唐雎不辱使命

Meaning

This opening scene sets the stage for a stand-off between a mighty and a tiny state. The king of Qin proposes to “swap” five hundred li of his own land for Anling, a remark intended as a courtesy and felt as an ultimatum. The lord of Anling accepts the framing, thanks the king for his “genaerosity,” and then refuses: the soil was received from his predecessors and must be held to the end. What looks like a gift becomes, in four characters, a threat — the king is displeased, and the envoy Tang Ju will soon be sent to answer for it.

秦王派人对安陵君说：我想用方圆五百里的土地来交换安陵，安陵君应该答应我吧！安陵君说：大王施予恩惠，用大块土地交换小地方，很好；虽然如此，但我从先王那里接受了这块封地，愿意终身守住它，不敢交换！秦王听了很不高兴。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] A king wants a small state's land and offers vast acreage in payment; the small state's ruler refuses, politely but without wavering, and the king takes offence. The whole extract is a negotiation conducted in courteous formulas. [Structure] The scene advances in three steps. Qin's demand arrives disguised as a request, its edge carried by the modal particle qi (“you will grant my request,” almost a command). Anling answers with a three-movement refusal: thanks, nominal concession, then the turn — “all the same” plus the ancestors who gave the land — and finally “I dare not.” The historian closes with four characters, “The King of Qin was displeased,” which narrate rather than depict. [Imagery] There is no imagery in the usual sense — only land, labour, and anger. The “five hundred li” measures the whole weight of Qin; the small place it covets is measured by loyalty to the dead. The contrast between “great” and “small,” between “give” and “receive,” carries the drama: courtesy on the surface, armed force underneath. Every function word works like a step in an argument, which is why the passage is studied as the model of “what a diplomat may say,” and why the refusal sounds like both a defence of soil and an act of filial loyalty.

【白话串讲】 刘向写《唐雎不辱使命》：秦王想用五百里地换安陵，安陵君不答应。唐雎出使秦国，秦王威胁他。唐雎说：“若士必怒，伏尸二人，流血五步，天下缟素，今日是也”——他“挺剑而起”。秦王“长跪而谢之曰：先生坐！何至于此”——唐雎不辱使命。 【意象与手法】 此为对话体史传散文，以辞令见长：一骄一卑，一强一弱，三层转折（许、谢、拒）步步推进；「其」「甚善」「虽然」「弗」等虚词精微传神，把外交语言的分寸感写到极致。短句对举、语气错落，是《战国策》「记言则玄远冷隽」的典范。 【情感与主旨】 借弱国之臣应对强秦之君的开端，写小国在强权面前的尊严与智慧：不卑不亢、有理有据，既守臣节又保国土，为「布衣之怒」令秦王「长跪而谢」的结局铺垫，张扬策士以辞令安邦的气魄。 【名句点睛】 常考「安陵君其许寡人」的祈使语气与「受地于先王，愿终守之，弗敢易」的婉拒策略——一「其」一「弗」，写尽强者的骄横与弱者的风骨，是战国辞令艺术的开场。

Allusions

Three layers of classical reference lie behind the lines. First, “trading land” was a standard instrument of the late Warring States: Qin habitually weakened the other states under cover of exchanges, and Anling's refusal marks a small state that has seen through the ruse. Second, the plea “from my royal predecessors” rests on the Western Zhou system of enfeoffment, where land was not property but an ancestral legacy: to hold it was ritual and good faith, not profit, so “I dare not” is not cowardice but fidelity. Third, the line “The King of Qin was displeased” is the chronicler's cold glance at power — one ruler piqued by a negligible state, whose resentment will roar in the sequel as “the anger of the son of Heaven.” Later writers have adopted the scene as the archetype of the envoy who fulfils his mission without disgrace, and the phrase “to disgrace no mission” has entered Chinese as a commendation of completed curries.

本篇凝聚着战国文化中「辞令」「守信」「强权与道义」三组核心内涵。其一，「易」地之举，本是春秋战国常见的领土交换或假交换，而强秦「以大易小」实为「远交近攻」策略下的试探——战国末期秦国惯以割地易地为名削弱六国，安陵君的拒绝正是识破此局的守土之智。其二，「受地于先王」的立论依据，源自周代宗法分封制度：封地受之于先王，则土地不仅是疆域，更是宗法与信义之所在，守地即守先人之业，故「弗敢易」不是畏强，而是守礼，安陵君以礼制为盾，使秦王无法以势相逼。其三，「秦王不说」四字，暗含《战国策》对强权的冷眼：一国之君因小国之拒而「不说」，骄横自见，与后文「天子之怒」的雷霆万钧相呼应，正是策士叙事的蓄势笔法。其四，本篇与《战国策》中唐雎另一次「说信陵君」的故事互文，可见战国策士「一人之辩，重于九鼎之宝」的时代形象。后世以「唐雎不辱使命」为外交辞令与民族气节的典范，其「守土」「守信」「以礼抗强」的精神，正是中国文化中「弱国自有风骨」的源头意象之一。

Commentary

Of all the pieces in Zhan Guo Ce, “Tang Ju Disgraces No Mission” is among the most read and the most theatrical; it has stood in secondary-school anthologies for generations and, with “Zhu Zhiwu Resists the Qin Army” and “Zou Ji Admonishes the King of Qi,” is reckoned one of the three marvels of the collection's rhetoric. Dramatically it is a triumph: the king haughty yet hollow, Tang Ju calm and ready to die, the ruler of Anling courteous and clear-sighted — three characters balanced like the legs of a tripod. In thought, it lifts the unarmed single envoy above the terror of an empire, and that vision of personal dignity was repeatedly revived in later periods of national humiliation. As an influence, the title has become a proverbial formula for finishing a difficult errand without staining the country's honour, while “received from my predecessors” is still quoted as a classic ground for defending territory.

《唐雎不辱使命》是《战国策》中流传最广、最富戏剧性的篇目之一，历来入选中学语文教材，与《烛之武退秦师》《邹忌讽齐王纳谏》并称《战国策》辞令三绝。就文学言，其「布衣之怒」折服「天子之怒」的构思，以一场辩论写尽强权与道义的较量，人物形象鲜明：秦王骄横而色厉内荏，唐雎沉着而视死如归，安陵君守礼而洞察机微，三人三面，如鼎足而立。就思想言，本篇张扬了「士不可辱」的人格尊严——唐雎以「伏尸二人，流血五步」相胁，把外交辞令推向生死边缘，展现了战国策士「不辱使命」的担当与「舍生取义」的气节，这种精神在后世民族危亡之际不断被唤醒，成为中国人面对强权时的精神资源。就影响言，「唐雎不辱使命」一语已凝为成语，泛指完成艰巨使命、不辱国家之托；安陵君「受地于先王」的守土之辞，也被反复引用为捍卫领土主权的古典依据。此篇虽属史传文学，其辞令艺术与人格光芒却超越时代，历两千年而常读常新。

Prosody

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