自此起。
其来年冬，上议曰：“古者先振兵泽旅，然后封禅。”乃遂北巡朔方，勒兵十余万，还祭黄帝冢桥山，泽兵须如。上曰：“吾闻黄帝不死，今有冢，何也？”或对曰：“黄帝已仙上天，群臣葬其衣冠。”即至甘泉，为且用事泰山，先类祠泰一。
自得宝鼎，上与公卿诸生议封禅。封禅用希旷绝，莫知其仪礼，而群儒采封禅《尚书》《周官》《王制》之望祀射牛事。齐人丁公年九十余，曰：“封者，合不死之名也。秦皇帝不得上封。陛下必欲上，稍上即无风雨，遂上封矣。”上于是乃令诸儒习射牛，草封禅仪。数年，至且行。天子既闻公孙卿及方士之言，黄帝以上封禅，皆致怪物与神通，欲放黄帝以尝接神仙人蓬莱士，高世比德于九皇，而颇采儒术以文之。群儒既以不能辩明封禅事，又牵拘于诗书古文而不敢骋。上为封祠器示群儒，群儒或曰“不与古同”，徐偃又曰“太常诸生行礼不如鲁善”，周霸属图封事，于是上绌偃、霸，尽罢诸儒弗用。
三月，遂东幸缑氏，礼登中岳太室。从官在山下闻若有言“万岁”云。问上，上不言；问下，下不言。于是以三百户封太室奉祠，命曰崇高邑。东上泰山，山之草木叶未生，乃令人上石立之泰山颠。
上遂东巡海上，行礼祠八神。齐人之上疏言神怪奇方者以万数，然无验者。乃益发船，令言海中神山者数千人求蓬莱神人。公孙卿持节常先行候名山，至东莱，言夜见一人，长数丈，就之则不见，见其迹甚大，类禽兽云。群臣有言见一老父牵狗，言“吾欲见巨公”，已忽不见。上既见大迹，未信，及群臣有言老父，则大以为仙人也。宿留海上，与方士传车及间使求仙人以千数。
四月，还至奉高。上念诸儒及方士言封禅人人殊，不经，难施行。天子至梁父，礼祠地主。乙卯，令侍中儒者皮弁荐绅，射牛行事。封泰山下东方，如郊祠泰一之礼。封广丈二尺，高九尺，其下则有玉牒书，书秘。礼毕，天子独与侍中奉车子侯上泰山，亦有封。其事皆禁。明日，下阴道。丙辰，禅泰山下阯东北肃然山，如祭后土礼。天子皆亲拜见，衣上黄而尽用乐焉。江淮间一茅三脊为神藉。五色土益杂封。纵远方奇兽蜚禽及白雉诸物，颇以加祠。兕旄牛犀象之属弗用。皆至泰山然后去。封禅祠，其夜若有光，昼有白云起封中。
天子从封禅还，坐明堂，群臣更上寿。于是制诏御史：“朕以眇眇之身承至尊，兢兢焉惧弗任。维德菲薄，不明于礼乐。脩祀泰一，若有象景光，□ 如有望，依依震于怪物，欲止不敢，遂登封泰山，至于梁父，而后禅肃然。自新，嘉与士大夫更始，赐民百户牛一酒十石，加年八十孤寡布帛二匹。复博、奉高、蛇丘、历城，毋出今年租税。其赦天下，如乙卯赦令。行所过毋有复作。事在二年前，皆勿听治。”又下诏曰：“古者天子五载一巡狩，用事泰山，诸侯有朝宿地。其令诸侯各治邸泰山下。”
天子既已封禅泰山，无风雨菑，而方士更言蓬莱诸神山若将可得，于是上欣然庶几遇之，乃复东至海上望，冀遇蓬莱焉。奉车子侯暴病，一日死。上乃遂去，并海上，北至碣石，巡自辽西，历北边至九原。五月，返至甘泉。有司言宝鼎出为元鼎，以今年为元封元年。
其秋，有星茀于东井。后十余日，有星茀于三能。望气王朔言：“候独见其星出如瓠，食顷复入焉。”有司言曰：“陛下建汉家封禅，天其报德星云。”
其来年冬，郊雍五帝，还，拜祝祠泰一。赞飨曰：“德星昭衍，厥维休祥。寿星仍出，渊耀光明。信星昭见，皇帝敬拜泰祝之飨。”
其春，公孙卿言见神人东莱山，若云“见天子”。天子于是幸缑氏城，拜卿为中大夫。遂至东莱，宿留之数日，毋所见，见大人迹。复遣方士求神怪采芝药以千数。是岁旱。于是天子既出毋名，乃祷万里沙，过祠泰山。还至瓠子，自临塞决河，留二日，沈祠而去。使二卿将卒塞决河，河徙二渠，复禹之故迹焉。
是时既灭南越，越人勇之乃言“越人俗信鬼，而其祠皆见鬼，数有效。昔东瓯王敬鬼，寿至百六十岁。后世谩怠，故衰秏”。乃令越巫立越祝祠，安台无坛，亦祠天神上帝百鬼，而以鸡卜。上信之，越祠鸡卜始用焉。
公孙卿曰：“仙人可见，而上往常遽，以故不见。今陛下可为观，如缑氏城，置脯枣，神人宜可致。且仙人好楼居。”于是上令长安则作蜚廉桂观，甘泉则作益延寿观，使卿持节设具而候神人，乃作通天台，置祠具其下，将招来神仙之属。于是甘泉更置前殿，始广诸宫室。夏，有芝生殿防内中。天子为塞河，兴通天台，若有光云，乃下诏曰：“甘泉防生芝九茎，赦天下，毋有复作。”
其明年，伐朝鲜。夏，旱。公孙卿曰：“黄帝时封则天旱，乾封三年。”上乃下诏曰：“天旱，意乾封乎？其令天下尊祠灵星焉。”
其明年，上郊雍，通回中道，巡之。春，至鸣泽，从西河归。
其明年冬，上巡南郡，至江陵而东。登礼潜之天柱山，号曰南岳。浮江，自寻阳出枞阳，过彭蠡，祀其名山川。北至琅邪，并海上。四月中，至奉高脩封焉。
初，天子封泰山，泰山东北阯古时有明堂处，处险不敞。上欲治明堂奉高旁，未晓其制度。济南人公玉带上黄帝时明堂图。明堂图中有一殿，四面无壁，以茅盖，通水，圜宫垣为复道，上有楼，从西南入，命曰昆仑，天子从之入，以拜祠上帝焉。于是上令奉高作明堂汶上，如带图。及五年脩封，则祠泰一、五帝于明堂上坐，令高皇帝祠坐对之。祠后土于下房，以二十太牢。天子从昆仑道入，始拜明堂如郊礼。礼毕，燎堂下。而上又上泰山，有秘祠其颠。而泰山下祠五帝，各如其方，黄帝并赤帝，而有司侍祠焉。泰山上举火，下悉应之。
其后二岁，十一月甲子朔旦冬至，推历者以本统。天子亲至泰山，以十一月甲子朔旦冬至日祠上帝明堂，每脩封禅。其赞飨曰：“天增授皇帝泰元神筴，周而复始。皇帝敬拜泰一。”东至海上，考入海及方士求神者，莫验，然益遣，冀遇之。
十一月乙酉，柏梁灾。十二月甲午朔，上亲禅高里，祠后土。临渤海，将以望祠蓬莱之属，冀至殊庭焉。
上还，以柏梁灾故，朝受计甘泉。公孙卿曰：“黄帝就青灵台，十二日烧，黄帝乃治明庭。明庭，甘泉也。”方士多言古帝王有都甘泉者。其后天子又朝诸侯甘泉，甘泉作诸侯邸。勇之乃曰：“越俗有火灾，复起屋必以大，用胜服之。”于是作建章宫，度为千门万户。前殿度高未央，其东则凤阙，高二十余丈。其西则唐中，数十里虎圈。其北治大池，渐台高二十余丈，名曰泰液池，中有蓬莱、方丈、瀛洲、壶梁，象海中神山龟鱼之属。其南有玉堂、璧门、大鸟之属。乃立神明台、井幹楼，度五十余丈，辇道相属焉。
夏，汉改历，以正月为岁首，而色上黄，官名更印章以五字。因为太初元年。是岁，西伐大宛。蝗大起。丁夫人、雒阳虞初等以方祠诅匈奴、大宛焉。
其明年，有司言雍五畤无牢熟具，芬芳不备。乃命祠官进畤犊牢具，五色食所胜，而以木禺马代驹焉。独五帝用驹，行亲郊用驹。及诸名山川用驹者，悉以木禺马代。行过，乃用驹。他礼如故。
其明年，东巡海上，考神仙之属，未有验者。方士有言“黄帝时为五城十二楼，以候神人于执期，命曰迎年”。上许作之如方，名曰明年。上亲礼祠上帝，衣上黄焉。
公玉带曰：“黄帝时虽封泰山，然风后、封钜、岐伯令黄帝封东泰山，禅凡山合符，然后不死焉。”天子既令设祠具，至东泰山，东泰山卑小，不称其声，乃令祠官礼之，而不封禅焉。其后令带奉祠候神物。夏，遂还泰山，脩五年之礼如前，而加禅祠石闾。石闾者，在泰山下阯南方，方士多言此仙人之闾也，故上亲禅焉。
其后五年，复至泰山脩封，还过祭常山。
今天子所兴祠，泰一、后土，三年亲郊祠，建汉家封禅，五年一脩封。薄忌泰一及三一、冥羊、马行、赤星，五，宽舒之祠官以岁时致礼。凡六祠，皆太祝领之。至如八神诸神，明年、凡山他名祠，行过则祀，去则已。方士所兴祠，各自主，其人终则已，祠官弗主。他祠皆如其故。今上封禅，其后十二岁而还，遍于五岳、四渎矣。而方士之候祠神人，入海求蓬莱，终无有验。而公孙卿之候神者，犹以大人迹为解，无其效。天子益怠厌方士之怪迂语矣，然终羁縻弗绝，冀遇其真。自此之后，方士言祠神者弥众，然其效可睹矣。
太史公曰：余从巡祭天地诸神名山川而封禅焉。入寿宫侍祠神语，究观方士祠官之言，于是退而论次自古以来用事于鬼神者，具见其表里。后有君子，得以览焉。至若俎豆珪币之详，献酬之礼，则有司存焉。
Fascicle Twelve · Basic Annals of Emperor Xiaowu, Twelfth
司马迁
Emperor Xiaowu was a middle son of Xiaojing. His mother was the Dowager Wang. In the fourth year of Xiaojing he was made king of Jiaodong as an imperial son. In the seventh year of Xiaojing the heir apparent Li was deposed and made king of Linjiang, and the king of Jiaodong was made heir apparent. In the sixteenth year Xiaojing died and the heir apparent took the throne as Emperor Xiaowu. When Emperor Xiaowu first came to the throne he was especially reverent toward the sacrifices to ghosts and spirits.
