原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
魏徵釋疑
Wei Zheng Reads the Riddle
唐王聞奏，滿心歡喜，當對多官道：「朕別閻君，曾問宮中之事。他言：『老幼俱安，但恐御妹壽促。』卻才御妹玉英花陰下跌死，朕急扶看，須臾甦醒，口叫：『丈夫慢行，等我一等。』朕只道是他跌昏了胡言。又問他詳細，他說的話，與劉全一般。」魏徵奏道：「御妹偶爾壽促，少甦醒即說此言，此是劉全妻借屍還魂之事。此事也有，可請宮主出來，看他有甚話說。」唐王道：「朕才命太醫院去進藥，不知何如。」便教妃嬪入宮去請。那宮主在裡面亂嚷道：「我吃甚麼藥？這裡那是我家？我家是清涼瓦屋，不像這個害黃病的房子，花狸狐哨的門扇，放我出去！放我出去！」唐王闻奏，满心欢喜，当对多官道：「朕别阎君，曾问宫中之事。他言：『老幼俱安，但恐御妹寿促。』却才御妹玉英花阴下跌死，朕急扶看，须臾苏醒，口叫：『丈夫慢行，等我一等。』朕只道是他跌昏了胡言。又问他详细，他说的话，与刘全一般。」魏征奏道：「御妹偶尔寿促，少苏醒即说此言，此是刘全妻借尸还魂之事。此事也有，可请宫主出来，看他有甚话说。」唐王道：「朕才命太医院去进药，不知何如。」便教妃嫔入宫去请。那宫主在里面乱嚷道：「我吃甚么药？这里那是我家？我家是清凉瓦屋，不像这个害黄病的房子，花狸狐哨的门扇，放我出去！放我出去！」
逐句解 Line by line
唐王聞奏，滿心歡喜，當對多官道：「朕別閻君，曾問宮中之事。他言：『老幼俱安，但恐御妹壽促。』卻才御妹玉英花陰下跌死，朕急扶看，須臾甦醒，口叫：『丈夫慢行，等我一等。』朕只道是他跌昏了胡言。又問他詳細，他說的話，與劉全一般。」
唐王闻奏，满心欢喜，当对多官道：「朕别阎君，曾问宫中之事。他言：『老幼俱安，但恐御妹寿促。』却才御妹玉英花阴下跌死，朕急扶看，须臾苏醒，口叫：『丈夫慢行，等我一等。』朕只道是他跌昏了胡言。又问他详细，他说的话，与刘全一般。」
When the Tang king heard the report, his heart was filled with joy, and turning to his assembled officials he said: 'When I took my leave of the Kings below, I asked after the affairs of the palace. They said, “The old and the young are all at peace, yet we fear the imperial sister’s span will be cut short.” And just now the imperial sister Yuying fell dead beneath the blossoming trees; I hastened to raise and look upon her, and in a moment she revived, crying, “Husband, walk slower — wait a while for me.” I took it for nothing but the raving of a fall; but when I questioned her more closely, what she told me was of a piece with Liu Quan’s account.'
Taizong assembles the two testimonies he has now heard — the princess's strange speech and Liu Quan's report — and finds them to agree. 中 in 宮中之事 is the locative zhōng; 一般 ('of a piece, the same') takes sandhi yì before 般 (bān, first tone).
魏徵奏道：「御妹偶爾壽促，少甦醒即說此言，此是劉全妻借屍還魂之事。此事也有，可請宮主出來，看他有甚話說。」
魏征奏道：「御妹偶尔寿促，少苏醒即说此言，此是刘全妻借尸还魂之事。此事也有，可请宫主出来，看他有甚话说。」
Wei Zheng submitted: 'The imperial sister's span was cut short by chance, and scarcely had she revived when she spoke these words — this is the matter of Liu Quan's wife borrowing a body to return to life. Such things do occur. Your Majesty might have the Princess brought out, to see what she has to say.'
魏徵 (Wei Zheng), Taizong's great remonstrating minister, supplies the rational reading of the marvel. 少 in 少甦醒 is shǎo ('scarcely, hardly'); 還 in 還魂 is huán, and 甚 in 有甚話說 is the interrogative shén.
唐王道：「朕才命太醫院去進藥，不知何如。」便教妃嬪入宮去請。
唐王道：「朕才命太医院去进药，不知何如。」便教妃嫔入宫去请。
The Tang king said: 'I have only just ordered the Court of Imperial Physicians to send in medicines — I do not know how she fares.' And he had the consorts go into the palace to invite her out.
教 in 便教妃嬪 is jiào ('to have, to cause'). 妃嬪 (fēi pín) are the imperial consorts of the second and third ranks.
那宮主在裡面亂嚷道：「我吃甚麼藥？這裡那是我家？我家是清涼瓦屋，不像這個害黃病的房子，花狸狐哨的門扇，放我出去！放我出去！」
那宫主在里面乱嚷道：「我吃甚么药？这里那是我家？我家是清凉瓦屋，不像这个害黄病的房子，花狸狐哨的门扇，放我出去！放我出去！」
But the Princess was clamoring within: 'What medicine am I to take? How is this my home? My home is a cool tiled cottage, nothing like this jaundiced, sallow house with its garish, gaudy doors. Let me out! Let me out!'
The transmigrated soul rejects the palace as an alien place. The reading of 那 shifts within the passage: 那宮主 is the demonstrative nà ('that Princess'), but 這裡那是我家 uses the interrogative nǎ ('how is this my home?'). 害黃病 ('afflicted with the yellow sickness') is Cuilian's disdainful figure for the yellow palace walls; 花狸狐哨 (huā lí hú shào) is a vernacular reduplicative for 'gaudy, showily decorated.' 甚麼 is the interrogative shén me.
總評 Commentary
The court now moves from bewilderment to diagnosis. Where Taizong had first written off the princess's speech as delirium, the collation of her words with Liu Quan's report forces a supernatural reading, and it is Wei Zheng — the novel's embodiment of Confucian sobriety — who names the phenomenon plainly as a borrowed-body return and treats it as an established, if rare, occurrence. Against this measured official discourse the storyteller sets the raw comedy of the displaced soul: Cuilian, a Junzhou goodwife lodged in a princess's body, cannot recognize the imperial apartments as anything but a garish, sickly-yellow house, and demands only to be let out. The clash of registers — grave ministerial counsel above, homely indignation within — is the passage's engine.