All poems

宋 Song · 文 Prose

伶官传序·版本

Preface to the Biographies of Court Entertainers (Version)

欧阳修

Ouyang Xiu

名篇masterpiece 史论historical essay 兴亡rise and fall 鉴戒admonition

呜呼！
盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉！
原庄宗之所以得天下，与其所以失之者，可以知之矣。

Alas! The principle of rise and decline, though men call it the mandate of heaven, is it not the work of men! Trace why Zhuangzong won the empire, and how he came to lose it, and this may be known.

Listen

Meaning

In the opening of his preface to the 'Biographies of Court Entertainers' in the New History of the Five Dynasties, Ouyang Xiu declares with a sigh that the rise and fall of states, though attributed to heaven's mandate, is in fact determined by human affairs. He proposes to prove this by examining how Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang both won the empire and lost it. The passage lays down the essay's rational, human-centered view of history.

唉！国家兴盛衰亡的道理，虽然有人说是天命的安排，难道不更是人为的因素造成的吗！推究后唐庄宗（李存勖）取得天下的原因，和他后来失去天下的原因，就可以明白这个道理了。

Appreciation

The excerpt is a model of Song historical argument: it opens with the exclamation 'Alas!', states its thesis through the rhetorical question 'is it not the work of men!', and sets out its method of proof in the paired examination of gaining and losing the empire. The concession 'though men call it heaven's mandate' yields ground only to seize it more forcefully, and the parallel structures give the brief passage both argumentative edge and literary cadence. Praised in the Guwen Guanzhi as possessing 'rising and falling intonation that captures the spirit of the Records of the Grand Historian,' it is a masterclass in establishing a thesis within a few dozen characters.

【白话串讲】欧阳修写《伶官传序》：“呜呼！盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉”——他说国家兴亡在于人事。后唐庄宗“忧劳可以兴国，逸豫可以亡身”——得天下时意气风发，失天下时“泣下沾襟”——“夫祸患常积于忽微，而智勇多困于所溺”——他说祸患从小处积累。【意象与手法】开宗立论、以史证理：以感叹发端、反诘立论、骈偶示证，短短数十字而章法井然；语言骈散相间、抑扬顿挫，被誉为得《史记》神髓。【情感与主旨】以庄宗「忧劳兴国、逸豫亡身」为鉴，告诫君主与世人：盛衰兴亡取决于人事，不可沉溺逸乐而忘忧患。【名句点睛】常考「盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉」的史观意义，以及「忧劳可以兴国，逸豫可以亡身」的警句。

Background

The preface was written by Ouyang Xiu for the 'Biographies of Court Entertainers' in his New History of the Five Dynasties. Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), courtesy name Yongshu, sobriquets Zuiweng and Liuyi Jushi, a native of Luling (present-day Ji'an, Jiangxi), was the leader of the Northern Song literary reform, one of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song prose, rose to vice grand councilor, and was canonized as Wenzhong. The New History was his privately compiled annals-biography history, modeled on the Spring and Autumn Annals in its praise and blame and laden with admonition; the 'Biographies of Court Entertainers' records how Emperor Zhuangzong of Later Tang, Li Cunxu, doted on court entertainers and ruined his state. Li Cunxu, having inherited his father's ambition, destroyed Liang and restored Tang with dazzling military feats—'binding the father and son of Yan with cord and boxing the heads of the lord and ministers of Liang'—yet after winning the empire he sank into music and beauty, entrusted himself to the entertainers, and finally 'was trapped by a few dozen of them, dying with his state destroyed, the laughingstock of the world.' Ouyang Xiu wrote in a Northern Song weakened by foreign threats (Liao and Xia) and administrative lassitude, and used Later Tang's rise and fall to urge upon his own age the lesson that 'toil and care can raise a state, ease and pleasure can ruin its ruler.' This version records the essay's opening argument: beginning with the sigh 'Alas!', it propounds the programmatic view that 'the principle of rise and decline, though called heaven's mandate, is it not the work of men!', revealing the author's rational spirit of explaining history through human affairs.

