Sima Qian (citing Yan An)

Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE)

"To incite troubles and leave them unsolved, to disband the armies only to call them up again, bringing sorrow and hardship to those near at hand and alarm to distant lands--this is no way to insure the continuance of the dynasty."

• Quote from an essay attributed to Yan An in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji, 112) by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).

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