The original text and translation of "The Battle of Bannan in Qin and Jin" are as follows:
Original text: In the winter, Duke Wen of Jin died. Gengchen, will be funeral in Quwo; out of the JiangJiang, the bier has a sound like an ox. Bu Yan made the doctor worship, said: the great thing about the king's order: there will be a western division over the anecdote me; hit it, will be a great success.
Qi Zi from the Zheng ambassador told the Qin said: Zheng people make me in charge of its North Gate tube, if the submerged division since, the country can be obtained. The Duke of Mu visited Jianshu. Jian Shu said: labor division to attack far, not heard. Division labor exhaustion, the distant master to prepare for it, no is not impossible. The division's behavior, Zheng must know, diligence and nothing, there must be contrary to the heart. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm sure I'll be able to do it.
Public resignation. Called Meng Ming, West Beggar, Bai B, make the division outside the east gate. Jianshu cried, said: Mencius, I see the division of the out and do not see its entry. The public envoy said: "What do you know. Zhongshou, the wood of your tomb arch is carried out.
Jian Shu's son and the division, crying and sent said: Jin people will be in BAN. BAN has two mausoleums: its south mausoleum, Xia Hougao's tomb; its north mausoleum, the King of Wen's open wind and rain. The death will be in the middle, and the remaining bones will be collected. The Qin division then east.
Thirty-three years in the spring, the Qin division passed the north gate of Zhou, left and right free of armor and down, over the ride of 300 people. Wang Sunman is still young, watching, said to the king: Qin division light and rude, will be defeated. If they are light, they will not be able to plan, and if they are impolite, they will take off. If you enter the danger and get out, and you can't plan, you will not lose.
And slippery, Zheng merchants string high will be marketed in the week, met, to ride Wei first, cattle twelve treats division, said: I heard my son will be out of the foot division out of my county, I dare to treat the followers. I am not shy of my own town, for the followers of the drowning, living with a day's worth of accumulation, traveling to prepare for a night of defense. I will not be shy about my own town, but I will be prepared for a day's stay and a night's defense.
Duke Mu of Zheng made a visit to the guest house, the bundle loaded, the army, the horse is carried out. The emperor Wu Zi resigned, said: my son drowned long time in the myupi, only is the pro-rated capital rationing exhaustion. For my son will line also, Zheng's original nursery, as if Qin's with catch also, my son to take its elk and deer, in order to leisure my euphony, if how. The first is that the first is the one that is not in the center of the world, and the second is the one that is not in the center of the world.
Meng Ming said: Zheng is prepared, not to hope. The first thing I want to do is to get rid of all the people in the city, and then I'll go back to the city. The first time I saw him, I was in the middle of a fight with him, and he was in the middle of a fight.
Jin Yuanzhong said: Qin disobeyed Jianshu, but with greed and diligence of the people, the heavens serve me also. The enemy can not be indulged. The enemy's trouble is born by indulging the enemy; it is ominous to disobey heaven. Must cut down the Qin division. Luan Zhi said: before the Qin Shi and cut down its division, it is a dead king. The first square said: Qin does not mourn my funeral and cut down my same name, Qin is rude, why Shi for.
What I heard: one day to indulge the enemy, several generations of trouble. The first thing I want to do is to get rid of all the people in the world who are in need of help. The first thing I did was to get the order, and then I was able to get the Jiang Rong. Zimo hempen, Liang Hong Royal, Lai Ju for the right. Summer April Xin Si, defeated the Qin division in the BAN, won the Baili Meng Ming vision, West Beggar Arts, Bai Yibing to return. Suimo to bury the Duke of Wen, Jin then began to ink.
Wen Ying asked the three commanders, saying: "They are really the two kings of my country, and if I get to eat them, I will not be tired of them, so I will not be ashamed to discuss them, but I will return to the Qin and kill them, so that I can fulfill my ambition. The public allowed it. The first square toward, asked the Qin prisoner. The public said: Mrs. please, I'll give it up. The first square anger said: Wu Fu force and detained all the original, the woman temporarily and exempt from all the countries, the fall of the army and the long enemy, the death of no day. I don't care and spit.
