棺中大叫 The Cry from the Coffin
正講處,只聽得棺中連聲大叫道:「渰殺我耶!渰殺我耶!」諕得個文官武將心慌,皇后嬪妃膽戰。一個個:正讲处,只听得棺中连声大叫道:「渰杀我耶!渰杀我耶!」諕得个文官武将心慌,皇后嫔妃胆战。一个个:
逐句解 Line by line
Just as they were disputing, they heard from within the coffin a cry raised again and again: 'You're drowning me! You're drowning me!'
渰殺, yǎn shā, is to drown — 渰 being a variant writing of 淹. The emperor's first words back among the living are the last words of his journey out of the dead: he is still in the river. 得 here is the linking de; 中 is zhōng.
It so terrified the civil officers and military officials that their hearts quailed, and the empress and consorts trembled in their gall. Every one of them —
諕 is xià, a variant of 嚇, to frighten. 文官武將 — civil officials and military officers — is the standard pairing for a whole court; 將 is jiàng. The tag 一個個, "every last one of them," introduces the rhapsody of the panicking court that follows.
The resurrection is announced not by a stately awakening but by a muffled shout from inside a coffin — 「渰殺我耶!」, I'm drowning — the last words of the underworld journey bursting through into the world of the living. The emperor's mind is still in the River Wei while his body is in the White-Tiger Hall.
The terror this causes among the assembled court sets up the comic set-piece that follows, and vindicates Wei Zheng on the spot.