綵樓拋毬招婿 The Embroidered Ball Chooses a Groom
不期遊到丞相殷開山門首，有丞相所生一女，名喚溫嬌，又名滿堂嬌，未曾婚配，正高結綵樓，拋打繡毬卜婿。適值陳光蕊在樓下經過。小姐一見光蕊人材出眾，知是新科狀元，心內十分歡喜，就將繡毬拋下，恰打著光蕊的烏紗帽。猛聽得一派笙簫細樂，十數個婢妾走下樓來，把光蕊馬頭挽住，迎狀元入相府成婚。那丞相和夫人即時出堂，喚賓人贊禮，將小姐配與光蕊。拜了天地，夫妻交拜畢，又拜了岳丈、岳母。丞相吩咐安排酒席，歡飲一宵。二人同攜素手，共入蘭房。不期游到丞相殷开山门首，有丞相所生一女，名唤温娇，又名满堂娇，未曾婚配，正高结彩楼，抛打绣毬卜婿。适值陈光蕊在楼下经过。小姐一见光蕊人材出众，知是新科状元，心内十分欢喜，就将绣毬抛下，恰打着光蕊的乌纱帽。猛听得一派笙箫细乐，十数个婢妾走下楼来，把光蕊马头挽住，迎状元入相府成婚。那丞相和夫人即时出堂，唤宾人赞礼，将小姐配与光蕊。拜了天地，夫妻交拜毕，又拜了岳丈、岳母。丞相吩咐安排酒席，欢饮一宵。二人同携素手，共入兰房。
逐句解 Line by line
Unlooked-for, his procession came to the gate of the Chancellor, Yin Kaishan, who had a daughter named Wenjiao — also called Mantangjiao — as yet unbetrothed,
殷開山, Yin Kaishan, was a real general — the historical 殷嶠, one of the men who put the Tang on the throne, dead in 622. The novel promotes him to Chancellor and hands him a daughter and a grandson he never had. The daughter goes by two names: 溫嬌, Wenjiao, and 滿堂嬌, Mantangjiao, which unpacks as charm enough to fill a hall. Both 相 in 丞相 read xiàng.
and was just then up in a high silk-hung tower, casting an embroidered ball to choose her groom.
A 綵樓 is a tower hung about with coloured silks, put up for the occasion. From it the girl throws an embroidered ball, and whoever it hits is the husband — 卜婿, where 卜, bǔ, is the verb for divining. A marriage lottery, in short, and one of the most worn devices in Chinese romance and drama: audiences knew it the way we know a meet-cute.
It happened that Chen Guangrui was passing just beneath the tower.
適值, it chanced just then. Nothing in this chapter chances.
At a single glance the young lady saw that Guangrui was a man of outstanding bearing, and knowing him to be the newly-named Top Graduate, was overjoyed within;
She is not throwing blind. 人材出眾 is a man who stands out of a crowd, and 新科狀元, this year's Top Graduate, was public knowledge — that is what the three-day parade was for.
she let the embroidered ball drop, and it struck Guangrui's black gauze cap square.
The ball hits his 烏紗帽, the black gauze cap that meant you held office, so office and marriage land on his head in the same instant. 打著 takes 著 as zháo, the reading for a blow that connects.
Of a sudden there came a burst of pipes and flutes in delicate consort, and a dozen-odd maidservants came down from the tower,
笙簫細樂 is a small soft band — reed-organ and flute — kept waiting upstairs, because of course it was. 樂 here is yuè, music, not the lè of joy. 聽得 takes 得 as the unstressed de that pins a verb to its outcome: hearing, not merely listening.
took hold of Guangrui's horse by the head, and ushered the Top Graduate into the Chancellor's residence to be wed.
They take his horse by the head, which settles the question of consent. 相府 is the Chancellor's residence, 相 reading xiàng.
That Chancellor and his lady came out into the hall at once, called in a master of ceremonies, and matched the young lady to Guangrui.
贊禮 is the master of ceremonies, the man who calls the wedding rites aloud as they happen. 配與 is to match and hand over in marriage — the grammar is as one-sided as it sounds. 那 here is the pointing nà, that; 相 in 丞相 is xiàng.
They bowed to Heaven and Earth, husband and wife exchanged their bows, and they bowed too to her father and mother.
拜天地, the bow to Heaven and Earth, is the moment that makes a Chinese marriage a marriage: no officiant, no vows, just the couple bowing to the cosmos, then to each other, then to her parents. The phrase still works in Chinese as shorthand for getting married at all.
The Chancellor ordered a banquet laid, and they feasted merrily the night through.
丞相, chancellor, with 相 as xiàng — a reading this chapter asks you to hold thirty-five times.
The two of them, hand in hand, went in together to the bridal chamber.
蘭房, the orchid chamber, is the literary word for a bridal room. 同攜素手, pale hands carried together, is as close as the novel comes to tenderness here — and it is set down precisely where it will hurt most.
The 拋繡毬 — a girl in a tower dropping an embroidered ball on the crowd below and marrying whoever it lands on — is one of the most reliable devices in Chinese popular fiction and drama. It solves a plot problem elegantly: a match made fast, in public, by something that looks like fate rather than negotiation. Here it delivers the new Top Graduate straight through the Chancellor's front gate.
The Chancellor himself is a borrowed man. Yin Kaishan 殷開山 — the historical 殷嶠, died 622 — was one of the generals who founded the Tang, and his portrait hung in the Lingyan Pavilion among the dynasty's honoured founders. The novel promotes him to Chancellor, keeps him going well past his date, and makes him Tripitaka's grandfather. His daughter carries two names, Wenjiao and Mantangjiao, the second meaning charm enough to fill a hall.
And then the passage closes on two people walking hand in hand into a bridal chamber, the 蘭房. That image is not there for warmth. It is there so the reader has something to lose when the boat reaches the ford.