卷五十三·萧相国世家第二十三
卷五十三·萧相国世家第二十三
司马迁
萧相国何者，沛丰人也。以文无害为沛主吏掾。
高祖为布衣时，何数以吏事护高祖。高祖为亭长，常左右之。高祖以吏繇咸阳，吏皆送奉钱三，何独以五。
秦御史监郡者与从事，常辨之。何乃给泗水卒史事，第一。秦御史欲入言徵何，何固请，得毋行。
及高祖起为沛公，何常为丞督事。沛公至咸阳，诸将皆争走金帛财物之府分之，何独先入收秦丞相御史律令图书藏之。沛公为汉王，以何为丞相。项王与诸侯屠烧咸阳而去。汉王所以具知天下阸塞，户口多少，强弱之处，民所疾苦者，以何具得秦图书也。何进言韩信，汉王以信为大将军。语在淮阴侯事中。
汉王引兵东定三秦，何以丞相留收巴蜀，填抚谕告，使给军食。汉二年，汉王与诸侯击楚，何守关中，侍太子，治栎阳。为法令约束，立宗庙社稷宫室县邑，辄奏上，可，许以从事；即不及奏上，辄以便宜施行，上来以闻。关中事计户口转漕给军，汉王数失军遁去，何常兴关中卒，辄补缺。上以此专属任何关中事。
汉三年，汉王与项羽相距京索之间，上数使使劳苦丞相。鲍生谓丞相曰：“王暴衣露盖，数使使劳苦君者，有疑君心也。为君计，莫若遣君子孙昆弟能胜兵者悉诣军所，上必益信君。”于是何从其计，汉王大说。
汉五年，既杀项羽，定天下，论功行封。群臣争功，岁余功不决。高祖以萧何功最盛，封为酂侯，所食邑多。功臣皆曰：“臣等身被坚执锐，多者百余战，少者数十合，攻城略地，大小各有差。今萧何未尝有汗马之劳，徒持文墨议论，不战，顾反居臣等上，何也？”高帝曰：“诸君知猎乎？”曰：“知之。”“知猎狗乎？”曰：“知之。”高帝曰：“夫猎，追杀兽兔者狗也，而发踪指示兽处者人也。今诸君徒能得走兽耳，功狗也。至如萧何，发踪指示，功人也。且诸君独以身随我，多者两三人。今萧何举宗数十人皆随我，功不可忘也。”群臣皆莫敢言。
列侯毕已受封，及奏位次，皆曰：“平阳侯曹参身被七十创，攻城略地，功最多，宜第一。”上已桡功臣，多封萧何，至位次未有以复难之，然心欲何第一。关内侯鄂君进曰：“群臣议皆误。夫曹参虽有野战略地之功，此特一时之事。夫上与楚相距五岁，常失军亡众，逃身遁者数矣。然萧何常从关中遣军补其处，非上所诏令召，而数万众会上之乏绝者数矣。夫汉与楚相守荥阳数年，军无见粮，萧何转漕关中，给食不乏。陛下虽数亡山东，萧何常全关中以待陛下，此万世之功也。今虽亡曹参等百数，何缺于汉？汉得之不必待以全。柰何欲以一旦之功而加万世之功哉！萧何第一，曹参次之。”高祖曰：“善。”于是乃令萧何第一，赐带剑履上殿，入朝不趋。
上曰：“吾闻进贤受上赏。萧何功虽高，得鄂君乃益明。”于是因鄂君故所食关内侯邑封为安平侯。是日，悉封何父子兄弟十余人，皆有食邑。乃益封何二千户，以帝尝繇咸阳时何送我独赢奉钱二也。
汉十一年，陈狶反，高祖自将，至邯郸。未罢，淮阴侯谋反关中，吕后用萧何计，诛淮阴侯，语在淮阴事中。上已闻淮阴侯诛，使使拜丞相何为相国，益封五千户，令卒五百人一都尉为相国卫。诸君皆贺，召平独吊。召平者，故秦东陵侯。秦破，为布衣，贫，种瓜于长安城东，瓜美，故世俗谓之“东陵瓜”，从召平以为名也。召平谓相国曰：“祸自此始矣。上暴露于外而君守于中，非被矢石之事而益君封置卫者，以今者淮阴侯新反于中，疑君心矣。夫置卫卫君，非以宠君也。愿君让封勿受，悉以家私财佐军，则上心说。”相国从其计，高帝乃大喜。
汉十二年秋，黥布反，上自将击之，数使使问相国何为。相国为上在军，乃拊循勉力百姓，悉以所有佐军，如陈狶时。客有说相国曰：“君灭族不久矣。夫君位为相国，功第一，可复加哉？然君初入关中，得百姓心，十余年矣，皆附君，常复孳孳得民和。上所为数问君者，畏君倾动关中。今君胡不多买田地，贱贳贷以自汙？上心乃安。”于是相国从其计，上乃大说。
