第十六回 · 黑風山妖 The Fiend of Black Wind Mountain — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

黑風山妖 The Fiend of Black Wind Mountain

不bù期qī火huǒ起qǐ之zhī時shí，驚jīng動dòng了le一yì山shān獸shòu怪guài。這zhè觀guān音yīn院yuàn正zhèng南nán二èr十shí里lǐ遠yuǎn近jìn，有yǒu座zuò黑hēi風fēng山shān，山shān中zhōng有yǒu一yí個gè黑hēi風fēng洞dòng，洞dòng中zhōng有yǒu一yí個gè妖yāo精jīng，正zhèng在zài睡shuì醒xǐng翻fān身shēn。只zhǐ見jiàn那nà窗chuāng間jiān透tòu亮liàng，只zhǐ道dào是shì天tiān明míng。起qǐ來lái看kàn時shí，卻què是shì正zhèng北běi下xià的de火huǒ光guāng晃huǎng亮liàng。妖yāo精jīng大dà驚jīng道dào：「呀ya！這zhè必bì是shì觀guān音yīn院yuàn裡lǐ失shī了le火huǒ。這zhè些xiē和hé尚shàng好hǎo不bù小xiǎo心xīn。我wǒ看kàn時shí，與yǔ他tā救jiù一yí救jiù來lái。」不bù期qī火huǒ起qǐ之zhī时shí，惊jīng动dòng了le一yì山shān兽shòu怪guài。这zhè观guān音yīn院yuàn正zhèng南nán二èr十shí里lǐ远yuǎn近jìn，有yǒu座zuò黑hēi风fēng山shān，山shān中zhōng有yǒu一yí个gè黑hēi风fēng洞dòng，洞dòng中zhōng有yǒu一yí个gè妖yāo精jīng，正zhèng在zài睡shuì醒xǐng翻fān身shēn。只zhǐ见jiàn那nà窗chuāng间jiān透tòu亮liàng，只zhǐ道dào是shì天tiān明míng。起qǐ来lái看kàn时shí，却què是shì正zhèng北běi下xià的de火huǒ光guāng晃huǎng亮liàng。妖yāo精jīng大dà惊jīng道dào：「呀ya！这zhè必bì是shì观guān音yīn院yuàn里lǐ失shī了le火huǒ。这zhè些xiē和hé尚shàng好hǎo不bù小xiǎo心xīn。我wǒ看kàn时shí，与yǔ他tā救jiù一yí救jiù来lái。」

逐句解 Line by line

不bù期qī火huǒ起qǐ之zhī時shí，驚jīng動dòng了le一yì山shān獸shòu怪guài。不bù期qī火huǒ起qǐ之zhī时shí，惊jīng动dòng了le一yì山shān兽shòu怪guài。

It happened that when the fire arose, it startled a beast-spirit of the mountains.

不期, "not looked for" — the storyteller's way of introducing a consequence nobody in the scene intended. 獸怪: a beast that has become a spirit. He will prove to be a black bear.

這zhè觀guān音yīn院yuàn正zhèng南nán二èr十shí里lǐ遠yuǎn近jìn，有yǒu座zuò黑hēi風fēng山shān，这zhè观guān音yīn院yuàn正zhèng南nán二èr十shí里lǐ远yuǎn近jìn，有yǒu座zuò黑hēi风fēng山shān，

Some twenty lǐ due south of this Guanyin Monastery there stands a Black Wind Mountain,

正南二十里 — due south, twenty lǐ. The distance is given exactly, because it will be argued over: Sanzang will object that twenty lǐ is too far for anyone to have seen the fire, and Wukong will answer that the light carried two hundred.

山shān中zhōng有yǒu一yí個gè黑hēi風fēng洞dòng，洞dòng中zhōng有yǒu一yí個gè妖yāo精jīng，正zhèng在zài睡shuì醒xǐng翻fān身shēn。山shān中zhōng有yǒu一yí个gè黑hēi风fēng洞dòng，洞dòng中zhōng有yǒu一yí个gè妖yāo精jīng，正zhèng在zài睡shuì醒xǐng翻fān身shēn。

and in the mountain there is a Black Wind Cave, and in the cave a fiend, who was just then waking and turning over.

The three nested locatives — mountain, cave, fiend — are the standard formula for introducing a demon, and the reader who has come this far knows precisely what it announces. The chapter title promised him two hundred graphs ago.

只zhǐ見jiàn那nà窗chuāng間jiān透tòu亮liàng，只zhǐ道dào是shì天tiān明míng。起qǐ來lái看kàn時shí，卻què是shì正zhèng北běi下xià的de火huǒ光guāng晃huǎng亮liàng。只zhǐ见jiàn那nà窗chuāng间jiān透tòu亮liàng，只zhǐ道dào是shì天tiān明míng。起qǐ来lái看kàn时shí，却què是shì正zhèng北běi下xià的de火huǒ光guāng晃huǎng亮liàng。

He saw a light coming through the window and took it for daybreak. Rising to look, he found it was a glare of fire in the north.

只道是天明, "took it for daybreak." Of all the beings within twenty lǐ, the one who first mistakes the fire for the dawn is the monster.

妖yāo精jīng大dà驚jīng道dào：「呀ya！這zhè必bì是shì觀guān音yīn院yuàn裡lǐ失shī了le火huǒ。妖yāo精jīng大dà惊jīng道dào：「呀ya！这zhè必bì是shì观guān音yīn院yuàn里lǐ失shī了le火huǒ。

The fiend started up. "Ah! This must be a fire in the Guanyin Monastery. How careless those monks are!

好不小心, "how very careless" — the double negative is an intensifier. A demon of Black Wind Mountain is tutting at the fire safety of a Buddhist monastery.

這zhè些xiē和hé尚shàng好hǎo不bù小xiǎo心xīn。我wǒ看kàn時shí，與yǔ他tā救jiù一yí救jiù來lái。」这zhè些xiē和hé尚shàng好hǎo不bù小xiǎo心xīn。我wǒ看kàn时shí，与yǔ他tā救jiù一yí救jiù来lái。」

"I will go and see, and lend them a hand to put it out."

與他救一救來, "I will go and help them save it." He means it. The one creature in this chapter who runs toward a burning monastery intending to help is the fiend, and the running is what destroys him.

總評 Commentary

The chapter's second half opens with a joke so quiet it is easy to miss. A monster wakes in a cave, sees the sky red, thinks it is morning, and then realises that the Guanyin Monastery is on fire. His first thought — his immediate, unreflecting thought — is that the monks have been careless, and that he had better go and help. 我看時，與他救一救來。 Two hundred and thirty monks have just tried to burn two men alive for a robe; and the bear-spirit of Black Wind Mountain is putting on his cloud to run to their aid.

Wú Chéng'ēn will not let the joke stand as sentiment, and the next passage takes it back with both hands. But the sequence matters, and it is deliberate. The demon is introduced as a neighbour, on good terms with the abbot — they discuss the Way together, as we learn later — and moved by exactly the reflex the monastery lacked. He becomes a thief only after he sees the cassock, which is to say: he falls in the identical manner, and by the identical light, as the old man who has just set his own house on fire. The cassock does not distinguish between monks and monsters. It shows each of them what he is.