伶官传序是欧阳修为《新五代史·伶官传》所作之序。欧阳修（1007—1072），字永叔，号醉翁、六一居士，庐陵（今江西吉安）人，北宋诗文革新运动领袖，唐宋八大家之一，官至参知政事，谥文忠。《新五代史》是欧阳修私撰的纪传体史书，仿《春秋》笔法，褒贬人物、寄寓鉴戒，《伶官传》记后唐庄宗李存勖宠幸伶人而亡国之事，此序为其发端，是全书最有名的篇章。李存勖继承父志灭梁建唐，可谓「系燕父子以组，函梁君臣之首」，武功赫赫；然得天下后沉溺声色、宠信伶官，终致身死国灭，「数十伶人困之，而身死国灭，为天下笑」。欧阳修身处北宋积弱之世，外患（辽、夏）频仍、内政萎靡，故借后唐兴亡痛陈「忧劳可以兴国，逸豫可以亡身」之理，以史为鉴，劝诫当世。本组所录版本为全序的开篇立论：以呜呼发端，提出「盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉」的史观纲领，揭示作者以人事解释历史兴亡的理性精神。

Art

The Preface to the Biographies of Court Entertainers is the exemplar of Song historical-essay prose, its art lying in opening with a thesis, proving principle through history, and uniting feeling with argument. Though the excerpt has only three sentences, it fully displays Ouyang Xiu's architecture. The first, 'Alas!', opens with an exclamation—a single long sigh, brimming with feeling, that sets the elegiac tone of the whole. The second, 'The principle of rise and decline, though men call it heaven's mandate, is it not the work of men!', states the program: the concessive 'though men call it heaven's mandate' first yields a step, appearing fair while storing force for the turn, and then the rhetorical question 'is it not the work of men!' closes the net—in the double negation, human affairs is thrust into the sole determining position, the thesis cut clean yet resonant. The third, 'Trace why Zhuangzong won the empire, and how he came to lose it, and this may be known,' names both the object and the method of proof—the pairing of 'why he won' and 'how he lost' announcing the contrast between hard-won gain and easy loss that follows, the general statement in a classic whole-to-part structure. Rhetorically, the 'though... is it not...' interrogative and the parallelism of 'why he won the empire' and 'how he lost it' give the language both argumentative edge and literary flavor. Exclamation to open, rhetorical question to establish, calm statement to close—in a few dozen characters, thesis, evidence, and tonality are completed in one breath, precisely as the Guwen Guanzhi judged: 'rising and falling intonation that captures the spirit of the Records.'

伶官传序是宋代史论散文的典范，其艺术特色在开宗立论、以史证理、情文并茂。节选虽只三句，却已尽显欧阳修史论的章法：首句呜呼！以感叹发端，一声长叹，感慨淋漓，奠定了全文悲怆的基调；次句「盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉！」提出全篇的纲领——先用虽曰天命虚设一让，再以岂非人事哉反诘收网，双重否定之中，把人事推到决定兴亡的唯一位置，立论斩截而有余韵；末句「原庄宗之所以得天下，与其所以失之者，可以知之矣」点出论证对象与途径——所以得与所以失的对举，预示下文将以庄宗得之难与失之易的对照展开论证，是典型的总分结构中的总。修辞上，虽曰……岂非……的反诘句式、所以得天下，与其所以失之者的骈偶结构，使语言既有论辩的锋芒，又有文章的韵味。欧阳修以呜呼开篇、岂非反诘、可以知之矣作结，短短数十字，立论、示证、定调一气呵成，正如《古文观止》所评「抑扬顿挫，得《史记》神髓」。

Allusions

Though an argumentative essay, the piece is deeply rooted in the traditions of Chinese historiography. First, the debate between heaven's mandate and human affairs: since Yin and Zhou, Chinese historians explained rise and fall by mandate ('the mandate of heaven is not constant'; 'the mandate is not fixed'), Sima Qian had already opened the question of 'exploring the boundary between heaven and man,' and Ouyang Xiu's subordination of mandate to human affairs is the mature Song expression of the rational historiography descending from the pre-Qin, in the same line as the Book of Documents' 'Heaven sees as my people see' and Mencius' 'heaven's timing is not as good as earth's advantage.' Second, the admonition of the entertainers: 'entertainers' was the general term for court musicians and performers, and rulers ruined by doting on them run through history—Jie of Xia and Zhou of Shang were reproached for their female musicians, and Xuanzong of Tang neglected government for the Pear Garden; Ouyang Xiu's use of Zhuangzong as mirror continues this tradition of warning against ruin by song and beauty. Third, the story of Zhuangzong himself: the New History records that he 'bound the father and son of Yan with cord and boxed the heads of the lord and ministers of Liang,' and the allusion of the 'three arrows'—with which the dying King Jin, Li Keyong, charged his son to avenge three debts—is the best gloss on how hard the empire was won, while 'trapped by a few dozen entertainers' is iron proof of how easily it was lost. Fourth, the ancient maxim that toil raises states and ease ruins them: 'dwell in safety, think of danger' in the Zuo Commentary and 'in peace forget not peril' in the Book of Changes are of this purport, and Ouyang Xiu condensed it into an eternal warning for later ages. All this shows the deep learning behind the essay's use of history as mirror.

