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

把那醜收拾起些
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

把那醜收拾起些 Put Some of That Ugliness Away

sānzàngquèzuòzàiménlóuzhúchuángzhīshàngmányuàndào:「yaliǎngxiàngmàochǒuyányòuzhèjiāerxiàdesǔnshāngdōushēnzàozuìli。」jièdào:「mánshīshuōlǎozhūcónggēnlezhèxiēshíjùnleduōliruòxiàngwǎngchángzàigāolǎozhuāngshízuǐcháoqiáněrliǎngtóubǎichángxiàshāèrsānshírénli。」xíngzhěxiàodào:「dāiziyàoluànshuōchǒushōushíxiē。」sānzàngdào:「kànkōngshuōdehuàxiàngmàoshìshēngchéngdejiàozěnmeshōushí?」xíngzhědào:「zizuǐchuāizàihuáichūláishàněrtiēzàihòumiànyàoyáodòngzhèjiùshìshōushíle。」jièzhēnzuǐchuāileěrtiēlegǒngzhetóuzuǒyòuxíngzhějiāngxíngménjiāngbáishuānzàizhuāngshàngsānzàngquèzuòzàiménlóuzhúchuángzhīshàngmányuàndào:「yaliǎngxiàngmàochǒuyányòuzhèjiāerxiàdesǔnshāngdōushēnzàozuìli。」jièdào:「mánshīshuōlǎozhūcónggēnlezhèxiēshíjùnleduōliruòxiàngwǎngchángzàigāolǎozhuāngshízuǐcháoqiáněrliǎngtóubǎichángxiàshāèrsānshírénli。」xíngzhěxiàodào:「dāiziyàoluànshuōchǒushōushíxiē。」sānzàngdào:「kànkōngshuōdehuàxiàngmàoshìshēngchéngdejiàozěnmeshōushí?」xíngzhědào:「zizuǐchuāizài怀huáichūláishàněrtiēzàihòumiànyàoyáodòngzhèjiùshìshōushíle。」jièzhēnzuǐchuāileěrtiēlegǒngzhetóuzuǒyòuxíngzhějiāngxíngménjiāngbáishuānzàizhuāngshàng


逐句解 Line by line

sānzàngquèzuòzàiménlóuzhúchuángzhīshàngmányuàndào:「yaliǎngxiàngmàochǒuyányòu sānzàngquèzuòzàiménlóuzhúchuángzhīshàngmányuàndào:「yaliǎngxiàngmàochǒuyányòu

Sanzang, seated meanwhile on the bamboo couch within the gate-tower, fell to complaining. "Disciples, the two of you are ugly of face and coarse of speech besides.

埋怨, to grumble at. The Tang Monk's grievance is that he has been embarrassed, and he lodges it as a moral charge. 相貌 takes xiàng.

zhèjiāerxiàdesǔnshāngdōushēnzàozuìli。」 zhèjiāerxiàdesǔnshāngdōushēnzàozuìli。」

You have frightened this whole household out of seven wits and eight, and every one of you is heaping up sin on my account."

七損八傷, "seven damaged and eight injured," is vernacular exaggeration for a general rout. 替我身造罪 — the sin is incurred on the master's account and charged to his ledger, which is Buddhist bookkeeping of a precision he never applies to himself.

jièdào:「mánshīshuōlǎozhūcónggēnlezhèxiēshíjùnleduōli jièdào:「mánshīshuōlǎozhūcónggēnlezhèxiēshíjùnleduōli

Bajie said, "I'll not deceive you, Master: since Old Hog fell in behind you, he has grown a great deal handsomer this while.

俊了許多, "grown a good deal handsomer," is Bajie's entire reply to being called ugly, and he delivers it as a boast. The two here are completive and take le; the sentence-final is li.

ruòxiàngwǎngchángzàigāolǎozhuāngshízuǐcháoqiáněrliǎngtóubǎichángxiàshāèrsānshírénli。」 ruòxiàngwǎngchángzàigāolǎozhuāngshízuǐcháoqiáněrliǎngtóubǎichángxiàshāèrsānshírénli。」

In the old days at Gao Village, I had only to scoop my snout forward and waggle my ears on either side, and twenty or thirty people would be frightened to death."

