三等價 Goods Have Three Ranks of Price
你府上是那三樣待客？常言道：『貨有高低三等價，客無遠近一般看。』你怎麼說三樣待客？你可試說說我聽。」趙寡婦道：「我這裡是上、中、下三樣。你府上是那三样待客？常言道：『货有高低三等价，客无远近一般看。』你怎么说三样待客？你可试说说我听。」赵寡妇道：「我这里是上、中、下三样。
逐句解 Line by line
Which three grades does your establishment serve?
那 is nǎ, which — the questioning reading. She does not answer for four more lines, and when she does it is upper, middle and lower. 府上 is your establishment, a courteous term for another man's household that flatters it into a mansion.
As the old saying has it: goods have high and low, three ranks of price; guests, near or far, are looked on all the same.
Pilgrim answers a business question with a proverb, and the proverb is on her side of the argument. Goods may be graded; guests should not be. He is objecting to the three grades before he has heard what they are, and doing it in the most civil form available.
How do you mean, three grades of service?
The question is repeated with the objection now attached to it. This is haggling, and it is being conducted with impeccable manners on both sides.
Try telling me and let me hear."
試說說 doubles the verb — try just telling me — which in speech makes a demand sound like an invitation.
Widow Zhao said: "Here we have upper, middle and lower — three grades.
中 is zhōng, the middle one of three, not the reading that means to hit or to fit. The three-grade scale is exactly how a real Ming inn priced itself, and what follows is a menu.
Pilgrim quotes a proverb about treating all guests alike at a woman who has just told him she treats them in three grades. It is a courteous piece of pressure and she does not budge an inch.
The joke underneath is that he has no intention of paying for any of it. He is haggling on principle, out of pure professional habit, over money he means to counterfeit.