銀鬚蒼貌 Silver Beard and Hooked Beak
逐句解 Line by line
The Dragon King showed his likeness — silver-bearded, hoary of face, without a match in this world;
蒼 is the colour of age: grey-white, the same word used of an old man's hair and of the sky. The verse restates each of the four openings and then finishes it, which is a standard rhapsody move — say the line, then say it again with the detail.
the Thunder Marshal stretched out his body — hook-beaked, awful of countenance, truly beyond comparison.
鉤嘴, a hooked beak. The thunder god of Chinese popular religion has a bird's beak and wings, and carries a mallet and chisel; he is one of the most recognisable figures in the whole pantheon.
The Cloud Lad came into view — who has such a jade face and golden cap;
玉面, a jade face, means smooth and pale — youth. Against the silver-bearded dragon and the beaked marshal, the cloud god is a boy.
the Earl of Wind let down his true shape — ever like a man with scorched brows and rings for eyes.
曾 is céng, the past marker, used here in the sense of has always been. 燥眉環眼, dry brows and ringed eyes, is the wind god's traditional face — weathered and staring, the look of someone who lives in a gale.
Four gods, four faces, and the verse gives each one exactly one line and one distinguishing feature. A silver beard, a hooked beak, a jade face, scorched brows.
These are not invented descriptions. Each is the standard iconography a Ming reader would have seen painted on temple walls all their life, and the verse works the way a caption works — naming what the audience already recognises.
The novel has been describing celestial bureaucracy for a whole chapter, in the language of departments and edicts and duty rosters. Here, for four lines, it lets the gods look like gods.