原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
鄉老求雨
The Elders Beg for Rain
正疑惑之間，又見黃門官來奏：「陛下，門外有許多鄉老聽宣。」國王道：「有何事幹？」即命宣來。宣至殿前，有三四十名鄉老，朝上磕頭道：「萬歲，今年一春無雨，但恐夏月乾荒，特來啟奏，請那位國師爺爺祈一場甘雨，普濟黎民。」正疑惑之间，又见黄门官来奏：「陛下，门外有许多乡老听宣。」国王道：「有何事干？」即命宣来。宣至殿前，有三四十名乡老，朝上磕头道：「万岁，今年一春无雨，但恐夏月干荒，特来启奏，请那位国师爷爷祈一场甘雨，普济黎民。」
逐句解 Line by line
正疑惑之間，又見黃門官來奏：「陛下，門外有許多鄉老聽宣。」
正疑惑之间，又见黄门官来奏：「陛下，门外有许多乡老听宣。」
Just as he sat in doubt, the Yellow-Gate officer came again to report: “Your Majesty, outside the gate are many village elders awaiting your summons.”
正疑惑之間 “right in the midst of his uncertainty.” 鄉老 “village elders.” 聽宣 “to await the (royal) summons.”
國王道：「有何事幹？」
国王道：「有何事干？」
The king said, “What business have they?”
有何事幹 “what matter is it?”
即命宣來。
即命宣来。
At once he ordered them summoned in.
即命宣來 “forthwith bade them be called in.”
宣至殿前，有三四十名鄉老，朝上磕頭道：「萬歲，今年一春無雨，但恐夏月乾荒，特來啟奏，請那位國師爺爺祈一場甘雨，普濟黎民。」
宣至殿前，有三四十名乡老，朝上磕头道：「万岁，今年一春无雨，但恐夏月干荒，特来启奏，请那位国师爷爷祈一场甘雨，普济黎民。」
Summoned before the hall, some thirty or forty village elders knocked their heads toward the throne and said, “Ten thousand years to Your Majesty! This spring there has been no rain, and we fear a parching drought in the summer months; we have come especially to report it, and to beg that one of the Preceptor Fathers pray down a fall of sweet rain, to relieve the common folk.”
朝上: 朝 = cháo. 一春無雨: 一 = yì before 春 (1st tone). 夏月乾荒: 乾 = gān, “parched, drought” (not qián of 乾坤). Deictic 那位: 那 = nà. 一場甘雨: 場 = cháng, the literary measure for a spell of weather (contrast 壇場 chǎng below).
總評 Commentary
The plot's rescue arrives from outside the throne room: a delegation of drought-struck elders begging for rain hands the king a way out of his deadlock. Their petition supplies the contest that will occupy the chapter's second half — a public trial of rain-making — and quietly widens the stakes from the pilgrims' fate to the welfare of a whole starving countryside.