On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c5.10

v1.c5.10

³ The original is poh-luan-fan-chêng (撥亂反正). Here the word poh, we are told, is to be taken in the sense of regulate or reduce to order, and chêng denotes settled government. The phrase is applied to the Ch'ün-Ch'iu of Confucius by Kung-yang at the end of his commentary on that classic. It occurs also in the Han-Shu (ch. 22) where the commentator explains it as meaning "to exterminate disorder and restore a right state of affairs". One of T'ai Tsung's Ministers is represented as applying the phrase to that emperor in a conversation with him, saying to His Majesty that "in bringing order out of anarchy and restoring good government (poh-luan-fan-chêng) and in raising men from mud and ashes" he had far transcended the achievments of the founders of the Chow and Han dynasties.