暮春便道省親 Homeward in Late Spring
正是暮春天氣，正是暮春天气，
光蕊便道回家，同妻交拜母親張氏。張氏道：「恭喜我兒，且又娶親回來。」光蕊道：「孩兒叨賴母親福庇，忝中狀元，欽賜遊街，經過丞相殷府門前，遇拋打繡毬適中，蒙丞相即將小姐招孩兒為婿。朝廷除孩兒為江州州主，今來接取母親，同去赴任。」張氏大喜，收拾行程。光蕊便道回家，同妻交拜母亲张氏。张氏道：「恭喜我儿，且又娶亲回来。」光蕊道：「孩儿叨赖母亲福庇，忝中状元，钦赐游街，经过丞相殷府门前，遇抛打绣毬适中，蒙丞相即将小姐招孩儿为婿。朝廷除孩儿为江州州主，今来接取母亲，同去赴任。」张氏大喜，收拾行程。
逐句解 Line by line
It was just the season of late spring —
正是 is the storyteller clearing space for verse. What follows is the only poetry in the chapter.
A mild breeze blows the willows green,
The chapter's one piece of verse, and it is built to match itself line for line: 和風, mild breeze, against 細雨, fine rain; 吹, blow, against 點, fleck; 柳綠, willow-green, against 花紅, blossom-red. Every word has its opposite number waiting in the next line. It is the standard 暮春, late-spring, postcard, and it is here to be pleasant.
fine rain flecks the blossoms red.
The answering line lands its matches in order, 點, to dot or fleck, set against the 吹, to blow, of the line before. Enjoy it. The weather never gets this good again.
Guangrui turned homeward by the way, and with his wife made the bow to his mother, Madam Zhang.
便道 is going by way of somewhere, a detour that hardly counts as one. The bow that follows is the point: the bride is presented to her mother-in-law, which is what makes the marriage real to the family rather than to the state.
Madam Zhang said, 'Congratulations, my son — and you have brought home a bride besides.'
娶親, to take a wife. Notice which piece of news she leads with, and which one gets the and-what-is-more.
Guangrui said, 'Thanks to my mother's sheltering blessing, your son has unworthily taken first place and was granted the procession through the streets; passing before the gate of Chancellor Yin's residence, I chanced to be struck square by her thrown embroidered ball,
Every word of this is in the self-lowering register. 叨賴 is to owe what you did not deserve — 叨, tāo — and 忝中 is to have taken a thing to your own disgrace, 忝, tiǎn. Flattened out: I only came first by fluke and by your blessing. 中 is zhòng, the hit, in both 忝中 and 適中; 相 in 丞相 is xiàng.
whereupon the Chancellor at once gave his daughter to take your son for a husband.'
為婿, as son-in-law, with 為 as wéi; 相 again xiàng.
'The court has made your son Governor of Jiangzhou, and I have now come to fetch you, that you may go with us to take up the post.'
為江州州主, made Governor of Jiangzhou, with 為 as wéi. He has come to collect her, and the collecting is the filial point of the whole visit.
Madam Zhang was overjoyed and made ready for the journey.
行程, the journey, with 行 as xíng. Her delight is the last uncomplicated feeling anybody in this chapter has.
The chapter holds exactly two lines of verse, and they are these: 和風吹柳綠，細雨點花紅, a mild breeze in the willows and fine rain on the blossom. It is the stock 暮春, late-spring, tableau, the kind of couplet a storyteller drops in to mark a pleasant stretch of road. Set beside what the next two passages do, it reads as a held breath.
Guangrui's report to his mother is a small masterclass in filial manners. He does not say he came first; he says 叨賴母親福庇, that he owed it undeservingly to her sheltering blessing — 叨, tāo, being the verb for receiving what you have not earned, and 忝, tiǎn, doing the same shrinking work around the title of Top Graduate. Credit flows upward and the son keeps none of it. Then he turns the whole visit into an errand to fetch her along to his post, which is what he has been building to.
It is the warmest scene in the chapter, and it lasts nine short segments.