招賢訪相 The Call for a Volunteer
自此時,蓋天下無一人不行善者。一壁廂又出招賢榜,招人進瓜果到陰司裡去;一壁廂將寶藏庫金銀一庫,差尉遲恭、胡敬德上河南開封府,訪相良還債。自此时,盖天下无一人不行善者。一壁厢又出招贤榜,招人进瓜果到阴司里去;一壁厢将宝藏库金银一库,差尉迟恭、胡敬德上河南开封府,访相良还债。
逐句解 Line by line
From this time, there was not a soul in all the realm who did not do good.
A hyperbole, and delivered deadpan: not one person in the empire failed to do good. 行善 is xíng shàn, to do good.
On one hand, a call for a worthy volunteer was posted, seeking someone to carry melons and fruit down to the shadow-world;
A 招賢榜 is a public notice calling for a capable man to come forward — the standard recruiting device of Chinese fiction, normally used to find a general. Here the job description is: die, and take some fruit with you.
and on the other, a vault of gold and silver was taken from the treasure-store, and Yuchi Gong and Hu Jingde were dispatched to Kaifeng prefecture in Henan to seek out Xiang Liang and repay the debt.
寶藏庫, bǎo zàng kù, is the treasury; 藏 is zàng. 差 is chāi, to dispatch. The surname 相 is xiàng: Xiàng Liáng, the man of Kaifeng whose deposited merit-gold bought the emperor past the hungry ghosts. 還債 is huán zhài, to repay a debt — and the emperor is sending two senior generals to settle it in cash, in person.
Two errands come out of the emperor's underworld debts: a call for a volunteer to die and deliver the promised melons, and two generals sent to repay Xiàng Liáng's borrowed merit-gold in the world above.
The passage closes the ledger of the netherworld journey — loan settled, pledge still outstanding — while the call for a volunteer opens the door to the Liu Quan episode that follows.