苦辭不受 He Will Not Take It
那相良兩口兒只是朝天禮拜，那裡敢受。道：「小的若受了這些金銀，就死得快了。雖然是燒紙記庫，此乃冥冥之事；況萬歲爺爺那世裡借了金銀，有何憑據？我決不敢受。」尉遲恭道：「陛下說，借你的東西，有崔判官作保可證。你收下罷。」相良道：「就死也是不敢受的。」那相良两口儿只是朝天礼拜，那里敢受。道：「小的若受了这些金银，就死得快了。虽然是烧纸记库，此乃冥冥之事；况万岁爷爷那世里借了金银，有何凭据？我决不敢受。」尉迟恭道：「陛下说，借你的东西，有崔判官作保可证。你收下罢。」相良道：「就死也是不敢受的。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Xiang couple only worshipped toward heaven; how should they dare accept it?
那 divides inside the line: 那相良 is the pointing nà, 'that Xiang Liang,' while 那裡敢受, 'how would they dare take it,' is the question-word nǎ used rhetorically. 朝天, facing heaven, reads 朝 as cháo; 兩口兒 carries the little suffix er.
They said: 'If we humble folk were to take this gold and silver, we should die the sooner for it.'
得 in 死得快, 'die all the quicker for it,' is the outcome de; both occurrences of 了 are the completed-action le.
'Though it is true we burned paper to have it recorded to our account, that is a matter of the unseen dark; and besides, when His Majesty borrowed gold in that other world, what proof of it is there?'
冥冥之事, a matter of the unseen dark, names his scruple exactly: a bargain struck in the other world leaves no paper in this one. 那世裡 uses the pointing nà.
'We will by no means dare to receive it.'
The 不 of 不敢 keeps its base tone bù before the third tone of 敢 (gǎn).
Yuchi Gong said: 'His Majesty says that Judge Cui stood surety for what was borrowed of you, and can bear witness to it. Take it, then.'
崔判官, Judge Cui, is the underworld magistrate who in Chapter 11 altered Taizong's entry in the ledger to lengthen his life and arranged the loan. He is produced here as the debt's guarantor, 作保 — a reference the debtor cannot check and has never met.
Xiang Liang said: 'Even were we to die for it, we dare not take it.'
Final, and absolute. The surname 相 in 相良 is xiàng; the 不 of 不敢 is bù.
Xiang Liang's refusal is the moral centre of the episode. His grounds are two, and both are of a piece with the man: to take sudden unearned wealth would only hasten his death, and a debt contracted in the invisible world can show no proof in this one. Even Yuchi Gong's appeal to Judge Cui as guarantor — a witness from the very court that arranged the loan — will not move him.
The incorruptibility is not mere stubbornness but a kind of piety: he gave without any thought of return, and he will not now be made to profit by it. His refusal forces the emperor to find a third way, one that honours the debt without running over the man's conscience.