原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
含詞賦 With rhapsody
掌案判官
The Magistrate of the Rolls
頭頂烏紗，腰圍犀角。头顶乌纱，腰围犀角。
頭頂烏紗飄軟帶，腰圍犀角顯金廂。头顶乌纱飘软带，腰围犀角显金厢。
手擎牙笏凝祥靄，身著羅袍隱瑞光。手擎牙笏凝祥霭，身著罗袍隐瑞光。
腳踏一雙粉底靴，登雲促霧；脚踏一双粉底靴，登云促雾；
懷揣一本生死簿，注定存亡。怀揣一本生死簿，注定存亡。
鬢髮蓬鬆飄耳上，鬍鬚飛舞繞腮旁。鬓发蓬松飘耳上，胡须飞舞绕腮旁。
昔日曾為唐國相，如今掌案侍閻王。昔日曾为唐国相，如今掌案侍阎王。
逐句解 Line by line
頭頂烏紗，腰圍犀角。
头顶乌纱，腰围犀角。
On his head a cap of black gauze; about his waist a belt of rhinoceros horn.
烏紗 the black-gauze cap of officialdom; 犀角(帶) a rhinoceros-horn girdle, insignia of a senior minister.
頭頂烏紗飄軟帶，腰圍犀角顯金廂。
头顶乌纱飘软带，腰围犀角显金厢。
The black gauze on his head trails soft streamers; the horn about his waist gleams with gold inlay.
金廂 (jīn xiāng) = 金鑲, 'gold-inlaid'; here 廂 writes 鑲.
手擎牙笏凝祥靄，身著羅袍隱瑞光。
手擎牙笏凝祥霭，身著罗袍隐瑞光。
In his hands he lifts an ivory tablet wreathed in auspicious mist; on his body a gauze robe half-veils an auspicious glow.
牙笏 (yá hù) the ivory audience-tablet held at the breast. 著 here zhuó, 'wears.' 羅袍 a robe of fine silk gauze.
腳踏一雙粉底靴，登雲促霧；
脚踏一双粉底靴，登云促雾；
On his feet a pair of white-soled boots that mount the clouds and hasten the mist;
粉底靴 the white-soled boots of formal court dress. 登雲促霧 marks him as a spirit-official who moves between the realms.
懷揣一本生死簿，注定存亡。
怀揣一本生死簿，注定存亡。
in his bosom he tucks a single register of life and death, wherein survival and perishing stand fixed.
生死簿 (shēngsǐ bù) the ledger of allotted life-spans kept in the courts of the dead; its entries 注定 ('fix by inscription') each man's destiny.
鬢髮蓬鬆飄耳上，鬍鬚飛舞繞腮旁。
鬓发蓬松飘耳上，胡须飞舞绕腮旁。
His temple-locks, loose and unkempt, flutter above his ears; his beard, streaming and dancing, curls about his cheeks.
A conventional flourish of the descriptive 賦, lending the figure a wild, spectral vigour.
昔日曾為唐國相，如今掌案侍閻王。
昔日曾为唐国相，如今掌案侍阎王。
In days gone by he served as a minister of the Tang; now he keeps the rolls in attendance upon King Yama.
為 here wéi, 'served as'; 相 xiàng, 'minister.' 掌案 'in charge of the case-rolls'; 閻王 (Yánwáng), Yama, sovereign of the dead. The couplet identifies the figure as 崔珏, once a Tang official, now an infernal magistrate.
總評 Commentary
The rhapsody dresses the underworld judge entirely in the regalia of a living Tang minister — black-gauze cap, horn belt, ivory tablet, court robe — so that the machinery of the afterlife appears as a mirror of the imperial bureaucracy above. The single detail that unsettles the portrait is the register of life and death tucked in his bosom: the instrument by which this courtly figure now dispenses fate. The closing couplet's turn from 昔日 to 如今 completes the identification of Cui Jue, whose earthly rank is precisely what makes him useful to the emperor's cause.