僖公三十二年冬，晉文公卒。庚辰，將殯于曲沃，出絳，柩有聲如牛。卜偃使大夫拜曰：“君命大事，將有西師過軼我，擊之必大捷焉。”

杞子自鄭使告于秦曰：“鄭人使我掌其北門之管，若潛師以來，國可得也。”

穆公訪諸蹇叔。蹇叔曰：“勞師以襲遠，非所聞也。師勞力竭，遠主備之，無乃不可乎？師之所為，鄭必知之；勤而無所，必有悖心；且行千里，其誰不知？”公辭焉。召孟明、西乞、白乙，使出師於東門之外。蹇叔哭之曰：“孟子！吾見師之出，而不見其入也。”公使謂之曰：“爾何知！中壽，爾墓之木拱矣！”蹇叔之子與師，哭而送之曰：“晉人禦師必於殽，殽有二陵焉。其南陵，夏后皋之墓也；其北陵，文王之所辟風雨也。必死是間，余收爾骨焉。”秦師遂東。

僖公三十三年春，秦師過周北門，左右免冑而下，超乘者三百乘。王孫滿尚幼，觀之，言於王曰：“秦師輕而無禮，必敗。輕則寡謀，無禮則脫，入險而脫，又不能謀，能無敗乎？”及滑，鄭商人弦高，將市於周，遇之，以乘韋先牛十二犒師。曰：“寡君聞吾子，將步師出於敝邑，敢犒從者，不腆敝邑，為從者之淹。居則具一日之積，行則備一夕之衛。”且使遽告于鄭。

鄭穆公使視客館，則束載、厲兵、秣馬矣。使皇武子辭焉，曰：“吾子淹久於敝邑，唯是脯資，餼牽竭矣。為吾子之將行也，鄭之有原圃，猶秦之有具囿也。吾子取其麋鹿，以閒敝邑，若何？”杞子奔齊，逢孫、楊孫奔宋。孟明曰：“鄭有備矣，不可冀也，攻之不克，圍之不繼，吾其還也。”滅滑而還。

晉原軫曰：“秦違蹇叔而以貪勤民，天奉我也。奉不可失，敵不可縱。縱敵患生，違天不祥，必伐秦師。”欒枝曰：“未報秦施而伐其師，其為死君乎？”先軫曰：“秦不哀吾喪，而伐吾同姓，秦則無禮，何施之為？吾聞之，一日縱敵，數世之患也。謀及子孫，可謂死君乎？”遂發命，遽興姜戎，子墨衰絰，梁弘御戎，萊駒為右。夏四月，辛巳，敗秦師于殽。獲百里孟明視、西乞術、白乙丙，以歸。遂墨以葬文公。晉於是始墨。

文嬴請三帥，曰：“彼實構吾二君，寡君若得而食之，不厭，君何辱討焉？使歸就戮于秦，以逞寡君之志，若何？”公許之。先軫朝，問秦囚。公曰：“夫人請之，吾舍之矣。”先軫怒曰：“武夫力而拘諸原，婦人暫而免諸國；墮軍實而長寇讎，亡無日矣！”不顧而唾。公使陽處父追之，及諸河，則在舟中矣。釋左驂，以公命贈孟明。孟明稽首曰：“君之惠，不以纍臣釁鼓，使歸就戮于秦，寡君之以為戮，死且不朽，若從君惠而免之，三年將拜君賜。”

秦伯素服郊次，鄉師而哭曰：“孤違蹇叔，以辱二三子，孤之罪也。不替孟明，孤之過也，大夫何罪？且吾不以一眚掩大德。”

In winter, in the twelfth month, on Jimao, Chong'er, marquis of Jin, died. On Gengchen, they were conveying his coffin to place it in the temple at Quwo, when, as it was leaving Jiang, there came a voice from it like the lowing of an angry bull. The diviner Yan made the great officers do obeisance to the coffin, saying, "His lordship is charging us about a great affair. There will be an army of the west passing by us; we shall smite it, and obtain a great victory."

Now Qi Zi had sent information from Zheng to Qin, saying, "The people of Zheng have entrusted to my charge the key of their north gate. If an army come secretly upon it, the city may be got. Duke Mu of Qi consulted Jian Shu about the subject, and that officer replied, 'That a distant place can be surprised by an army toiled with a long march is what I have not learned. The strength of the men will be wearied out with toil, and the distant lord will be prepared for them;—does not the undertaking seem impracticable? Zheng is sure to know the doings of our army. Our soldiers, enduring the toil, and getting nothing, will become disaffected. And moreover, to whom can such a march of a thousand li be unknown?" The earl, however, declined this counsel, called for Mengming, Xiqi, and Boyi, and ordered them to collect an army outside the east gate. Jian Shu wept over it, and said, "General Meng. I see the army's going forth, but I shall not see its entry again." The earl sent to say to him, "What do you know, you centenarian? It would take two hands to grasp the tree upon your grave!" Jian Shu's son also went in the expedition, and the old man escorted him, weeping and saying, "It will be at Yao that the men of Jin will resist the army. At Yao there are two ridges. On the southern ridge is the grave of the sovereign Gao of the Xia dynasty; the northern is where king Wen took refuge from the wind and rain. You will die between them. There I will gather your bones." Immediately after this the army of Qin marched to the east.

