原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
生人面
He Cannot Bear Strange Faces
眾官依此言,著近侍傳奏道:「長老要用望、聞、問、切之理,方可認病用藥。」那國王睡在龍床上,聲聲喚道:「叫他去罷,寡人見不得生人面了。」众官依此言,着近侍传奏道:「长老要用望、闻、问、切之理,方可认病用药。」那国王睡在龙床上,声声唤道:「叫他去罢,寡人见不得生人面了。」
逐句解 Line by line
眾官依此言,著近侍傳奏道:「長老要用望、聞、問、切之理,方可認病用藥。」
众官依此言,着近侍传奏道:「长老要用望、闻、问、切之理,方可认病用药。」
The officers acted on this and had an attendant carry in the report: "The Elder requires the principle of looking, listening, asking and feeling, before he can know the sickness and apply a medicine."
著 is zhuó here, setting somebody to a task, and not the weak zhe it took a line earlier. The two readings stand thirteen characters apart. 長 is zhǎng in 長老.
那國王睡在龍床上,聲聲喚道:「叫他去罷,寡人見不得生人面了。」
那国王睡在龙床上,声声唤道:「叫他去罢,寡人见不得生人面了。」
The king, lying on the dragon couch, called out again and again, "Tell him to go away. I cannot bear the face of a stranger."
罷 is the weak sentence-final ba, softening the order, not the full-tone bà of the interjection. 得 in 見不得 weakens to de: the character follows its verb and reduces, where the 不得 of 不得好 came before one and did not.
總評 Commentary
The whole negotiation collapses on a symptom. Pilgrim demanded to be fetched by the king; the king has been fetched as far as a couch and can go no further, because the thing wrong with him includes not being able to look at people.
Calling and calling is the first thing the king does in this chapter that is simply illness rather than majesty, and it comes immediately after a passage full of dragon couches and golden mouths.