清正賢良 An Upright and Decent Man
那郡侯原來十分清正賢良，愛民心重，即請行者上坐，低頭下拜道：「老師果捨慈悲，下官必不敢悖德。」行者道：「且莫講話，請起。那郡侯原来十分清正贤良，爱民心重，即请行者上坐，低头下拜道：「老师果舍慈悲，下官必不敢悖德。」行者道：「且莫讲话，请起。
逐句解 Line by line
Now the prefect was in fact a thoroughly upright and decent man, who cared deeply for his people. He invited Pilgrim at once to the seat of honour, bowed his head and made obeisance. "If you will truly pour out your compassion, master," he said, "this humble officer will assuredly not dare to act against virtue."
原來 means as it turns out — the storyteller stepping in to vouch for the man directly. 上坐, the upper seat, is the place of honour, and offering it to a monkey in front of one's own staff is not a small gesture. 悖德, to go against virtue, is a formal and rather heavy phrase; he is swearing an oath, not making a promise.
Pilgrim said, "Enough talk. Get up, please.
請起, please rise, is what you say to someone who has prostrated himself. Pilgrim has been enjoying the flattery and has now had enough of it — the abruptness is the character.
The narrator intervenes to tell us, flatly and in his own voice, that this man is upright and decent and loves his people. That is unusual: the novel normally lets characters convict themselves out of their own mouths.
The reason for the intervention becomes clear later. We are about to be told that Shangguan did something petty and blasphemous that brought a three-year famine on a whole prefecture, and the book wants that fact filed alongside this one rather than instead of it. A good man did a stupid thing in a temper. The chapter is not interested in a villain.
His oath is also very precisely worded. He does not promise to be good; he promises not to act against virtue — which is exactly the thing he did, three years ago, without meaning anything by it.