自訴身世 Cuilian Tells Her True Life
宮主道：「我那裡得個甚麼皇兄、皇嫂？我娘家姓李，我的乳名喚做李翠蓮，我丈夫姓劉名全，兩口兒都是均州人氏。因為我三個月前拔金釵在門首齋僧，我丈夫怪我擅出內門，不遵婦道，罵了我幾句，是我氣塞胸堂，將白綾帶懸梁縊死，撇下一雙兒女，晝夜悲啼。今因我丈夫被唐王欽差，赴陰司進瓜果，閻王憐憫，放我夫妻回來。他在前走，因我來遲，趕不上他，我絆了一跌。你等無禮！不知姓名，怎敢扯我？」太宗聞言，與眾宮人道：「想是御妹跌昏了，胡說哩。」傳旨教太醫院進湯藥，將玉英扶入宮中。宫主道：「我那里得个甚么皇兄、皇嫂？我娘家姓李，我的乳名唤做李翠莲，我丈夫姓刘名全，两口儿都是均州人氏。因为我三个月前拔金钗在门首斋僧，我丈夫怪我擅出内门，不遵妇道，骂了我几句，是我气塞胸堂，将白绫带悬梁缢死，撇下一双儿女，昼夜悲啼。今因我丈夫被唐王钦差，赴阴司进瓜果，阎王怜悯，放我夫妻回来。他在前走，因我来迟，赶不上他，我绊了一跌。你等无礼！不知姓名，怎敢扯我？」太宗闻言，与众宫人道：「想是御妹跌昏了，胡说哩。」传旨教太医院进汤药，将玉英扶入宫中。
逐句解 Line by line
The Princess said: 'Where would I come by any royal brother or royal sister-in-law?'
She begins her life story, and it is not the life anyone in the garden is expecting. 那 in 那裡 is the question-word nǎ, not the pointing nà, and it is rhetorical: where would I come by a royal brother? 得 is dé, to come by; 甚麼 is shén me.
'My maiden family is surnamed Li; my milk-name was Li Cuilian. My husband is surnamed Liu, named Quan, and we are both natives of Junzhou.'
乳名 (rǔ míng) is a milk-name, what a child answers to before the grown-up name is settled. 均州, Junzhou, is the couple's home prefecture, established in Chapter 11. 都 in 都是 is dōu, 'both of us.'
'Three months ago, because I drew out a golden hairpin to give alms to a monk at our gate, my husband blamed me for leaving the inner doors without leave and failing in a wife's decorum, and rebuked me with several sharp words. My breath choked in my breast; I took a white silk sash, hanged myself from the beam, and left behind a pair of children to wail day and night.'
The quarrel of Chapter 11, retold detail for detail: a hairpin pulled out for a monk at the gate, a husband's rebuke, a white sash over a beam, two children left crying. 塞 in 氣塞胸堂 is sè, the literary 'to block,' not the everyday sāi one uses for stoppering a bottle — the breath jams in the chest. 為 in 因為 is wèi; 一雙 takes yì before the first tone of 雙 (shuāng).
'Now, because my husband was sent by the Tang king to bear melons and fruit down to the shades below, the King of the Dead took pity and released the two of us to return.'
欽差 (qīn chāi) is to be sent out under imperial commission; 差 is chāi, to dispatch, not chà, to fall short. The errand itself — carry melons down to the dead — was the burden laid on Liu Quan at the close of Chapter 11.
'He walked ahead, and because I came too late I could not catch him up, and so I stumbled and fell.'
Her stumble on the road and the court's sudden death in the garden are one event told from its two ends. In 趕不上 the 不 shifts to bú before the fourth tone of 上 (shàng); 一跌 takes yì before the first tone of 跌 (diē).
'You people are without manners! You do not know my name — how dare you lay hold of me?'
She rounds on the emperor of China as a man who has laid hands on her in the street. The misrecognition is at its sharpest here.
When Taizong heard this, he said to the assembled palace folk: 'It seems the imperial sister was stunned by her fall and talks nonsense.'
Concussion, not transmigration. It is the sensible reading, and it holds the mystery open exactly long enough for Liu Quan to arrive with the other half of the story.
He gave orders that the Court of Imperial Physicians send in broths and medicines, and had Yuying carried into the palace.
太醫院 is the Court of Imperial Physicians. 教 in 傳旨教 is jiào, to direct someone to do a thing; 將 in 將玉英 is the disposal jiāng, which takes hold of its object and moves it — here, the princess carried indoors.
The speech does two jobs at once. Rather than stage the Chapter 11 quarrel again, the storyteller has the borrowed soul recite it as her own life, so the reader knows every beat — the hairpin given away, the husband's sharp words, the white sash, the abandoned children — while the court hears only a stranger raving.
And it is evidence. Not one detail of it could be known to the princess Yuying, and its exact agreement with the report Liu Quan is about to give is what will finally force the recognition. Taizong's careful diagnosis of a bad fall is what keeps the two statements from being set side by side a moment too soon.