四位何干 What Had They to Do with It
那員外跪道：「老爹，其實枉了這四位聖僧。那夜有三十多名強盜，明火執杖，劫去家私。是我難捨，向賊理說，不期被他一腳，撩陰踢死。與這四位何干？」叫過妻子來，「是誰人踢死，你等輒敢妄告？請老爹定罪。」當時一家老小只是磕頭。刺史寬恩，免其罪過。那员外跪道：「老爹，其实枉了这四位圣僧。那夜有三十多名强盗，明火执杖，劫去家私。是我难舍，向贼理说，不期被他一脚，撩阴踢死。与这四位何干？」叫过妻子来，「是谁人踢死，你等辄敢妄告？请老爹定罪。」当时一家老小只是磕头。刺史宽恩，免其罪过。
逐句解 Line by line
The squire knelt and said, "Your worship — these four holy monks have truly been wronged. That night there were thirty-odd robbers, with torches lit and staves in hand, who carried off our property."
三十多名強盜 — thirty-odd robbers. Kou Hong is the only person who saw them and lived, and he confirms the number the book gave when Monkey froze them on the road. 明火執杖 — torches lit and staves in hand. He uses the identical four-character legal formula his son used in the false complaint. The son reached for the right phrase to describe something he never saw; his father is using it about what he did see, and the words are the same. 枉了這四位聖僧 — these four holy monks have been wronged. The word for wrongful accusation, and it is the same one in the name of the City of the Wrongly Dead he has just come from.
"I could not bear to give them up and reasoned with the thieves, and one of them, unlooked for, gave me a kick in the groin and killed me. What had these four to do with it?"
是我難捨 — I could not bear to give them up. The chapter's narrator said exactly this of him at the moment of the killing, in different words, and Kou Hong now says it of himself. Here the character means hard to do, which is the level tone, and the chapter's two calamities take the other one. 被他一腳 — one of them gave me a kick. One man, one kick. He is the only witness there could be, and he settles the fact the whole case turned on. 與這四位何干 — what had these four to do with it? The last character means connection, and it is the same word Monkey used in his false confession when he took the whole charge onto himself. Then it was a lie clearing three men; now it is the truth clearing four.
He called his wife over. "Who was it that kicked me to death, that you dared make so wild an accusation? I beg your worship to fix the punishment."
Kou Hong asks for his own wife to be sentenced. He has been alive for about forty characters. 妄告 — a wild or false accusation. It was a punishable offence to bring one, which the family have known all along and which is why they offered to admit it and take it back at dawn. And the widow says nothing. She has not spoken since Monkey shamed her from the coffin, and she does not speak again in the chapter.
At that the whole household, old and young, could only knock their heads. The prefect was generous and remitted the offence.
一家老小只是磕頭 — the whole household, old and young, could only knock their heads. No defence is offered because there is none. 刺史寬恩，免其罪過 — the prefect was generous and remitted the offence. Eight characters, and the case ends. Nobody is punished for anything: not the widow who perjured herself, not the officials who convicted without a hearing, not the gaolers who beat four men for a bribe. Only the thirty robbers, who are somewhere in the hills and never mentioned again.
Kou Hong settles the whole case with the one fact only he could supply: one man, one kick. The murder charge that convicted four innocent men, survived a trial, a beating and a night in the frames, dissolves in a sentence from the victim.
And he asks for his wife to be punished. He has been alive for about forty characters and his first use of the fact is to demand a sentence for the woman who was weeping over his coffin at three this morning. The book records it without comment and gives her no reply at all — she has not spoken since Monkey shamed her, and she never speaks again.
The prefect remits the offence, and that is the end of it. Nobody is punished. Not the widow, not the officers who convicted without a hearing, not the gaolers who beat the prisoners for a bribe. A chapter that has been meticulous about procedure from its first page closes its case by letting everyone off, and the only people still liable are thirty men in the hills whom nobody mentions again.