Canonical Classics ← 第二十一回
第二十一回
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The Dharma-Protectors Set Up a Farmstead to Lodge the Great Sage · From Mount Sumeru, Lingji Subdues the Wind-Demon

火眼金睛,為風所傷
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

火眼金睛,為風所傷 The Fiery Eyes Are Blinded

yāoguài使shǐchūzhèzhènkuángfēngjiùsūnshèngháomáobiàndexiǎoxíngzhěguādezàibànkōngzhōngquèfǎngchēerbānluànzhuǎnxiǎnglūnbànglǒngshēnhuāngdexíngzhějiāngháomáodǒushōushàngshēnláizhetiěbàngshàngqiánláiyòubèiguàiliǎnpēnlekǒuhuángfēngliǎngzhīhuǒyǎnjīnjīngguādejǐnjǐnnéngzhēngkāiyīnnán使shǐtiěbàngsuìbàixiàzhènláiyāoshōufēnghuídòngyāoguài使shǐchūzhèzhènkuángfēngjiùsūnshèngháomáobiàndexiǎoxíngzhěguādezàibànkōngzhōngquèfǎngchēerbānluànzhuǎnxiǎnglūnbànglǒngshēnhuāngdexíngzhějiāngháomáodǒushōushàngshēnláizhetiěbàngshàngqiánláiyòubèiguàiliǎnpēnlekǒuhuángfēngliǎngzhīhuǒyǎnjīnjīngguādejǐnjǐnnéngzhēngkāiyīnnán使shǐtiěbàngsuìbàixiàzhènláiyāoshōufēnghuídòng


逐句解 Line by line

yāoguài使shǐchūzhèzhènkuángfēngjiùsūnshèngháomáobiàndexiǎoxíngzhěguādezàibànkōngzhōngquèfǎngchēerbānluànzhuǎn yāoguài使shǐchūzhèzhènkuángfēngjiùsūnshèngháomáobiàndexiǎoxíngzhěguādezàibànkōngzhōngquèfǎngchēerbānluànzhuǎn

The fiend loosed this mad gale, and it whirled the little Pilgrims that the Great Sage's hairs had become round and round in the middle air, for all the world like so many spinning-wheels;

刮得 takes the resultative de. is corrected to , and 紡車兒 ends in the diminutive er. The image is domestic and slightly ridiculous: a hundred Great Sages spinning like the wheels of a household loom.

xiǎnglūnbànglǒngshēnhuāngdexíngzhějiāngháomáodǒushōushàngshēnlái xiǎnglūnbànglǒngshēnhuāngdexíngzhějiāngháomáodǒushōushàngshēnlái

not one of them could manage to swing his rod, and how were they to gather their bodies together? In alarm the Pilgrim gave his hairs a shake and drew them back onto his body.

Three occurrences of , and two readings: 掄得棒 and 攏得身 are potential (, "could manage to"), while 慌得 is the resultative de. A positional fixspec is required. is jiāng, the disposal marker.

zhetiěbàngshàngqiánlái zhetiěbàngshàngqiánlái

Alone now, he lifted his iron rod and went forward to strike.

獨自個 — the vernacular "all on his own." is zhe. The hundred have become one, and the sentence is eleven graphs long.

yòubèiguàiliǎnpēnlekǒuhuángfēngliǎngzhīhuǒyǎnjīnjīngguādejǐnjǐnnéngzhēngkāi yòubèiguàiliǎnpēnlekǒuhuángfēngliǎngzhīhuǒyǎnjīnjīngguādejǐnjǐnnéngzhēngkāi

But the fiend blew a mouthful of yellow wind full in his face, and it scoured his two fiery eyes with golden pupils until they were shut fast and could not be opened.

火眼金睛, the fiery eyes with golden pupils, were burned into the Pilgrim in Laozi's crucible in chapter 7, and have never failed him. This is the first time in the novel that they are put out.

yīnnán使shǐtiěbàngsuìbàixiàzhènláiyāoshōufēnghuídòng yīnnán使shǐtiěbàngsuìbàixiàzhènláiyāoshōufēnghuídòng

He could not wield the iron rod after that, and so he fell back from the field. The fiend gathered in his wind and returned to his cave, of which no more.

不題, "of which no more," is the storyteller's formula for setting a thread down. is nán, "hard to," here shading into "could not."


總評 Commentary

The chapter's first movement closes on a defeat, and the defeat is specific. The Pilgrim is not overpowered; he is blinded. 火眼金睛 — the eyes that see through every disguise, that were the one gift of his forty-nine days in the eight-trigram crucible — are shut by a mouthful of wind. Everything that follows in this chapter is a consequence: the search for an eye-doctor, the ointment given by night, the transformation into a mosquito that needs sight above all else.

There is a structural joke here too. The Pilgrim's answer to being outmatched is always multiplication — a hundred bodies, a hundred rods. The wind answers multiplication with dispersal, and the hairs must be shaken back onto the one body they came from. He then advances alone, and is beaten in a single line. The novel is quietly making the point that the 身外身 is a trick of quantity, and that quantity is not what this adversary lacks.