招贅女婿 The Son-in-Law Taken In
高老道：「我們這莊上，自古至今，也不曉得有甚麼鬼祟魍魎，邪魔作耗。只是老拙不幸，不曾有子，止生三個女兒：大的喚名香蘭，第二的名玉蘭，第三的名翠蘭。那兩個從小兒配與本莊人家。止有小的個要招個女婿，指望他與我同家過活，做個養老女婿，撐門抵戶，做活當差。不期三年前，有一個漢子，模樣兒倒也精緻。他說是福陵山上人家，姓豬，上無父母，下無兄弟，願與人家做個女婿。我老拙見是這般一個無根無絆的人，就招了他。一進門時，倒也勤謹：耕田耙地，不用牛具；收割田禾，不用刀杖；昏去明來，其實也好。只是一件，有些會變嘴臉。」高老道：「我们这庄上，自古至今，也不晓得有甚么鬼祟魍魉，邪魔作耗。只是老拙不幸，不曾有子，止生三个女儿：大的唤名香兰，第二的名玉兰，第三的名翠兰。那两个从小儿配与本庄人家。止有小的个要招个女婿，指望他与我同家过活，做个养老女婿，撑门抵户，做活当差。不期三年前，有一个汉子，模样儿倒也精致。他说是福陵山上人家，姓猪，上无父母，下无兄弟，愿与人家做个女婿。我老拙见是这般一个无根无绊的人，就招了他。一进门时，倒也勤谨：耕田耙地，不用牛具；收割田禾，不用刀杖；昏去明来，其实也好。只是一件，有些会变嘴脸。」
逐句解 Line by line
Old Gao said, "In this village of ours, from ancient times until now, we have never known of any spectre or goblin, any fiend to work us mischief.
鬼祟魍魎: 祟 is suì, a haunting; 魍魎 the wood-and-water sprites of the 左傳. 作耗, to make trouble, 耗 as hào. 不曉得 takes 得 as the resultative de.
It is only that I, an old fool, have had the misfortune to father no son. I got but three daughters:
老拙, "this old clumsy one," the humble self-designation. 不曾有子: here 子 is the lexical zǐ, a son, not the neutral suffix. The whole disaster follows from that one grammatical fact.
the eldest was named Fragrant Orchid, the second Jade Orchid, the third Kingfisher Orchid. The first two were married young to families of this village.
The three names are all orchids: 香蘭, 玉蘭, 翠蘭. 從小兒 keeps the adverbial 兒 as er. Only the youngest was kept at home, and only because there was no son.
For the youngest I wished to take in a husband, hoping he might live in the house with me,
招女婿 — to take a husband into the wife's house, the 贅婿 arrangement, always a mark of a house without male heirs. 指望, to look for, to count upon.
and be a son-in-law to keep me in my age, to hold up the door and the household, to do the work and answer the levies.
撐門抵戶, to prop up the gate and hold the door: to keep the household's standing. 做活當差 — to do the labour and answer the corvée; 當 is dāng and 差 is chāi, the state's levy of service.
Three years ago, unlooked for, there came a fellow whose looks were passable enough.
不期, unexpectedly. 模樣 takes 模 as mú, a standing ruling, and 兒 as er. 精緻 of a man's looks means "trim, well made" — the word will be worth remembering.
He said he was of a family on Fuling Mountain, that his surname was Zhu, that he had neither father nor mother above him nor brothers below, and that he was willing to be taken in as a husband.
福陵山, Fuling Mountain, and the surname 豬, Zhu — "Pig." The old man reports both without remark, and the reader is invited to notice what he did not.
Seeing a man so wholly without root or tie, I, old fool, took him in.
無根無絆: without root, without tether. What recommended the man was precisely that no family would come asking after him — the same fact that now leaves the household with no one to complain to.
From the day he entered the door he was diligent enough: he ploughed and harrowed without ox or gear; he reaped the grain without sickle or staff;
耙地, to harrow; 牛具, ox and tackle. The parallel is exact: he needs neither beast nor blade. Squire Gao is describing prodigious strength and calls it 勤謹, diligence.
at dusk he went and at dawn he came, and truly it went well. There was but one thing: he had a way of changing his face."
昏去明來 — out at dusk, home at dawn — is stated as a virtue and is in fact the first clear sign. 變嘴臉: literally to change mouth and face. The euphemism is the old man's, and it is doing a great deal of work.
Squire Gao's testimony is a small masterpiece of unconscious self-indictment. He wanted a son-in-law who would live in, work the land, hold up the house and answer the corvée — a labourer, in short, bound by marriage rather than wages. What recommended the stranger was that he had 上無父母，下無兄弟: no kin to bargain for him, no one to take him back. The old man calls this 無根無絆 and counts it a merit.
What he got was more than he bargained for in every sense. The fiend ploughs without an ox and reaps without a sickle, and Gao's word for this is 勤謹, "diligent." He goes out at dusk and returns at dawn, and Gao remarks only that things went well. The reader has been told, in the flattest possible language, that a supernatural being has been doing the farm work for three years, and that nobody in the household thought to ask why. The single objection, when it comes, is cosmetic: 有些會變嘴臉.