贊
Eulogy
高祖初起，嘯命群雄。天下未定，王我漢中。三傑既得，六奇獻功。章邯已破，蕭何築宮。周勃厚重，朱虛至忠。陳平作相，條侯總戎。丙魏立志，湯堯飾躬。天漢之後，表述非功。
When Gaozu first rose, he rallied the heroes with a shout. The realm was not yet settled when he was made King of Hanzhong. Once the Three Outstanding Men were secured, the Six Stratagems delivered their victories. Zhang Han was defeated; Xiao He built the palace. Zhou Bo was steady and stalwart; the Lord of Zhuangwu showed perfect loyalty. Chen Ping served as chancellor; the Marquis of Tiao commanded the armies. Bing Ji and Wei Xiang established their resolve; Zhang Tang and Zhao Yao adorned their conduct. After the Tianhan era, the table records what followed — though the deeds were not of the same caliber.
Notes
The Three Outstanding Men (三傑) are Zhang Liang (strategist), Xiao He (administrator), and Han Xin (general) — the three men Gaozu himself credited with winning the empire. The Six Stratagems (六奇) refers to Chen Ping's six secret plots that turned the tide of the Chu-Han war.
This chapter has no prose preface by Sima Qian — only the tabular data (now lost from this source) and this verse eulogy. The absence of a preface is unique among the ten Tables chapters.