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?
The reading of 那 divides within the line: 那相良 is demonstrative nà ('that Xiang Liang'), while 那裡敢受 ('how would they dare accept') is the rhetorical interrogative nǎ. 朝天 ('toward heaven') reads 朝 as cháo; 兩口兒 carries the 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 the quicker') is the resultative de; the two occurrences of 了 take the aspectual 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 precisely the almsgiver's scruple: an otherworldly transaction leaves no earthly warrant. 那世裡 uses the demonstrative nà.
'We will by no means dare to receive it.'
The 不 of 不敢 keeps its base tone bù before 敢 (gǎn, third tone).
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 ledger to extend his life and arranged the loan; he is cited here as the debt's guarantor (作保).
Xiang Liang said: 'Even were we to die for it, we dare not take it.'
The refusal is 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 center of the episode. His grounds are twofold and wholly of a piece with his character: to accept 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 — cannot move him. The almsgiver's incorruptibility is not mere stubbornness but a kind of piety: he gave without thought of return, and will not now be made to profit by it. His intransigence forces the emperor to find a third way, one that honors the debt without violating the man's conscience.