In the first year, Han having arisen more than sixty years before, the world was at peace and in order, and the gentry all hoped that the Son of Heaven would perform the feng and shan sacrifices and reform the calendar and measures. And the Emperor inclined toward the Confucian arts and called in the worthy and good; Zhao Wan, Wang Zang and others became high ministers on the strength of their learning, and they wished to deliberate on setting up a Hall of Light in the ancient manner south of the city, in order to receive the lords at court. Drafts for the tour of inspection, the feng and shan, the change of calendar and the colours of robes were not completed. It happened that the Dowager Dou practised the sayings of Huang-Lao and did not like the Confucian arts, and she had men secretly get evidence of Zhao Wan and the others' corrupt gains; she summoned and examined Wan and Zang, and Wan and Zang killed themselves, and everything they had set on foot was abolished.
Six years later the Dowager Dou died. The next year the Emperor summoned men of learning, Gongsun Hong and the rest.
The next year the Emperor first went to Yong and sacrificed in the suburbs to the Five Altars. Afterwards he regularly sacrificed in the suburbs once in three years. At this time the Emperor sought out the Divine Lady and lodged her in the Chi Family Belvedere in the Shanglin park. The Divine Lady was a woman of Changling who, grieving at the death of her son, appeared as a spirit to her sister-in-law Wanruo. Wanruo sacrificed to her in her own chamber, and many of the people went to sacrifice there. The Lord of Pingyuan went and sacrificed, and afterwards his sons and grandsons became honoured and eminent. When Emperor Wu came to the throne he set up a shrine for her within the palace with generous rites; men heard her words but did not see her person, it was said.
At this time Li Shaojun also gained audience with the Emperor through the arts of sacrificing to the stove, the way of grain, and warding off old age, and the Emperor honoured him. Shaojun had been an attendant on methods brought in by the former Marquis of Shenze. He hid his age and his birth and upbringing and always said he was seventy; he could make things serve him and ward off old age. He travelled among all the lords with his arts. He had neither wife nor children. Men, hearing that he could make things serve him and not die, vied in sending him gifts, and he always had gold, cash, silk, clothing and food to spare. Men all took it that he did not follow any trade and yet was amply supplied, and moreover did not know where he came from, and believed him the more and vied in serving him. Shaojun relied on his love of the arts and was good at clever shots that hit strangely home. Once he drank with the Marquis of Wu'an; in the company was an old man of more than ninety, and Shaojun spoke of the places where he had roamed and shot with the old man's grandfather. The old man had gone with his grandfather as a boy and knew the places, and the whole company was astonished. When Shaojun saw the Emperor, the Emperor had an old bronze vessel and asked him about it. Shaojun said, "This vessel was set out at Boqin in the tenth year of Duke Huan of Qi." Afterwards they examined its inscription, and it was indeed a vessel of Duke Huan of Qi. The whole palace was amazed and took Shaojun for a spirit, a man of several hundred years.
