劉全喪妻 Liu Quan Loses His Wife
榜張數日，有一赴命進瓜果的賢者，本是均州人，姓劉名全，家有萬貫之資。只因妻李翠蓮在門首拔金釵齋僧，劉全罵了他幾句，說他不遵婦道，擅出閨門。李氏忍氣不過，自縊而死。撇下一雙兒女年幼，晝夜悲啼。劉全又不忍見，無奈，遂捨了性命，棄了家緣，撇了兒女，情願以死進瓜，將皇榜揭了，來見唐王。王傳旨意，教他去金亭館裡，頭頂一對南瓜，袖帶黃錢，口噙藥物。榜张数日，有一赴命进瓜果的贤者，本是均州人，姓刘名全，家有万贯之资。只因妻李翠莲在门首拔金钗斋僧，刘全骂了他几句，说他不遵妇道，擅出闺门。李氏忍气不过，自缢而死。撇下一双儿女年幼，昼夜悲啼。刘全又不忍见，无奈，遂舍了性命，弃了家缘，撇了儿女，情愿以死进瓜，将皇榜揭了，来见唐王。王传旨意，教他去金亭馆里，头顶一对南瓜，袖带黄钱，口噙药物。
逐句解 Line by line
The notice had been posted some days when a worthy man came forward to answer the summons and carry the melons and fruit — a native of Junzhou, surnamed Liu and named Quan, whose household possessed ten thousand strings of cash.
赴命 is to answer a summons and accept the charge. 均州 is Junzhou. 萬貫之資 is a fortune of ten thousand strings of cash — a string held a thousand coins, so the phrase simply means rich. Which matters: the volunteer is not doing this for money.
It was only that his wife, Li Cuilian, had at their gate drawn out a golden hairpin to give alms to a monk, for which Liu Quan railed at her a few words, saying she did not keep to a wife's proper conduct and had presumed to step beyond the women's quarters.
The small domestic disaster behind it all. 拔金釵齋僧 is to pull a gold hairpin from your hair and give it to feed a monk — an act of piety, and one that used a wife's own property. 婦道 is the proper conduct expected of a wife. 閨門 is the inner women's quarters; for a wife to be seen at the front gate at all was, by the strictest reading, immodest. So he scolded her for being generous in the wrong doorway.
Unable to swallow her anger, Lady Li hanged herself and died, leaving behind a pair of young children who wept day and night.
忍氣不過 is to be unable to swallow the humiliation — the standard phrase, and it appears in Chinese fiction at almost every point where a wife kills herself. 自縊 is zì yì, to hang oneself. 撇下 is to leave behind.
Liu Quan, moreover, could not bear the sight; and so, helpless, he gave up his own life, cast off his household ties, left his children, and, willing to die in order to present the melons, tore down the imperial notice and came to see the Tang king.
家緣 is the whole tangle of ties that make up a household. 揭榜 is to tear the notice off the wall, which is how you accepted a public commission — the physical act was the application. 將 is jiāng.
The king issued his command, bidding him go to the Golden Pavilion Lodge, there to balance a pair of pumpkins upon his head, to carry yellow paper-money in his sleeve, and to hold a drug in his mouth.
The delivery instructions, which are macabre and entirely practical. 金亭館 is the Golden Pavilion Lodge. 黃錢 is yellow spirit-money, burned so the dead can spend it — travel expenses. 口噙藥物 is to hold the drug in the mouth: the poison that will get him there. 教 is jiào. Pumpkins on the head, cash in the sleeve, poison in the mouth.
The Liu Quan episode, which the next chapter completes, opens on a small domestic tragedy. A husband rebukes his wife over an act of charity; she hangs herself; grief drives him to volunteer for death himself.
His willingness to die to deliver the emperor's melons — pumpkins balanced on his head, spirit-money in his sleeve, poison in his mouth — ties an ordinary household to the imperial debt, and carries the chapter's traffic between the worlds into one last errand.