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宋 Song · 文 Prose

六国论·版本二

On the Fall of the Six States (Version II)

苏洵

Su Xun

名篇Masterpiece 史论Historical Essay 借古讽今Using the Past to Satirize the Present

思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地。
子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草芥。

Think of their forefathers and grandfathers, braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles and thorns, to gain a patch of land here and a patch there. Their descendants did not cherish it much; they handed it over to others, as if casting away straw and weeds.

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Meaning

An excerpt from Su Xun's famous historical essay 'On the Fall of the Six States.' The passage argues that the six states perished because they appeased Qin by ceding territory. Here Su Xun contrasts the hardship of the founding ancestors, who braved frost and dew and cut through brambles to win 'a patch of land here and a patch there,' with the indifference of their descendants, who 'did not cherish it much' and gave it away 'as if casting away straw and weeds.' The fierce contrast indicts the folly of appeasement, aimed at the Song court's own concessions to the Liao and Western Xia.

想一想他们的先人祖辈父辈，冒着霜露，披荆斩棘，才得到一点点的土地。子孙后代看待这些土地却不很爱惜，把它全部拿来送给人，像丢弃小草一样。

Appreciation

The passage is a specimen of argumentative craft advancing in three pressing steps. First, the word 'think' leads the recollection: 'braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles and thorns, to gain a patch of land here and a patch there'—the two verbal phrases strike like chisel and stone, and 'a patch here and a patch there' stresses how little the founders won, storing energy for the reversal. Second, the turn: 'their descendants did not cherish it much; they handed it over to others'—'did not cherish it much' writes the stupefying indifference, 'handed it over to others' the completeness of the surrender. Third, the crowning metaphor: 'as if casting away straw and weeds,' from the Mencius, likens the land to the cheapest refuse, laying bare the stupidity of those who appeased Qin. Contrast, accumulation, and metaphor combine in language spare and trenchant, in four-character cadence.

【白话串讲】苏洵写《六国论》：“思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地”——祖辈辛苦打下的土地。“子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草芥”——子孙却轻易割让给秦国——“今日割五城，明日割十城，然后得一夕安寝”——他叹割地求和，最终国破。【意象与手法】以对比与比喻立论：「暴霜露，斩荆棘」的创业艰辛对「举以予人，如弃草芥」的弃土轻率，字字含愤；「草芥」之喻极言轻贱。【情感与主旨】苏洵借六国赂秦之失，讽北宋向辽、西夏纳币求和之失策，忧国之情溢于言表。【名句点睛】「如弃草芥」四字是本节最刺目的比喻，把赂秦者的麻木写得入骨。

Background

Su Xun (1009–1066), courtesy name Mingyun, styled Laoquan, was a native of Meishan, Sichuan, and one of the 'Three Sus' with his sons Su Shi and Su Zhe, all three among the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song. He began his serious studies at twenty-seven, mastered the classics and the hundred schools, and became famous when Ouyang Xiu praised his writing. 'On the Fall of the Six States' is the eighth essay of the 'Power Strategies' section of his Jiayou ji. In the mid-Northern Song, the Liao and Western Xia repeatedly pressed the borders, and the court bought peace with annual payments of silver and silk. Su Xun, worrying for the state, used the six states' cession of land to Qin as a mirror for his own age, arguing that 'serving Qin with land is like feeding a fire with firewood.' This excerpt, the second section of the essay, argues the folly of the appeasers.

苏洵（1009—1066），字明允，号老泉，眉州眉山（今四川眉山）人，北宋文学家，与其子苏轼、苏辙并称「三苏」，父子三人同列唐宋八大家。苏洵年二十七始发愤读书，通六经百家，嘉祐年间携二子入京，以文章谒欧阳修，欧阳修大加推赏，名动一时，著有《嘉祐集》。《六国论》为《嘉祐集·权书》第八篇，属史论，是苏洵最负盛名的文章。写作背景：北宋中期，辽、西夏屡犯边境，宋廷以岁币（每年输银绢）求和，屈辱妥协，积弱日甚；苏洵忧心国事，借六国（韩、魏、楚等）赂秦而亡的历史讽谏当世，指出「以地事秦，犹抱薪救火」之非。节选部分为全篇第二段，专论「赂者」（赂秦之国）之失，以先人创业之艰难对照子孙弃土之轻易，是本节的核心论证。「版本二」表明此为节选版本；此段所论，正是「弊在赂秦」一纲之下的具体展开。就时代而言，北宋真宗、仁宗之世，宋与辽订立澶渊之盟，岁输银绢以求和，又与西夏构兵，边患未已；苏洵以布衣论天下事，其《权书》十篇皆权谋兵略之论，而《六国论》独以史为鉴、讽谏时政，正见其「忧天下」的士人情怀与纵横家的议论锋芒。

