閉門下鎖 The Doors Are Bolted
那八戒便去盛飯,沙僧安放棹椅。二童忙取小菜,卻是些醬瓜、醬茄、糟蘿蔔、醋豆角、醃窩蕖、綽芥菜,共排了七八碟兒,與師徒們吃飯;又提一壺好茶,兩個茶鍾,伺候左右。那師徒四眾卻才拿起碗來,這童兒一邊一個,撲的把門關上,插上一把兩錤銅鎖。八戒笑道:「這童子差了,你這裡風俗不好,卻怎的關了門裡吃飯?」明月道:「正是,正是,好歹吃了飯兒開門。」那八戒便去盛饭,沙僧安放棹椅。二童忙取小菜,却是些酱瓜、酱茄、糟萝卜、醋豆角、腌窝蕖、绰芥菜,共排了七八碟儿,与师徒们吃饭;又提一壶好茶,两个茶钟,伺候左右。那师徒四众却才拿起碗来,这童儿一边一个,扑的把门关上,插上一把两錤铜锁。八戒笑道:「这童子差了,你这里风俗不好,却怎的关了门里吃饭?」明月道:「正是,正是,好歹吃了饭儿开门。」
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie went straightway to dish up the rice, and Wujing set out the table and chairs.
盛飯, chéng fàn, is dishing up rice. 棹椅, zhuō yǐ, "table and chairs," writes the table with 棹, standing in for 桌; read zhuō, not the zhào that means "an oar."
The two lads busily fetched the side-dishes—which were such things as pickled melon and pickled eggplant, radish cured in lees, beans steeped in vinegar, salted lotus-root, and blanched mustard greens—setting out seven or eight little saucers in all for the pilgrims' meal; and they brought besides a pot of good tea and two tea-cups, to wait upon them left and right.
A whole Ming pickle-shelf in one line, and every item is a real dish: 醬瓜 and 醬茄, melon and aubergine in soy paste; 糟蘿蔔, zāo luó bo, radish cured in the lees left over from brewing; 醋豆角, beans in vinegar; 醃窩蕖, salted lotus root; 綽芥菜, chāo jiè cài, mustard greens given a quick scald, where 綽 stands in for 焯 and reads chāo. 茄 is the vegetable, qié, not jiā. 茶鍾, chá zhōng, are tea-cups. Seven or eight little saucers, a pot of good tea: the bait is laid with real care.
No sooner had the four pilgrims, master and disciples, taken up their bowls than the two lads—one to each side—with a bang pulled the door shut and clapped on a double-hasped brass lock.
The trap shuts on the sound of a bowl being picked up. 卻才, què cái, is "had only just, no sooner than." 一邊一個, one boy to each side of the door. 兩錤銅鎖, liǎng jī tóng suǒ, is a brass lock with a double hasp; 錤 is a rare character for the lock's fittings.
Bajie laughed and said, "This lad is mistaken! The custom hereabouts is a poor one—why ever eat with the door shut?"
Bajie, whose whole attention is on the food, takes a bolted door for a quaint local habit. 這童子差了, zhè tóng zǐ chà le, "this lad has got it wrong," with 差 as chà, "mistaken"; 童子 takes the full noun 子, zǐ. 風俗不好, "the local custom is a poor one."
Bright Moon said, "Just so, just so—when you have eaten your fill of rice, we'll open the door."
好歹, hǎo dǎi — literally "good or bad" — means "one way or another, at any rate." 飯兒 takes the diminutive suffix 兒, ér. Bright Moon is stalling, and doing it well.
The trap is sprung as domestic comedy. The instrument is a tray of pickles — soy-cured melon and aubergine, radish in wine lees, vinegared beans, salted lotus root, scalded mustard greens — and the catalogue does real work, grounding a story about immortals and magic fruit in the smells of an ordinary kitchen.
Then the timing. The narrator waits until all four have a bowl in their hands and both hands occupied, and only then puts a boy on each side of the door and the double-hasped brass lock on the outside. It is the neatest piece of staging in the chapter.
The dramatic irony is complete, and Bajie carries it: he complains about the local custom of eating with the door shut while the gates are being chained behind him. Bright Moon plays along — eat your fill and we'll open up — and the pilgrims go on calmly with their rice.