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| Scope: Autobiography Request type: Paragraph |
| Condition 1: Contains text "屈奇之士見倜儻之辭生度不與俗協庸角不能程" Matched:1. |
| Total 1 paragraphs. Page 1 of 1. |
《自紀 - Autobiography》 | English translation: Albert Forke [?] | Library Resources |
| 13 | 自紀: | 充細族孤門。或啁之曰：「宗祖無淑懿之基，文墨無篇籍之遺，雖著鴻麗之論，無所稟階，終不為高。夫氣無漸而卒至曰變，物無類而妄生曰異，不常有而忽見曰妖，詭於眾而突出曰怪。吾子何祖？其先不載。況未嘗履墨涂，出儒門，吐論數千萬言，宜為妖變，安得寶斯文而多賢？」荅曰：鳥無世鳳皇，獸無種麒麟，人無祖聖賢，物無常嘉珍。才高見屈，遭時而然。士貴故孤興，物貴故獨產。文孰常在有以放賢，是則澧泉有故源，而嘉禾有舊根也。屈奇之士見，倜儻之辭生，度不與俗協，庸角不能程。是故罕發之迹，記於牒籍；希出之物，勒於鼎銘。五帝不一世而起，伊、望不同家而出。千里殊跡，百載異發。士貴雅材而慎興，不因高據以顯達。母驪犢騂，無害犧牲；祖濁裔清，不牓奇人。鯀惡禹聖，叟頑舜神。伯牛寢疾，仲弓潔全。顏路庸固，回傑超倫。孔、墨祖愚，丘、翟聖賢。楊家不通，卓有子雲；桓氏稽可，遹出君山。更稟於元，故能著文。 |
| Autobiography: |
Wang Chong is from a simple family, in which he stands quite alone. A caviller might say:--- "Your ancestors have not left you a treasure of pure virtue, nor a collection of literary works. You may yourself write the most brilliant essays, you have no basis to stand upon, and therefore no claim to our admiration." "When a force bursts upon us quite suddenly, not by degrees, we call it a phenomenon. When a creature is born from quite dissimilar parents, we call it a wonder. When something quite unusual appears all at once, it is regarded as a supernatural appearance, and when something different from anything else quite abruptly comes forth, it is termed a miracle." "Who are your ancestors? Their names have not been recorded in former times. You did not spring from a learned family, whose members have already walked the path of literature, and you write disquisitions of several thousand or ten thousand sentences. This must be considered a supernatural phenomenon. How could we appreciate such writings, or think them able productions?" I beg to reply that a bird without a pedigree is a phoenix, an animal without a family, a unicorn, a man without an ancestry, a sage, and a thing without a peer, a jewel. And so it is with men of great talents, who are browbeaten and viewed with disfavour by their age. Scholars of worth appear single, and precious things grow solitary. How could literature be inherited? If a man could learn to become a sage, then the water of the Feng river would have a source, and auspicious grain an old stem. When a remarkable scholar appears and puts forward his noble doctrines, he does not fall under the general rule, and his capacity cannot be measured by the bushel. Therefore events which seldom happen are recorded on tablets and books, and rare things engraved on bronze vases. The Five Emperors did not rise in one generation, and Yi Yin and Tai Kung Wang did not issue from one family. There was a distance of thousand Li between them, and one lived several hundred years after the other. When scholars of note quietly develop their marvellous faculties, they do not become famous as descendants of noble lines. The calf of a black cow may be brown, this does not affect the nature of the animal. The ancestors of a scholar may be coarse, provided that he himself is pure, it has no influence upon his character. Kun was wicked, and Yu a sage, Sou was perverse, and Shun divine. Po Niu was visited with a horrible disease, and Chung Kung was clean and strong. Yan Lu was vulgar and mean, and Yen Hui outvied all his companions. Confucius and Mo Di had stupid ancestors, and they themselves were sages. The Yang family had not been successful, when Yang Zi Yun rose like a star, and the house of Huan had been tolerably well off, until Huan Chun Shan took his brilliant flight. A man must have been imbued with more than the ordinary dose of the original fluid to become an able writer. |
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