Biographies of Jesters (滑稽列傳 Guji Liezhuan) Part One

Paragraph One: Preface

Confucius says, “All books of The Six Arts (Liuyi) share one common goal—the making of great leadership. The Book of Etiquette teaches moderation; The Book of Music hails harmony; Shangshu (尚書), a book of historical records, serves to hand down accounts of the ancient times; The Book of Poetry (or The Book of Odes) conveys human emotions; I Ching (易經; or The Book of Changes) turns ruling into art; Chunqiu, the chronicle of Lu (魯) the Dukedom, encourages justice and decency.” The Prefect of the Grand Scribes (i.e., Sima Qian, the Father of Chinese Historiography) says, “The world works in countless ways; there is no telling or teaching for each. A light-hearted talk may as well come to the point or settle a dispute.”

*孔子曰：「《六蓺》於治一也。《禮》以節人，《樂》(yue4)以發和(huo2)，《書》以道事，《詩》以達意，《易》以神化，《春秋》以義。」太史公曰：天道恢恢，豈不大哉！談言微中(zhong4)，亦可以解紛。
**The original paragraph in Chinese is taken from: Sima Qian. Ed. Han Zhaoqi. New Translation Shiji. vol.VIII. Taipei: Sanmin, 2008. 4939. (司馬遷. 韓兆琦 注譯. 新譯史記, 第八冊. 臺北市：三民, 2008. 4939頁. ISBN: 978-95-14-5001-8). All translation is based upon the text and annotations thereof (4939-4940).

***All translation is mine.