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
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 sets the two statements side by side — the princess's strange speech, Liu Quan's report — and finds they agree. 中 in 宮中之事 is the locative zhōng this time. 一般, 'of a piece, the same,' takes yì before the first tone of 般 (bān).
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 famously blunt remonstrating minister, is the man who gives the marvel its rational name and files it as rare but known. 少 in 少甦醒 is shǎo, 'scarcely, hardly'; 還 in 還魂 is huán; 甚 in 有甚話說 is the question-word shén.
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 someone do a thing. 妃嬪 (fēi pín) are the imperial consorts of the second and third ranks.
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 best comic speech in the chapter, and the one that most repays reading aloud. A woman used to a cool tiled cottage looks at the imperial apartments and sees a house with jaundice: 害黃病, 'come down with the yellow sickness,' is her verdict on the yellow palace walls. 花狸狐哨 (huā lí hú shào) is a sing-song vernacular phrase for gaudy, all show and no substance — the sort of thing still said of a loud shirt. The reading of 那 divides inside the speech: 那宮主 is the pointing nà, 'that Princess,' while 這裡那是我家 is the question-word nǎ, 'how is this my home?' 甚麼 is the question-word shén me.
The court moves from bewilderment to diagnosis. Taizong had written the princess's speech off as delirium; set beside Liu Quan's report, it forces a supernatural reading, and it is Wei Zheng — the novel's standing figure for Confucian sobriety — who names the thing plainly as a borrowed-body return and treats it as a rare but established occurrence.
Against that measured official language the storyteller sets the raw comedy of the displaced soul: a Junzhou goodwife lodged in a princess, who can see nothing in the imperial apartments but a garish, sickly-yellow house, and who wants only to be let out. Grave counsel above, homely indignation within — the clash of the two registers is the engine of the passage.