肉眼受欺 The King Deceived
你看那水性的君王，愚迷肉眼，不識妖精，轉把他一片虛詞，當了真實。道：「賢駙馬，你怎的認得這和尚是馱公主的老虎？」那妖道：「主公，臣在山中，吃的是老虎，穿的也是老虎，與他同眠同起，怎麼不認得？」國王道：「你既認得，可教他現出本相來看。」怪物道：「借半盞淨水，臣就教他現了本相。」國王命官取水，遞與駙馬。你看那水性的君王，愚迷肉眼，不识妖精，转把他一片虚词，当了真实。道：「贤驸马，你怎的认得这和尚是驮公主的老虎？」那妖道：「主公，臣在山中，吃的是老虎，穿的也是老虎，与他同眠同起，怎么不认得？」国王道：「你既认得，可教他现出本相来看。」怪物道：「借半盏净水，臣就教他现了本相。」国王命官取水，递与驸马。
逐句解 Line by line
See now this fickle-minded king: with his foolish, deluded eyes of flesh he could not tell the demon for what it was, but took its whole tissue of falsehood for the plain truth.
The narrator turns on the king. 水性, "watery, changeable," is the same tag applied earlier to the princess — the novel is even-handed with that particular insult when it suits. 肉眼, eyes of flesh, is again its figure for a mortal blindness that cannot see through a disguise. 那 is the pointing nà.
He said: "Worthy Consort, how is it you know this monk to be the tiger that bore the princess away?"
認得, to recognise, to know, takes 得 as de.
The demon said: "My sovereign, in the mountains your servant ate tiger and wore tiger, and slept and rose in their very company — how should I not know one?"
His proof is grotesque and completely convincing: he has eaten tigers, worn tigers and slept among them, so of course he knows one when he sees one. 山中 takes 中 as zhōng; 認得 takes 得 as de. 那 is pointing nà.
The king said: "Since you know it so, have it show its true form, that we may see."
認得 takes 得 as de; 本相, true form, takes 相 as xiàng. 教, "have him, bid him," is jiào. The king has just ordered a demon to unmask a saint.
The monster said: "Lend me but half a cup of clear water, and your servant will make it show its true form."
本相 again takes 相 as xiàng. Half a cup of water is all the machinery required.
The king ordered an officer to fetch water, which was handed to the Consort.
An officer fetches it, the king hands it over, and the throne's full authority goes into the demon's hand along with the cup.
The king's credulity is framed once more by the language of spiritual blindness — 肉眼, eyes of mere flesh — and by 水性, "fickle," which the chapter fixed to the princess and now transfers to her father. Deception in this novel is less a failure of intelligence than of sight. The mortal simply cannot see.
The demon's proof is a small masterstroke of grotesque plausibility. He has lived among tigers, eaten and worn them, and may therefore be trusted to identify one. It is exactly the sort of concrete, homely detail that carries a lie, and it is what moves the king to hand over the water that will transform his innocent guest.