Just as Ji was returning get out to his office, carrying with his bamboo slips when he saw Just before he got there, Ji saw Nanshi, another historian. He inquired of his arrival. and asked about the intention of his coming. Nanshi replied, said “I heard that It’s heard that all your brothers had been killed. Being Afraid that there is no one to record the truth, t someone who record what happened in May in the summer. I came here with my bamboo slips.” Finally Nanshi left with satisfaction, after Ji had shown him that on his bamboo slips were written, what he wrote “Cui Zhu killed his Lord monarch in May in the summer of Yi Hai.”
Notes:
1. For those not familiar with Chinese culture, books before paper was invented, everything was written in bamboo slips. Thus Chinese writing was written from right to left, from top to bottom as the scroll is unfurled. In those days, every scholar is a muscle man from carrying his books! LOL
2. They were not dukes but marquis.
3. It was hepatitis and not malaria.
4. "... in the summer month of summer, in the year of Yi Hai", a cyclical date.
5. Actually, all the brothers were in the presence of Cui Zhu at the same time and Ji witnessed the killings of his three brothers. Since I am correcting his English and not his facts, these notes are meant more for the clarification of the story and the unseeming illogic parts of the story presented.
The Regicide of Cui Zhu Killed His Monarch
Cui Zhu was a viscount in the Qi Kingdom, and killed his lord monarch, the Duke of Qi. He commanded the office court historian, Taishi Bo, to write in historical book in the official records that the Duke had of Qi died of malaria.’ Bo didn’t did not obey Cui Zhu, writing in and instead wrote on the official bamboo slips, that “Cui Zhu killed his monarch Lord in May, one in the summer.” Upon seeing that it, Cui Zhu was so angry that he had Bo killed Bo. [The reason of killing his Lord was that the Duke, had continued affairs with his newly married wife! Not the action of a noble lord!]
Taishi The court historian Bo has three brothers, namely Zhong, Shu, and Ji. Zhong wrote in the bamboo slips like his brother the same as Bo. Cui Zhu killed Zhong and followed his brother's path in a similarly manner. Then, Shu also wrote that and was also killed. As the successor, Ji wrote that the same. The same fate befell on the other brothers as well as they insisted to have the truth written. [Repeating in a same manner is boring]
With Ji’s bamboo slips in hand, Cui Zhu said to asked Ji, the last of the brothers, that
“Your three brothers all died from writing this line!"that. Why Don’t you cherish your life? You are not going to be killed if you Change what you have written down and you will be spared!”
Ji replied,
“Recording the historical facts in the historical book accurately is the a historian’s duty. It’s I preferred to die death than to live with the shame in the dereliction of my duty. And Even if I don’t write that down, did as you commanded, surely there is sure to will be others who will not. someone else who will do that. Therefore, my dereliction does not make what you did become unknown, only means but a laughing stock of me. So Thus my life no longer prized. is not worth cherishing too much. It’s hoped that you could think it about I pray thee to reflect on thy decisions.” [This is formal speech, therefore you cannot use contractions as if it was taken in a casual manner and tone of callousness.]


