原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
一張大櫃 A Big Chest
女兒道：「父親在日曾做了一張大櫃，那櫃有四尺寬，七尺長，三尺高下，裡面可睡六七個人。教他們往櫃裡睡去罷。」女儿道：「父亲在日曾做了一张大柜，那柜有四尺宽，七尺长，三尺高下，里面可睡六七个人。教他们往柜里睡去罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
女兒道：「父親在日曾做了一張大櫃，那櫃有四尺寬，七尺長，三尺高下，裡面可睡六七個人。
女儿道：「父亲在日曾做了一张大柜，那柜有四尺宽，七尺长，三尺高下，里面可睡六七个人。
The daughter said: "When Father was alive he had a big chest made. It is four chǐ across, seven chǐ long, three chǐ or so high, and six or seven people could sleep inside.
長 is cháng here, length — not the zhǎng of seniority the same character takes in 長老 elsewhere in this chapter. A chǐ ran to about 32 centimetres, so the chest is roughly 1.3 metres across, 2.2 long and just under a metre deep. Big enough for four men and luggage, and not by much.
教他們往櫃裡睡去罷。」
教他们往柜里睡去罢。」
Send them to sleep in the chest."
Nine characters, and the chapter turns on them. 罷 is ba, the word that makes it a suggestion — she is proposing, not instructing.
The measurements are the best thing in the passage because they are exact and the novel means you to picture them. Two and a bit metres by one and a bit, less than a metre deep, with a lid.
A chest that size in a Ming household was for bedding or grain, and having one made was a real expense — which is why the dead father is mentioned. It is the family's one substantial piece of furniture and it is about to be stolen with four monks inside it.