Art

The art lies in the three-step advance: recollection led by 'think,' the reversal of 'did not cherish it much,' and the crowning metaphor 'as if casting away straw and weeds.' The contrast between the founders' hardship and the descendants' indifference is the whole argument in miniature: 'braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles' against 'handed it over to others, as if casting away straw and weeds.' The four-character clauses strike in hammering cadence, the verbs are precise, and the whole passage moves from narrative to judgment with the terrain of a historical essay—history as the mirror, argument as the bone.

此节为史论（论说文）的论证艺术标本，三步推进、层层逼人。第一步以「思」字领起追忆：「思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地」，铺陈先人创业——「暴霜露」「斩荆棘」两个动宾短语如斧凿石刻，写风餐露宿、披荆斩棘的艰辛，「尺寸之地」极言所得之少，为后文的反差蓄足势能。第二步陡然转笔：「子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人」，写守成者之麻木——「不甚惜」三字写弃土之态并非毫无感觉，而是不很在意，麻木得可怕；「举以予人」写弃土之全——一古脑儿全部送人。第三步以比喻点睛：「如弃草芥」，化用《孟子》「视之如草芥」，以至贱之物喻土地之轻弃，把赂秦者的愚蠢、短视写得入骨。手法上，对比（创业之艰对弃土之易）、铺陈（动宾短语排比）、比喻（草芥）并用，语言简劲犀利，句式以四字顿为主，气势逼人；先叙后议、叙议结合，正是史论「以史为鉴、以论为骨」的典型结构。又全节以「不甚惜」与「如弃草芥」遥相呼应，先以「不甚惜」写其态度之麻木，复以「草芥」写其弃置之轻贱，一虚一实，赂秦者之丑态毕现，史论修辞之精，于此可见一斑。

Allusions

'Forefathers and grandfathers' refers to the founding kings of the six states, whose accumulated centuries of toil won them their territory; the phrase carries the whole history of the feudal aristocracy's founding. 'Braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles and thorns' inherits the tradition of the Zuozhuan's 'opening the mountains in ragged clothes'—concrete action for abstract hardship, far stronger than saying 'difficult.' 'A patch of land here and a patch there' stresses how little was won and how hard-won. 'Casting away straw and weeds' comes from the Mencius, 'regarding it as straw and weeds'—the cheapest refuse, thrown away without regret; the metaphor is apt and merciless. In an agrarian civilization, land is the root of life and the foundation of the state; to give away land is to give away the state.

此节用典不多而皆化为论证的血肉。「先祖父」指六国的先世之君，即韩、魏、楚等国的历代先王，自周室分封、诸侯立国，积数百年方有疆土，此「先祖父」三字含整个封建贵族创业的历史；「暴霜露，斩荆棘」化用创业艰辛的套语，实承《左传》「筚路蓝缕，以启山林」的传统——先人披荆斩棘、开山辟土，才有一寸之土，以具体动作写抽象艰辛，比直说「艰难」有力百倍；「尺寸之地」极言土地之少与得来不易，「尺寸」为量词，一寸一尺皆是血汗；「如弃草芥」语出《孟子·离娄上》「视之如草芥」，草芥喻微贱之物，弃之不惜，比喻贴切狠辣；就文化内涵言，土地在农业文明中是生存之本、社稷之基，「普天之下，莫非王土」，弃土即弃国，赂秦即自毁，故本节以「土地」为焦点，深植于中国「重土安邦」的传统观念，读来尤觉痛切。又「子孙视之不甚惜」之「子孙」与「先祖父」相对，正合《孟子》「君子之泽，五世而斩」之意——先祖创业之泽，子孙不守，五世而尽，赂秦者正是「守成失土」的典型；「暴霜露，斩荆棘」又上承《左传》「筚路蓝缕，以启山林」的创业意象，下启后世「筚路蓝缕」之成语，其文化意脉深长。