Shaojun said to the Emperor: "Sacrifice to the stove and things may be summoned; summon things and cinnabar may be transmuted into yellow gold; when yellow gold is made, use it for vessels of food and drink and life will be lengthened; life being lengthened, the immortals of Penglai in the sea may be seen; see them and perform the feng and shan, and you will not die — such was the Yellow Emperor. I once travelled by the sea and saw Master Anqi; he fed me jujubes as large as melons. Master Anqi is an immortal and goes through to Penglai; when he is in accord with a man he appears, and when not he hides." Thereupon the Son of Heaven first sacrificed to the stove in person, and sent masters of arts into the sea to seek Penglai and Master Anqi and his like, and set about transmuting cinnabar and sundry drugs into yellow gold.
After a long while Li Shaojun fell ill and died. The Son of Heaven took it that he had transformed and gone and had not died, and had Kuan Shu, the Scribe of Huangchui, receive his methods. They sought Penglai and Master Anqi and could not find them, and the strange and far-fetched masters of arts of Yan and Qi by the sea mostly imitated him and spoke ever more of the affairs of spirits.
Bo Youji, a man of Bo, submitted a method for sacrificing to the Grand Unity, saying: "Of the spirits of Heaven, the honoured one is the Grand Unity, and the Grand Unity's assistants are the Five Emperors. In antiquity the Son of Heaven in spring and autumn sacrificed to the Grand Unity in the southeastern suburb, using the full set of victims, for seven days, and made an altar opening on eight ways for the spirits." Thereupon the Son of Heaven ordered the Grand Invocator to set up his shrine in the southeastern suburb of Chang'an and always to offer sacrifice as by Ji's method. Afterwards someone submitted a letter saying, "In antiquity the Son of Heaven once in three years used the full set of victims to sacrifice to the three spirit unities: the Heavenly Unity, the Earthly Unity and the Grand Unity." The Son of Heaven allowed it and ordered the Grand Invocator to take charge of sacrificing to them on Ji's altar of the Grand Unity, as in that method. Afterwards someone else submitted a letter saying: "In antiquity the Son of Heaven regularly in spring and autumn held an expiatory sacrifice: to the Yellow Emperor he used one owl and one broken-mirror beast; to Mingyang a ram; to the Horse Walker one black stallion; to the Grand Unity, the Lord of Mount Gao and the Earth Elder, oxen; to the Lord of Wuyi dried fish; to the Envoy of Yin and Yang one ox." He ordered the sacrificial officers to take charge of it as in that method, sacrificing beside Ji's altar of the Grand Unity.
Afterwards there was a white deer in the Son of Heaven's park, and he made currency from its hide, and to bring out the auspicious response he made white metal coin.
The next year, sacrificing in the suburbs at Yong, he caught a one-horned beast like a roebuck. The officers said: "Your Majesty has sacrificed in the suburbs with grave reverence, and the Lord on High has answered your offering by granting a one-horned beast — it must be the unicorn." So it was presented at the Five Altars, and at each altar one ox was added for the burnt offering. He granted white metal to the lords, to intimate that the tokens of response accorded with heaven and earth.
Thereupon the king of Jibei, thinking that the Son of Heaven would perform the feng and shan, submitted a letter offering Mount Tai and the towns about it. The Son of Heaven accepted it and repaid him with other counties. The king of Changshan was guilty of an offence and was removed, and the Son of Heaven enfeoffed his younger brother at Zhending to carry on the sacrifices of the former king, and made Changshan a commandery. After this the Five Peaks were all within the Son of Heaven's commanderies.
The next year Shaoweng, a man of Qi, gained audience with the Emperor through arts of ghosts and spirits. The Emperor had a favourite, the lady Wang, and when the lady died Shaoweng by his arts summoned by night the forms of the lady Wang and of the stove ghost, it was said, and the Son of Heaven saw them from within a curtain. Thereupon he appointed Shaoweng General of Cultured Accomplishment, with very many gifts, and treated him with the courtesy due a guest. Wencheng said, "If Your Majesty wishes to commune with the spirits, but the palaces and robes do not resemble the spirits', then spirit things will not come." So he made carriages painted with cloud vapours, and on each of the conquering days drove a carriage to ward off evil ghosts. He also built the Ganquan Palace, with a terraced chamber inside painted with Heaven, Earth, the Grand Unity and the host of spirits, and set out sacrificial vessels there to summon the spirits of Heaven. After a year or more his arts grew ever feebler and the spirits did not come. So he wrote on silk and fed it to an ox, pretending not to know, and said that this ox had something strange in its belly. They killed it and looked, and got the writing, and the writing was very strange, and the Son of Heaven suspected it. Someone recognised his hand, and on being questioned it was indeed a forged writing. Thereupon he put the General of Cultured Accomplishment to death and kept it secret.
After this he also built the Cypress Beam Terrace, the bronze pillar and the immortal's palm for receiving the dew, and the like.
The year after Wencheng died, the Son of Heaven was gravely ill at Dinghu; shamans and physicians were all called in and he did not recover. Youshui Fagen then said, "In Shangjun there is a shamaness who, when ill, has a ghost descend upon her." The Emperor summoned her and set up a shrine for her at Ganquan. When he was ill he sent men to ask the Divine Lady. The Divine Lady said, "Let the Son of Heaven not be troubled by his illness. When the illness has eased a little, exert yourself and meet me at Ganquan." Thereupon the illness was cured, and he went to Ganquan and the illness was quite gone. There was a great pardon throughout the land, and the Divine Lady was installed in the Longevity Palace. The most honoured of the Divine Lady's company was the Great Unity, and her assistants such as the Great Interdict and the Arbiter of Fate all followed her. She could not be seen; men heard her voice, like a person speaking. At times she went and at times came, and when she came the wind sounded solemnly. She dwelt in a chamber behind a curtain. Sometimes she spoke by day, but usually by night. The Son of Heaven purified himself and then entered. A shamaness acted as host and had charge of the food and drink. What she wished for she spoke, and it was sent down. He also set up the Longevity Palace and the Northern Palace, spread feather banners and set out offerings, to do honour to the Divine Lady. What the Divine Lady said, the Emperor had men take down in writing, and he named it "the Painted Method." What she said was what the common world knows, with nothing outstanding in it, and yet the Son of Heaven alone was delighted. The matter was secret and the world did not know of it.
Three years later the officers said that the reign-periods should be named by auspices from Heaven and should not be counted first, second and so on. The first period was called Jianyuan, the second, from a long star, Yuanguang, and the third, from the one-horned beast got in the suburban sacrifice, Yuanshou.