上罢布军归，民道遮行上书，言相国贱强买民田宅数千万。上至，相国谒。上笑曰：“夫相国乃利民！”民所上书皆以与相国，曰：“君自谢民。”相国因为民请曰：“长安地狭，上林中多空地，弃，愿令民得入田，毋收稿为禽兽食。”上大怒曰：“相国多受贾人财物，乃为请吾苑！”乃下相国廷尉，械系之。数日，王卫尉侍，前问曰：“相国何大罪，陛下系之暴也？”上曰：“吾闻李斯相秦皇帝，有善归主，有恶自与。今相国多受贾竖金而为民请吾苑，以自媚于民，故系治之。”王卫尉曰：“夫职事苟有便于民而请之，真宰相事，陛下柰何乃疑相国受贾人钱乎！且陛下距楚数岁，陈狶、黥布反，陛下自将而往，当是时，相国守关中，摇足则关以西非陛下有也。相国不以此时为利，今乃利贾人之金乎？且秦以不闻其过亡天下，李斯之分过，又何足法哉。陛下何疑宰相之浅也。”高帝不怿。是日，使使持节赦出相国。相国年老，素恭谨，入，徒跣谢。高帝曰：“相国休矣！相国为民请苑，吾不许，我不过为桀纣主，而相国为贤相。吾故系相国，欲令百姓闻吾过也。”
何素不与曹参相能，及何病，孝惠自临视相国病，因问曰：“君即百岁后，谁可代君者？”对曰：“知臣莫如主。”孝惠曰：“曹参何如？”何顿首曰：“帝得之矣！臣死不恨矣！”
何置田宅必居穷处，为家不治垣屋。曰：“后世贤，师吾俭；不贤，毋为势家所夺。”
孝惠二年，相国何卒，谥为文终侯。
后嗣以罪失侯者四世，绝，天子辄复求何后，封续酂侯，功臣莫得比焉。
太史公曰：萧相国何于秦时为刀笔吏，录录未有奇节。及汉兴，依日月之末光，何谨守管籥，因民之疾秦法，顺流与之更始。淮阴、黥布等皆以诛灭，而何之勋烂焉。位冠群臣，声施后世，与闳夭、散宜生等争烈矣。
Volume 53 · The Hereditary House of Xiao, Chancellor of State, Twenty-third
司马迁
He, the Chancellor of State Xiao, was a man of Feng in Pei. For being versed in the statutes without harshness he was Aide for Personnel in Pei.
While Gaozu was still a commoner, He several times shielded Gaozu in matters of official business. When Gaozu was chief of a post-station, He was constantly at his side. When Gaozu went on corvée duty to Xianyang, the officers all sent him three in farewell cash, and He alone gave five.
The Imperial Secretary of Qin who inspected the commandery, with his assistant, constantly took note of him. He then filled the post of clerk of Sishui, and was first in it. The Imperial Secretary of Qin wished to go in and speak and have He summoned, and He firmly asked leave and got off going.
