尉遲送金 Yuchi Gong Brings the Gold
卻說那尉遲恭將金銀一庫，上河南開封府訪看，相良原來賣水為活，同妻張氏在門首販賣烏盆瓦器營生，但賺得些錢兒，只以盤纏為足，其多少齋僧布施，買金銀紙錠，記庫焚燒，故有此善果臻身。陽世間是一條好善的窮漢，那世裡卻是個積玉堆金的長者。尉遲恭將金銀送上他門，諕得那相公、相婆魂飛魄散。又兼有本府官員，茅舍外車馬駢集。那老兩口子如痴如啞，跪在地下，只是磕頭禮拜。尉遲恭道：「老人家請起。我雖是個欽差官，卻齎著我王的金銀送來還你。」却说那尉迟恭将金银一库，上河南开封府访看，相良原来卖水为活，同妻张氏在门首贩卖乌盆瓦器营生，但赚得些钱儿，只以盘缠为足，其多少斋僧布施，买金银纸锭，记库焚烧，故有此善果臻身。阳世间是一条好善的穷汉，那世里却是个积玉堆金的长者。尉迟恭将金银送上他门，諕得那相公、相婆魂飞魄散。又兼有本府官员，茅舍外车马骈集。那老两口子如痴如哑，跪在地下，只是磕头礼拜。尉迟恭道：「老人家请起。我虽是个钦差官，却赍著我王的金银送来还你。」
逐句解 Line by line
We tell now how Yuchi Gong took a treasury of gold and silver up to Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan to seek out Xiang Liang. This Xiang Liang, it turned out, made his living selling water, and together with his wife, née Zhang, kept a stall before their door hawking black crocks and earthenware. Whatever little he earned he counted enough for his keep, and what more there was he spent on alms to monks and on charity — buying paper ingots of gold and silver to burn as offerings recorded to his account below. It was for this that so good a fruit had come to rest upon him.
Xiang Liang and the debt owed him were established in Chapter 11, when Taizong borrowed a treasury of gold in the underworld against Xiang Liang's accumulated credit. The surname 相 in 相良 is read xiàng. 為 in 賣水為活 and 為足 is wéi ('to be, to serve as'); 得 in 賺得 is the resultative de; 錢兒 carries the diminutive suffix er.
In the world of light he was a poor man who loved to do good; in that other world he was an elder with jade in heaps and gold in piles.
The antithesis states the novel's karmic economy directly: paper money burned in piety here is real wealth stored there. 那世裡 uses the demonstrative nà ('that world'); 一條 takes sandhi yì; 長者 ('elder, man of substance') reads 長 as zhǎng.
When Yuchi Gong brought the gold and silver to his door, it so terrified Master and Mistress Xiang that their souls flew off and their spirits scattered.
諕 (a vernacular form of 嚇) is read xià, 'to frighten'; 得 in 諕得 is the resultative de. Both 相公 and 相婆 take the surname reading xiàng. 魂飛魄散 ('soul flies, spirit scatters') is a stock phrase for utter terror.
The more so as the prefecture's officials had come with them, and carriages and horses stood thronged outside their thatched hut.
駢集 (pián jí) is 'to gather in a press, to throng.' The pomp of officialdom descending on a water-seller's hovel sharpens the scene's comedy.
The old couple, as if struck dumb and witless, knelt upon the ground and did nothing but knock their heads in reverence.
那老兩口子 uses the demonstrative nà; 兩口子 ('the couple') carries the neutral-tone suffix 子 (zi). 如痴如啞 is 'as if witless and mute.'
Yuchi Gong said: 'Rise, good elders. Though I am an imperial commissioner, I have come only bearing my king's gold and silver to repay you.'
欽差 ('imperial commissioner') reads 差 as chāi; 齎著 ('bearing, carrying') reads 著 as the durative zhe; 還 in 還你 is huán ('to repay, to return').
The second debt to the underworld now comes due, and with it the novel's most literal image of its karmic bookkeeping. Xiang Liang is the pious poor man of folktale: a water-seller who gives away his small surplus in alms and burns paper money in devotion, and who has thereby, unknowingly, amassed a fortune in the ledgers of the dead. The storyteller frames him in a single balanced antithesis — destitute in this world, an 'elder with jade in heaps and gold in piles' in the next — that captures the whole moral logic of merit transfer. The comedy of the delivery, with a great officer and a train of officials descending on a thatched hut to the couple's speechless terror, both humanizes the marvel and sets up the refusal to come.