The next winter the Son of Heaven sacrificed in the suburbs at Yong and deliberated, saying, "Now I sacrifice in person in the suburbs to the Lord on High, but Earth Below has no sacrifice; then the rites are not answered." The officers with the Lord Grand Astrologer and the sacrificial officer Kuan Shu and others deliberated: "For heaven and earth the victims' horns should be the size of a cocoon or a chestnut. Now that Your Majesty sacrifices in person to Earth Below, Earth Below should have five altars on a round mound in the midst of a marsh; at each altar one yellow calf with the full set of victims, and when the sacrifice is done all buried; and those who attend the sacrifice shall wear yellow." Thereupon the Son of Heaven went east and first set up a shrine to Earth Below at Shui in Fenyin, as Kuan Shu and the others had proposed. The Emperor gazed and bowed in person, as in the rite for the Lord on High. The rite finished, the Son of Heaven went on to Xingyang and returned. Passing Luoyang, he sent down an edict: "The Three Dynasties are remote and cut off, far away and hard to preserve. Let thirty li of land be given to enfeoff the descendant of Zhou as the Lord of Zhounan, to uphold the sacrifices of the former kings." In that year the Son of Heaven first toured the commanderies and counties, gradually drawing near to Mount Tai.
That spring the Marquis of Lecheng submitted a letter speaking of Luan Da. Luan Da had been a palace servant of Jiaodong, and had formerly studied under the same master as the General of Cultured Accomplishment, and afterwards was master of recipes to the king of Jiaodong. And the Marquis of Lecheng's elder sister was queen to King Kang and had no son. When King Kang died, the son of another lady was set up as king. And the Dowager Kang had licentious conduct and was not on good terms with the king, and they threatened each other with the law. The Dowager Kang, hearing that Wencheng was dead and wishing to ingratiate herself with the Emperor, then sent Luan Da through the Marquis of Lecheng to seek audience and speak of his arts. The Son of Heaven, having put Wencheng to death, afterwards regretted that he had died early and was sorry that his arts had not been exhausted; and when he saw Luan Da he was greatly pleased. Da as a man was tall and handsome, full of stratagems in speech, and dared to make great claims and stand by them without hesitation. Da said grandly: "I have often gone to and fro in the sea and seen Anqi, Xianmen and their like. But they held me humble and did not trust me; and they held that King Kang was only a lord and not worth giving arts to. I spoke of it to King Kang repeatedly, and King Kang again did not employ me. My master said: 'Yellow gold can be made, the breach of the He can be stopped, the drug of deathlessness can be got and the immortals can be summoned.' But I fear I may go the way of Wencheng, and then the masters of arts will all stop their mouths; how should any dare speak of arts!" The Emperor said, "Wencheng died of eating horse liver, that is all. If you can really practise his arts, what would I grudge?" Da said: "My master does not seek men; men seek him. If Your Majesty must summon them, then honour his envoy, let him have kinsmen, treat him with the courtesy due a guest and do not slight him, and let each wear his seal of trust; only then can he be made to carry words to the divine men. Even so, the divine men may or may not consent. Honour his envoy greatly, and then they may be summoned." Thereupon the Emperor had him first test a small art: he had pieces on a board strike at one another, and the pieces struck and knocked one another of themselves.
At this time the Emperor was troubled by the breach of the He, and the yellow gold was not achieved, and so he appointed Da General of the Five Benefits. After a month or more he got four gold seals and wore the seals of General of the Heavenly Gentlemen, General of the Earthly Gentlemen, General of Great Communication and General of the Way of Heaven. An edict was sent to the Grandee Secretary: "Of old Yu dredged the Nine Rivers and opened the Four Watercourses. Of late the He has overflowed the high ground, and dyke labour does not cease. I have overlooked the world twenty-eight years, and Heaven seems to have sent me a gentleman for a great communication. The Qian hexagram speaks of 'the flying dragon' and of 'the wild goose drawing near to the shore'; the sense is perhaps like this. Let the General of the Earthly Gentlemen, Da, be enfeoffed with two thousand households as Marquis of Letong." He granted him a full marquis's first-class mansion and a thousand servants. Carriages, horses, curtains and vessels discarded from the imperial equipage were given to fill his household. He also gave him the Elder Princess Wei to wife, with ten thousand catties of gold, and renamed her fief the Princess of Dangli. The Son of Heaven went in person to the Five Benefits' mansion. Envoys asking after his needs and supplying them followed one another along the road. From the Grand Princess and the generals and ministers down, all set out wine at his house and presented him gifts. Thereupon the Son of Heaven also carved a jade seal reading "General of the Way of Heaven," and sent an envoy in a feather robe to stand by night on white thatch; and the General of the Five Benefits, also in a feather robe, stood on white thatch to receive the seal, to show that he was not treated as a subject. And he who wore "the Way of Heaven" was to guide the spirits of Heaven for the Son of Heaven. Thereupon the Five Benefits constantly sacrificed by night at his house, wishing to bring down spirits. The spirits did not come but a host of ghosts gathered; still he was rather able to make them serve. Afterwards he made ready his baggage and set out east into the sea to seek his master, it was said. Da had been seen a few months and wore six seals, and his honour shook the world; and by the sea between Yan and Qi there was none who did not clench his wrists and declare that he had secret arts and could summon the immortals.
In the middle of the sixth month of that summer, Jin, a shamaness of Fenyin, was sacrificing for the people beside the enclosure of Earth Below at Wei Shui, and saw the ground hooked up as it were; digging, she found a tripod. The tripod was greatly different from other tripods, with patterns and engraving but no inscription. Thinking it strange, she told the officers. The officers told Sheng, governor of Hedong, and Sheng reported it. The Son of Heaven sent envoys to examine and ask whether the shamaness Jin had got the tripod without trickery, and then sacrificed with due rites and welcomed the tripod to Ganquan, following in procession, and the Emperor presented it. Coming to Zhongshan the weather was warm and calm and a yellow cloud covered them. A roebuck passed and the Emperor shot it himself, and so used it in the sacrifice. Reaching Chang'an, the high ministers and grandees all deliberated and asked that the precious tripod be honoured. The Son of Heaven said: "Of late the He has overflowed and the harvests for several years have failed, and so I toured and sacrificed to Earth Below, praying that grain be nourished for the hundred clans. This year has been abundant, and I have made no return offering; why then has the tripod come forth?" The officers all said: "We have heard that of old the Great Emperor raised up one divine tripod, the one signifying unity, that to which heaven, earth and the myriad things are bound at last. The Yellow Emperor made three precious tripods, representing heaven, earth and man. Yu gathered the metal of the nine pastorates and cast nine tripods, and all were used to boil offerings to the Lord on High and the ghosts and spirits. Meeting a sage they rose again, and passed to Xia and Shang. When the virtue of Zhou declined and the altar of Song was lost, the tripods then sank away and were not seen. The Hymn says, 'From the hall to the foot, from the sheep to the ox; the great tripods and the small, no clamour and no arrogance, the blessing of long life.' Now the tripod has come to Ganquan, shining and moist and changing like a dragon, receiving blessing without limit. Joined to this, at Zhongshan a yellow and white cloud came down as a canopy, and a beast came as a token, and with bow and set of arrows it was taken below the altar and a great offering made in answer. Only he who has received the mandate and is emperor knows in his heart its meaning and accords with its virtue. The tripod should be shown to the ancestral and paternal shrines and stored in the imperial court, to accord with the bright response." The rescript said: "Approved."
