命在須臾 His Life Hangs By A Moment
近來把三宮娘娘、六院妃子，全無正眼相覷。不分晝夜，貪歡不已。如今弄得精神瘦倦，身體尪羸，飲食少進，命在須臾。太醫院檢盡良方，不能療治。近来把三宫娘娘、六院妃子，全无正眼相觑。不分昼夜，贪欢不已。如今弄得精神瘦倦，身体尪羸，饮食少进，命在须臾。太医院检尽良方，不能疗治。
逐句解 Line by line
"Of late he has had not one straight look for the ladies of the three palaces or the consorts of the six courts.
The three palaces and six courts are the conventional shorthand for the whole imperial harem and its ranks. In 妃子 the 子 is the reduced zi, a suffix on a title — unlike 女子 a moment ago, where it keeps its full zǐ. 相 is xiāng, mutually.
"Day and night alike, his pleasure is never done.
Eight characters, and they are the diagnosis. Everything wrong with this kingdom follows from an appetite that has no stopping point — which is the opening poem's hundred demons, arriving on schedule.
"He has now been reduced to a worn and weary spirit and a wasted frame, eats and drinks little, and his life hangs by a moment.
弄得 puts 得 at the reduced de, the joint between a verb and the state it produced — carried on until he ended up like this. 尪羸 wāng léi is a rare pair meaning emaciated and bent. 須臾 xū yú is an instant, a moment.
"The Imperial Medical Academy has exhausted every good prescription and cannot cure him.
The 太醫院 tài yī yuàn was a real institution: the corps of court physicians, the best-credentialled doctors in the empire. The novel notes that they have tried everything and failed, which is what clears the ground for the man with the secret formula.
This is a sickroom report, and it is entirely naturalistic. A man in his fifties or sixties has taken a young concubine, will not moderate himself, and is now visibly dying of it. No demon has been mentioned. No magic has been mentioned.
That is the chapter's method. It builds the horror out of ordinary materials — a gift, an appetite, a failing body, doctors out of ideas — and only then introduces the cure. By the time the reader hears what the medicine requires, every step leading to it has already been made to seem reasonable.