叩問即位 Pressing the Question of the Throne
太子叩頭道：「母親，我問你：即位登龍是那個？稱孤道寡果何人？」娘娘聞言道：「這孩兒發風了？做皇帝的是你父王，你問怎的？」太子叩頭道：「萬望母親赦子無罪，敢問；不赦，不敢問。」娘娘道：「子母家有何罪？赦你，赦你，快快說來。」太子道：「母親，我問你三年前夫妻宮裡之事，與後三年恩愛同否如何？」太子叩头道：「母亲，我问你：即位登龙是那个？称孤道寡果何人？」娘娘闻言道：「这孩儿发风了？做皇帝的是你父王，你问怎的？」太子叩头道：「万望母亲赦子无罪，敢问；不赦，不敢问。」娘娘道：「子母家有何罪？赦你，赦你，快快说来。」太子道：「母亲，我问你三年前夫妻宫里之事，与后三年恩爱同否如何？」
逐句解 Line by line
The prince knocked his head to the ground and said: 'Mother, I ask you — who is it that has taken the throne and mounted the dragon?
叩頭: to kowtow, knocking the forehead on the ground. 那個 here is interrogative (那 = nǎ, 'who/which'), not the deictic nà. 太子: 子 = zǐ.
Who, in truth, is the one who styles himself the Solitary and the Orphaned?'
稱孤道寡: 'to call oneself the Orphan (孤) and the Solitary (寡)' — the ritual self-humbling by which a sovereign refers to himself; 稱 = chēng.
Hearing this, the lady said: 'Has the child gone out of his wits?
發風 (= 發瘋): to fly into a fit, to rave. 孩兒: 兒 = ér.
He who is emperor is your own father-king — why do you ask such a thing?'
The queen's exasperation is domestic and unknowing; the dramatic irony deepens, for the 'father-king' she names is the impostor.
The prince knocked his head again and said: 'I beg my mother to hold your son blameless, and then I will make bold to ask;
赦子無罪: 'pardon your son as guiltless' — the prince frames his forbidden question as a treason to be forgiven in advance. 子 (twice) = zǐ.
if you will not pardon me, I dare not ask.'
The conditional presses the queen toward a pledge before the secret is broached.
The lady said: 'Between mother and son, what crime could there be?
子母家: 'in a household of mother and son'; the queen waves away the notion of crime between kin. 子 = zǐ.
You are pardoned, you are pardoned — out with it, quickly.'
The doubled 赦你 grants the pardon twice over, her curiosity now fully caught.
The prince said: 'Mother, I ask you this: the matter of the bedchamber three years ago, and the conjugal love of the three years since — are they the same, or not?'
The question is deliberately intimate — comparing the conjugal tenderness (恩愛) of the marriage before and after the king's supposed change. This is the hinge on which the impostor will be exposed. 太子: 子 = zǐ.
The interrogation advances by ritual increments — kowtow, plea for pardon, conditional withholding — each gesture raising the stakes before the question is spoken. The prince's rhetoric (稱孤道寡, 即位登龍) is courtly and oblique, circling the throne rather than naming his suspicion outright.
The queen's replies are pitched in unknowing domesticity: has the boy gone mad? what crime could there be between mother and son? Her very ordinariness sharpens the reader's foreknowledge — she defends a 'father-king' who is a demon wearing the true king's shape.
The prince's final question is the chapter's diagnostic instrument. By asking whether the conjugal love of the last three years matches what came before, he seeks the one thing an impostor cannot forge: the intimate warmth of a marriage. The answer, given in verse, will confirm the demon, and the whole apparatus of recognition — 邪正, false and true — turns on this most private of tests.