And when Gaozu rose and became Duke of Pei, He was constantly his deputy overseeing affairs. When the Duke of Pei reached Xianyang, the generals all raced to the storehouses of gold, silk and goods to divide them, and He alone went in first and gathered up the statutes and ordinances, charts and documents of the Qin Chancellor and Imperial Secretary, and stored them away. When the Duke of Pei became King of Han, he made He his chancellor. King Xiang and the feudal lords butchered and burned Xianyang and went away. That the King of Han knew in full the empire's strategic barriers, the size of its population, where it was strong and where weak, and what the people suffered under, was because He had got the Qin charts and documents entire. He put Han Xin forward, and the King of Han made Xin Grand General. The account is in the affairs of the Marquis of Huaiyin.
The King of Han led troops east and settled the Three Qin, and He as chancellor stayed behind to gather in Ba and Shu, to hold and soothe them and make proclamation to them, and to have them supply the army's food. In Han's second year the King of Han with the feudal lords struck at Chu, and He held the country within the Pass, waited on the heir apparent, and governed from Yueyang. In making laws and ordinances and regulations, and in setting up the ancestral temples, the altars of soil and grain, the palaces and chambers, the counties and towns, he would each time report and send them up, and if approved, would be permitted to carry them out; and if there were no time to report and send them up, he would each time act as expedient, and inform His Majesty of it on his return. In the affairs within the Pass he reckoned up the population and transported by water to supply the army; and when the King of Han repeatedly lost his armies and slipped away, He would constantly raise troops within the Pass and each time fill the gaps. His Majesty for this reason entrusted the affairs within the Pass to He alone.
In Han's third year, when the King of Han and Xiang Yu were holding out against each other between Jing and Suo, His Majesty several times sent envoys to enquire after the chancellor's hardships. Master Bao said to the chancellor: "The king has his clothes in the weather and his canopy in the open, and his repeatedly sending envoys to enquire after your hardships is because he has a doubting mind toward you. As a plan for you, there is nothing like sending your sons and grandsons and brothers who can bear arms, all of them, to the army's station; His Majesty will surely trust you the more." Thereupon He followed his plan, and the King of Han was greatly pleased.
In Han's fifth year, having killed Xiang Yu and settled the empire, he assessed merits and gave out enfeoffments. The body of ministers contended over merit, and for a year and more the merits were not settled. Gaozu, holding Xiao He's merit to be the fullest, enfeoffed him as Marquis of Zan, with many towns to eat from. The meritorious ministers all said: "We have borne hard armour on our bodies and taken up sharp weapons; the most of us in a hundred battles and more, the least in some tens of engagements; we have attacked cities and seized territory, each in his greater or lesser degree. Now Xiao He has never had the toil of a sweating horse, but has merely held to brush and ink and to discussions, and has not fought; and yet on the contrary he is placed above us. Why?" The Exalted Emperor said: "Do you gentlemen know hunting?" They said: "We know it." "Do you know hunting dogs?" They said: "We know them." The Exalted Emperor said: "In hunting, the ones who chase and kill the beast or the hare are the dogs, and the one who looses the trail and points out where the beast is, is the man. Now you gentlemen have only been able to get the running beasts: you are dogs of merit. As for Xiao He, he loosed the trail and pointed out: he is a man of merit. And besides, you gentlemen have only followed me with your own persons, the most of you with two or three men. Now Xiao He has brought his whole clan, some tens of men, all to follow me; his merit is not to be forgotten." The body of ministers all dared say nothing.
