苏洵·《六国论》英译

六国破灭，非兵不利 ，战不善，弊在赂秦。赂秦而力亏，破灭之道也。或曰：六国互丧，率赂秦耶？曰：不赂者以赂者丧，盖失强援，不能独完。故曰：弊在赂秦也。

秦以攻取之外，小则获邑，大则得城。较秦之所得，与战胜而得者，其实百倍；诸侯之所亡，与战败而亡者，其实亦百倍。则秦之所大欲，诸侯之所大患，固不在战矣。思厥先祖父，暴霜露，斩荆棘，以有尺寸之地。子孙视之不甚惜，举以予人，如弃草芥。今日割五城，明日割十城，然后得一夕安寝。起视四境，而秦兵又至矣。然则诸侯之地有限，暴秦之欲无厌，奉之弥繁，侵之愈急。故不战而强弱胜负已判矣。至于颠覆，理固宜然。古人云：“以地事秦，犹抱薪救火，薪不尽，火不灭。”此言得之。

齐人未尝赂秦，终继五国迁灭，何哉？与嬴而不助五国也。五国既丧，齐亦不免矣。燕赵之君，始有远略，能守其土，义不赂秦。是故燕虽小国而后亡，斯用兵之效也。至丹以荆卿为计，始速祸焉。赵尝五战于秦，二败而三胜。后秦击赵者再，李牧连却之。洎（jì）牧以谗诛，邯郸为郡，惜其用武而不终也。且燕赵处秦革灭殆尽之际，可谓智力孤危，战败而亡，诚不得已。向使三国各爱其地，齐人勿附于秦，刺客不行，良将犹在，则胜负之数，存亡之理，当（tǎng）与秦相较，或未易量。

呜呼！以赂秦之地封天下之谋臣，以事秦之心礼天下之奇才，并力西向，则吾恐秦人食之不得下咽也。悲夫！有如此之势，而为秦人积威之所劫，日削月割，以趋于亡。为国者无使为积威之所劫哉！

夫六国与秦皆诸侯，其势弱于秦，而犹有可以不赂而胜之之势。苟以天下之大，而从六国破亡之故事，是又在六国下矣！

On the Six Fallen States

The fall of the Six States was not owing to their inferior weaponry or lost battles but to their bribing the State of Qin, resulting in the undermining of their strength, which was in fact the cause of their ruin. One may ask: Since the Six States perished one after another, was this all due to their bribing Qin? The answer is: The ones that did not bribe it perished because of the ones that did. For a state could not survive without a strong support. That is why I say that bribing Qin was at the bottom of their collapse.

Apart from seizure of land by wars, Qin acquired through their bribery towns in minor cases and cities in major cases. These, put together, were a hundred times more than those occupied through its victories. By the same token, the towns and cities lost by the principalities were also a hundred times more than those lost through their defeats. Therefore, the great avarice of Qin and the great disaster of the principalities had nothing to do with wars. Just think how their forefathers, exposed to inclement weather, hacked a way through brambles in order to gain a piece of land, while their offspring, making little of it, gave it up to others unstintingly, ceding five towns this day and ten towns that day for peace and ease of a single night. But they woke up only to find the Qin troops coming again. Nevertheless, there was a limit to their land whereas there were no bounds to Qin’s greed. The more land was ceded to it, the more unrelenting its aggression became. Thus, even without wars the balance of power and the chance of victory for the two sides were only too evident, and it stood to reason that the six principalities should have been annihilated. The ancients said: “To propitiate Qin with land is like extinguishing fire with faggots—no end of the faggots and no cease of the fire.” It is indeed an apt remark.

The State of Qi did not bribe Qin, yet it also perished after the other five. How to explain it? The answer is: Qi was reconciled with Qin and did not help the other five, whose collapse inevitably led to its own. The sovereigns of the Yan and Zhao principalities, guided by a far-sighted strategy, were at first enabled to defend their territory, refusing to bribe Qin out of a sense of justice. Although Yan was a small principalities, it fell the last of the six, due to its resistance to Qin by armed force. It was only when Prince Dan resorted to the stratagem of using Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin that it was doomed. Zhao had prosecuted five wars with Qin, suffering two defeats and scoring three victories. Later Qin attacked Zhao again, but each time was repulsed by General Li Mu. This situation lasted until Li was slain because of traducers and Handan, Zhao’s capital, was turned into a prefecture of Qin. So it was regrettable that Zhao failed to carry the use of arms through to the end. However, Yan and Zhao, in the face of the collapse of approximately all the other principalities, might be said to be at the end of their resources. Their ruin was brought about by military defeats and was in the nature of things. If Han, Wei and Chu had cherished their land, Qi had not submitted to Qin, Yan’s assassin had not done his mischief and Zhao’s able general had not been killed, it would be hard to say whether the Six States or Qin would have stood to win and survive.

Alas! If the Six States had granted the land they used to bribe Qin to the resourceful strategists of their countries and had treated their prodigious talents with the same respect they paid to Qin, and had joined forces to meet the challenge from the west, I am afraid that Qin would have found it difficult to swallow up their territory. Alas, that they, with such an originally advantageous situation in their favor, should have been overwhelmed by Qin’s bluster, ceding land day in and day out and ending in their common collapse! How I wish that the rulers of a country would not be intimidated by the bluff of their enemies!

The Six States and Qin were all principalities. Even though they were in a week position as compared with the latter, there still might exist a possibility of their winning victory over it without bribing it. How much more this must be the case with a great empire! Should such an empire follow in the footsteps of the Six States which invited their own ruin, it would prove even inferior to them!