Canonical Classics ← 第十八回
第十八回
guānyīnyuàntángsēngtuōnàn
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At the Guanyin Temple the Tang Monk Escapes His Ordeal · At the Gao Village the Great Sage Removes the Monster

妖精入房
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

妖精入房 The Monster Comes Home

zhènkuángfēngguòchùzhǐjiànbànkōngláileyāojīngguǒránshēngdechǒulòuhēiliǎnduǎnmáochánghuìěr穿chuānlǐngqīngqīnglánlándesuōzhíduōtiáohuāshǒujīnxíngzhěànxiàodào:「yuánláishìzhèmǎimài。」hǎoxíngzhěquèyíngwènqiěshuìzàichuángshàngtuībìngkǒuhēnghēngdejuéguàishízhēnjiǎzǒujìnfánglǒuzhùjiùyàoqīnzuǐxíngzhěànxiàodào:「zhēnyàoláinònglǎosūnli。」使shǐtuōzheguàidechángzuǐjiàozuòxiǎodiēmàntóudǒudeguànxiàchuángláiguàiláizhechuángbiāndào:「jiějiezěnmejīnyǒuxiēguàizhènkuángfēngguòchùzhǐjiànbànkōngláileyāojīngguǒránshēngdechǒulòuhēiliǎnduǎnmáochánghuìěr穿chuānlǐngqīngqīnglánlándesuōzhíduōtiáohuāshǒujīnxíngzhěànxiàodào:「yuánláishìzhèmǎimài。」hǎoxíngzhěquèyíngwènqiěshuìzàichuángshàngtuībìngkǒuhēnghēngdejuéguàishízhēnjiǎzǒujìnfánglǒuzhùjiùyàoqīnzuǐxíngzhěànxiàodào:「zhēnyàoláinònglǎosūnli。」使shǐtuōzheguàidechángzuǐjiàozuòxiǎodiēmàntóudǒudeguànxiàchuángláiguàiláizhechuángbiāndào:「jiějiezěnmejīnyǒuxiēguài


逐句解 Line by line

zhènkuángfēngguòchùzhǐjiànbànkōngláileyāojīngguǒránshēngdechǒulòu zhènkuángfēngguòchùzhǐjiànbànkōngláileyāojīngguǒránshēngdechǒulòu

When that gust of wild wind had passed, there in mid-air came a monster, and hideous indeed he was to look upon:

生得醜陋: is the unstressed de, made ugly to look on. And count the space each gets. The wind was given ten couplets. The monster gets six characters — 果然生得醜陋 — before the description of his face begins.

hēiliǎnduǎnmáochánghuìěr穿chuānlǐngqīngqīnglánlándesuōzhíduōtiáohuāshǒujīn hēiliǎnduǎnmáochánghuìěr穿chuānlǐngqīngqīnglánlándesuōzhíduōtiáohuāshǒujīn

a black face with short bristles, a long snout and great ears; on his back a coarse cloth gown neither green nor blue, and at his waist a girdle of flowered cotton.

is one of those characters that leads two lives: read zhǎng it means to grow, or to be the elder; read cháng it means long. Here it is cháng — we are being told about the snout, not about seniority. 直裰, with read duō, is the long straight-cut robe worn by monks and poor scholars. And it is 青不青藍不藍, not quite green and not quite blue — the exact opposite of the Sichuan brocade Squire Gao put on to receive strangers at his gate.

xíngzhěànxiàodào:「yuánláishìzhèmǎimài。」 xíngzhěànxiàodào:「yuánláishìzhèmǎimài。」

The Pilgrim laughed to himself. "So this is the article," he said.

買賣 here means the piece of goods, the article of trade. The Pilgrim has been talking commerce all chapter — 才有買賣, 湊四合六的勾當 — and now he applies the word to a person standing in front of him.

hǎoxíngzhěquèyíngwènqiěshuìzàichuángshàngtuībìngkǒuhēnghēngdejué hǎoxíngzhěquèyíngwènqiěshuìzàichuángshàngtuībìngkǒuhēnghēngdejué

Good Pilgrim! He neither went to meet him nor asked him a word, but lay on the bed feigning sickness, moaning and grumbling without a pause.

好行者 is the storyteller's admiring shout: good old Pilgrim. 推病 is to plead illness. 哼哼嘖嘖 doubles two sound-words, one for moaning and one for tutting, and you can hear both.

guàishízhēnjiǎzǒujìnfánglǒuzhùjiùyàoqīnzuǐ guàishízhēnjiǎzǒujìnfánglǒuzhùjiùyàoqīnzuǐ

The monster could not tell true from false. He came into the room, threw his arms about her, and would have kissed her.

不識真假 — he cannot tell the true from the counterfeit, which is the theme of the whole second half of the chapter. 親嘴 is to kiss on the mouth. The novel is not coy about it, and neither is the monster.

xíngzhěànxiàodào:「zhēnyàoláinònglǎosūnli。」使shǐtuōzheguàidechángzuǐjiàozuòxiǎodiē xíngzhěànxiàodào:「zhēnyàoláinònglǎosūnli。」使shǐtuōzheguàidechángzuǐjiàozuòxiǎodiē

The Pilgrim laughed inwardly. "He is really coming to try it on with old Sun," he thought. He applied a grip, took hold of the monster's long snout, and gave him what is called a little throw:

托著 keeps as zhe. 拿法 is a hold, as in wrestling — the same word Gao Cai used in the street for the grip he could not break. 小跌, a little throw, is a wrestler's term of art, and the little in it is contempt.

màntóudǒudeguànxiàchuángláiguàiláizhechuángbiāndào:「jiějiezěnmejīnyǒuxiēguài màntóudǒudeguànxiàchuángláiguàiláizhechuángbiāndào:「jiějiezěnmejīnyǒuxiēguài

one twist over the head, and down he went with a smack beside the bed. The monster picked himself up, steadied himself against the bedside, and said, "Sister, why are you so cross with me today?

漫頭一抖 is a twist that carries a man clean over his own head. 撲的 is the sound of the landing. 扶著床邊 has as zhe again. And note the monster's first word after being thrown on the floor by his wife: 姐姐, sister.


總評 Commentary

After ten couplets of cosmic wind the creature arrives and is immediately cut down to size: a shabby gown of no particular colour, a cotton girdle, and a face. The rhapsody promised a demon of the four seas; the prose delivers a farm labourer in his working clothes, coming home at nightfall to his wife.

And the wife throws him on the floor. 小跌 — a little throw, a wrestling move — applied to a bridegroom by a monkey wearing his bride's shape. Everything that will happen to Zhu Bajie for the next eighty chapters is folded into the first four sentences he speaks. He is affectionate. He is credulous. He apologises for being late. And he never once suspects the person in front of him.