The public made the father of the Yang Chu chase, and the river, then in the boat. Release the left 4 horses, to the public order to Meng Ming. Meng Ming bowed and said: the favor of the king, not to tired ministers provocation drum, so that the return to the killing in Qin, the widowed king of the thought of killing, death and immortality. If you are exempted from the favor of the king, three years will worship the king to give.
Qin Bo plain clothes suburb, countryside division and crying, said: I disobeyed Jianshu, in order to humiliate the two or three sons, lone sin also. Not for Meng Ming, said: lone of the fault, the doctor what crime? And I do not cover up the great virtue with a cataract.
Translation: In the winter of the thirty-second year of Duke Xi of Lu, Duke Wen of Jin died. On the day of Gengchen, he was about to move his coffin to Quwo, the old capital of Jin, and just as he was being carried out of Jiangcheng, the capital of Jin, there was a sudden sound from the coffin, like the roar of an ox.
Guo Yan, a diviner, ordered the accompanying ministers to bow down and told them that the late Emperor Wen Gong had instructed the state to use military force, and that there would be a western army crossing the border of our country, so they should take advantage of the opportunity to attack, and they would win a great victory.
Qi Zi sent a man from Zheng to report to Qin, saying, The people of Zheng have put me in charge of the key to the northern gate of their capital, and if an army is secretly sent to attack, Zheng will have it. Duke Mu of Qin sought Jian Shu's advice on this matter. Uncle Jian said, "To raise an army to attack a distant country has never been heard of. I am afraid it is not possible, for the army is exhausted by labor and strength, and the monarch of the distant country is on guard.
The state of Zheng will surely know of the army's movements, and the soldiers are bound to feel resentment when they labor without gaining anything. Besides, if we march for thousands of miles, who would not know? Duke Qin Mu declined. He summoned Meng Ming, Xi Bei, and Bai Yi, and sent them to lead the army from outside the east gate. Uncle Jian cried over this, saying, Mencius, I have watched the army march out today, but I cannot see them return.
Duke Mu of Qin sent to him and said, What do you know. If you had lived to be seventy years old and died, the tree on your grave would have long ago grown as thick as an embrace. When Jian Shu's son joined the army for this expedition, Jian Shu sent him off in tears, saying: The Jin people will surely set up an ambush to intercept our army at Cuisine Mountain. There are two mountains to the north and south of Din: the southern one is the burial place of Gaogao, the king of the Xia Dynasty; and the northern one is the place where King Wen of Zhou took shelter from the wind and rain.
Be sure to die in the ravine between these two mountains, and I am going there to collect your bones. The Qin army then marched eastward. In the spring of the thirty-third year of Duke XI of Lu, the Qin army passed through the northern gate of the Zhou capital. The warriors on the right and left took off their war helmets and got out of their cars to pay homage, and then the warriors of three hundred chariots leaped to mount them.
Wang Sun Man, who was still young at this time, saw this situation and said to the king of Zhou, "The army of Qin, which is light-hearted and impolite, will surely fail. If you are lighthearted, you are less strategic, and if you are impolite, you are not cautious. If they enter into danger and are not prudent, and if they lack strategy, can they not fail?
When he was passing through the State of Slip, the merchant of Zheng, Ching Gao, was about to go to the capital city of Zhou to do business, and here he encountered the Qin army.
The merchant sent four cooked cowhides and twelve oxen to the Qin army, saying, "My king has heard that you are going to march through my country, and I have taken the liberty of coming to comfort your men. Since my country is not rich, if your men want to stay for a long time, they should be provided with food for one day; if they want to leave, they should be prepared to defend themselves for that night. And send someone to report to Zheng immediately.
Duke Mu of Zheng sent a man to the hotel to see that Qizi and his men had already bundled up their traveling clothes, sharpened their weapons, and fed their horses. Duke Mu of Zheng sent Huang Wuzi to address him, saying, "You have lived in our country for a long time, only that our country is almost out of food. It is time for you to go.
There are beast gardens in the state of Zheng, and there are beast gardens in the state of Qin, so how about you return to the beast gardens of your own country and hunt for elk, so that my country may have peace. So Qizi fled to Qi, Fengsun and Yangsun to Song. Meng Ming said, "The state of Zheng is prepared, and nothing can be expected. We can't win by attacking, and there is no back-up army to surround it, so we'd better go back. So he destroyed the state of Slip and went back to Qin.