The ranking marquises having all received their enfeoffments, when it came to submitting the order of precedence they all said: "Cao Can, Marquis of Pingyang, has borne seventy wounds on his body; in attacking cities and seizing territory his merits are the most; he ought to be first." His Majesty had already overborne the meritorious ministers by enfeoffing Xiao He greatly, and as to the order of precedence he had nothing further to press them with, yet in his heart he wanted He first. Lord E, a Marquis Within the Passes, came forward and said: "The body of ministers' deliberation is all mistaken. Although Cao Can has the merit of battles in the field and of seizing territory, this is only the business of a single time. His Majesty held out against Chu five years, and often lost his armies and lost his multitudes, and slipped away in his own person several times. And yet Xiao He was constantly sending armies from within the Pass to fill up his places; and it was not by His Majesty's decree or summons that tens of thousands reached His Majesty at the moments when he was destitute, and that happened several times. And while Han and Chu held out against each other at Xingyang for some years, the army having no grain in sight, Xiao He transported by water within the Pass and supplied food without fail. Though Your Majesty several times lost the country east of the mountains, Xiao He constantly kept the country within the Pass whole to wait for Your Majesty; this is a merit of ten thousand generations. Now if we had lost a hundred such as Cao Can, what would Han be short of? Han's getting them was not what it must rely on to be whole. How can you wish to put the merit of a single morning above the merit of ten thousand generations! Let Xiao He be first and Cao Can next." Gaozu said: "Good." And thereupon he ordered Xiao He to be first, and granted him to wear sword and shoes into the hall and not to hurry when entering court.
His Majesty said: "I have heard that he who puts a worthy man forward receives the highest reward. High as Xiao He's merit is, it is by getting Lord E that it is made the clearer." And thereupon, on the strength of the Marquis Within the Passes' town that Lord E had formerly eaten from, he enfeoffed him as Marquis of Anping. That day he enfeoffed all of He's fathers and sons and brothers, ten and more men, and all had towns to eat from. And he added two thousand households to He's enfeoffment, because when the Emperor had once gone on corvée duty to Xianyang, He in seeing him off alone had a surplus of two in the farewell cash.
In Han's eleventh year Chen Xi rebelled; Gaozu commanded in person and reached Handan. Before it was over, the Marquis of Huaiyin plotted rebellion within the Pass, and the Empress Lü used Xiao He's plan and put the Marquis of Huaiyin to death. The account is in the affairs of Huaiyin. His Majesty, having heard that the Marquis of Huaiyin had been put to death, sent an envoy to appoint the chancellor He Chancellor of State, added five thousand households to his enfeoffment, and ordered five hundred soldiers with one Chief Commandant to be the Chancellor of State's guard. All the gentlemen offered congratulations, and Shao Ping alone offered condolence. Shao Ping had been the Marquis of Dongling under Qin. Qin being broken, he became a commoner, and being poor he planted melons east of the city of Chang'an; the melons were fine, and so the world called them "Dongling melons," taking the name from Shao Ping. Shao Ping said to the Chancellor of State: "Disaster begins from here. His Majesty is exposed to the weather abroad and you hold the centre; you are not in the way of arrow and stone, and yet he adds to your enfeoffment and gives you a guard, because the Marquis of Huaiyin has newly rebelled within, and he has a doubting mind toward you. To set a guard to guard you is not to favour you. I should like you to decline the enfeoffment and not receive it, and to give all your household's private wealth to aid the army; then His Majesty's mind will be pleased." The Chancellor of State followed his plan, and the Exalted Emperor was then greatly glad.
In the autumn of Han's twelfth year Qing Bu rebelled, and His Majesty commanded in person and struck at him, and several times sent envoys to ask what the Chancellor of State was doing. The Chancellor of State, because His Majesty was in the field, soothed and nursed the hundred families and exerted himself, and gave all he had to aid the army, as at the time of Chen Xi. A guest urged the Chancellor of State: "It will not be long before your clan is wiped out. Your station is Chancellor of State and your merit is first; can anything more be added? But when you first entered the country within the Pass you won the hearts of the hundred families, and it has been ten years and more, and they are all attached to you, and you are still constantly and diligently gaining the people's concord. The reason His Majesty repeatedly asks about you is that he fears you may overturn and stir up the country within the Pass. Now why do you not buy up much land, cheaply on credit and lending out, so as to soil yourself? Then His Majesty's mind will be at ease." Thereupon the Chancellor of State followed his plan, and His Majesty was then greatly pleased.
