清風實訴 Clear Wind Tells the Whole
清風道：「師父啊，當日別後不久，果有個東土唐僧，一行有四個和尚，連馬五口。弟子不敢違了師命，問及來因，將人參果取了兩個奉上。那長老俗眼愚心，不識我們仙家的寶貝。他說是三朝未滿的孩童，再三不吃。是弟子各吃了一個。不期他那手下有三個徒弟，有一個姓孫的，名悟空行者，先偷四個果子吃了。是弟子們向伊理說，實實的言語了幾句。他卻不容，暗自裡弄了個出神的手段。苦啊！……」二童子說到此處，止不住腮邊淚落。清风道：「师父啊，当日别后不久，果有个东土唐僧，一行有四个和尚，连马五口。弟子不敢违了师命，问及来因，将人参果取了两个奉上。那长老俗眼愚心，不识我们仙家的宝贝。他说是三朝未满的孩童，再三不吃。是弟子各吃了一个。不期他那手下有三个徒弟，有一个姓孙的，名悟空行者，先偷四个果子吃了。是弟子们向伊理说，实实的言语了几句。他却不容，暗自里弄了个出神的手段。苦啊！……」二童子说到此处，止不住腮边泪落。
逐句解 Line by line
Clear Wind said, "Master! Not long after you had taken your leave that day, there did come an Eastern Tang monk, a party of four monks, five head in all counting the horse.
當日別後, "after we parted that day," with 當 as dāng, "that very." 一行, yì xíng, is a travelling party. 連馬五口 counts the household by heads and throws the horse in with them: five in all, four monks and a horse. 口 as a counter for members of a household is ordinary Chinese, and using it for the horse is a small piece of affection.
"Your disciples dared not disobey your command; we asked their errand, and took two manfruit and offered them up.
The account begins scrupulously, and everything in it is true. 違了師命, wéi le shī mìng, "disobeyed the master's order," with 違 as wéi, "to go against" — they were told to serve the fruit and they did. 將人參果取了兩個奉上 puts the fruit up front with 將, jiāng; 參 in 人參 is shēn.
"That old monk, with vulgar eyes and a dull heart, did not know the treasure of our immortal house.
俗眼愚心, sú yǎn yú xīn, "vulgar eyes and a dull heart," is the standard complaint of the initiated about everyone else: he could not recognise a marvel when it was put in front of him.
"He said it was an infant not three days old, and again and again refused to eat.
And here the boy is being entirely fair to Sanzang, whose objection was not squeamishness but scruple — the fruit looks like a newborn baby, and he would not eat what he took for a child. 三朝未滿, "not yet three mornings old," with 朝 as zhāo, a day counted from its dawn. 再三不吃, refused again and again.
"So your disciples each ate one.
A confession slipped in among the accusations: they ate one each themselves. 弟子 takes the full noun 子, zǐ.
"Unexpectedly, among his followers were three disciples, and one, surnamed Sun and named Wukong the Pilgrim, first stole and ate four of the fruits.
不期, bù qī, "unlooked-for, out of nowhere." The naming is formal and complete — surname Sun, given name Wukong, styled the Pilgrim — the way you would identify a defendant. 果子 takes the toneless suffix 子, zi.
"When your disciples reasoned the matter out with them and spoke a few plain and honest words,
The tactful version of a screaming match. 向伊理說, xiàng yī lǐ shuō, "reasoned it out with him," where 伊, yī, is an old third-person pronoun. 實實的言語了幾句, "said a few plain honest words" — which, as the reader has seen, meant cursing them from mid-afternoon until dark.
"he would not have it, but privately worked a spirit-projecting art.
不容, bù róng, "would not have it, would not allow it." 弄了個出神的手段, "worked a spirit-projecting trick" — the boy has reconstructed the method exactly, without ever having seen it done.
"Alas!"
And then he cannot go on. 苦啊, kǔ a, "the bitterness of it" — a cry, not a sentence.
Reaching this point, the two lads could not hold back the tears that fell along their cheeks.
The account breaks off in tears at the one thing it has not yet said. 二童子 takes the full noun 子, zǐ; 止不住腮邊淚落, "could not stop the tears at their cheeks," with 腮, sāi, the cheek.
Clear Wind's testimony is a quiet marvel of self-serving accuracy. Every single fact in it is true: the courteous offer of two fruits, Sanzang's refusal, the boys eating one apiece, Wukong's theft of four, the reasoning, the spirit-magic. And the whole thing still comes out as a story about a blameless household and four aggressors. Nobody has to lie to slant a narrative; you only have to choose where to put the emphasis.
It is the exact mirror of Wukong's confession twenty passages back, which was equally scrupulous and equally partial. The same events, told from the other side of the wall. The novel is content to let the two accounts sit there and disagree.
Then the sentence stops mid-flow. The boy reaches the tree, says 苦啊 — the bitterness of it — and cannot finish. Withholding the news of the tree for someone else to deliver is a storyteller's trick, but it also does something honest: the grief is real, and it measures the loss better than any account of the tree's properties could.