元和二年四月十三日夜，愈與吳郡張籍閱家中舊書，得李翰所為《張巡傳》。翰以文章自名，為此傳頗詳密。然尚恨有闕者，不為許遠立傳，又不載雷萬春事首尾。

On the thirteenth day of the second year of the Yuan He era, in the evening, Mr. Zhang Ji of County Wu and I were browsing the old books in his home. Then we found "The Biography of Zhang Xun," written by Li Han. Li boasted of his excellent writing and meticulously noted the details of the biography. However, I regretted that there was something missing: he did not also write a biography for Xu Yuan and did not mention the story about Lei Wanchun at all.

遠雖材若不及巡者，開門納巡，位本在巡上，授之柄而處其下，無所疑忌，竟與巡俱守死，成功名。城陷而虜。與巡死先後異耳。兩家子弟材智下，不能通知二父志，以為巡死而遠就虜，疑畏死而辭服於賊。遠誠畏死，何苦守尺寸之地，食其所愛之肉，以與賊抗而不降乎？當其圍守時，外無蚍蜉蟻子之援，所欲忠者，國與主耳。而賊語以國亡主滅。遠見救援不至，而賊來益眾，必以其言為信。外無待而猶死守，人相食且盡，雖愚人亦能數日而知死處矣。遠之不畏死亦明矣。烏有城壞其徒俱死，獨蒙愧恥求活？雖至愚者不忍為。嗚呼！而謂遠之賢而力之邪？

Though Xu Yuan was not as capable as Zhang Xun, he opened his mind to accepting Zhang. In the official ranking, Xu was superior to Zhang, but he gave Zhang full authorization and was under the command of Zhang without any suspicion. Both of them collaborated with each other to defend the city of Suiyang in one accord and gained good fame. When the city fell, they were all captives; the only difference was the time they were killed. Both the descendants of Zhang and Xu were not so discernible to know the truth as to think Zhang was sacrificed, while Xu was captured but yielded to rebels because he was afraid of death. Suppose he feared death; why did he insist on guarding this tiny city in the first place, later kill his concubine and servants, give their flesh as meat to the soldiers, and keep on resisting till the last minute without surrendering? When the tiny city was besieged, there was none of any reinforcement from outside, and what he fought for was his country and his emperor; besides, the revels told him the Tang Dynasty had vanished and the emperor had perished. Xu might have known that was real when he saw that no reinforcement was coming at all and the rebels were increasing in number. Even a fool must have known his death was approaching any time when guarding a besieged city without expecting any possible help at all, and even the consumption of human bodies as food was up. Therefore, it was quite obvious that Xu Yuan was not afraid of death. How could it be that he had to continue living in humiliation when the city had fallen and all of his men were dead? Even the stupiest man would not act that way. Alas! How could such stupidity happen to a sagacious man like Xu Yuan?

說者又謂遠與巡分城而守，城之陷，自遠所分始，以此詬遠。此又與兒童之見無異。人之將死，其藏腑必有先受其病者。引繩而絕之，其絕必有處。觀者見其然，從而尤之，其亦不達於理矣。小人之好議論，不樂成人之美如是哉！如巡、遠之所成就，如此卓卓，猶不得免，其他則又何說？

Some people commented that Xu Yuan and Zhang Xun were guarding different parts of the city. The city was broken into in the part where Xu was responsible, and people thus blamed it on Xu. That was a childish point of view. When people are sick and going to die, it must begin with some decayed organ first. When pulling a rope until it breaks, it must be broken at a certain point. Obviously, it is illogical and absurd that the viewers criticized the decayed organ or the breaking point instead of the real reasons. Those low-end criticisms, which cannot see others as good, are just as low as that. Even though the feats of Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan are not free from evil criticism, what else is avoidable? 

