魏徵守後 Wei Zheng Guards the Rear Gate
如此二三日，又聽得後宰門乒乓乒乓，磚瓦亂響。曉來即宣眾臣曰：「連日前門幸喜無事，今夜後門又響，卻不又驚殺寡人也。」茂公進前奏道：「前門不安，是敬德、叔寶護衛；後門不安，該著魏徵護衛。」太宗准奏，又宣魏徵今夜把守後門。徵領旨，當夜結束整齊，提著那誅龍的寶劍，侍立在後宰門前，真個的好英雄也。他怎生打扮：如此二三日，又听得后宰门乒乓乒乓，砖瓦乱响。晓来即宣众臣曰：「连日前门幸喜无事，今夜后门又响，却不又惊杀寡人也。」茂公进前奏道：「前门不安，是敬德、叔宝护卫；后门不安，该着魏征护卫。」太宗准奏，又宣魏征今夜把守后门。征领旨，当夜结束整齐，提着那诛龙的宝剑，侍立在后宰门前，真个的好英雄也。他怎生打扮：
逐句解 Line by line
After two or three days like this, there came again from the rear palace gate a banging and clattering, bricks and tiles rattling in confusion. At dawn he summoned the officials and said: 'For days now, happily, the front gate has been quiet; but tonight the rear gate sounds again — will this not frighten me to death once more?'
The ghost finds the back door. 後宰門 is the rear palace gate, and 乒乓 (pīng pāng) is the clatter of thrown objects — the same two characters that now name table tennis. The haunting has simply moved to the one entrance nobody is watching.
Maogong came forward and submitted: 'The front gate's unrest, Jingde and Shubao guard; the rear gate's unrest should be given to Wei Zheng to guard.'
著 in 該著, 'should be assigned to,' is the directing zhuó. The guard is extended to the rear, and the man chosen for it is no soldier but the civil minister who started all this.
Taizong approved the proposal and summoned Wei Zheng to guard the rear gate that night. Wei Zheng received the order, and that evening, fully accoutred, holding that very sword which had slain the dragon, he stood in attendance before the rear palace gate — a fine hero indeed. See how he was arrayed:
The detail to hold on to is the weapon. He goes to the door carrying 那誅龍的寶劍, the very blade that executed the dragon, so the sword that made the ghost is now posted against it. 誅龍 is to execute the dragon; 著 in 提著, 'holding,' is the ongoing-state zhe, and 那 is nà. The 賦 follows.
A raw-silk kerchief bound at his brow, a brocade robe with jade belt hanging at his waist.
熟絹 is finished silk and 抹額 a band tied across the forehead. Notice how different the wardrobe is from the generals': silk, brocade and a jade belt, not a plate of armor anywhere. This is a civil minister dressed for a fight.
His wind-catching cloak-sleeves flutter bright as frost, outmatching the very visage of the door-gods Tu and Lei.
氅袖 are wide cloak-sleeves. 壘荼 squeezes together the names of the old door-gods 神荼 and 鬱壘 — 荼 is also read shū — who had guarded Chinese gateways since long before the Tang. The claim that 魏徵's glare beats theirs is the new myth elbowing the old one aside.
Black boots planted, he sits four-square; a keen blade in his hand, fierce and bold.
烏靴 are black leather boots and 兇驍 is ferocious and valiant. The scholar has been given a warrior's stance, planted and ready.
His two round eyes glaring, he scans on every side — what evil spirit would dare approach?
四邊瞧 is to look all around. The portrait ends, as the generals' did, on a rhetorical question — what evil spirit would dare? — which is less a question than a dare. 那 is nà.
When the haunting shifts to the rear gate — bricks and tiles clattering there once the front is safely guarded — it is 魏徵 who takes the watch, and his portrait completes the chapter's trio of guardians. Where 秦叔寶 and 尉遲敬德 were rendered in dragon-scale mail, 魏徵 the chancellor appears as a civil minister armed: raw-silk headband and brocade robe, but planted in black boots with a keen blade in hand and his eyes going everywhere.
The detail that he takes up 那誅龍的寶劍, the very sword that slew the dragon, quietly closes a loop: the blade of the dream-execution now stands guard against the executed dragon's ghost. And the 賦 reaches again for door-god lore, claiming that 魏徵's fierce visage outdoes even 神荼 and 鬱壘, the archaic door-gods of pre-Tang belief. The chapter thus layers its new door-god myth over the old one, and the whole episode becomes an origin-story for the guardians of the Chinese threshold.