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| Scope: Autobiography Request type: Paragraph |
| Condition 1: References "龙少鱼众，少者固为神" Matched:1. |
| Total 1 paragraphs. Page 1 of 1. |
《自纪 - Autobiography》 | English translation: Albert Forke [?] | Library Resources |
| 11 | 自纪: | 充书文重。或曰：“文贵约而指通，言尚省而趍明。辩士之言要而达，文人之辞寡而章。今所作新书，出万言，繁不省，则读者不能尽；篇非一，则传者不能领。被躁人之名，以多为不善。语约易言，文重难得。玉少石多，多者不为珍；龙少鱼众，少者固为神。”荅曰：有是言也。盖寡言无多；而华文无寡。为世用者，百篇无害；不为用者，一章无补。如皆为用，则多者为上，少者为下。累积千金，比于一百，孰为富者？盖文多胜寡，财寡愈贫。世无一卷，吾有百篇；人无一字，吾有万言，孰者为贤？今不曰所言非，而云泰多；不曰世不好善，而云不能领，斯盖吾书所以不得省也。夫宅舍多，土地不得小；户口众，簿籍不得少。今失实之事多，华虚之语众，指实定宜，辩争之言，安得约径？韩非之书，一条无异，篇以十第，文以万数。夫形大，衣不得褊；事众，文不得褊。事众文饶，水大鱼多。帝都谷多，王市肩磨。书虽文重，所论百种。按古太公望，近董仲舒，传作书篇百有馀，吾书亦才出百，而云泰多，盖谓所以出者微，观读之者不能不谴呵也。河水沛沛，比夫众川，孰者为大？虫蠒重厚，称其出丝，孰为多者？ |
| Autobiography: |
Wang Chong's book is very voluminous. Some say that in writing the chief thing is to be brief and clear, and that in speaking one must be short and plain. The words of a good debater are succinct, but to the point, the style of a good writer is concise, but perspicuous. Now Wang Chong's new work contains more than ten thousand sentences. For a reader it is impossible to work through such an enormous mass, and there are so many chapters, that they cannot all be transmitted. The author of so much bad stuff may well be called a fool. Short sentences are easy to enunciate, whereas a bulky work presents great difficulties. Gems are few, stones many; that which occurs in great number, is not precious. Dragons are rare, fish numerous; that which is of rare occurence, is justly deemed divine. I admit that there is such a saying. Concise language is not long, but beautiful language must not be concise. If they are useful to the world, a hundred chapters do no harm, while one paragraph, if useless, may be superfluous. If there are several things, all useful, the longer rank before the shorter. Who is richer, he who has piled up a thousand chin, or he who possesses a hundred? Longer works are preferable to shorter ones, and a small amount of wealth is better than poverty. Most people have not a single book, I possess a hundred chapters: others have not one character, I have more than ten thousand sentences. Who is the cleverer? Now they do not say that my words are wrong, but that they are too many; they do not say that the world does not like good things, but that it cannot take them all in. The reason why my book cannot be so concise is that for building many houses a small ground would not be sufficient, and that for the registration of a large populace few registers would be inadequate. At present, the errors are so many, that the words necessary to point out the truth, show what is right, and controvert what is false, cannot well be brief and succinct. Han Fei Zi's work is like the branch of a tree. The chapters are joined together by tens, and the sentences count by ten thousands. For a large body the dress cannot be narrow, and if there be many subjects, the text must not be too summary. A great variety of subjects requires abundance of words. In a large extent of water, there are many fish, in an emperor's capital, there is plenty of grain, and on the market of a metropolis, there is a throng of people. My book may be voluminous, but the subjects treated are manifold. Tai Gong Wang in ancient times and recently Dong Zhong Shu produced books containing more than a hundred chapters. My book also contains more than a hundred chapters. Those who contend that they are too many, only mean to say that the author is of low origin, and that the readers cannot but take exception to it. When we compare a river, whose waters overflow the banks, with others, which is the biggest? And, when the cocoons of a certain species of worms are especially heavy and big, which worms yield most silk? |
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