本篇虽为议论，却深植于中国史学的典故与传统。其一是天命与人世之争：自殷周以来，中国史家即以天命解释兴亡（「天命靡常」「惟命不于常」），司马迁已开究天人之际之问，欧阳修以人事压倒天命，是先秦以来理性史观在宋代的成熟表达，与《尚书》「天视自我民视」、孟子「天时不如地利」一脉相承。其二是伶官之诫：伶人是古代乐官、艺人的通称，君王宠伶乱政，史不绝书——夏桀、商纣皆有女乐之讥，唐玄宗更因梨园而荒政；欧阳修以庄宗为鉴，正承声色误国的史鉴传统。其三是后唐庄宗本事：《新五代史》载庄宗「系燕父子以组，函梁君臣之首」，其「三矢」报父仇的典故（晋王李克用临终授三矢），是得天下之难的最好注脚，而数十伶人困之又是失之之易的铁证。其四是忧劳兴国、逸豫亡身的古训：《左传》居安思危、《周易》安不忘危，皆为此意；欧阳修把它凝为千古警句，垂训后世。凡此种种，皆可见此文以史为鉴的深厚学养。

Commentary

The Preface to the Biographies of Court Entertainers is an eternal classic of Chinese historical essay whose influence reaches beyond historiography into literature and the history of thought. In historiographical value, it established the rational view that explains rise and fall through human affairs—Ouyang Xiu did not believe in fate but distilled from the contrast between hard gain and easy loss the law that toil and care raise a state while ease and pleasure ruin its ruler, giving historical writing's admonitory function its most powerful exercise and heralding Song historical argument (Su Xun's 'On the Six States' and Su Zhe's essays). In literary value, opening with 'Alas!', threaded through with sighs, in language alternately parallel and discursive with layer upon layer of argument, it is ranked among the crowning pieces of the Guwen Guanzhi—Wu Chucai praised its 'rising and falling intonation that captures the spirit of the Records'—and it appears in every anthology of classical prose. In intellectual influence, lines such as 'toil and care can raise a state, ease and pleasure can ruin its ruler' and 'disaster often accumulates in the negligible, while the wise and brave are often trapped by what they indulge' have become maxims of Chinese political culture and personal cultivation, still sharply cautionary today. Ouyang Xiu's lifelong advocacy of ancient prose to correct the floridity of the Five Dynasties found in this essay the practice of his literary creed—'writing that carries the Way, simple yet methodical'—and it is the crystallization in prose of the Song literati's spirit of taking the world as their own responsibility.

伶官传序是中国史论散文的千古名篇，其影响远超史学而进入文学与思想史。就史论价值而言，它确立了以人事释兴亡的理性史观——欧阳修不信天命，而从得之难与失之易的对比中提炼忧劳兴国、逸豫亡身的规律，使史学的鉴戒功能得到最有力的发挥，开宋代史论（苏洵《六国论》、苏辙诸论）之先声。就文学价值而言，此文以呜呼发端、以感叹贯穿、以骈散相间的语言与层层递进的论证，被誉为《古文观止》压卷之作之一，吴楚材评其「抑扬顿挫，得《史记》神髓」，是历代古文选本必录之篇。就思想影响而言，忧劳可以兴国，逸豫可以亡身、祸患常积于忽微，而智勇多困于所溺等句，已成为中国政治文化与个人修养的座右铭，至今仍具强烈的警示意义。欧阳修一生倡导古文、矫五代之浮靡，此文正是其文论主张（文以载道、简而有法）的实践，也是宋代士大夫以天下为己任精神在散文中的结晶。

Prosody

Form Song dynasty historical essay (preface to a chapter of the New History of the Five Dynasties)宋代史论散文（《新五代史》书序）

Rhyme Unrhymed, but alternating parallel and discursive, attentive to antithesis of clauses and the cadence of particles, as in the contrast between 'heaven's mandate' and 'human affairs' and the paired clauses on gaining and losing the empire.不押韵，但骈散相间，讲究句式的对偶与虚词的顿挫，如盛衰之理与天命、人事的对照，所以得天下与所以失之者的骈举。

Tone pattern Opens with an exclamation ('Alas!'), establishes its thesis with a rhetorical question ('is it not the work of men!'), and closes with a declarative ('this may be known')—the movement from impassioned to calm, from question to answer, giving the passage its undulating voice.以感叹句（呜呼！）发端，以反诘句（岂非人事哉！）立论，以陈述句（可以知之矣）收束，句式由激而缓、由问而答，声情跌宕。