Commentary

'On the Fall of the Six States' is a model of the Song historical essay, grouped with the essays on the same theme by Su Zhe and Li Zhen. Though later scholars have debated its thesis (Yuan Mei wrote a rebuttal, arguing the six states might have fallen without cession), its contemporary sharpness and eloquence have always been honored. Su Shi praised his father's prose as 'like the great river, pouring ten thousand miles at a stretch.' Mao Kun, in his selection of Tang-Song prose, called it 'free and spirited'; Lü Zuqian's Key to Ancient Prose and the Guwen Guanzhi both include it. Its influence is threefold: it established the paradigm of the historical essay that uses the past to admonish the present; it made 'founding is hard, keeping is easy to lose' a byword; and its tight structure has made it a textbook staple for centuries.

《六国论》是宋代史论文的典范，与苏辙《六国论》、李桢《六国论》并称「六国论」名篇；其「弊在赂秦」的观点虽经后世学者商榷（如清人袁枚作《六国论》驳之，谓六国无赂秦亦未必不亡），然作为借古讽今的政论，其现实锋芒与雄辩气势历代推重。苏轼称其父文「如长江大河，一泻千里」；茅坤《唐宋八大家文钞》评「老泉论六国，淋漓痛快」；吕祖谦《古文关键》、吴楚材《古文观止》皆录此文，为古文选本必收之作。其影响有三：其一，确立了「借古讽今」史论的范式——论史不为考史，而为鉴今，贾谊《过秦论》的传统至苏洵而集大成；其二，「创业维艰、守成易失」的警示成为普遍的历史教训，对一切政权、家族乃至个人皆有永恒意义；其三，文章入选历代教材，「六国论」几乎成为「以史为鉴」的代名词；其行文的雄辩与章法的谨严，至今仍是议论文写作的典范。就文学史言，苏洵史论承贾谊《过秦论》「借古讽今」的传统，而更重雄辩与文采，其文「如长江大河，一泻千里」（苏轼语），为宋代论说文树立范式，明清八股文亦多取法其章法气势。

Prosody

Form Northern Song classical-language historical essay (argument)北宋古文史论（论体）

Rhyme Unrhymed; the rhythm comes from four-character pauses and antithetical phrases: 'braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles' strikes like chisel and stone; 'handed it over to others, as if casting away straw and weeds' falls in short, decisive clauses不押韵，以四字顿与偶句造势：「暴霜露，斩荆棘」四字一顿、两两相对，音节铿锵如斧凿；「举以予人，如弃草芥」短句连发，斩截有力；「以有尺寸之地」长句收束，一顿一挫，如长叹一声。

Tone pattern Mostly loose prose with parallel and antithetical touches; the mood moves from the slow recollection of the ancestors to the sharp indignation of the surrender: 'think' opens low and reverent, 'did not cherish it much' turns cold, 'as if casting away straw and weeds' closes with cutting force散句为主而间以排比对偶，语气由追忆之沉缓转愤慨之峻急：「思」字领起低回如史官追述，「视之不甚惜」陡然转冷，「如弃草芥」斩截收束，声情随论证陡转三折。

Reading note The sound of the passage follows its argument: the founders' hardship in slow, even four-character clauses; the surrender in short, clipped phrases; the whole a single stroke of contrast and condemnation.此节为史论，其声韵之美全在句式的调度与语气的转换，是苏洵文「雄辩滔滔」的声学呈现。起句「思厥先祖父」以「思」字领起长句，语气沉缓，如史官追述三代；「暴霜露，斩荆棘」两个四字短语并立，音节铿锵、短促有力，如斧凿开山，与「斩荆棘」的动作相应；「以有尺寸之地」以七字长句收束，「尺寸」二字轻而「之地」重顿，如长叹一声，写尽所得之微。下句「子孙视之不甚惜」陡然一转，以「视之」二字点醒，语气转冷；「举以予人」四字短促，如怒斥；「如弃草芥」四字斩截收束，如锤定音，把愤慨推到顶点。全节短句为主、长句间之，先缓后急、由沉入愤，声情与论证同步推进；苏洵以气驭文，此节之声，正是其「长江大河，一泻千里」文气的缩影。

