Please accept your wife's daughter.
original text
In Qili, women who marry the county and women who marry the princess receive monthly salary, money and rice, silk and cotton in spring and summer, and there are many of them, which are not recorded in Jiayou Luling. Seeing that Zhang Lun married Zhong Lei, he was awarded the title of Anxian Lord, with a monthly income of nearly 1000 yuan. My wife asked for it. The imperial court no longer knows what grain was used to help survey [1] and keep it in the library, and the internal reference Tang [2] was added. Because remembering the beginning of Xining, Zong Shen and Wang Anshi said that today's wealth is not much, but it is not used properly. Why give enough? A private servant in the palace, 80 penetration, to marry a princess, it takes 700 thousand Jin [3] and Shen Guifei 800 penetration. When I heard of Emperor Taizong, the imperial secretary only wore greasy silk eaves. When Queen Yuan De tasted the golden eaves, she was very angry with her extravagance. When Injong decided to ask Mu Gong about the princess's salary, he said it again and again. At first, he only had five ears. Times are different [4], middle-level officials in 700 yuan for a month. It is a beautiful thing to be polite rather than extravagant. I didn't smell the will at that time. With this degree, it is more than a hundred times.
To annotate ...
[1] survey assistance: help with audit. [2] internal funds (t m 4 ng): refers to the money in the national treasury. [3] mín: a rope used to wear copper coins in ancient times. Borrowing is the unit of measurement, and one yard is generally 1000. [4] Different time: past.
translate
The eldest daughter of the emperor's relatives was named the princess, and the eldest daughter was named the princess. They all have a monthly salary, and there are many meters of cotton in spring and summer. The records in Jia You Lu Ling are not complete enough. Not long ago, I saw that I married Zhao's daughter, and I was named the Princess of Sui 'an, earning nearly 100,000 yuan a month. My wife's supplies, in addition to the support of the grain institute to help audit the accounts, have been added to the state treasury, and the amount is unknown outside the court. Therefore, I remember that in the early years of Zongshen Xining, Zongshen once told Wang Anshi that wealth is not abundant now, but we should not scrimp. How can we supply enough? The salary of a private person in the palace reaches 80 yuan. If you marry a princess, the cost will reach 700,000, and Shen Guifei's monthly food expenses will reach 800 yuan. When I heard of Emperor Taizong, everyone in the palace only wore short plain clothes made of thick soap silk. Even so, Queen Yuan De often lambasted the extravagance of people who wore gold thread clothes. Injong set the princess's salary from the beginning and began to ask Mu big princess for advice. I asked several times before giving the number. There were only five levels at that time. In the past, the eunuch's monthly salary was only 700 yuan. To put it mildly, it is better to be frugal than to be extravagant. This is a virtue and a good thing. At that time, the emperor did it on purpose, but not many people followed it. Compared with today, it is more than ten times and a hundred times more than before!
Comment and analysis
Since ancient times, the confrontation between the two forces has never stopped. Through this story, we have a glimpse of the disadvantages of "redundant expenses" at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty from one side, and also have a superficial understanding of why Wang Anshi's political reform came so suddenly.