Reading note Ouyang Xiu's ancient prose is celebrated for its unhurried, meandering completeness—an essay spirit at once gentle, winding, and inexhaustible—and this brief excerpt already shows its tonal beauty. The opening 'Alas!' is short and heavy, like a historian's long sigh over a scroll, seizing the reader at once; 'the principle of rise and decline' unfolds the argument in an easy rhythm; 'though men call it heaven's mandate' pauses, yielding a step, the tone seeming reserved; 'is it not the work of men!' suddenly lifts, the interrogative pitch driving the sentence to its climax, the drawn-out final particle carrying both lament and challenge, irresistible; and the final sentence, 'Trace why Zhuangzong won the empire, and how he came to lose it,' moves in linked parallelism, its measures even yet flowing, while 'this may be known' closes slowly on its final particle, its echo lingering. This design—sigh, argument, proof—gives a passage of under fifty characters a cadence that rises, falls, and circles back, like an old historian's telling, now grave, now quickened. Ouyang Xiu championed the 'simple yet methodical'; this essay carries history's heaviest lessons in the simplest syntax and the strictest tonal law.欧阳修古文以纡徐委备著称——文气舒徐曲折、往复不尽，本篇节选虽短，其声调之美已可见一斑。开篇呜呼二字短促沉痛，如史家抚卷长叹，立即攫住读者的心；盛衰之理四字节奏舒缓，是议论的铺展；虽曰天命一顿，让开一步，语气似有保留；岂非人事哉陡然扬起，反诘的声调把全句推向高潮，哉字拖长，感叹与质问兼而有之，令人击节；末句原庄宗之所以得天下，与其所以失之者骈偶相衔，音节整齐而流转，可以知之矣以矣字缓缓收住，余音袅袅。这种叹—论—证的声调设计，使一段不足五十字的文字有了起伏回环的韵律，读来如听一位老史家抑扬顿挫的讲述。欧阳修倡导简而有法，此文正是以最简的句式、最严的声律，承载最重的史鉴之思。

Line by line

呜呼！盛衰之理，虽曰天命，岂非人事哉！

Alas! The principle of rise and decline, though men call it heaven's mandate, is it not in truth the work of men!

唉！国家兴盛衰亡的道理，虽然有人说是天命的安排，难道不更是人为的因素造成的吗！

Alas! The law of rise and fall — though some call it the decree of heaven, is it not all the work of man!

这是全序的开篇立论，也是欧阳修史观的总纲。呜呼二字以感叹发端，一声长叹，先声夺人——叹的是历史的兴亡，也是下文的庄宗之悲，更隐含着作者面对北宋时局的忧思，感情的浓度在第一个字就已定下基调。盛衰之理四字，把论题提到历史规律的高度；虽曰天命是虚设让步，先承认旧说，看似公允，实为下文的转折蓄势；岂非人事哉以反诘作结，斩钉截铁地把人事置于天命之上——双重否定（岂非）的句式，比直说实为人事更有力量，也更见论辩的机锋。值得注意的是哉字：感叹与反诘合流，既有史家的冷峻，又有文人的深情。这三句不仅是节选的开头，更是全文的纲：此后所有的史实、对比、教训，皆是这一论断的注脚，立论之高屋建瓴，正是此文成为千古名篇的首要原因。

This is the preface's opening thesis, and the outline of Ouyang Xiu's view of history. The two words alas open with the exclamation, one long breath, the first stroke striking — the sigh for history's rise and fall, and the grief for Zhuangzong below, and the hidden anxiety for the Northern Song's own age, the emotional density set in the first word. The four words rise and fall raise the theme to the height of historical law; though it is heaven's will the virtual concession, first granting the old saying, seeming fair and yet storing force for the turn; is it not human effort! closes in the rhetorical question, decisively placing human effort above fate — the double negation of is-not more forceful than the plain saying it is human effort, the sharper edge of the debate. It is worth noting the word sigh: exclamation and rhetorical question flowing together, at once the historian's coldness and the writer's depth. These three lines are not only the excerpt's opening, but the whole's outline: all the facts, contrasts, and lessons below are the annotation of this thesis, and the lofty positioning of the argument is the first reason this text became a classic.

原庄宗之所以得天下，与其所以失之者，可以知之矣。

Trace why Zhuangzong won the empire and how he came to lose it, and this principle may be known.

推究后唐庄宗（李存勖）取得天下的原因，和他（后来）失去天下的原因，就可以明白这个道理了。

Trace the reason Emperor Zhuangzong won the empire, and the reason he later lost it; thereby the truth may be known.

