現鐘不打 Why Cast A New Bell
眾人道：「說甚麼亂話？現鐘不打打鑄鐘？你現揭了榜文，教我們尋誰？不管你，扯了去見主上。」众人道：「说甚么乱话？现钟不打打铸钟？你现揭了榜文，教我们寻谁？不管你，扯了去见主上。」
逐句解 Line by line
The crowd said, "What nonsense is this?
甚 takes shén before 麼, against the bare shèn the guardsman used a moment ago — both readings inside four exchanges.
"Why leave the bell you have and go casting another?"
A proverb, and it turns on 打 appearing twice with two senses: to strike a bell, then to set about doing a thing. Why leave the bell you already have and go casting a new one?
"You are the one who took the notice down. Who would you have us go looking for?"
教 is jiào, to make or have somebody do something — the everyday spoken sense, not the jiāo of teaching.
"Never mind you — drag him off to see the sovereign."
不管你 dismisses the argument without answering it. In the space of three characters the sentence stops addressing him and starts talking over his head.
The proverb is the sharpest thing anybody says in this exchange. Why go hunting an absent brother when the man who was holding the notice is standing right here? It is sound reasoning, briskly put, and it is wrong.
It is also a small joke against Eight Rules. He is the bell they have — large, conspicuous and available — and the crowd's practicality is exactly what Pilgrim was relying on when he chose where to plant the paper.