In spring, the army of Qin was passing by the northgate of [the royal city of] Zhou, when the mailed men on the right and left of the chariots [merely] took off their helmets and descended, springing afterwards with a bound into the chariots,—the 300 of them. Prince Wangsun Man was still quite young; but when he saw this, he said to the king, 'The army of Qin acts lightly and is unobservant of propriety;—it is sure to be defeated. Acting so lightly, there must be little counsel in it. Unobservant of propriety, it will be heedless. When it enters a dangerous pass, and is heedless, being moreover without wise counsel, can it escape defeat?

When the army entered Hua, Xian Gao, a merchant of Zheng, on his way to traffic in Zhou, met it. He went with four dressed hides, preceding 12 oxen, to distribute them among the soldiers, and said [to the general], "My prince, having heard that you were marching with your army, and would pass by his poor city, ventures thus to refresh your attendants. Our poor city, when your attendants come there, can supply them, while they stay, with one day's provisions, and provide them, when they go, with one night's escort." At the same time he sent intelligence of what was taking place with all possible speed to Zheng. 

The earl of Zheng, [on receiving the tidings], sent to see what was going on at the lodging houses which had been built for the guards of Qin, and found there bundles all ready, waggons loaded, weapons sharpened, and the horses fed. On this he sent Huang Wu to decline their further services, and say to them, "You have been detained, Sirs, too long at our poor city. Our dried flesh, our money, our rice, our cattle, are all used up. We have our park of Yuan as Qin has that of Ju. Suppose you supply yourselves with deer from that to give our poor city some rest." On this Qi Zi fled to Qi, while Feng Sun and Yang Sun fled to Song. Mengming said, "Zheng is prepared for us. We cannot hope to surprise it. If we attack it, we shall not immediately take it; and if we lay siege to it, we are too far off to receive succour. Let us return." The army of Qin then proceeded to extinguish Hua, and returned.

[Xian] Zhen of Yuan said to the marquis of Jin, "[The earl of] Qin, contrary to the counsel of Jian Shu, has, under the influence of greed, been imposing toil on his people;—this is an opportunity given us by Heaven. It should not be lost; our enemy should not be let go unassailed. Such disobedience to Heaven will be inauspicious;—we must attack the army of Qin." Luan Zhi said, "We have not yet repaid the services rendered to our last lord by Qin, and if we now attack its army, this is to make him dead indeed!" Xian Zhen replied, "Qin has shown no sympathy with us in our loss, but has attacked [two States of] our surname. It is Qin who has been unobservant of propriety;—what have we to do with [former] favours? I have heard that if you let your enemy go a single day, you are preparing the misfortunes of several generations. In taking counsel for his posterity, can we be said to be treating our last ruler as dead?"

The [new marquis] instantly issued orders [for the expedition]. The Jiang Rong were called into the field on the spur of the moment. The marquis [joined the army], wearing his son's-garb of unhemmed mourning, stained with black, and also his mourning scarf. Liang Hong was his charioteer, and Lai Ju his spearman on the right. In summer, in the 4th month, on Xinsi, he defeated the army of Qin at Yao, took [the commanders], Boli Mengmingshi, Xiqi Shu, and Boyi Bing, prisoners, and brought them back with him to the capital, from which he proceeded in his dark-stained mourning garb to inter duke Wen, which thenceforth became the custom in Jin. Wen Ying [duke Wen's Qin wife] interceded for the prisoners, saying, "In consequence of their stirring up enmity between you and him, [my father], the earl of Qin, will not be satisfied even if he should eat them. Why should you condescend to punish them? Why should you not send them back to be put to death in Qin, to satisfy the wish of my lord there?" The marquis acceded to her advice.

Xian Zhen went to court, and asked about the Qin prisoners. The marquis replied, 'My father's widow requested it, and I have let them go." The officer in a rage said, 'Your warriors by their strength caught them in the field, and now they are let go for a woman's brief word in the city. By such overthrow of the services of the army, and such prolongation of the resentment of our enemies, our ruin will come at no distant day." With this, without turning round, he spat on the ground.

The marquis sent Yang Chufu to pursue after the liberated commanders; but when he got to the He, they were already on board a boat. Loosing the outside horse on the left of his chariot, he said he had the marquis's order to present it to Mengming. Mengming bowed his head to the ground, and said, "Your prince's kindness in not taking the blood of me his prisoner to smear his drums [See Mencius, I. Pt. I., vii. 4], but liberating me to go and be killed in Qin;—this kindness, should my prince indeed execute me, I will not forget in death. If by your prince's kindness I escape this fate, in three years I will thank him for his gift."

The earl of Qin, in white mourning garments, was waiting for them in the borders of the capital, and wept, looking in the direction where the army had been lost. "By my opposition to the counsel of Jian Shu," he said, "I brought disgrace on you, my generals. Mine has been the crime; and that I did not [before] dismiss Mengming [from such a service] was my fault. What fault are you chargeable with? I will not for one error shut out of view your great merits."