Canonical Classics ← 第二十回
第二十回
huángfēnglǐngtángsēngyǒunàn
bànshānzhōngjièzhēngxiān

On Yellow Wind Ridge the Tang Monk Meets Adversity · Halfway Up the Mountain Bajie Strives for the Lead

八戒築殺虎怪
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

八戒築殺虎怪 Bajie Strikes the Tiger Fiend Down

guàijiàzhùhuítóujiùzǒuyuánláizàidòngzhǔmiànqiánshuōlezuǐgǎnhuídòngjìngwǎngshānshàngtáoshēngxíngzhěkěnfàngzhízhebàngzhǐqínggǎnláihǒuhǒuhǎnshēngjuéquègǎndàocángfēngshānāozhījiānzhèngtáitóujiànjièzàifàngjiètīngjiànshēnghǎnhuítóuguānkànnǎishìxíngzhěgǎnbàideguàijiùdiūlexiézhetóuzhùliánxiānfēngtuōshēnyàotiàohuángwǎngzhīyòuzhàorénquèbèijièzhùdejiǔ窿lóngxiānxuèmàotóunǎosuǐjìnliúgānyǒushīwèizhèngshīyuēguàijiàzhùhuítóujiùzǒuyuánláizàidòngzhǔmiànqiánshuōlezuǐgǎnhuídòngjìngwǎngshānshàngtáoshēngxíngzhěkěnfàngzhízhebàngzhǐqínggǎnláihǒuhǒuhǎnshēngjuéquègǎndàocángfēngshānāozhījiānzhèngtáitóujiànjièzàifàngjiètīngjiànshēnghǎnhuítóuguānkànnǎishìxíngzhěgǎnbàideguàijiùdiūlexiézhetóuzhùliánxiānfēngtuōshēnyàotiàohuángwǎngzhīyòuzhàorénquèbèijièzhùdejiǔ窿lóngxiānxuèmàotóunǎosuǐjìnliúgānyǒushīwèizhèngshīyuē

sānniánqiánguīzhèngzōngchízhāizhēnkōngsānniánqiánguīzhèngzōngchízhāizhēnkōng
chéngxīnyàobǎotángsānzàngchūbǐngshāméngōngchéngxīnyàobǎotángsānzàngchūbǐngshāméngōng

逐句解 Line by line

guàijiàzhùhuítóujiùzǒu guàijiàzhùhuítóujiùzǒu

The Tiger fiend could not hold his guard, and turned his head and fled.

抵架不住, unable to hold the parry. The Vanguard has lasted five passes.

yuánláizàidòngzhǔmiànqiánshuōlezuǐgǎnhuídòngjìngwǎngshānshàngtáoshēng yuánláizàidòngzhǔmiànqiánshuōlezuǐgǎnhuídòngjìngwǎngshānshàngtáoshēng

But he had boasted before the lord of the cave, and dared not go back into it; so he made straight up the mountain slope to save his life.

說了嘴, "to have talked big" — he cannot go home because of what he said on the way out. It is the Great King's 休得埋怨我也 working exactly as intended.

xíngzhěkěnfàngzhízhebàngzhǐqínggǎnláihǒuhǒuhǎnshēngjuéquègǎndàocángfēngshānāozhījiān xíngzhěkěnfàngzhízhebàngzhǐqínggǎnláihǒuhǒuhǎnshēngjuéquègǎndàocángfēngshānāozhījiān

How should the Pilgrim let him go? Holding the rod, he came on after him for all he was worth, whooping and roaring, the noise of his shouting never ceasing, until he had chased him to the wind-sheltered hollow of the hills.

那裡肯放 is the rhetorical interrogative, ; 那藏風山凹 is the demonstrative, , with as cáng. Both readings of both graphs stand in one segment. 只情, "for all one is worth"; 執著棒 is zhe.

zhèngtáitóujiànjièzàifàng zhèngtáitóujiànjièzàifàng

Just as he raised his head he saw Bajie there, pasturing the horse.