Those who went into the sea seeking Penglai said that Penglai was not far off, and that the reason they could not reach it was perhaps that they did not see its vapour. The Emperor then sent assistants for observing vapours to watch for its vapour.
That autumn the Emperor visited Yong and was about to sacrifice in the suburbs. Someone said, "The Five Emperors are the assistants of the Grand Unity; the Grand Unity should be set up and the Emperor sacrifice to him in person." The Emperor doubted and did not decide. Gongsun Qing, a man of Qi, said, "This year the precious tripod was got, and this winter the new moon of the day xinsi falls on the winter solstice, the same as in the Yellow Emperor's time." Qing had a writing on tablets which said: "The Yellow Emperor got a precious tripod at Wanqu and asked Guiyuqu. Qu answered: 'Your Majesty has got the precious tripod and the divine counting-rods; this year the new moon of jiyou falls on the winter solstice, and you have got the reckoning of Heaven, which ends and begins again.' Thereupon the Yellow Emperor reckoned the days by the rods, and afterwards about every twenty years got the new moon falling on the winter solstice; in all there were twenty reckonings, three hundred and eighty years. The Yellow Emperor became an immortal and ascended to Heaven." Qing wished to submit it through Suo Zhong. Suo Zhong looked at the writing and found it not canonical, suspected it a wild forgery, and declined, saying, "The matter of the precious tripod is settled; what more is there to do!" Qing then submitted it through a favourite. The Emperor was greatly pleased and summoned and questioned Qing. He answered, "I received this writing from Shen Gong, and Shen Gong is dead." The Emperor said, "Who was Shen Gong?" Qing said: "Shen Gong was a man of Qi. He had dealings with Master Anqi and received the Yellow Emperor's sayings; he had no books, only this writing on the tripod. It says, 'The rise of Han will again match the time of the Yellow Emperor. The sage of Han will be among the grandsons and great-grandsons of the High Ancestor. When the precious tripod comes forth, he will commune with the spirits and perform the feng and shan. Seventy-two kings have performed the feng and shan, and only the Yellow Emperor was able to ascend Mount Tai and perform the feng.' Shen Gong said: 'The lord of Han should likewise ascend and perform the feng, and having done so he will be able to become an immortal and ascend to Heaven. In the Yellow Emperor's time there were ten thousand lords, and those enfeoffed for spirits and divinities were seven thousand. Of the world's famous mountains there are eight, and three are among the Man and Yi and five in the central states. In the central states, Mount Hua, Mount Shou, Taishi, Mount Tai and Donglai — these five mountains the Yellow Emperor constantly visited and met the spirits. The Yellow Emperor fought and studied immortality at once. He was troubled that the hundred clans opposed his way, and so cut down those who reviled the ghosts and spirits. After a hundred years and more he was able to commune with the spirits. The Yellow Emperor sacrificed in the suburbs at Yong to the Lord on High and stayed three months. Guiyuqu was styled Great Wildgoose; he died and was buried at Yong, and the Hong Mound is his. Afterwards the Yellow Emperor received the myriad spirits at the Bright Court. The Bright Court is Ganquan. What is called the Cold Gate is Gukou. The Yellow Emperor mined copper at Mount Shou and cast a tripod below Mount Jing. The tripod being finished, a dragon came down with hanging whiskers to welcome the Yellow Emperor. The Yellow Emperor mounted, and of the ministers and the harem more than seventy went up with him, and the dragon then went up. The remaining lesser servants could not get up, and so all grasped the dragon's whiskers; the whiskers came out, and the Yellow Emperor's bow fell. The hundred clans gazed up as the Yellow Emperor went up to Heaven, and then embraced his bow and the dragon's whiskers and wailed. So later ages named the place Dinghu and the bow Wuhao.'" Thereupon the Son of Heaven said, "Ah! If I could indeed be like the Yellow Emperor, I would look on leaving wife and children as on casting off a slipper." So he appointed Qing a Gentleman and sent him east to watch for spirits at Taishi.
The Emperor then sacrificed in the suburbs at Yong, went to Longxi, climbed Kongtong in the west and visited Ganquan. He ordered the sacrificial officer Kuan Shu and the others to prepare the altar for the Grand Unity, the altar modelled on Bo Ji's altar of the Grand Unity, with three tiers. The altars of the Five Emperors stood round it below, each in its own quarter, the Yellow Emperor in the southwest, with eight ghost-ways opened. What was used for the Grand Unity was as at the single altar at Yong, with sweet wine, jujubes and dried meat added, and one yak was killed for the sacrificial stands and vessels. But for the Five Emperors there were only the stands, vessels and sweet wine. Below on the ground of the four quarters were set libation offerings for the host of spirits in attendance and for the Dipper. The sacrifice done, the remains of the offerings were all burned. The ox used was white, with a deer inside it and a pig inside the deer, and water poured over. For sacrificing to the sun an ox was used, for the moon a ram or a pig singly. The invocator and sacrificer of the Grand Unity wore purple and embroidery. For the Five Emperors each wore their colour, for the sun red and for the moon white.
On the new moon of the eleventh month, the xinsi day, which was the winter solstice, at first light the Son of Heaven first sacrificed in the suburbs and bowed to the Grand Unity. At the morning greeting of the sun and the evening greeting of the moon he made obeisance; but he saw the Grand Unity as in the rites at Yong. The words of the offering said: "Heaven has first granted the August Emperor the precious tripod and the divine counting-rods; new moon follows new moon, ending and beginning again, and the August Emperor reverently bows and appears." And he wore yellow. The sacrifice had ranks of fires filling the altar, and beside the altar were vessels for boiling and cooking. The officers said, "Above the sacrifice there was a light." The high ministers said, "When the August Emperor first sacrificed in the suburbs and saw the Grand Unity at Yunyang, the officers presented the great jade disc and fine victims in offering. That night there was a beautiful light, and by day a yellow vapour rose and joined the sky." The Lord Grand Astrologer and the sacrificial officer Kuan Shu and the others said: "The blessing of the divine spirits, the tokens of protection and happiness, are such that we should on this spot of light set up the altar of the Grand Terrace to make clear the response. Let the Grand Invocator take charge of it and sacrifice in autumn and at the La season. Once in three years let the Son of Heaven sacrifice in the suburbs and appear."
