On the last day of the Lingyou era, a memorial shook the court and the country.
"I have heard that the Sage Kings of antiquity all governed All Under Heaven through benevolence and virtue. Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang all did so. Jie and Zhou, You and Li did not, and thus lost their thrones.
Is it right to know this yet refuse to learn from it?
Was it not the Sage King's system of rites and music that allowed the Zhou State to endure for a thousand years?
Was it not the collapse of rites and music that cost the Zhou State All Under Heaven?
Lofty mountains, surging rivers-so long as they are left unchanged, their vitality will never cease.
The same holds true of All Under Heaven!
Can the altars of state be changed lightly?
Have the institutions of All Under Heaven now decayed beyond salvation?
Have jackals and wolves begun to rule the roads?
Are there multitudes among the people who have died unjustly?
Has All Under Heaven begun to wither?
Are the altars of state in imminent peril, as they were in Emperor Li's day?
I believe they are not. Why, then, must there be reform?
The Late Emperor purged official corruption, allowing anyone to put corrupt officials to death. I approve of this.
What objection could I have to purging the lawless powerful gentry?
Rebels plotted to murder the Late Emperor and were killed. I rejoiced at this.
But Heaven cherishes the flourishing vitality of all things! With the chief culprits already executed, why implicate so many others and resort so readily to exile?
Branches of the imperial family slaughter one another, leaving even the ancestral deities of Great Han unable to rest. Alas, our ancestors shed tears above the Nine Heavens.
The sovereign and