三仙降世 The Three Immortals Descend
只因這二十年前，民遭亢旱，天無點雨，地絕穀苗，不論君臣黎庶，大小人家，家家沐浴焚香，戶戶拜天求雨。正都在倒懸捱命之處，忽然天降下三個仙長來，俯救生靈。」行者問道：「是那三個仙長？」道士說：「便是我家師父。」行者道：「尊師甚號？」道士云：「我大師父號做虎力大仙，二師父鹿力大仙，三師父羊力大仙。」行者問曰：「三位尊師有多少法力？」道士云：「我那師父呼風喚雨，只在翻掌之間；指水為油，點石成金，卻如轉身之易。所以有這般法力，能奪天地之造化，換星斗之玄微，君臣相敬，與我們結為親也。」只因这二十年前，民遭亢旱，天无点雨，地绝谷苗，不论君臣黎庶，大小人家，家家沐浴焚香，户户拜天求雨。正都在倒悬挨命之处，忽然天降下三个仙长来，俯救生灵。」行者问道：「是那三个仙长？」道士说：「便是我家师父。」行者道：「尊师甚号？」道士云：「我大师父号做虎力大仙，二师父鹿力大仙，三师父羊力大仙。」行者问曰：「三位尊师有多少法力？」道士云：「我那师父呼风唤雨，只在翻掌之间；指水为油，点石成金，却如转身之易。所以有这般法力，能夺天地之造化，换星斗之玄微，君臣相敬，与我们结为亲也。」
逐句解 Line by line
It was only that twenty years ago the people suffered a great drought: not a drop of rain from the sky, no shoot of grain from the earth. High and low, sovereign and subject and common folk alike, household great and small — every family bathed and burned incense, every door bowed to Heaven and prayed for rain.
The backstory the whole arc turns on, and the novel gives the drought its full weight before offering the rescue: no rain from the sky, no shoot from the earth, and every household in the land bathing and burning incense at its own door. 亢旱 is a severe drought; 黎庶, the common people, the "black-haired multitude." 不 is bú before 論.
Just as all were hanging as if head-downward, clinging to life, of a sudden Heaven sent down three immortal-elders to stoop and save the living."
倒懸 is to be hung up by the heels — a stock way of saying a people is in extremity, and a vivid one. 倒 is dào. Note the other 降: this one is jiàng, to send down, as Heaven sends the three immortals; the xiáng of 降妖 at the chapter's opening was to subdue. 長 in 仙長 is zhǎng; 都 is dōu.
Pilgrim asked: "Who were these three immortal-elders?"
那 asks here — nǎ, "which three?" 長 is zhǎng.
The Daoist said: "None other than the masters of our house."
便是, "none other than" — delivered with the satisfaction of a man about to drop a name.
Pilgrim said: "What are your revered masters' titles?"
甚 is shén, "what," the question word, not the shèn that means "extremely." 號 is hào, a title or style-name.
The Daoist said: "Our eldest master is styled the Tiger-Power Immortal, the second the Deer-Power Immortal, the third the Ram-Power Immortal."
Tiger, Deer and Ram, each with 力, "power," in the middle — 虎力大仙, 鹿力大仙, 羊力大仙. The animal names are a clue the chapter will not cash in until Chapter 46, when the three are killed and the beasts they really are come out. 號 is hào, styled or called.
Pilgrim asked: "And how great is the power of the three revered masters?"
少 is shǎo: 多少, "how much."
The Daoist said: "Those masters of mine summon wind and call rain in no more than the turning of a palm;
翻掌之間, "in the turning of a palm" — the time it takes to flip your hand over, which is the going rate for effortlessness. 那 is nà; 間 is jiān.
they point at water and make it oil, touch stone and turn it to gold — as easily as turning one's body.
點石成金, to touch stone and make gold, is the alchemist's dream and is still current Chinese for turning something worthless into something brilliant — an editor does it to a bad manuscript. 為 is wéi, to make into.
It is because they hold such powers — able to wrest away the making-and-transforming of Heaven and Earth, to alter the hidden subtleties of the stars — that ruler and minister hold them in mutual esteem, and the king has bound himself to us in kinship."
The claim is enormous and stated calmly: to 奪天地之造化, wrest away the making and shaping that belong to Heaven and Earth, and to 換星斗之玄微, alter the hidden workings of the stars. This is not conjuring; it is a claim on the machinery of the world. 斗 is dǒu, the Dipper and the stars generally; 相 is xiāng, mutually; 為 is wéi.
A drought twenty years back, and the novel gives it its full weight before offering any rescue: not a drop from the sky, not a shoot from the earth, a whole population left hanging 倒懸, upside down by the heels. Then three immortals came down and made it rain.
Their names are 虎力, 鹿力 and 羊力 — Tiger-, Deer- and Ram-Power — and the catalog of what they can do is not modest: weather in the time it takes to turn a hand over, water into oil, stone into gold, and the hidden workings of the stars rearranged. The point of all this is that they are not frauds. Their standing rests on a real service really rendered, and a gratitude that has hardened into kinship is a much harder thing to argue with than a lie.