Line by line

思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地。

Think of their forefathers and grandfathers, braving the frost and dew, cutting through the brambles and thorns, to gain a patch of land here and a patch there. (The foundation of the passage: the word 'think' opens the recollection with reverence, and the hardship of the founders stores the energy for the reversal.)

想一想他们的先人祖辈父辈，冒着霜露，披荆斩棘，才得到一点点的土地。

Think of their forefathers, braving the frost and dew, hewing through thorns and brambles, to gain an inch or a foot of land.

此句为全节立论之基，以「思」字领起追忆，字字含敬惜之情。「思」字是全句之眼：一「思」字写出对先人创业的追怀与敬重，也为后文「子孙视之不甚惜」的对照埋下情感伏笔——先人筚路蓝缕，子孙视若草芥，一思一弃，刺目惊心。「厥」为代词（其），先秦书面语，庄重典雅，如史官口吻；「暴霜露」之「暴」读pù，通「曝」，暴露于霜露之下，写风餐露宿、栉风沐雨，一字含无限劳苦；「斩荆棘」以具体动作写垦荒之难——荆棘为荒地丛生的野草灌木，斩之方有田亩，斩棘即开拓，动作具体而艰辛可见；「暴霜露，斩荆棘」两个四字短语如对偶，音节铿锵，如斧凿石刻；「以有尺寸之地」——「以」表结果，「尺寸」极言土地之少、得来之难，与「暴霜露」「斩荆棘」的艰辛呼应；三句写三代创业，笔笔带血，正为反衬下句子孙弃土之轻易。

This line is the basis of the section's argument, leading the recollection with the word think, every character carrying reverence. The word think is the line's eye: the one word writing the memory and reverence for the ancestors' founding, and storing the emotional foreshadowing for the below descendants held it not dearly — the ancestors' blazed trail, and the descendants' holding as grass, the one think one abandon, the contrast startling. The word their the pronoun, the classical written register, grave and elegant, like the historian's voice; the word braving in the frost and dew, read pù, the exposing to the frost and dew, writing the wind-and-rain shelterless hardship, one character holding infinite toil; hewing through thorns and brambles writes the reclamation's hardship in the concrete action — the thorns the wild bushes of the waste land, the hewing before the fields, the hewing the opening, the action concrete and the toil visible; the two four-character phrases braving the frost and dew, hewing through thorns like a couplet, the syllables ringing, like the axe on the stone; to gain an inch or a foot of land: the word to writes the result, the inch-or-foot the land's smallness and the gaining's difficulty, answering the hardship of the braving and the hewing; three lines writing the three generations' founding, every stroke blood-stained, precisely the foil for the below descendants' easy abandonment.

子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草芥。

Their descendants did not cherish it much; they handed it over to others, as if casting away straw and weeds. (The reversal: 'did not cherish it much' writes the stupefying indifference, 'handed it over to others' the completeness of the surrender, and 'as if casting away straw and weeds' the crowning metaphor from the Mencius.)

子孙们看待这些土地不很爱惜，把它全都拿来送给人，像丢弃小草一样。

The descendants held it not dearly, and gave it all away to others, like casting aside a weed.

此句写守成者的麻木，与上句创业之艰构成刺目对照，是全节情感的高点。「视之不甚惜」——「不甚」二字极妙：不是毫不爱惜，而是不很爱惜，连痛心都谈不上，麻木得可怕，赂秦者之愚蠢、短视于此毕现；「举以予人」——「举」为全部、尽数，一古脑儿全送出去，连讨价还价都省了，主动献土之态跃然纸上；「如弃草芥」化用《孟子》「视之如草芥」，草芥为至贱之物，弃之不惜，比喻贴切而狠辣——先人用血汗换来的「尺寸之地」，子孙竟如弃草芥般送人，其麻木不仁已到极点。三短句层层加码，语气由叙转议、由议转愤，如连珠炮发；此句为后文「奉之弥繁，侵之愈急」「抱薪救火」等议论蓄势，亦见苏洵史论「以情驭理」的特色——理寓愤中，愤在理先，读之令人扼腕。