當二公之初守也，寧能知人之卒不救，棄城而逆遁？苟此不能守，雖避之他處何益？及其無救而且窮也，將其創殘餓羸之餘，雖欲去必不達。二公之賢，其講之精矣。守一城，捍天下，以千百就盡之卒，戰百萬日滋之師，蔽遮江淮，沮遏其勢。天下之不亡，其誰之功也？當是時，棄城而圖存者，不可一二數，擅強兵坐而觀者相環也。不追議此，而責二公以死守，亦見其自比於逆亂，設淫辭而助之攻也。

When the honorable Zhang and Xu were starting to defend Suiyang, how could they realize that there would be no rescues eventually and thus desert the city, withdrawing to another place in the first place? If Suiyang could not withstand the attack, what is the use of moving to another city anyway? Until they realized there would be no rescue at all and the city was trapped in tremendous difficulties, even though they still wanted to break out of the besieged city, the handicapped due to injury and the weak due to starvation must have deterred them from moving forward. As sagacious as Zhang and Xu, they must have fully considered the whole situation. One Suiyang would safeguard the whole country, and several thousand destined soldiers should resist hundred-fold enemies to protect the wealthy Jianghuai area, so as to thwart the rebels ambitious intentions. Who had the vast contribution of saving the endangering Tang Empire from tumbling down? In that time, many officials forsook their cities and tried to reserve their strength in order to see how the situation would change. Those people who did not blame those officials; instead, they charged Zhang and Xu with defending Suiyang to the last man can also be deemed the quislings who were helping the rebels attack Zhang and Xu with their fallacies.

愈嘗從事於汴、徐二府，屢道於兩州間，親祭於其所謂雙廟者。其老人往往說巡、遠時事雲。

I used to work in the Magistrate Bian and Magistrate Xu, and I often visited Suiyang, which was located in between the two magistrates. I also paid my tribute to the so-called "Dual Temple" in memory of Zhang and Xu. The old folks there often mentioned the stories of Zhang and Xu. 

南霽雲之乞救於賀蘭也，賀蘭嫉巡、遠之聲威功績出己上，不肯出師救。愛霽雲之勇且壯，不聽其語，強留之。具食與樂，延霽雲坐。霽雲慷慨語曰：「雲來時，睢陽之人不食月餘日矣。雲雖欲獨食，義不忍。雖食且不下嚥。」因拔所佩刀斷一指，血淋漓，以示賀蘭。一座大驚，皆感激為雲泣下。雲知賀蘭終無為雲出師意，即馳去。將出城，抽矢射佛寺浮圖，矢著其上磚半箭。曰：「吾歸破賊，必滅賀蘭！此矢所以志也。」愈貞元中過泗州，船上人猶指以相語。城陷，賊以刃脅降巡。巡不屈，即牽去，將斬之。又降霽雲。雲未應。巡呼雲曰：「南八，男兒死耳，不可為不義屈！」雲笑曰：「欲將以有為也。公有言，雲敢不死？」即不屈。

Nan Jiyun beseeched Helan Qinming to help Suiyang. But Helan was jealous of Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan, who had acquired merits and fame high above Helan himself, so he refused to rescue Suiyang. But he appreciated the bravery and heroism of Nan, and rather than listening to his request to give Suiyang a helping hand, he insisted that Nan stay put and sit down, enjoying a feast and entertainment. Nan refused and declaimed, "While I am here, the people of Suiyang have had no food to eat for over a month. Even though I do want to eat something, my heart inhibits me from eating anything here. The food is tasteless to me, and I just cannot swallow it." Then he pulled out his knife, cut off one of his fingers, and showed the bloody finger to Helan. The move shocked all of the people in attendance, and they were moved to tears. Nan fully understood that Helan had no intention to dispatch his troop to rescue Suiyang, so he hastened to leave. When he was ready to ride out of the city, he shot an arrow toward a pagoda, and the arrow penetrated half of a brick. He swore that when he exterminated the rebels, he must come back and kill Helan, and the arrow was the token of his oath.  In the era of Zhenyuan, when I was passing Shizhou during the Zenyuan era, the boatmen told me the story by pointing out where the arrow had been. Finally, Suiyang had fallen, and the rebels waved their knives to threaten Zhang Xun to surrender. But Zhang did not succumb, and he was pushed out for execution. Now it was Nan, who did not respond to the rebels order of surrender. Zhang yelled at Nan, "Nan, be a real man to die; dont yield to unjustice!" Nan smiled. "I am working on something; now that you give me an order, sir, how dare I not die?" So he did not succumb to rebels, either.

