詩證還鄉 A Poem Attests; The Return to Junzhou
有詩為證：有诗为证：
他兩個辭了君王，徑來均州城裡，見舊家業、兒女俱好，兩口兒宣揚善果不題。他两个辞了君王，径来均州城里，见旧家业、儿女俱好，两口儿宣扬善果不题。
逐句解 Line by line
There is a poem in witness:
有詩為證, 'there is a poem in proof of it,' is the storyteller calling a witness — the formula that ushers in a summary verse. 為 in 為證 is wèi, 'as, by way of.'
That men are born and men must die is a bond ordained before; and short or long, each life is measured to its allotted years.
The couplet states the arithmetic the episode has been working all along: birth and death follow from 前緣, the bond formed in an earlier life, and every span is measured out beforehand. In 短短長長, 'the short ones and the long ones,' both occurrences of 長 read cháng, long, not zhǎng.
Liu Quan bore the melons down and returned to the world of light; and borrowing a body to come back, Li Cuilian lived once more.
The second couplet reduces the whole affair to its two wonders: the melon-bearer brought back alive, and Li Cuilian returned in another woman's body. 還 in 還魂 is huán.
The two took leave of their sovereign and went straight to the city of Junzhou, where they found their old estate and their children all in good order; and the couple made known the good fruits of their karma — of which we say no more.
One character doing two jobs in a single line: 兒女, 'sons and daughters,' reads 兒 as the full noun ér, while 兩口兒, 'the pair of them,' carries it as the little suffix er. 善果, 'good fruit,' is the harvest of their almsgiving and their good faith. 辭了 takes the completed-action le.
The summary quatrain closes the Liu Quan episode with a formal statement of its moral arithmetic. The opening couplet turns the tale into doctrine — birth, death, and the length of a life are all matters of a bond formed earlier and an allotment already fixed — while the second reduces the affair to two named wonders: the melon-bearer's reward and the borrowed-body return.
The prose coda then folds the thread shut in the storyteller's usual manner, putting the couple back in Junzhou with estate and children intact. With that the business carried over from Chapter 11 is discharged, and the chapter is free to turn to the second debt Taizong owes the underworld: the gold borrowed from the poor almsgiver Xiang Liang, and the great rite of deliverance that follows it.