这三句是总纲向史证的过渡，章法上承上启下。原字（推究、考究）领起，显示作者将以史实为据、循果溯因，这是史论家应有的严谨态度；所以得天下与所以失之者两两对举，构成全文论证的双翼——下文正是先写庄宗系燕父子以组，函梁君臣之首的得之难，再写数十伶人困之，而身死国灭的失之易，一难一易的强烈反差，正是人事决定兴亡的铁证。可以知之矣以矣字收束，语气肯定而有余味：不必多言，史实自明。值得注意的是与字的连缀：得与失本是相反的两极，欧阳修用一个与字把它们并置，暗示二者同出一源——都在人事；得之也因人事（忧劳），失之也因人事（逸豫），因果同贯，正是岂非人事哉的必然展开。三句如桥梁，把抽象的史观落到具体的史案，全文的论证骨架于此立定。

These three lines are the transition from the outline to the historical evidence, the craft inheriting above and opening below. The word trace (to examine and investigate) leads, showing the author proceeding on the facts, tracing effect back to cause, the rigorous attitude of the historical essayist; won the empire and lost it set in parallel, forming the twin wings of the argument — below, the text first writes the difficulty of winning, Zhuangzong binding the Yan father and son in cords and presenting the heads of the Liang lord and minister in a casket, then the ease of losing, a few dozen players hemming him in until death and the country's fall, the sharp contrast of difficulty and ease being the iron proof that human effort decides rise and fall. By this one may know the truth closes in the word may, the tone affirmative with aftertone: no more words needed, the facts speak. It is worth noting the linked compared: gain and loss are by nature opposite poles, and Ouyang Xiu places them side by side with the word, hinting the two share one source — both in human effort; the winning through human effort (worry and toil), the losing through human effort (ease and pleasure), cause and effect one thread, precisely the necessary unfolding of is it not human effort. The three lines like a bridge, grounding the abstract view of history in the concrete case, and the argument's skeleton stands.

Study

Word focus

原 Yuan means 'to trace to the source': as in Han Yu's 'Yuan Hu' and 'Yuan Dao,' it marks the historian's method of seeking causes rather than merely recording events. 原庄宗之所以得天下之原字，推究、考求之意，是史论文章最见功力的动词。原本义为水源，引申为追本溯源、探求事物之根本，韩愈有《原毁》《原道》诸篇，即以原字立题、推究其源。欧阳修用原字领起全篇的论证，妙在双重含义：一是方法论上的推究——不满足于罗列史实，而要追究所以得、所以失的内在原因，这正是人事史观的具体落实；二是价值论上的溯源——把庄宗之兴亡追溯到其行为的根本（忧劳与逸豫），为后文的对比论证立下支点。若用观、察、考等字，则只见考察之勤，不见追溯之深；唯原字，既见史家求因的严谨，又见文章立骨的讲究，一字而兼义理与文章之妙。

盛衰 Shengshuai pairs flourishing and withering to name the full sweep of historical change, lifting the essay's subject from one emperor's fate to a universal law of history. 盛衰之理之盛衰二字，是全篇议论的对象，也是中国史学中最核心的范畴之一。盛与衰对举，一兴一亡、一荣一枯，囊括了历史进程的全部起伏；欧阳修以盛衰之理四字立论，把论题从具体的庄宗兴亡提升为普遍的历史规律，格局顿开。妙在理字——欧阳修追求的不仅是史实（what happened），更是理（why it happened），这正体现宋代史学求理的时代精神：周敦颐、二程讲天理，欧阳修在史学中求兴亡之理，同是宋人理性精神的体现。而盛衰二字还为全文定下情感基调：盛极而衰的悲剧感，贯穿着后文的方其系燕父子以组……可谓壮哉！及仇雠已灭……何其衰也！的兴叹。一词立骨，义理、情感、章法皆由此生发。

人事 Renshi (human affairs), set against heaven's mandate, refers to human endeavor and human error—the essay's core term, returning the direction of history from fate into human hands. 岂非人事哉之人事二字，是全文立论的核心词，也是欧阳修史观最凝练的表达。人事与天命相对，指人的作为、人的努力与人的失误——欧阳修以人事解释兴亡，明确否定了天命的宿命论，把历史的主动权交还给人本身，这是中国史学的重大进步。其深意有三：其一，从史学看，它确立了以人为中心的史观，史家的责任不再是证明天命，而是总结人事的成败得失；其二，从政治看，它把兴亡的责任落实到君臣的行为上，是对当权者的直接告诫（庄宗之兴在忧劳、其亡在逸豫）；其三，从思想史看，它与《尚书》皇天无亲，惟德是辅、孟子天时不如地利，地利不如人和一脉相承，而表述更为彻底。人事二字，是此文穿越千年仍具现实意义的思想内核。