張籍曰：有於嵩者，少依於巡；及巡起事，嵩嘗在圍中。籍大歷中，於和州烏江縣見嵩，嵩時年六十餘矣。以巡初嘗得臨渙縣尉，好學無所不讀。籍時尚小，粗問巡、遠事，不能細也。雲巡長七尺餘，鬚髯若神。嘗見嵩讀《漢書》，謂嵩曰：「何為久讀此？」嵩曰：「未熟也。」巡曰：「吾於書讀不過三遍，終身不忘也。」因誦嵩所讀書，盡卷不錯一字。嵩驚，以為巡偶熟此卷，因亂抽他帙以試。無不盡然。嵩又取架上諸書，試以問巡。巡應口誦無疑。嵩從巡久，亦不見巡常讀書也。為文章，操紙筆立書，未嘗起草。初守睢陽對，士卒僅萬人。城中居人，戶亦且數萬。巡因—見問姓名，其後無不識者。巡怒，鬚髯輒張。及城陷，賊縛巡等數十人坐，且將戮。巡起旋，其眾見巡起，或起或泣。巡曰：「汝勿怖，死，命也。」眾泣不能仰視。巡就戮時，顏色不亂，陽陽如平常。遠寬厚長者，貌如其心。與巡同年生，月日後於巡，呼巡為兄。死時年四十九。嵩貞元初死於毫、宋間。或傳嵩有田在毫、宋間，武人奪而有之。嵩將詣州訟理，為所殺。嵩無子，張籍雲。

Zhang Ji once said, "A man named Yu Song; when he was young, he worked under Zhang Xun, and he was also there when Suiyang was besieged. In the era of Dali, I met Yu in Wujiang County, Hezhou, when he was already in his 60s. Because of his relationship with Zhang Xun, he got a job in Linhuan County. He loved to read all kinds of books. I was too young then to obtain the details of the feats regarding Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan from Yu. The only thing he told me was that Zhang had a stature about seven chi tall, and he owned himself the august beard like a deity. Zhang once saw Yu reading "The History of the Han Dynasty", then asked him why he had been reading the book for such a long time. Yu replied that he had yet to get through the book. Zhang said that he could memorize all the words of any book as long as he read it three times. So he recited the contents of the book that Yu was reading, exactly the same as every word in the book. Yu was dumbfounded. He thought that Zhang might just be familiar with this book, so he randomly picked other books to test Zhang; the latter did the same, all correct. Yu then picked up some books from the shelf and asked Zhang for any chapters, and Zhang was able to recite them without hesitation. Yu had worked for Zhang for a long time, but he did not see Zhang read often. When Zhang wrote anything, he had never made a draft of it. In the beginning of guarding Suiyang, there were about ten thousand soldiers only, and not many more civilians were populated. Zhang could recognize all of them by their names as long as he met each of them just once. When Zhang was infuriated, his beard would often fly up. At last, when Suiyang was fallen, the rebels tied Zhang and other captives up and ordered them to sit, waiting for execution. Later, Zhang stood up to urinate; some of his men likewise stood up, while others sobbed in tears. Zhang then told them not to fear death; it is all destined. His men were so sad that they did not dare raise their heads and cast a glance at him. When Zhang was beheaded, he was calm and composed as usual, not etched with any change in his face. Xu Yuan was a considerate gentleman, and his mien always showed the same quality. Xu and Zhang were born in the same year, but Xu was born a couple months later; hence, Xu treated Zhang as an elder brother. Both of them died at 49. Yu Song died in the Zenyuan era in the area of Bo and Song. Some people said Yu possessed some estate in Bo and Song, and some guy with martial arts expropriated his properties. When Yu was going to claim a lawsuit in court, that martial guy killed him. According to Zhang Ji, Yu Song did not leave a son himself.