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繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
冤龍索命
The Ghost Demands His Life
當晚回宮，心中只是憂悶。想那夢中之龍，哭啼啼哀告求生，豈知無常，難免此患。思念多時，漸覺神魂倦怠，身體不安。當夜二更時分，只聽得宮門外有號泣之聲，太宗愈加驚恐。正朦朧睡間，又見那涇河龍王手提著一顆血淋淋的首級，高叫：「唐太宗，還我命來！還我命來！你昨夜滿口許諾救我，怎麼天明時反宣人曹官來斬我？你出來，你出來，我與你到閻君處折辨折辨。」他扯住太宗，再三嚷鬧不放。太宗箝口難言，只掙得汗流遍體。当晚回宫，心中只是忧闷。想那梦中之龙，哭啼啼哀告求生，岂知无常，难免此患。思念多时，渐觉神魂倦怠，身体不安。当夜二更时分，只听得宫门外有号泣之声，太宗愈加惊恐。正朦胧睡间，又见那泾河龙王手提著一颗血淋淋的首级，高叫：「唐太宗，还我命来！还我命来！你昨夜满口许诺救我，怎么天明时反宣人曹官来斩我？你出来，你出来，我与你到阎君处折辨折辨。」他扯住太宗，再三嚷闹不放。太宗箝口难言，只挣得汗流遍体。
逐句解 Line by line
當晚回宮，心中只是憂悶。想那夢中之龍，哭啼啼哀告求生，豈知無常，難免此患。思念多時，漸覺神魂倦怠，身體不安。
当晚回宫，心中只是忧闷。想那梦中之龙，哭啼啼哀告求生，岂知无常，难免此患。思念多时，渐觉神魂倦怠，身体不安。
That evening he returned to the palace, his heart weighed down with gloom. He thought of the dragon in his dream, weeping and pleading for its life — who could have known that impermanence would allow no escape from this calamity? Brooding a long while, he gradually felt his spirit grow weary and his body ill at ease.
那 is nà; 無常 ('impermanence,' Sanskrit anitya) here carries its Buddhist sense of the inescapability of fate and death. The emperor's guilt begins to tell on body and soul.
當夜二更時分，只聽得宮門外有號泣之聲，太宗愈加驚恐。
当夜二更时分，只听得宫门外有号泣之声，太宗愈加惊恐。
That night, about the second watch, he heard a sound of wailing outside the palace gate, and Taizong grew all the more afraid.
更 in 二更 ('the second watch,' roughly 9–11 p.m.) is gēng; 號泣 is 'loud weeping.' The haunting announces itself first as a cry in the dark.
正朦朧睡間，又見那涇河龍王手提著一顆血淋淋的首級，高叫：「唐太宗，還我命來！還我命來！你昨夜滿口許諾救我，怎麼天明時反宣人曹官來斬我？你出來，你出來，我與你到閻君處折辨折辨。」
正朦胧睡间，又见那泾河龙王手提著一颗血淋淋的首级，高叫：「唐太宗，还我命来！还我命来！你昨夜满口许诺救我，怎么天明时反宣人曹官来斩我？你出来，你出来，我与你到阎君处折辨折辨。」
As he drowsed, he saw again the Dragon King of the Jing, holding in his hand a blood-dripping severed head, crying aloud: 'Tang Taizong, give me back my life! Give me back my life! Last night your mouth was full of promises to save me — why then, at daybreak, did you turn about and summon the Registrar of Human Affairs to behead me? Come out, come out! Let us go before the King of the Underworld and argue it out.'
那 is nà; 著 in 手提著 ('holding') is the durative zhe; both 還 in the repeated 還我命 ('give back my life') are huán. 閻君 is Yama, judge of the dead; 折辨 (= 折辯) is 'to argue a case out.' The dragon carries his own severed head as the evidence of the broken word.
他扯住太宗，再三嚷鬧不放。太宗箝口難言，只掙得汗流遍體。
他扯住太宗，再三嚷闹不放。太宗箝口难言，只挣得汗流遍体。
He seized hold of Taizong and would not let go, clamoring again and again. Taizong's mouth was stopped and he could not speak, and struggled until the sweat ran all over his body.
得 in 掙得 ('struggled until') is the resultative de; 箝口難言 is 'the mouth clamped shut, hard to speak.' The all-powerful emperor is rendered helpless before the ghost of the creature he failed to save.
總評 Commentary
The wronged dragon returns as a ghost, and the scene inverts every power relation of the waking court. The emperor who commands armies and ministers is seized by the collar, unable to speak or break free, sweating with terror, while the dragon — carrying his own bleeding head as proof — hurls the accusation the chapter has been building toward: 你昨夜滿口許諾救我, 'last night your mouth was full of promises to save me.'
The dragon's demand to drag Taizong before 閻君, the King of the Underworld, to 'argue it out' plants the seed of the chapter's sequel: the emperor's own journey to the courts of the dead, which the next chapter will unfold. The haunting is not mere horror but a summons to judgment — the broken imperial promise must be answered before the tribunal of Yama. And so the petty dragon-and-diviner affair, through the hinge of a sovereign's careless word, becomes the occasion for the greatest of the novel's early set-pieces: Taizong's death and descent into hell.