在那裡放馬 — the locative demonstrative, , "over there," not the interrogative. The Pilgrim has driven his quarry into precisely the hollow where he ordered his brother to hide.

jiètīngjiànshēnghǎnhuítóuguānkànnǎishìxíngzhěgǎnbàideguài jiètīngjiànshēnghǎnhuítóuguānkànnǎishìxíngzhěgǎnbàideguài

Bajie, hearing of a sudden the whooping and the shouting, turned his head and looked; and it was the tiger fiend, run to a stand by the Pilgrim.

趕敗的虎怪, the tiger fiend whom he had beaten and driven. Bajie is holding a horse and has been told to keep out of sight.

jiùdiūlexiézhetóuzhù jiùdiūlexiézhetóuzhù

So he let go the horse, lifted his rake, came in slantwise with his head down, and struck once.

刺斜著頭一築: 刺斜 is to come in from an oblique angle, and is the continuous zhe. One stroke, delivered from the side by someone the fiend had not seen.

liánxiānfēngtuōshēnyàotiàohuángwǎngzhīyòuzhàorén liánxiānfēngtuōshēnyàotiàohuángwǎngzhīyòuzhàorén

Pity the Vanguard! He had slipped clear of the yellow silken net, and never knew that the man with the casting-net stood waiting.

跳黃絲網 and 罩魚人 — he has jumped out of the silken net and into the fisherman's cast. The figure comes from Yuan drama, and the reader is meant to hear the fatalism in it before the blow lands.

quèbèijièzhùdejiǔ窿lóngxiānxuèmàotóunǎosuǐjìnliúgānyǒushīwèizhèngshīyuē quèbèijièzhùdejiǔ窿lóngxiānxuèmàotóunǎosuǐjìnliúgānyǒushīwèizhèngshīyuē

One stroke of Bajie's rake, and nine holes gushed with fresh blood, and the whole head ran dry of its brains. There is a poem to prove it; the poem says:

築得九個窟窿: is the resultative de, and the nine holes are the nine teeth of the muckrake. 流乾 takes as gān. The lead-in 有詩為證,詩曰: stays with the prose segment, and in 有詩為證 is wèi.

sānniánqiánguīzhèngzōngchízhāizhēnkōng sānniánqiánguīzhèngzōngchízhāizhēnkōng

Three years since, or five, he turned him to the orthodox school; he kept the fast, held to the plain fare, and woke to the true emptiness.

A quatrain of seven graphs to the line, and its subject is not Sun Wukong. 三五年前歸正宗 — Bajie was converted by Guanyin at ch. 8 and has been eating vegetable food and waiting at Gao Village ever since. 持齋把素, to keep the fast and hold to plain fare.

chéngxīnyàobǎotángsānzàngchūbǐngshāméngōng chéngxīnyàobǎotángsānzàngchūbǐngshāméngōng

With a sincere heart he undertook to guard the Tang Sanzang; and newly come to the śramaṇa's calling, he sets up this merit.

初秉沙門立此功, "having but newly taken up the gate of the śramaṇa, he establishes this merit." The poem exists to give the killing to the pig, and to say so in the register of a temple inscription. 三藏 is the name and takes zàng.


總評 Commentary

The Vanguard dies where he was never meant to be. He cannot go back to the cave, because he boasted on the way out and his king warned him not to complain afterwards; so he runs uphill, and the Pilgrim drives him — whooping, for all he is worth — into the one fold of ground on the whole mountain where Bajie is sitting with the horse. He had jumped clear of the silken net, says the narrator, and did not know the man with the casting-net was there.

Then the quatrain. It is not about the Great Sage, who chased him; it is about the pig, who was told to hide, and who has now killed the only demon either of them will kill in this chapter. 初秉沙門立此功 — a convert of three years or five, newly come to the religious life, sets up this merit. The chapter is titled 半山中八戒爭先, "halfway up the mountain Bajie strives for the lead," and this is where the title is paid.