敕建相國 The Xiangguo Temple Is Built
尉遲恭見他苦苦推辭，只得具本差人啟奏。太宗見了本，知相良不受金銀，道：「此誠為善良長者。」即傳旨教胡敬德將金銀與他修理寺院，起蓋生祠，請僧作善，就當還他一般。旨意到日，敬德望闕謝恩宣旨，眾皆知之。遂將金銀買到城裡軍民無礙的地基一段，周圍有五十畝寬闊，在上興工，起蓋寺院，名「敕建相國寺」，左有相公、相婆的生祠，鐫碑刻石，上寫著「尉遲恭監造」，即今「大相國寺」是也。尉迟恭见他苦苦推辞，只得具本差人启奏。太宗见了本，知相良不受金银，道：「此诚为善良长者。」即传旨教胡敬德将金银与他修理寺院，起盖生祠，请僧作善，就当还他一般。旨意到日，敬德望阙谢恩宣旨，众皆知之。遂将金银买到城里军民无碍的地基一段，周围有五十亩宽阔，在上兴工，起盖寺院，名「敕建相国寺」，左有相公、相婆的生祠，镌碑刻石，上写着「尉迟恭监造」，即今「大相国寺」是也。
逐句解 Line by line
Seeing how bitterly he declined, Yuchi Gong had no choice but to draw up a memorial and dispatch a man to lay it before the throne.
只得, 'had no choice but,' reads 得 as dé; 差 in 差人, to send a man, is chāi.
When Taizong saw the memorial and learned that Xiang Liang would not accept the gold, he said: 'This is truly a good and worthy elder.'
為 in 此誠為善良長者 is wéi, to be; the surname 相 in 相良 is xiàng; 長者 reads 長 as zhǎng; and the 不 of 不受 shifts to bú before the fourth tone of 受 (shòu).
He at once decreed that Hu Jingde should use the gold and silver to repair a monastery for him and raise a shrine to his living merit, and invite monks to perform good works — counting this as though the debt were repaid to him.
胡敬德 is another name for Yuchi Gong himself — Yuchi Jingde. 敬德 (Jìngdé) is his courtesy name, and the 胡 (Hú) marks his non-Han descent. A 生祠 is a shrine raised to honour someone still living, the nearest thing the age had to putting a donor's name on a building. 將 is the disposal jiāng; 還 in 就當還他 is huán; and 當 in 就當 is dàng, to count as or treat as — the emperor's accounting device for a debt the creditor will not take.
On the day the decree arrived, Jingde bowed toward the palace gate, gave thanks for the grace, and proclaimed it, so that all came to know of it.
望闕謝恩, bowing toward the palace gate in thanks, is how an official receives a decree when he is nowhere near the throne: you face the emperor's direction and perform the obeisance anyway.
So with the gold and silver he purchased within the city a parcel of ground unencumbered by soldiery or commoner, some fifty mu in compass, and there set the work in motion and raised a monastery, named 'The Xiangguo Temple, Built by Imperial Command.' To its left stood a shrine to the living merit of Master and Mistress Xiang; and a stone was carved and graven, inscribed 'Overseen in the building by Yuchi Gong' — which is the very temple known today as the Great Xiangguo Temple.
The novel invents a founding story for a real building — the 大相國寺, the Great Xiangguo Temple of Kaifeng, which stood when the book was written and stands now. Its name comes from 相國, chancellor or minister of state, where 相 is xiàng; and the almsgiver whose buried gold pays for it is surnamed with the very same character, also xiàng. Whether the author noticed the coincidence he leaves to the reader. 興 in 興工, to set work going, is xīng; 著 in 寫著 is the ongoing-action zhe. A 畝 (mǔ) is a Chinese unit of land area.
Taizong's solution is a small masterpiece of statecraft and piety at once. Unable to force wealth on a man who will not have it, and unwilling to leave a debt of merit unpaid, he turns the gold into a monastery and a living-shrine in Xiang Liang's honour, counting the work as though the debt were repaid to him.
The refusal is honoured rather than overridden: the money returns to the very channels of devotion from which its otherworldly value first arose. The storyteller then anchors the whole invention to the visible world with an antiquarian flourish, identifying the result as the Great Xiangguo Temple of Kaifeng that stands today, founder's stele and all — a characteristic move by which the novel grafts its karmic fiction onto a famous real institution.