燕王谓苏代
The King of Yan Had a Talk with Su Dai
【原文】
燕王谓苏代曰寡人甚不喜他者言也苏代对曰周地贱媒，为 其两誉也：之男家曰女美，之女家曰男富。然而周之俗不自为取妻。且夫处女无媒，老且不嫁；舍媒而自街，弊而不售。顺而无败、售而不弊 者，唯媒而已矣。且事非权不立，非势不成。夫使人坐受成事者，唯他 者耳!”王曰善矣！”
【今译】
燕王对苏代说：“我非常讨厌欺诈的人所说的话。”苏代回答说：“周 国人很鄙视媒人，因为他（她）们两边都说好话。到了男方家里就说女自行娶妻。处女如果没有媒人介绍，直到老死也不能出嫁?，不用媒人而 自我夸耀，容貌凋零了也嫁不出去。顺应人们的心意而不把事情搞砸 了，不等到容貌凋零了就嫁出去，只有依靠媒人才成。况且任何事情离 开权谋就不能办成，不依靠势力就不会成事。能使别人坐享其成的，只 有游说欺诈的人了 燕王说好吧。”
The king of the state of Yan had a talk with Su Dai and said，“I hate the arguments of those deceitful persuasive talkers very much!，，Su Dai replied，“The people of the area of Zhou look down upon matchmakers because they overrate the qualities of both sides. If a matchmaker arrives at a man’s house, he/she would say the girl he/she is going to introduce to the man is beautiful. If he/she arrives at a girl’s house， he/she would say the man he/she is going to introduce to the girl is wealthy. Nonetheless，according to the custom of Zhou, a man shouldn’t marry a woman on his own. On the other hand，if there is no matchmaker to knot the tie, a woman should remain single for life. If a woman explained her strong points to a man alone without the help of a matchmaker? she wouldn’t be accepted anyway although she might become old and therefore no longer beautiful* Only with the help of matchmakers can men and women marry without waiting till they are no longer young or pretty. So without using tricks or relying on some other powers? any undertakings will result in failure. Only those deceitful, persuasive talkers can convince you people to reap where you haven’t sown. ” The king said，“I see."