變作俊人 The Handsome Disguise
好怪物，他在那酒席間搖身一變，就變做一個俊俏之人。真個生得：好怪物，他在那酒席间摇身一变，就变做一个俊俏之人。真个生得：
逐句解 Line by line
A fine monster he was! There amid the banquet he gave his body a shake and transformed, becoming a handsome young man. Truly he was formed thus:
The lead-in 真個生得, "truly he was formed thus," is the signal that a set-piece is starting: what follows is a rhapsody, a run of matched couplets embedded in the prose and read at a different pace. In 生得 the structural 得 is de; 酒席間 takes 間 as jiān, "amid."
His form and features elegant and refined, his frame lofty and striking;
崢嶸, "towering, jutting," is usually said of mountain peaks. Applied to a man's build it gives him something of the same geological presence.
his speech much in the manner of a courtier, his bearing that of the very flower of youth.
行藏 — one's conduct whether stepping forward or holding back — takes 行 as xíng and 藏 as cáng; 妙齡, "the wondrous age," is the bloom of youth. The disguise is pitched with precision at the courtly type he means to impersonate.
In talent a Cao Zhi, to whom the making of verse came easily; in looks a Pan An, at whom the tossed fruit flew light.
Two names any Ming reader would catch instantly, the way an English reader catches "an Einstein" or "an Adonis." 子建 is Cao Zhi (曹植), the byword for literary genius; 潘安 is Pan Yue (潘岳), the byword for male beauty. 擲果, "throwing fruit," points at the story that the women of Luoyang pelted Pan An's carriage with fruit whenever he drove past. In 子建 the name-character 子 is zǐ; 貌似 takes 似 as sì.
On his head a magpie-tail cap, his black cloud of hair gathered smooth beneath it;
鵲尾冠 is a magpie-tail cap, the noun 冠 read guān; 烏雲, "black clouds," is the stock figure for thick dark hair, here 斂伏, drawn tidily up under the cap.
on his body a robe of jade-white gauze and pleats, its wide sleeves fluttering as he came.
玉羅褶 is a pleated robe of fine jade-pale silk gauze; 廣袖飄迎, "wide sleeves streaming forward to greet you," finishes the costume.
On his feet black boots with figured creases; at his waist a phoenix sash agleam.
鸞帶 is a sash worked with the 鸞, a mythical phoenix-like bird; 腰間 takes 間 as jiān, "at, between."
In grace and spirit a truly rare figure of a man — towering, high-borne, a paragon of comely valor.
奇男子, an extraordinary man, takes 子 as zǐ; 聳壑軒昂 — rising above the ravines, lofty and imposing — is a set phrase for a commanding bearing. The portrait ends where it began, on height.
This is a conventional portrait of male beauty, and it is built on two names: 子建, Cao Zhi, for genius, and 潘安, Pan Yue, for looks — the man whose fabled face made the women of Luoyang throw fruit at his carriage. The demon has assembled his disguise entirely out of the stock furniture of the handsome courtier.
The irony is structural rather than stated. The more exquisitely the beauty is itemised, the more completely the monster disappears behind it, and the reader is made to hold both pictures at once — the magpie-tail cap and the indigo hand that was dragging a woman across a floor two pages ago.
Every ornament is civil: the cap, the gauze robe, the phoenix sash. Nothing martial, nothing wild. The costume is cut precisely to fit the role of 駙馬, imperial son-in-law. The verse is not decoration hung beside the plot; it is the instrument of the imposture.