把嘴朝前一掬: , , is to scoop up with both hands, used here of the snout thrust forward. is the preposition, cháo. 嚇殺二三十人 reaches back to chapter 18 and the terrors of Gao Village, of which Bajie is plainly proud.

xíngzhěxiàodào:「dāiziyàoluànshuōchǒushōushíxiē。」 xíngzhěxiàodào:「dāiziyàoluànshuōchǒushōushíxiē。」

The Pilgrim laughed. "Idiot, don't talk nonsense. Put some of that ugliness away."

收拾起些 — "pack a bit of it away" — treats a face as luggage. The Pilgrim, who can change his own shape whenever he likes, sees no difficulty in the request.

sānzàngdào:「kànkōngshuōdehuàxiàngmàoshìshēngchéngdejiàozěnmeshōushí?」 sānzàngdào:「kànkōngshuōdehuàxiàngmàoshìshēngchéngdejiàozěnmeshōushí?」

Sanzang said, "Do you hear what Wukong says? A face is what a man is born with. How would you have him put it away?"

相貌是生成的: a face is what you are born with. The Tang Monk is here defending Bajie against Wukong in very nearly the words Bajie used against Squire Wang, and appears not to notice.

xíngzhědào:「zizuǐchuāizàihuáichūlái xíngzhědào:「zizuǐchuāizài怀huáichūlái

The Pilgrim said, "Let him tuck that rake of a snout into his bosom and not bring it out;

耙子嘴, a snout like a rake — the character is , , first cousin to the 釘鈀 he carries. 揣在懷裡: is chuāi, to tuck something inside the breast of a garment.

shàněrtiēzàihòumiànyàoyáodòngzhèjiùshìshōushíle。」 shàněrtiēzàihòumiànyàoyáodòngzhèjiùshìshōushíle。」

let him lay those rush-fan ears flat behind and not stir them. That is what putting it away means."

蒲扇耳, ears like rush fans. The Pilgrim's prescription is entirely literal and, as the next sentence proves, entirely practicable.

jièzhēnzuǐchuāileěrtiēlegǒngzhetóuzuǒyòu jièzhēnzuǐchuāileěrtiēlegǒngzhetóuzuǒyòu

And Bajie did in fact tuck in his snout and flatten his ears, and stood hunch-headed to one side.

真個, "sure enough" — the narrator's dry endorsement. 拱著頭 takes zhe: the head is hunched and held so. Bajie can, it turns out, put his ugliness away. He does it at once, without protest.

xíngzhějiāngxíngménjiāngbáishuānzàizhuāngshàng xíngzhějiāngxíngménjiāngbáishuānzàizhuāngshàng

The Pilgrim carried the luggage in at the door, and tied the white horse to a post.

Two of the handling marker , both jiāng. Having settled his brother's face, the Pilgrim settles the luggage and the horse: the chapter's domestic business, done in sixteen characters.


總評 Commentary

Three positions on one question, held at the same time. Bajie: ugliness is real, and useful, and anyway I am improving. The Pilgrim: ugliness is a posture, and can be stowed like a rake in a shirt. The Tang Monk: 相貌是生成的, a face is given at birth and cannot be helped. The joke is that all three are proved right within the next few lines, because Bajie does put his face away, does it instantly, and it remains exactly the face it was.

Notice also who is being scolded and for what. The monk's complaint is not that his disciples have terrified a family of rice-planters. It is that they have made him look bad and loaded the resulting sin onto his account. Chapter nineteen closed with the Heart Sutra and the doctrine that form is emptiness; chapter twenty opens with a poem about forgetting mind and dharma both; and here, a few paragraphs later, the man who received both is worrying about appearances.