So panicked was Taizong that he shrank and dodged this way and that, crying only, 'Master Cui, save me! Master Cui, save me!'

慌得 uses de to hook the state to its cause: so panicked that. 藏藏躲躲 is ducking and hiding, with 藏 as cáng. The Son of Heaven is dodging behind a clerk.

The magistrate said, 'Your Majesty, those are the ghost-souls of the princes and chieftains of the sixty-four places of dust-and-smoke and the seventy-two bands of grass-bandits — all unjustly dead, their grievances unresolved, unclaimed and unmastered, unable to win rebirth, and lacking any cash for the journey; all are destitute, forlorn hungry ghosts.'

The magistrate names them, and the tally is a formula: 六十四處煙塵, sixty-four risings of "dust and smoke," and 七十二處草寇, seventy-two bands of "grass bandits" — the conventional count of rebel forces put down in the wars that founded the Tang. 王子 is wáng zǐ. 盡 is jìn. 盤纏 is travelling money — and the reason they are stuck here is that they have none, which is about to become the emperor's problem.

'If Your Majesty will give them some money, only then can I save you.'

Two different 得 in one sentence: the first is dé, to get hold of and hand over, and the second is the light de that turns "save" into "am able to save." Note what the magistrate is proposing. This is not an exorcism. It is a payment.

Taizong said, 'I have come here empty-handed — where should I get any money?'

那裡 here is the question, nǎ lǐ, "where" — 那 as nǎ, not the pointing nà. 得有 uses dé, to come to have. He arrived as a soul, with no pockets.

The magistrate said, 'Your Majesty, there is a man in the world of light who has a certain store of gold and silver on deposit here in my shadow-office.'

And here is the mechanism the whole scene turns on. 寄放 is to leave something on deposit: money given to monks or spent on charity in the world above is credited to your account in the world below. It is a merit system run as a bank, complete with holdings, statements and — as we are about to see — lending.

'Your Majesty may put your name to a bond, with your humble magistrate standing surety, and borrow a vault of his, to dole out to these hungry ghosts — only so can you pass through.'

出名立一約 is to put your name to a contract; 作保 is to stand as guarantor. 給散, gěi sàn, is to hand out. 方得 uses dé: only then can you. A bond, a surety and a disbursement — the emperor is being walked through a loan application.

Taizong asked, 'Who is this man?'

The obvious question: whose money?

The magistrate said, 'He is a man of Kaifeng prefecture in Henan, surnamed Xiang and named Liang, who has thirteen vaults of gold and silver here.'

A man in Kaifeng, of all places. The surname 相 is read xiàng, so he is Xiàng Liáng — and he has thirteen vaults of gold and silver on deposit below, accumulated by giving it away above. He has no idea he is about to make an imperial loan.

'If Your Majesty borrows some of his, you need only repay him when you reach the world of light.'

還他, huán tā, is to pay him back; 還 is huán. Note that the repayment is assumed, arranged and eventually made — the novel comes back to Xiàng Liáng later in the chapter, and the debt is settled in full.