今日發聲 Why Do You Speak Today
忽然那刺史自房裡出來，彎著腰梳洗。行者猛的裡咳嗽一聲，把刺史諕得慌慌張張，走入房內。梳洗畢，穿了大衣，即出來對著畫兒焚香禱告道：「伯考姜公乾一神位：孝姪姜坤三，蒙祖上德廕，忝中甲科，今叨受銅臺府刺史，旦夕侍奉香火不絕，為何今日發聲？切勿為邪為祟，恐諕家眾。」忽然那刺史自房里出来，弯着腰梳洗。行者猛的里咳嗽一声，把刺史諕得慌慌张张，走入房内。梳洗毕，穿了大衣，即出来对着画儿焚香祷告道：「伯考姜公干一神位：孝姪姜坤三，蒙祖上德荫，忝中甲科，今叨受铜台府刺史，旦夕侍奉香火不绝，为何今日发声？切勿为邪为祟，恐諕家众。」
逐句解 Line by line
Presently the prefect came out of his room and bent over to wash and comb. Monkey suddenly gave a cough right there, which threw the prefect into such a fluster that he ran back inside.
彎著腰梳洗 — bent over to wash and comb. The book puts him in an undignified posture, half dressed, before it frightens him. ⚠ 咳嗽一聲 — gave a cough. The same trick as at the coffin, and the same single cough. Monkey has found a method and is using it twice. 諕得慌慌張張 — thrown into such a fluster. The frightening word again, this chapter's fifth of six, and the doubled four-character form gives you a man scrambling.
When he had washed and combed he put on his outer robe, came out, and burned incense before the picture, praying: "Spirit tablet of my late uncle, Lord Jiang Qianyi. Your dutiful nephew Jiang Kunsan, favoured by the merit inherited from his forebears, unworthily placed in the first grade of the examinations, now humbly holds the post of prefect of Tongtai, and serves your incense morning and evening without a break. Why do you speak today?"
⚠ And there it is. The man in the painting is the prefect's dead uncle, and the prefect has just told Monkey his own name, his uncle's name, his degree, his office and his devotional habits, in one prayer, without being asked. ⚠ 乾一 and 坤三 — the uncle and the nephew. Both names are a trigram followed by a number: Qian, the heaven trigram, with one; Kun, the earth trigram, with three. It is how this family names its men. ⚠ The character for that first trigram is the same one that appears early in this chapter meaning simply dry, where it is read differently and where the reading came out wrong. Here, in a name, it is right. ⚠ 忝中甲科 — unworthily placed in the first grade. The middle character is the verb, to hit the mark, which is what a candidate does to a degree. It is the one place in this chapter's twenty-five uses of that character where it is not simply a middle or an inside.
"Only do not turn into an evil thing or a haunting, and frighten the household."
⚠ 為邪為祟 — turn into an evil thing, become a haunting. Both middle characters are the verb to be or to become, not the preposition meaning for the sake of that is written the same way. This chapter uses that character thirteen times and gets it wrong at seven, of which these are two. 恐諕家眾 — and frighten the household. He is not asking for anything. He is asking his uncle not to do anything. It is a completely ordinary prayer — respectful, formulaic, faintly nervous — and it hands Monkey everything.
The prefect gives away the entire con in a prayer he says every morning. Monkey arrived not knowing who the portrait was; a hundred characters later he knows the dead man's name, the living man's name, their relationship, the nephew's degree and how often he burns incense here.
It works because none of it is secret. A man praying at his ancestor's portrait names the ancestor, names himself, and rehearses his obligations — that is what the form is for. The information Monkey needs is exactly the information the ritual is designed to say out loud.
The names are a nice touch. Qian and Kun are the first two trigrams, heaven and earth, and this family has been naming its men out of the classics for at least two generations. It is a small stroke of characterisation for a household we never otherwise see: bookish, orderly, and exactly the sort to produce a conscientious magistrate.