尋鈴遇響 The Bell and the Breathing
噫！有這般事。原來那東廊下有一個小道士才睡下，忽然起來道：「我的手鈴兒忘記在殿上，若失落了，明日師父見責。」與那同睡者道：「你睡著，等我尋去。」急忙中不穿底衣，止扯一領直裰，徑到正殿中尋鈴。摸來摸去，鈴兒摸著了。正欲回頭，只聽得有呼吸之聲。道士害怕，急拽步往外走時，不知怎的，屣著一個荔枝核子，撲的滑了一跌。噹的一聲，把個鈴兒跌得粉碎。噫！有这般事。原来那东廊下有一个小道士才睡下，忽然起来道：「我的手铃儿忘记在殿上，若失落了，明日师父见责。」与那同睡者道：「你睡着，等我寻去。」急忙中不穿底衣，止扯一领直裰，径到正殿中寻铃。摸来摸去，铃儿摸着了。正欲回头，只听得有呼吸之声。道士害怕，急拽步往外走时，不知怎的，屣着一个荔枝核子，扑的滑了一跌。当的一声，把个铃儿跌得粉碎。
逐句解 Line by line
Ah!
噫, yī — the storyteller drawing breath before the turn.
That such a thing should happen.
Two lines of pure suspense-machinery, and the chapter has earned them.
Now under the eastern gallery there was a young Daoist who had just lain down, but suddenly got up: "I've left my hand-bell up in the hall — if it's lost, the master will scold me tomorrow."
The undoing arrives in the smallest possible form: a boy who has left something behind and will be told off in the morning. 見責, to be blamed — the passive built with 見, a formal turn of phrase from a frightened novice. 那 is nà; 兒 is the light er; 一 is yí before 個.
He said to the one sleeping beside him: "You sleep on — I'll go look for it."
著 in 睡著 is zháo, asleep. 那 is nà.
In his haste, without putting on his underclothes, he threw on a single Daoist robe and went straight to the main hall to find the bell.
The detail of the missing underclothes is there to tell you how quickly he means to be back. A 直裰 is the long straight-cut robe worn by clergy of both religions. 中 is zhōng in both 急忙中 and 正殿中; 不 is bù before 穿; 一 is yì before 領.
Groping about, he found the bell by feel.
He finds it in the dark. 著 in 摸著 is zháo, the hitting-the-mark reading — groped for and got. 兒 is the light er.
Just as he was about to turn back, he heard the sound of breathing.
And in a hall containing nothing but statues, he hears somebody breathing. 得 is the light de.
The Daoist took fright, and hurrying to stride out, somehow trod on a lychee pit and went slipping and sprawling with a thud.
A lychee stone. The chapter has spent a page describing a banquet so that this one piece of its debris can be underfoot in the dark at the right moment. 屣著: 著 is zháo, trod on and felt it. 拽步, to stride out; 子 in 核子 is the light zi; 一 is yí before 個 and yì before 跌.
With a clang, the bell was shattered in the fall.
And he smashes the very bell he came back for. 噹 is the clang itself; 得 in 跌得 is the light de; 兒 is the light er; 一 is yì before 聲.
The undoing arrives as pure farce, and every piece of it is small. A young Daoist remembers the hand-bell he left in the hall and slips back for it, because he will be scolded in the morning if it is lost. He gropes about, finds it, and then hears breathing in a room that should contain nothing but statues.
He panics, treads on one of the pilgrims' discarded lychee stones, goes down hard, and smashes the very bell he came to rescue. The chapter has built its reversal out of the debris of the feast — a fruit stone underfoot — and the crash puts the whole abbey on its feet.