光蕊還魂 Guangrui Returns to Life
卻說殷小姐哭奠丈夫一番，又欲將身赴水而死，慌得玄奘拚命扯住。正在倉皇之際，忽見水面上一個死屍浮來，靠近江岸之傍。小姐忙向前認看，認得是丈夫的屍首，一發嚎啕大哭不已。眾人俱來觀看，只見光蕊舒拳伸腳，身子漸漸展動，忽地爬將起來坐下。眾人不勝驚駭。光蕊睜開眼，早見殷小姐與丈人殷丞相同著小和尚俱在身邊啼哭。却说殷小姐哭奠丈夫一番，又欲将身赴水而死，慌得玄奘拚命扯住。正在仓皇之际，忽见水面上一个死尸浮来，靠近江岸之傍。小姐忙向前认看，认得是丈夫的尸首，一发嚎啕大哭不已。众人俱来观看，只见光蕊舒拳伸脚，身子渐渐展动，忽地爬将起来坐下。众人不胜惊骇。光蕊睁开眼，早见殷小姐与丈人殷丞相同着小和尚俱在身边啼哭。
逐句解 Line by line
Now Yin Wenjiao, having wept her sacrifice over her husband, was about to throw herself into the water and die,
卻說, now to tell of, is the storyteller switching cameras. 哭奠, weeping the offering; and then 赴水而死, to go into the water and die. She was talked down from the rope an hour ago and has simply moved on to the river. The chapter is not treating her despair as a scene to be played once and cleared away.
when Xuanzang, frantic, risked his life to seize and hold her back.
慌得, panicked to the point that, with 得 as the unstressed de that ties a verb to what came of it. 拚命, throwing your own life away, takes 拚 as pīn, and the phrase is still everyday Chinese for doing something with everything you have. 扯住, grabbed and held on.
Just at that panic-stricken moment, a corpse suddenly floated up on the water and drew near the riverbank.
倉皇, flustered and scrambling; 之際, at the very moment of. The novel has kept this corpse offstage for eighteen years and brings it up on the one line where it does the most work.
The lady hurried forward to look, recognized her husband's body, and burst into unrestrained wailing.
認看, to look in order to identify, and then 認得, looked and knew — 得 as the unstressed de that turns an attempt into a result. 嚎啕大哭 is howling, a rougher and louder verb than any of the weeping in this chapter so far, and 一發, all the more, sets it going. The sight does not steady her. It lets go of everything she has been holding.
Everyone came to look, and saw Guangrui stretch his fists and legs, his body gradually stirring and moving, until all at once he crawled up and sat down.
This is the miracle, and the novel refuses to make it ethereal. 舒拳伸腳, the fists unclenching and the legs straightening; 漸漸展動, the body opening out and beginning to move, with 身子 keeping 子 unstressed as zi. Then 爬將起來坐下: he crawls up and sits. Not rises. Crawls. A soul coming back is described entirely from the outside, as something a crowd on a riverbank would actually have seen.
The crowd could not master their astonishment.
不勝, unable to bear up under it — the same construction that will measure the Chancellor's wife being overcome with joy two passages from now. And 驚駭 is fright, not wonder. Nobody on that bank finds this beautiful.
Guangrui opened his eyes, and at once saw Yin Wenjiao, his father-in-law Chancellor Yin, and the little monk all weeping at his side.
睜開眼, the eyes opening. 丈人 is a wife's father, the everyday word beside the more courtly 岳丈 the Dragon King used. 同著, along with, takes 著 as zhe — one of three readings this chapter gives the character, beside the zháo of seeking and finding and the zhuó of sending somebody on an errand. And the first thing he sees is a son he has never met.
The miracle at the centre of the chapter is staged with almost stubborn physicality. No light, no music, no immortal descending. A body drifts to the bank, the fists unclench, the legs straighten, the trunk starts to move, and the man crawls up and sits down. Every detail is given from where the crowd is standing, which is exactly why it works.
The timing is providential to the point of comedy. Yin Wenjiao has just been argued out of hanging herself and has moved on to drowning; her son has both arms around her; and it is at that precise moment that the river hands back the man she was going in after. It took him at night in secret, and it returns him in daylight in front of witnesses, on the one day she tries to give it a second body.
The crowd's reaction is the detail to keep. Not awe — 不勝驚駭, fright they cannot manage. A resurrection at close range is a hole torn in how the world is supposed to work, and the people on that bank react the way people actually would.