The original square of the state of Jin said, "The state of Qin has disobeyed the advice of Jian Shu, and has made the common people labor and suffer because of its insatiable greed, and heaven has sent us a good opportunity. The good opportunity sent to us should not be given up, and the enemy should not be let go easily. If we let the enemy go, there will be consequences and it will be unlucky if we go against the will of heaven. The Qin army must be crushed.
Luan Zhi said: To attack Qin's army without repaying its favor, is this not forgetting the late Emperor Wen Gong. Xianzhong said: If Qin does not hold mourning for our new mourning but crusades against our allies, Qin is just being rude, so what favor are we repaying. I have heard it said: once you let your enemy go, you will leave woes for generations to come. Think for the sake of future generations, so to speak, for the sake of the dead king.
So he issued orders to mobilize Jiang Rong's army at once. Duke Xiang of Jin dyed his white mourning clothes black, and Liang Hong drove his military chariot for him, with Lai Ju as a warrior on the right side of the chariot. On the 18th day of the 4th month in the summer of that year, the army of Jin defeated the Qin army at Dinian Mountain, and captured the three commanders of the Qin army, Bailey View, Xi Beiju, and Bai Yibing, and returned. Then they wore black clothes to bury Duke Wen of Jin, and from then on, the state of Jin used black clothes as funeral clothes.
Wen Ying asked Duke Xiang of Jin to release the three generals of Qin, saying, "They have indeed strayed from the relationship between the rulers of our two countries, Qin and Jin. If Duke Mu of Qin gets hold of these three men, he would not even be able to relieve his hatred by eating their flesh, so why should I trouble you to punish them. How about letting them return to Qin to be tortured to fulfill Duke Qin Mu's wish.
Duke Xiang of Jin promised her. Xianxiang went to see Duke Xiang and asked where the prisoners of Qin had gone. Duke Xiang said, Mother begged me for this, and I released them. Xianzhong said angrily: The warriors took great pains to bring them back from the battlefield, and a woman pardoned them from the country in a flash, destroying their own battle results and fueling the enemy's flames, and the dead country is no more than a few days away.
Without turning back, he spat. Duke Xiang of Jin sent Yang Difu after Meng Ming and the others, and when he came to the river, he had boarded his boat and left the shore. Yang Difu untied the horses on the left side of his car and presented them to Meng Ming in the name of Duke Xiang of Jin.
Meng Ming kowtowed and said, "The king of your country is magnanimous in not smearing the blood of us prisoners on the battle drums, and in letting us return to Qin to suffer the death penalty; and if the king of your country kills us, he will not forget this defeat even after he dies. If we are pardoned in deference to the kindness of the ruler of Jin, we will surely return within three years to avenge today's disgrace.
Duke Mu of Qin waited in the countryside dressed in white, and cried to the generals who had been released and returned to him, saying, "It is my sin that I went against Uncle Jian's advice and let you suffer. Without abandoning Meng Ming, Duke Mu of Qin said: This is my mistake, what sin does a great doctor have heh. Besides, I will not erase his great merit because of a small fault.
Author: Zuo Qiu Ming, a historian of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Background of "The Battle of Bannerman between Qin and Jin"
Qin and Jin were originally allies, and formed the friendship of Qin and Jin. However, since the Duke of Mu, Qin had become increasingly powerful, and was dissatisfied with Jin's supremacy, and also had ambitions to dominate the Central Plains. In the 30th year of the reign of Duke Xi-Dong of Lu (630 BC), Qin and Jin besieged Zheng, and Zheng's great physician Candlewick wisely broke up the alliance between Qin and Jin.
Then Duke Mu of Qin withdrew his troops from Zheng alone, leaving Qi Zi and three others to guard Zheng against the Jin army. Because Duke Wen of Jin had benefited from Qin, relations between the two countries did not break down immediately. In the thirty-second year of Duke XI of Lu (628 BC), Duke Wen of Jin died, and Duke Mu of Qin brazenly sent troops to attack Zheng, leading to this Battle of Banns between Qin and Jin. This prose was composed by Zuo Qiu Ming to record this incident.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - The Battle of Qin-Jin-Ban