卷五十·楚元王世家第二十
卷五十·楚元王世家第二十
司马迁
楚元王刘交者，高祖之同母少弟也，字游。
高祖兄弟四人，长兄伯，伯蚤卒。始高祖微时，尝辟事，时时与宾客过巨嫂食。嫂厌叔，叔与客来，嫂详为羹尽，栎釜，宾客以故去。已而视釜中尚有羹，高祖由此怨其嫂。及高祖为帝，封昆弟，而伯子独不得封。太上皇以为言，高祖曰：“某非忘封之也，为其母不长者耳。”于是乃封其子信为羹颉侯。而王次兄仲于代。
高祖六年，已禽楚王韩信于陈，乃以弟交为楚王，都彭城。即位二十三年卒，子夷王郢立。夷王四年卒，子王戊立。
王戊立二十年，冬，坐为薄太后服私奸，削东海郡。春，戊与吴王合谋反，其相张尚、太傅赵夷吾谏，不听。戊则杀尚、夷吾，起兵与吴西攻梁，破棘壁。至昌邑南，与汉将周亚夫战。汉绝吴楚粮道，士卒饥，吴王走，楚王戊自杀，军遂降汉。
汉已平吴楚，孝景帝欲以德侯子续吴，以元王子礼续楚。窦太后曰：“吴王，老人也，宜为宗室顺善。今乃首率七国，纷乱天下，柰何续其后！”不许吴，许立楚后。是时礼为汉宗正。乃拜礼为楚王，奉元王宗庙，是为楚文王。
文王立三年卒，子安王道立。安王二十二年卒，子襄王注立。襄王立十四年卒，子王纯代立。王纯立，地节二年，中人上书告楚王谋反，王自杀，国除，入汉为彭城郡。
赵王刘遂者，其父高祖中子，名友，谥曰“幽”。幽王以忧死，故为“幽”。高后王吕禄于赵，一岁而高后崩。大臣诛诸吕吕禄等，乃立幽王子遂为赵王。
孝文帝即位二年，立遂弟辟强，取赵之河间郡为河间王，是为文王。立十三年卒，子哀王福立。一年卒，无子，绝后，国除，入于汉。
遂既王赵二十六年，孝景帝时坐晁错以適削赵王常山之郡。吴楚反，赵王遂与合谋起兵。其相建德、内史王悍谏，不听。遂烧杀建德、王悍，发兵屯其西界，欲待吴与俱西。北使匈奴，与连和攻汉。汉使曲周侯郦寄击之。赵王遂还，城守邯郸，相距七月。吴楚败于梁，不能西。匈奴闻之，亦止，不肯入汉边。栾布自破齐还，乃并兵引水灌赵城。赵城坏，赵王自杀，邯郸遂降。赵幽王绝后。
太史公曰：国之将兴，必有祯祥，君子用而小人退。国之将亡，贤人隐，乱臣贵。使楚王戊毋刑申公，遵其言，赵任防与先生，岂有篡杀之谋，为天下僇哉？贤人乎，贤人乎！非质有其内，恶能用之哉？甚矣，“安危在出令，存亡在所任”，诚哉是言也！
Volume 50 · The Hereditary House of King Yuan of Chu, Twentieth
司马迁
King Yuan of Chu, Liu Jiao, was Gaozu's youngest brother by the same mother, styled You.
Gaozu's brothers were four; the eldest brother was Bo, and Bo died early. At first, while Gaozu was still of no account, he was once in hiding from the law, and from time to time he would go with his guests to eat at his eldest sister-in-law's. The sister-in-law was sick of her husband's young brother, and when the young brother came with guests she pretended the soup was finished and scraped the pot, and the guests accordingly went away. And afterwards he looked in the pot and there was still soup, and Gaozu from this bore his sister-in-law a grudge. And when Gaozu became Emperor and enfeoffed his brothers, Bo's son alone got no enfeoffment. The Grand Supreme Emperor spoke of it, and Gaozu said: "It is not that I have forgotten to enfeoff him; it is that his mother was no elder." And thereupon he enfeoffed his son Xin as Marquis of Gengjie, "the Soup-scraper." And he made his second brother Zhong king in Dai.