That autumn, for the campaign against Southern Yue, he announced and prayed to the Grand Unity, and with mulberry-vine wood painted a pennon with sun, moon, the Dipper and a rising dragon, to represent the three stars of the Heavenly Unity, as the spearhead of the Grand Unity, and named it "the Numinous Standard." When praying for the army, the Grand Astrologer held it up and pointed it at the state to be attacked. And the General of the Five Benefits as envoy dared not enter the sea but went to sacrifice at Mount Tai. The Emperor sent men secretly to follow and check, and in fact there was nothing to be seen. The Five Benefits falsely said he had seen his master; his arts were exhausted and mostly did not answer. The Emperor then put the Five Benefits to death.
That winter Gongsun Qing watched for spirits in Henan and saw the tracks of an immortal on the wall of the city of Goushi, and there was a thing like a pheasant coming and going on the wall. The Son of Heaven went in person to the city of Goushi and looked at the tracks. He asked Qing, "Will this not turn out like Wencheng and the Five Benefits?" Qing said: "The immortals do not seek the lord of men; the lord of men seeks them. In this way, unless one is a little indulgent and easy, the spirits will not come. To speak of the affairs of spirits, the matter seems far-fetched, but with years piled up they may be summoned." Thereupon the commanderies and states each cleared the roads and repaired the palaces, belvederes and shrines of the famous mountains, in the hope of an imperial visit.
In that year, Southern Yue having been destroyed, the Emperor had a favoured servant Li Yannian who gained audience through his love of music. The Emperor thought well of him and sent the matter down to the high ministers for discussion, saying: "Among the people even the sacrifices have the music of drum and dance; now the suburban sacrifice has no music — is this fitting?" The high ministers said, "In antiquity sacrifices to heaven and earth all had music, and so the spirits of heaven and earth could be given their rites." Someone said, "The Great Emperor made the Plain Maiden play a fifty-stringed zither; it was mournful, and the Emperor forbade it and it did not stop, and so he broke her zither into twenty-five strings." Thereupon, on the settling of Southern Yue, in praying and sacrificing to the Grand Unity and to Earth Below, music and dance were used for the first time, and more singers were called in, and the making of the twenty-five-stringed zither and of the harp and zither began from this.
In the winter of the next year the Emperor deliberated, saying, "In antiquity they first mustered the troops and stood down the host, and afterwards performed the feng and shan." So he toured Shuofang in the north, mustering more than a hundred thousand troops; returning, he sacrificed at the Yellow Emperor's tomb at Mount Qiao and stood down the troops at Xuru. The Emperor said, "I have heard that the Yellow Emperor did not die; now there is a tomb — why?" Someone answered, "The Yellow Emperor became an immortal and ascended to Heaven, and his ministers buried his robes and cap." Coming to Ganquan, as he was about to perform the rites at Mount Tai, he first offered the lei sacrifice to the Grand Unity.
From the getting of the precious tripod, the Emperor deliberated with the high ministers and the scholars on the feng and shan. As the feng and shan were rarely used and had long been discontinued, none knew their ceremonies and rites, and the Confucians gathered the matters of the distant sacrifices and the shooting of the ox from the Documents, the Offices of Zhou and the Royal Regulations for the feng and shan. Lord Ding, a man of Qi, more than ninety years old, said: "Feng is a name that joins with deathlessness. The August Emperor of Qin could not go up and perform the feng. If Your Majesty must go up, go up a little and if there is no wind or rain, then go on and perform the feng." The Emperor thereupon ordered the Confucians to practise the shooting of the ox and to draft the ceremonies of the feng and shan. After several years it was about to be carried out. The Son of Heaven, having heard the words of Gongsun Qing and the masters of arts, that the Yellow Emperor and those before him in performing the feng and shan had all summoned strange things and communed with the spirits, wished to imitate the Yellow Emperor in order to meet the immortals and the gentlemen of Penglai, to rise above the age and match his virtue with the Nine Augusts, and he took up something of the Confucian arts to adorn it. The Confucians, being unable to argue the matter of the feng and shan clearly, and moreover bound by the Odes, the Documents and the ancient writings, dared not give rein. The Emperor showed the vessels for the feng sacrifice to the Confucians, and some of them said, "They are not the same as the ancient"; and Xu Yan further said, "The scholars of the Grand Master of Ceremonies do not perform the rites as well as Lu"; and Zhou Ba was concerned with the plan of the feng. Thereupon the Emperor dismissed Yan and Ba and sent away all the Confucians and did not use them.
In the third month he went east to Goushi and performed the rites of ascending the Central Peak, Taishi. The attendant officers below the mountain heard something like a voice crying "Ten thousand years!" They asked those above, and those above had not spoken; they asked those below, and those below had not spoken. Thereupon he enfeoffed Taishi with three hundred households to uphold its sacrifices, and named it the Chonggao town. Going east he ascended Mount Tai; the leaves of the grass and trees of the mountain had not yet come out, and so he had men carry up a stone and set it on Mount Tai's summit.
The Emperor then toured east to the sea and performed the rites and sacrificed to the Eight Spirits. The men of Qi who submitted letters speaking of spirit marvels and strange arts were counted in tens of thousands, but none was verified. So he sent out more ships, ordering several thousand of those who spoke of divine mountains in the sea to seek the divine men of Penglai. Gongsun Qing, bearing credentials, constantly went ahead to watch at the famous mountains; reaching Donglai, he said that by night he had seen a man several zhang tall, and that when he went up to him he was not to be seen, but his tracks were seen and were very large, like a bird's or beast's. Some of the ministers said that they had seen an old man leading a dog, who said, "I wish to see the Great Lord," and then suddenly was not to be seen. The Emperor, having seen the great tracks, had not believed, and when the ministers spoke of the old man he greatly took it that it was an immortal. He stayed on by the sea, and those sent with post carriages and secret envoys with the masters of arts to seek the immortals were counted in thousands.
In the fourth month he came back to Fenggao. The Emperor considered that what the Confucians and the masters of arts said about the feng and shan differed from man to man, was not canonical and was hard to carry out. The Son of Heaven reached Liangfu and performed the rites and sacrificed to the Lord of Earth. On the yimao day he ordered the Confucians among the Palace Attendants to wear leather caps and carry the girdle-tablet, and to perform the shooting of the ox. He performed the feng on the eastern side below Mount Tai, as in the rite of the suburban sacrifice to the Grand Unity. The mound of the feng was one zhang two chi across and nine chi high, and beneath it was the jade tablet writing, and the writing was secret. The rite finished, the Son of Heaven went up Mount Tai alone with the Palace Attendant and Master of the Carriage, Zihou, and there too there was a feng. All of these matters were forbidden to be spoken of. The next day he came down by the northern way. On the bingchen day he performed the shan at Mount Suran, northeast of the foot of Mount Tai, as in the rite of sacrifice to Earth Below. In every case the Son of Heaven bowed and appeared in person, wearing yellow and using music throughout. Reeds from between the Jiang and the Huai with three ridges to a stalk were used for the spirits' mat. Earth of five colours was mixed and added to the mound. Strange beasts and flying birds from distant regions and white pheasants and other things were set loose, and these were added to the sacrifice. Rhinoceros, yak, buffalo, elephant and the like were not used. All came to Mount Tai and then departed. At the feng and shan sacrifices, that night there was as it were a light, and by day a white cloud rose from within the mound.
