《战国策·赵策四·触龙说赵太后》英译

How the Queen Dowager of Zhao Was Persuaded by Chulong

When the Queen Dowager of Zhao just began to assume regency, Zhao was furiously attacked by Qin. It sought succor from Qi, which demanded that Prince Chang’an be held as a hostage before the dispatch of its troops. The Queen Dowager rejected this term, while the important ministers strongly expostulated with her. However, she warned them unequivocally, “If anyone demands again that Prince Chang’an be held as a hostage, I will spit in his face!”

Minister Chulong having expressed his wish to be given an audience, the Queen Dowager received him with resentful haughtiness. Chulong had come in slowly, but with hastening steps. When he approached Her Highness, he apologized, “I have a sore foot and cannot go fast. It is a long time since I saw you last. But I beg to excuse myself for being so remiss. As I feared lest Your Highness should be unwell, so I besought you to give me an audience.”

“Being an old woman, I can only go by chariot,” the Queen Dowager said.

“I hope you have not reduced your diet?” he added.

“I only take porridge,” she replied.

“Recently I have a rather poor appetite,” he continued. “But I force myself to take a daily walk of three or four li, which has somewhat improved it. Now I feel quite fit.”

“But I cannot afford to do the same,” she said. At this the Queen Dowager relaxed a little her strained countenance.

Chulong remarked, “My son Shuqi, the youngest, is quite unworthy. As I am advanced in age, I have a sneaking love for him and wish to have him enlist in the royal guard to protect the palace. So I run the risk of death to make it known to Your Highness.”

“Well then,” said the Queen Dowager. “How old is he now?”

“Fifteen,” answered he. “Since he is still child, I hope to put him in your charge before I die.”

“Does a man also love his youngest son?” the Queen Dowager asked with some bewilderment.

“More so than a woman,” he answered.

“There is no comparing a man with a woman,” she rejoined.

Then he followed up with his remark: “I thought to myself that you love the Princess, the Queen of Yan, more than Prince Chang’an.”

“You are wrong,” she denied. “I love her far less than Prince Chang’an.”

And he continued, “The love of parents for children should manifest itself in providing for their future with deep and far-sighted deliberation. When you were seeing off the princess, the Queen of Yan, you followed on her heels with sobs and tears, thinking that she was going to a distant place, and your grief was great indeed! After she had gone, you did not cease your longing, and must pray for her at the sacrifice: ‘Heaven forbid that she should return.’ Was it not a far-sighted calculation on her account, in the hope that she would have offspring to succeed to the throne of Yan?”

“Yes indeed,” said the Queen Dowager.

Chulong went on to say: “Three generations ago, the Zhaos set up the State of Zhao, the offspring of the King of Zhao were granted principalities. But are there any of their heirs remaining in the world?”

The answer was “None at all.”

“Apart from Zhao, do you know if any other principalities have survived?” asked he.

“Not that I know of,” she replied.

“Why, it’s because disasters befall the rulers themselves at the earliest, and overtake their distant posterity at the latest,” Chulong pursued. “Could it be that sovereigns are bound to have unworthy offspring? No. It was because they had exalted positions obtained without their merits and rich remunerations acquired without their labor, possessing in addition all sorts of rare valuables. As Your Highness conferred upon Prince Chang’an the highest status and granted him fertile land and rare valuables, yet did not cause him to win merits for the State, how could the Prince stand on his own feet in Zhao once Your Highness passes away? In my humble opinion, you have only made short-sighted provision for Prince Chang’an. That was why I said you did not love him as much as the Queen of Yan.”

“Well said,” the Queen Dowager concluded. “Please do with him as you think fit.”

Accordingly, some one hundred chariots were prepared to send Prince Chang’an to Qi as hostage, and succor soon arrived from that country.

Ziyi, a sage of Zhao, remarked: “Even the son of a sovereign, her own flesh and blood, should not be allowed to maintain his exalted position by presuming on his dignity acquired without his merits and rich remunerations obtained without his labor, how much less should people who are merely humble subjects?”