In Gaozu's sixth year, having taken Han Xin, King of Chu, prisoner at Chen, he then made his younger brother Jiao King of Chu, with his capital at Pengcheng. He had come to his place twenty-three years when he died, and his son King Yi, Ying, was set up. King Yi died in his fourth year, and his son King Wu was set up.
King Wu had been in his place twenty years when, in winter, he was convicted of private fornication while in mourning for the Empress Dowager Bo, and the commandery of Donghai was pared off. In spring, Wu with the King of Wu plotted together and rebelled. His chancellor Zhang Shang and his Grand Tutor Zhao Yiwu remonstrated, and he would not listen. Wu then killed Shang and Yiwu, raised troops and with Wu attacked Liang in the west, and broke Jibi. Reaching the south of Changyi, he fought with the Han general Zhou Yafu. Han cut off the grain road of Wu and Chu; the officers and men were hungry; the King of Wu ran, and King Wu of Chu killed himself, and the army thereupon surrendered to Han.
Han having subdued Wu and Chu, the Emperor Xiaojing wished to carry on Wu with the son of the Marquis of De, and to carry on Chu with King Yuan's son Li. The Empress Dowager Dou said: "The King of Wu was an old man and ought to have been compliant and good in the imperial clan. Instead he took the lead of seven states and threw the empire into confusion; how can his line be carried on!" She would not allow it for Wu, but allowed a successor to Chu to be set up. At this time Li was the Han Director of the Imperial Clan. So they appointed Li King of Chu, to take up King Yuan's ancestral temple: this was King Wen of Chu.
King Wen died in his third year, and his son King An, Dao, was set up. King An died in his twenty-second year, and his son King Xiang, Zhu, was set up. King Xiang had been in his place fourteen years when he died, and his son King Chun took his place. King Chun being set up, in the second year of Dijie a man of the palace sent up a letter denouncing the King of Chu for plotting rebellion; the king killed himself, the state was abolished and went in to Han as the commandery of Pengcheng.
Liu Sui, King of Zhao: his father was a middle son of Gaozu's, named You (友), with the posthumous title "You" (幽), the Hidden. King You died of grief, and therefore was "You." The Empress Dowager Gao made Lü Lu king in Zhao, and in one year the Empress Dowager Gao died. The great ministers put the several Lü, Lü Lu and the rest, to death, and then set up King You's son Sui as King of Zhao.
In the Emperor Xiaowen's second year after coming to the throne, he set up Sui's younger brother Piqiang, taking Zhao's commandery of Hejian to make him King of Hejian: this was King Wen. He had been in his place thirteen years when he died, and his son King Ai, Fu, was set up. He died in one year, without a son, and the line was cut off, the state abolished and taken into Han.
Sui had been king in Zhao twenty-six years when, in the Emperor Xiaojing's time, on account of Chao Cuo, he was convicted of an offence and the King of Zhao's commandery of Changshan was pared off. When Wu and Chu rebelled, the King of Zhao, Sui, plotted with them and raised troops. His chancellor Jiande and the Interior Scribe Wang Han remonstrated, and he would not listen. Sui burned Jiande and Wang Han to death, sent out troops to encamp on his western border, and meant to wait for Wu and go west together with them. He sent envoys north to the Xiongnu to join in league with them and attack Han. Han sent Li Ji, Marquis of Quzhou, to strike at him. The King of Zhao, Sui, went back and held the walls of Handan, and they faced each other seven months. Wu and Chu were defeated in Liang and could not come west. The Xiongnu heard of it and also stopped, and would not come within the Han border. Luan Bu, coming back from breaking Qi, then joined forces and drew off water to flood the city of Zhao. The city of Zhao gave way, the King of Zhao killed himself, and Handan thereupon surrendered. King You of Zhao's line was cut off.
The Lord Grand Astrologer says: When a state is about to rise, there must be auspicious signs; the gentleman is employed and the small man withdraws. When a state is about to perish, the worthy men hide and the disorderly ministers are honoured. Had King Wu of Chu not punished Master Shen but followed his words, and had Zhao employed Master Fangyu, would there have been the plotting of usurpation and murder, and the being made a laughing-stock before the empire? Worthy men, ah, worthy men! Without the substance of it within, how could one employ them! How deep it goes — "safety and danger lie in the giving of orders; survival and ruin lie in whom one employs." How true that saying is!