The Son of Heaven, coming back from the feng and shan, sat in the Hall of Light, and the ministers in turn drank his health. Thereupon an edict was sent to the Grandee Secretary: "With my tiny person I have received the highest honour, and am anxious and fearful that I am not equal to it. My virtue is meagre and I am not clear about rites and music. In performing the sacrifice to the Grand Unity there seemed to be an image of a bright light, [□] as if there were something to be gazed at; lingering and awed at the strange thing, I wished to stop and dared not, and so went up and performed the feng on Mount Tai, came to Liangfu and afterwards performed the shan at Suran. I renew myself, and am glad to begin afresh with the officers and gentlemen. Grant to every hundred households of the people one ox and ten piculs of wine, and to those above eighty and to orphans and widows two rolls of cloth and silk each. Exempt Bo, Fenggao, Sheqiu and Licheng, and let them pay no land tax this year. Let there be a pardon throughout the land, as in the pardon of the yimao day. Let there be no penal labour in the places I have passed. For matters more than two years past, let no cases be entertained." He also sent down an edict: "In antiquity the Son of Heaven once in five years made a tour of inspection and performed the rites at Mount Tai, and the lords had lands for lodging when they came to court. Let the lords each build a residence below Mount Tai."
The Son of Heaven having performed the feng and shan at Mount Tai, and there being no calamity of wind or rain, the masters of arts said afresh that the divine mountains of Penglai and the rest could perhaps be got; and so the Emperor gladly hoped he might meet with them, and went east again to the sea and gazed, hoping to meet with Penglai. The Master of the Carriage, Zihou, fell violently ill and died in a day. The Emperor then departed, went along the sea, north to Jieshi, toured from Liaoxi and passed along the northern frontier to Jiuyuan. In the fifth month he returned to Ganquan. The officers said that the coming forth of the precious tripod made the period Yuanding, and that the present year should be the first year of Yuanfeng.
That autumn a star appeared with a bushy tail at the Eastern Well. More than ten days later a star appeared with a bushy tail at the Three Terraces. Wang Shuo, the observer of vapours, said, "Watching, I alone saw the star come out like a gourd, and after the space of a meal it went in again." The officers said, "Your Majesty has established the feng and shan of the house of Han, and Heaven has answered with the Star of Virtue."
In the winter of the next year he sacrificed in the suburbs at Yong to the Five Emperors, and returning bowed and prayed and sacrificed to the Grand Unity. The words of the offering said: "The Star of Virtue shines and spreads; it is an excellent omen. The Star of Longevity appears in turn, deep-shining and bright. The Star of Good Faith shines forth, and the August Emperor reverently bows to the offering of the Grand Invocation."
That spring Gongsun Qing said he had seen a divine man at Mount Donglai, who seemed to say, "I wish to see the Son of Heaven." The Son of Heaven thereupon visited the city of Goushi and appointed Qing a Palace Grandee. He then went to Donglai and stayed several days; nothing was seen, but the tracks of a great man were seen. He sent masters of arts again to seek spirit marvels and gather magic fungus and drugs, counted in thousands. That year there was drought. Thereupon the Son of Heaven, having gone out with no pretext, prayed at Wanlisha and passing by sacrificed at Mount Tai. Returning he came to Huzi, and himself oversaw the stopping of the breach of the He, stayed two days, sank offerings and departed. He sent two ministers with troops to stop the breach of the He, and the He was turned into two channels, restoring Yu's old traces.
At this time, Southern Yue having been destroyed, a man of Yue, Yongzhi, said: "The custom of the Yue is to believe in ghosts, and in their sacrifices ghosts are all seen, and they are often efficacious. Of old the king of Eastern Ou revered ghosts and lived to a hundred and sixty. Later ages were careless and remiss, and so they declined and wasted away." So he ordered the shamans of Yue to set up a Yue invocation shrine, with a level terrace and no altar, and likewise to sacrifice to the spirits of Heaven, the Lord on High and the hundred ghosts, and to divine with fowls. The Emperor believed in it, and the Yue sacrifices and divination by fowls began to be used from this.
Gongsun Qing said: "The immortals can be seen, but the Emperor has always gone in haste, and for this reason has not seen them. Now Your Majesty might make a belvedere, like the city of Goushi, and set out dried meat and jujubes, and the divine men may properly be summoned. Moreover the immortals like to dwell in towers." Thereupon the Emperor ordered that at Chang'an the Feilian and Gui Belvederes be built, and at Ganquan the Yiyanshou Belvedere, and sent Qing with credentials to set out the offerings and watch for the divine men; and he built the Tongtian Terrace and set out sacrificial vessels below it, to draw in the immortals and their kind. Thereupon at Ganquan a front hall was built besides, and the palaces and chambers were first enlarged. In summer magic fungus grew inside the hall's inner wall. The Son of Heaven, for the stopping of the He and the raising of the Tongtian Terrace, and because there seemed to be a light, sent down an edict: "At Ganquan fungus has grown on the wall with nine stalks; let there be a pardon throughout the land and no penal labour."
The next year he attacked Chaoxian. In summer there was drought. Gongsun Qing said, "In the Yellow Emperor's time, when the feng was performed there was drought, to dry the feng mound for three years." The Emperor then sent down an edict: "There is drought — is it meant to dry the feng mound? Let the whole land honour and sacrifice to the Numinous Star."
The next year the Emperor sacrificed in the suburbs at Yong, opened the Huizhong road and toured it. In spring he came to Mingze and returned by way of Xihe.
In the winter of the next year the Emperor toured the commandery of Nan, reached Jiangling and went east. He climbed and performed rites at Mount Tianzhu in Qian, and styled it the Southern Peak. He sailed on the Jiang, went out from Xunyang to Zongyang, passed Pengli and sacrificed to its famous mountains and rivers. He went north to Langye and along the sea. In the middle of the fourth month he came to Fenggao and performed the feng again.
At first, when the Son of Heaven performed the feng at Mount Tai, there was at the northeastern foot of Mount Tai a place where in ancient times there had been a Hall of Light, in a steep place and not open. The Emperor wished to build a Hall of Light near Fenggao and did not understand its plan. Gongyu Dai, a man of Jinan, submitted a plan of the Hall of Light of the Yellow Emperor's time. In the plan of the Hall of Light there was a single hall, with no walls on its four sides, roofed with thatch, with water flowing through, and a round palace wall making a double covered way, with a tower above, entered from the southwest and named Kunlun; the Son of Heaven entered by it to bow and sacrifice to the Lord on High. Thereupon the Emperor ordered a Hall of Light to be built at Fenggao on the Wen River, as in Dai's plan. And when in the fifth year he performed the feng again, he sacrificed to the Grand Unity and the Five Emperors seated above in the Hall of Light, with the seat of the August Emperor Gao facing them. He sacrificed to Earth Below in the lower chamber with twenty full sets of victims. The Son of Heaven entered by the Kunlun way and first bowed in the Hall of Light as in the suburban rite. The rite finished, the offerings were burned below the hall. And the Emperor again went up Mount Tai, where there were secret sacrifices at its summit. And below Mount Tai he sacrificed to the Five Emperors, each in his quarter, with the Yellow Emperor beside the Red Emperor, and the officers attended the sacrifice. When fire was raised on the top of Mount Tai, below they all answered it.
