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?'
The opening of a long self-narration delivered in Yuying's borrowed voice. The crux is 那 in 那裡: here it is the interrogative nǎ ('where, how'), rhetorical rather than demonstrative — 'how should I have any such brother?' 得 is dé ('come by, obtain'); 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,' the childhood given name. 均州 (Junzhou) is the couple's home prefecture, established in Chapter 11. 都 in 都是 is dōu, 'both.'
'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.'
A verbatim recap of the quarrel that drove Cuilian to suicide in Chapter 11. The key reading is 塞 in 氣塞胸堂, 'the breath choked in the breast,' read sè (the literary 'to block'), not sāi. 為 in 因為 is wèi; 一雙 takes yì before 雙 (shuāng, first tone).
'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 dispatched by imperial commission'; 差 here is chāi ('to dispatch'), not chà ('to err'). The errand — carrying melons to the underworld — 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.'
This is the 'fall' the court witnessed as Yuying's sudden death. 趕不上 takes sandhi bú before 上 (shàng, fourth tone); 一跌 takes yì before 跌 (diē, first tone).
'You people are without manners! You do not know my name — how dare you lay hold of me?'
Cuilian rounds on the emperor and his court as strangers who have accosted her, sustaining the comedy of misrecognition to its sharpest point.
When Taizong heard this, he said to the assembled palace folk: 'It seems the imperial sister was stunned by her fall and talks nonsense.'
Taizong's provisional reading — a concussion, not a transmigration — sets up the arrival of Liu Quan, whose matching testimony will supply the true explanation.
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, to order'); 將 in 將玉英 is the disposal jiāng.
Cuilian's monologue is a deft piece of narrative economy: rather than re-stage the Chapter 11 quarrel, the storyteller has the transmigrated soul recite it as autobiography, so that the reader recognizes every detail — the hairpin alms, the husband's rebuke, the silk sash, the orphaned children — while the court hears only a delirious stranger. The speech doubles as proof: nothing in it could be known to the princess Yuying, and its precise agreement with Liu Quan's coming report is what will force the recognition. Taizong's cautious diagnosis of a mere fall keeps the mystery suspended just long enough for the two testimonies to be laid side by side.