詐病索僧鞋 The Feigned Illness and the Shoes
卻說小姐自見兒子之後，心內一憂一喜。忽一日推病，茶飯不吃，臥於床上。劉洪歸衙，問其原故。小姐道：「我幼時曾許下一願，許捨僧鞋一百雙。昨五日之前，夢見個和尚手執利刃，要索僧鞋，便覺身子不快。」劉洪道：「這些小事，何不早說？」隨升堂，吩咐王左衙、李右衙：江州城內百姓，每家要辦僧鞋一雙，限五日內完納。百姓俱依派完納訖。小姐對劉洪道：「僧鞋做完，這裡有甚麼寺院，好去還願？」劉洪道：「這江州有個金山寺、焦山寺，聽你在那個寺裡去。」小姐道：「久聞金山寺好個寺院，我就往金山寺去。」劉洪即喚王、李二衙辦下船隻。小姐帶了心腹人，同上了船，梢子將船撐開，就投金山寺去。却说小姐自见儿子之后，心内一忧一喜。忽一日推病，茶饭不吃，卧于床上。刘洪归衙，问其原故。小姐道：「我幼时曾许下一愿，许舍僧鞋一百双。昨五日之前，梦见个和尚手执利刃，要索僧鞋，便觉身子不快。」刘洪道：「这些小事，何不早说？」随升堂，吩咐王左衙、李右衙：江州城内百姓，每家要办僧鞋一双，限五日内完纳。百姓俱依派完纳讫。小姐对刘洪道：「僧鞋做完，这里有甚么寺院，好去还愿？」刘洪道：「这江州有个金山寺、焦山寺，听你在那个寺里去。」小姐道：「久闻金山寺好个寺院，我就往金山寺去。」刘洪即唤王、李二衙办下船只。小姐带了心腹人，同上了船，梢子将船撑开，就投金山寺去。
逐句解 Line by line
Now after the lady had seen her son, her heart was half grief and half joy.
一憂一喜, one part grief to one part joy, held in balance. 兒子 keeps 子 unstressed as zi.
One day she feigned sickness, would touch neither tea nor rice, and lay abed.
推病, to push illness forward as an excuse, using the same 推 as pushing anything else. Refusing tea and rice is the visible symptom, and it is also the only sort of illness a person can perform convincingly.
When Liu Hong came back to the yamen and asked the cause,
原故, the underlying reason. He asks, which is what she has been lying in bed waiting for.
the lady said, 'In my youth I once made a vow — to give away a hundred pairs of monk's shoes.'
許下一願, to have laid down a vow. 捨 is to give a thing away in alms, to let go of it. She dates the vow to her girlhood, which places it safely beyond anything he could check.
'Five days ago I dreamed of a monk with a sharp blade in hand demanding the shoes, and at once felt unwell.'
An unpaid vow that comes collecting is a genuine popular belief, so the dream is well chosen: a monk with a blade, demanding his shoes. 利刃 is a sharp edge; 身子 keeps 子 unstressed as zi. She has invented precisely the kind of dream a superstitious man would rather not argue with.
Liu Hong said, 'Such a small matter — why not say so earlier?'
這些小事, such small matters. He is being generous, and it costs him everything he has.
He went up to the hall at once and ordered his two aides, Wang of the left office and Li of the right:
王左衙 and 李右衙 are the aides of the left and right offices, a magistrate's two hands. 升堂 is to go up and open court — which he does, over a hundred pairs of shoes.
every household among the people of Jiangzhou city was to make one pair of monk's shoes, to be delivered within five days.
And there it is: one pair from every household in the city, 限五日內完納, delivered in full within five days. He has converted a private favour into a public levy without a second thought. This is what he is like as a governor, in a single line.
The people all duly delivered their full quota.
依派, according to the assessment: the quota was apportioned and the people paid it. 訖 marks a thing completed and closed — the vocabulary of a tax receipt.
The lady said to Liu Hong, 'The shoes are made; what temple is there hereabouts, where I might go to redeem the vow?'
She asks him to choose the temple. Letting the mark pick is the oldest rule in the confidence trade. 還願 keeps 還 as huán.
Liu Hong said, 'Here at Jiangzhou there is Gold Mountain Monastery and Jiao Mountain Monastery — go to whichever you please.'
He offers two: 金山寺 and 焦山寺, Gold Mountain and Jiao Mountain, both real temples near Zhenjiang and still standing within sight of each other across the water. 那個寺 takes 那 as nǎ in its indefinite sense, whichever. He has handed her the choice, and one of the two options is her son.
The lady said, 'I have long heard Gold Mountain is a fine temple; I will go to Gold Mountain.'
久聞, I have long heard — a polite formula for announcing a decision you reached a week ago.
Liu Hong at once had Wang and Li ready a boat.
He arranges the boat himself. A man who murdered a family on a river is putting his wife on one and seeing her off.
The lady took her trusted people, boarded together, and the boatman poled off, making straight for Gold Mountain Monastery.
心腹人, heart-and-guts people: the ones you would trust with your life, which is the exact standard required here. And the chapter puts her back on a boat with a 梢子, a boatman — 子 unstressed as zi, the same word it used of the two men at the ford. This crossing runs the other way.
This is the closest the chapter comes to comedy, and the joke is entirely on Liu Hong. His wife wants a reason to visit a temple. She invents an illness and an old vow, adds a dream of an angry monk with a knife, and waits. He asks no questions whatever — such a small matter, why did she not mention it sooner — and then solves it in the way that comes naturally to him: every household in Jiangzhou will produce one pair of monk's shoes within five days.
Consider what that means. The man took an office by murder, and here he is using it to requisition footwear from an entire city so that his wife can keep a promise she never made. The authority he stripped off Chen Guangrui at the point of a blade is now aimed, without his noticing, at his own execution.
Then he does the last thing wrong by being helpful. He offers her a choice between two real temples facing each other across the water near Zhenjiang, 金山寺 and 焦山寺. She picks the one with her son in it, and he orders up the boat.