When His Majesty came back from Bu's army, the people blocked his way on the road and sent up letters, saying that the Chancellor of State had cheaply and forcibly bought the people's fields and houses to the tune of some tens of millions. His Majesty arrived, and the Chancellor of State presented himself. His Majesty laughed and said: "So the Chancellor of State profits the people!" And he gave the Chancellor of State all the letters the people had sent up, saying: "Make your own excuses to the people." The Chancellor of State accordingly made a request on the people's behalf: "Chang'an's ground is narrow, and in the Shanglin park there is much empty ground, abandoned; I should like the people to be allowed to go in and farm it, and the stalks not to be collected as feed for the birds and beasts." His Majesty was greatly enraged and said: "The Chancellor of State has received much of the merchants' goods and property, and so makes requests about my park for them!" And he sent the Chancellor of State down to the Commandant of Justice and had him put in irons. Some days later the Commandant of the Guard Wang was in attendance, and came forward and asked: "What great crime has the Chancellor of State committed, that Your Majesty should bind him so violently?" His Majesty said: "I have heard that Li Si, being chancellor to the Emperor of Qin, referred what was good to his master and took what was bad on himself. Now the Chancellor of State has received much gold from the tradesmen and made requests about my park for the people, so as to ingratiate himself with the people; and therefore I have bound and prosecuted him." The Commandant of the Guard Wang said: "If in the business of his office there is something of benefit to the people and he makes a request for it, that is truly a chancellor's business; how can Your Majesty suspect the Chancellor of State of taking merchants' cash! And Your Majesty held out against Chu some years, and when Chen Xi and Qing Bu rebelled Your Majesty commanded in person and went; at that time the Chancellor of State held the country within the Pass, and had he shifted his foot, the country west of the Pass would not have been Your Majesty's. The Chancellor of State did not take profit at that time; would he now take profit in the merchants' gold? And Qin lost the empire by not hearing of its own faults, and Li Si's sharing of the blame — what is there in that worth taking for a pattern? How shallowly Your Majesty suspects his chancellor." The Exalted Emperor was out of humour. That day he sent an envoy bearing the credentials to pardon and release the Chancellor of State. The Chancellor of State was old in years and had always been reverent and careful; he came in and made his excuses barefoot. The Exalted Emperor said: "Rest yourself, Chancellor of State! The Chancellor of State made a request about the park for the people and I did not allow it; I am no more than a Jie or a Zhou of a ruler, and the Chancellor of State a worthy chancellor. I bound the Chancellor of State on purpose, wishing to have the hundred families hear of my fault."
He had always been on bad terms with Cao Can; and when He was ill, the Emperor Xiaohui himself came to look upon the Chancellor of State's illness, and accordingly asked: "After your hundred years, who may take your place?" He answered: "None knows a subject like his lord." Xiaohui said: "What of Cao Can?" He knocked his head on the ground and said: "The Emperor has got it! Your servant dies without regret!"
In setting up his fields and houses He always chose out-of-the-way places, and in making his household he did not plaster the walls of his rooms. He said: "If my posterity are worthy, let them take my frugality for their model; if unworthy, let there be nothing for the powerful houses to seize."
In the Emperor Xiaohui's second year the Chancellor of State He died, with the posthumous title Marquis Wenzhong.
His successors lost the marquisate for offences through four generations and the line was cut off; and each time the Son of Heaven would again seek out He's posterity and enfeoff one to carry on as Marquis of Zan, and among the meritorious ministers there was none to be compared with him.
The Lord Grand Astrologer says: He, the Chancellor of State Xiao, was in Qin's time a clerk of knife and brush, commonplace and without remarkable distinction. And when the Han arose he leaned on the last light of the sun and moon; He kept careful hold of the keys and locks, and taking advantage of the people's hatred of Qin's laws, went with the current and made a new beginning with them. Huaiyin and Qing Bu and the rest were all put to death and destroyed, while He's achievement shines. His station was foremost among the body of ministers and his fame is handed on to later ages; he may vie in brilliance with Hong Yao and San Yisheng.