Two years after this, on the new moon of the eleventh month, the jiazi day, which was the winter solstice, those who reckoned the calendar took it as the root of the system. The Son of Heaven went in person to Mount Tai and on the new moon of the eleventh month, the jiazi day, the winter solstice, sacrificed to the Lord on High in the Hall of Light, performing the feng and shan each time. The words of the offering said: "Heaven has again granted the August Emperor the Grand Prime divine counting-rods, ending and beginning again. The August Emperor reverently bows to the Grand Unity." He went east to the sea and examined those who went into the sea and the masters of arts who sought spirits; none was verified, yet he sent out more of them, hoping to meet with them.
On the yiyou day of the eleventh month the Cypress Beam Terrace burned. On the new moon of the twelfth month, the jiawu day, the Emperor in person performed the shan at Gaoli and sacrificed to Earth Below. He overlooked the Bohai, meaning to sacrifice from afar to Penglai and its like, in the hope of reaching the special court.
The Emperor returned, and on account of the burning of the Cypress Beam Terrace he received the accounts at Ganquan at the court. Gongsun Qing said, "The Yellow Emperor built the Qingling Terrace, and in twelve days it burned, and the Yellow Emperor then built the Bright Court. The Bright Court is Ganquan." The masters of arts mostly said that among the emperors and kings of antiquity there were those who had their capital at Ganquan. Afterwards the Son of Heaven received the lords at court at Ganquan besides, and residences for the lords were built at Ganquan. Yongzhi then said, "In the customs of Yue, when there is a fire and a house is built again, it must be made large, in order to overcome and subdue it." Thereupon the Jianzhang Palace was built, laid out with a thousand gates and ten thousand doors. Its front hall was laid out higher than Weiyang; to its east was the Phoenix Tower, more than twenty zhang high; to its west was Tangzhong, with a tiger enclosure of several tens of li. To its north a great pool was made, with the Jian Terrace more than twenty zhang high, named the Taiye Pool, and in it Penglai, Fangzhang, Yingzhou and Huliang, representing the divine mountains in the sea and their turtles and fish. To its south were the Jade Hall, the Jade-Disc Gate, the great birds and the like. And the Terrace of Divine Brightness and the Well-Frame Tower were set up, more than fifty zhang in measure, with carriage-ways joining them.
In summer Han reformed the calendar, taking the first month as the beginning of the year, and honoured yellow as its colour, and the titles of offices were changed and seals made with five characters. Accordingly it was made the first year of Taichu. In that year he campaigned in the west against Dayuan. Locusts rose in great numbers. Lady Ding, Yu Chu of Luoyang and others by their arts sacrificed and cursed the Xiongnu and Dayuan.
The next year the officers said that at the Five Altars at Yong there were no cooked victims and the fragrances were not complete. So he ordered the sacrificial officers to present at the altars calves with the full set of victims, with the foods of the five colours each overcoming the other, and to use wooden horses in place of colts. Only for the Five Emperors were colts used, and when he went in person to the suburban sacrifice colts were used. And where colts had been used at the various famous mountains and rivers, all were replaced by wooden horses. When he passed by in person, then colts were used. Other rites were as before.
The next year he toured east to the sea and examined the immortals and their kind, and none was verified. A master of arts said, "In the Yellow Emperor's time five citadels and twelve towers were made, to watch for divine men at Zhiqi, and it was called Welcoming the Year." The Emperor allowed it to be built as in the method, and named it Mingnian. The Emperor in person performed the rites and sacrificed to the Lord on High, wearing yellow.
Gongyu Dai said: "In the Yellow Emperor's time, though he performed the feng at Mount Tai, yet Fenghou, Fengju and Qibo had the Yellow Emperor perform the feng at Eastern Mount Tai and the shan at Mount Fan, matching the tallies, and only then did he not die." The Son of Heaven having ordered the sacrificial vessels to be set out, he came to Eastern Mount Tai; Eastern Mount Tai was low and small and did not match its repute, and so he ordered the sacrificial officers to perform rites to it but did not perform the feng and shan there. Afterwards he ordered Dai to uphold the sacrifices and watch for spirit things. In summer he returned to Mount Tai and performed the rites of the fifth year as before, adding the shan sacrifice at Shilü. Shilü is south of the foot of Mount Tai; the masters of arts mostly said this was the gate of the immortals, and so the Emperor performed the shan there in person.
Five years later he came again to Mount Tai and performed the feng, and returning passed by and sacrificed at Mount Chang.
The sacrifices raised by the present Son of Heaven: to the Grand Unity and Earth Below, sacrificing in the suburbs in person once in three years; the establishing of the house of Han's feng and shan, with the feng performed again once in five years. Bo Ji's Grand Unity and the Three Unities, Mingyang, the Horse Walker and the Red Star — five — and Kuan Shu's sacrificial officers offer rites at the seasons of the year. In all six sacrifices, all under the charge of the Grand Invocator. As for the Eight Spirits and the other spirits, Mingnian, Mount Fan and other famous sacrifices, when he passes by they are sacrificed to, and when he goes away they cease. The sacrifices raised by the masters of arts each had its own master, and when the man died they ceased, and the sacrificial officers did not take charge of them. Other sacrifices were all as before. The present Emperor performed the feng and shan, and twelve years afterwards he returned, having gone round the Five Peaks and the Four Watercourses. But of the masters of arts who watched for and sacrificed to divine men, and who entered the sea to seek Penglai, in the end none was verified. And Gongsun Qing, who watched for spirits, still used the great man's tracks as his explanation, and there was no effect. The Son of Heaven grew ever more weary and disgusted with the masters of arts' strange and far-fetched talk, yet to the end he kept them on a loose rein and did not break with them, hoping to meet with a true one. From this time on, the masters of arts who spoke of sacrificing to spirits grew ever more numerous, yet what came of it may be seen.
The Lord Grand Astrologer says: I followed the progresses and sacrificed to Heaven and Earth, the host of spirits and the famous mountains and rivers, and took part in the feng and shan. I entered the Longevity Palace and attended the sacrifices and the spirit's words, and examined thoroughly the sayings of the masters of arts and the sacrificial officers; and so I withdrew and set forth in order those who from antiquity onward have served the ghosts and spirits, showing fully both the outside and the inside of it. Let gentlemen of later times be able to look upon it. As for the details of the stands, vessels, jade and silk, and the rites of offering and pledging, there are officers who keep them.