Jia Rui Is Punished
Jia Rui continues to be punished for his infatuation with Wang Xifeng.
My Translation
It turns out that Jia Rui’s parents passed away when he was young. That left him to be raised by his grandfather, Jia Dairu. Jia Dairu was extremely strict, and ordinarily wouldn’t let Jia Rui take a single step out the door for fear that he would start drinking or gambling and neglect his studies.
Seeing that Jia Rui hadn’t come home all night on this particular occasion, his grandfather naturally assumed that he had been out drinking or gambling, or perhaps even visiting a brothel. He would have never dreamed that it would be this kind of affair. And so he was angry all night long.
Jia Rui, meanwhile, was extremely nervous. His only choice was to tell a lie. “I went to my uncle’s house,” he said, “and it became dark, so they kept me there the whole night.”
“You’ve never dared to leave the house without my permission!” scolded Dairu. “How were you out all night yesterday? Being out so late alone earns you a beating, let alone lying to me!”
And so Jia Dairu furiously forced Jia Rui to the ground and beat him 30 or 40 times with a bamboo paddle. He didn’t let Jia Rui eat, and forced him to kneel in the courtyard to study his lessons. Dairu stipulated that Jia Rui would have to make up for 10 full days of neglected schoolwork before he could be forgiven.
And so Jia Rui spent a freezing night outdoors, and then received a beating. Weak from the beating and starving, he had to kneel down in the wind and recite his lessons, which was a torment beyond description.
Translation Critique
Hawkes
David Hawkes describes Jia Dairu as spending “the whole night in a state of extreme choler.” Choler means anger or irritability; it’s not a word you see all that frequently.
Yang
The Yang translation here doesn’t have anything odd about it, though it’s really quick and feels more like a summary than an actual translation.
Chinese Text
原來賈瑞父母早亡，只有他祖父代儒教養。那代儒素日教訓最嚴，不許賈瑞多走一步，生怕他在外吃酒賭錢，有誤學業。今忽見他一夜不歸，只料定他在外非飲即賭，嫖娼宿妓，那裡想到這段公案？因此也氣了一夜。賈瑞也捻著一把汗，少不得回來撒謊，只說：「往舅舅家去了，天黑了，留我住了一夜。」代儒道：「自來出門非稟我不敢擅出，如何昨日私自去了？據此也該打，何況是撒謊！」因此，發狠按倒打了三四十板，還不許他吃飯，叫他跪在院內讀文章，定要補出十天功課來方罷。賈瑞先凍了一夜，又捱了打，又餓著肚子跪在風地裡念文章，其苦萬狀。
Translation Notes
有誤學業 is kind of an awkward phrase. It seems that 誤 here means to hinder or delay; in other words, Jia Dairu is worried that Jia Rui might get involved with drinking and gambling and delay his studies.
非飲即賭 is classical Chinese phrasing: if not drinking, then he’d be gambling.
嫖娼 means to visit prostitutes, and 宿妓 also means to visit prostitutes.
公案 here means a legal case or dispute; it can also mean a paradoxical anecdote in a Buddhist sense.
捻一把汗 means to be sweating profusely out of worry or nervousness, as if you could wring the sweat out of your own hands.
稟 means to report to one’s superior, and 擅 means to do something on your own initiative.