This line writes the successors' numbness, the startling contrast against the above founders' hardship, the emotional peak of the section. Held it not dearly: the two words not dearly exquisite — not holding not-at-all dearly, but not very dearly, not even the heartache, the numbness terrible, the bribers' stupidity and short-sightedness all visible; gave it all away to others: the giving up the whole, all at once given out, even the bargaining spared, the offhand offering of the land as before the eyes; like casting aside a weed borrows Mencius' held it as a weed, the weed the cheapest thing, cast away untroubled, the metaphor apt and ruthless — the ancestors' inch of land bought in blood, and the descendants given it away like casting aside a weed, the numbness to the extreme. Three short phrases adding weight, the tone from narration to argument to anger, like a volley; this line stores ground for the below the more they gave, the more he invaded and the faggots-on-the-fire arguments, and showing Su Xun's history-essay feature of reason driven by feeling — the reason within the anger, the anger before the reason, the reading striking the wrist.

Study

Word focus

暴霜露 Braving the frost and dew. 'Bao' here reads pu, to be exposed to: the founders lived under the open sky, frost and dew by day and night invading the body—the harshness of the environment written in concrete terms, far stronger than the abstract word 'hardship.' 「暴霜露」之「暴」读pù，通「曝」，义为暴露、冒犯，写先人露天而居、餐风宿露的创业艰辛。三字极简而含蕴极富：「霜」「露」是自然中最细微的苦楚——霜之寒、露之湿，日日夜夜侵袭身体，写尽了创业者在荒野中的生存状态；「暴」字以动写静，把「受霜露之苦」这一状态化为一个持续的动作，如见先人披星戴月、栉风沐雨的剪影。与「斩荆棘」并置，「暴霜露」写环境的苦，「斩荆棘」写劳动的难，一环境一动作，互相补足，写尽创业之艰。苏洵不用「辛苦」「艰难」等抽象词，而以最具体的情状写之，正是史论「以事证理」的笔法；此词亦承《左传》「筚路蓝缕」的传统，而更为凝练，一字千金。

尺寸之地 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「以有尺寸之地」之「尺寸之地」以量词极言土地之少，是全节立论的关键语词。「尺寸」本指一尺一寸，是丈量土地的最小单位；以「尺寸」形容「地」，一写所得之少——先人栉风沐雨、披荆斩棘，所积不过尺寸之地，其艰难可知；二写土地之贵——在农业社会，土地是生存之本、社稷之基，尺寸之地亦属血汗所得，岂可轻弃；三写反差之烈——先人以「尺寸」之艰积之，子孙以「草芥」之轻弃之，一少一贱，对照刺目。苏洵先以「尺寸」压住土地的分量，后以「草芥」贬低弃土的姿态，一扬一抑，全节的情感张力皆由这两个量词性语词撑起；「尺寸」一词，是本节论证的第一个支点。

如弃草芥 Casting away as straw and weeds. From the Mencius, 'regarding it as straw and weeds'—the cheapest refuse; to cast away hard-won land 'as if casting away straw and weeds' lays bare the stupidity of appeasement in one merciless metaphor. 「如弃草芥」四字化用《孟子·离娄上》「视之如草芥」，是全节最刺目的比喻。「草芥」为野草、微贱之物，弃之不惜，本以喻人视死生之轻（如「视民如草芥」）；苏洵移以写弃土，把「尺寸之地」的艰难所得比作草芥，其轻贱之意达于极点——先人血汗所积，子孙弃如野草，麻木、愚蠢、短视毕现。「如」字明喻，语气斩截；「弃」字与「举以予人」呼应，一主动、一轻易，写尽赂秦者献土之态。此四字之妙在以至轻之物写至重之失，反差愈大，批判愈烈；后世论六国者每引此语，盖其以四字写尽一代人「守成失土」的通病，具有超越时代的警示力；以此收束本节，如锤定音，为后文议论蓄足愤势。