杨叔贤为荆州幕时，虎伤人。杨就穴磨崖刻戒虎文，其略曰：“咄乎尔彪，出境潜游。” 后知郁林，致书知事赵定基，托拓戒虎文数本。云：“岭南俗庸犷，欲以此化之。”赵遣人打碑。次日耆申：“磨岩下大虫咬杀打碑匠二人。”赵乃以状寄答。
——《宋稗类抄》
Issuing an Order to the Tigers
When
Yang Shuxian was in office in Jingzhou, the tigers there were a scourge to the
people. So Yang had an edict engraved on a big rock on a nearby mountain,
ordering the tigers to leave the place. Later,
when he was transferred to Yulin, he found the people there very unruly. Thinking
to issue to a similar edict, ordering them to be law-abiding, he wrote to the
magistrate of Jingzhou asking for some rubbings to be taken of his edict to the
tigers. When the magistrate sent some men to the mountain, they were killed by
tigers while trying to take the rubbings. The
magistrate had to relate the tragedy in his reply to Yang.
Notes of Xue Tao （杨宪益、戴乃迭 译） |
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