第三十回 · 認親之議 What Kin Would You Claim — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

認親之議 What Kin Would You Claim

公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ認rèn甚shén親qīn？」老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「認rèn你nǐ父fù王wáng。我wǒ是shì他tā駙fù馬mǎ，他tā是shì我wǒ丈zhàng人rén，怎zěn麼me不bú去qù認rèn認rèn？」公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ去qù不bù得dé。』老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「怎zěn麼me去qù不bù得dé？」公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ认rèn甚shén亲qīn？」老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「认rèn你nǐ父fù王wáng。我wǒ是shì他tā驸fù马mǎ，他tā是shì我wǒ丈zhàng人rén，怎zěn么me不bú去qù认rèn认rèn？」公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ去qù不bù得dé。』老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「怎zěn么me去qù不bù得dé？」

逐句解 Line by line

公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ認rèn甚shén親qīn？」公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ认rèn甚shén亲qīn？」

The princess said: "What kin would you claim?"

認親 again: to acknowledge, to claim kinship. 甚親 takes 甚 as shén, "what."

老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「認rèn你nǐ父fù王wáng。我wǒ是shì他tā駙fù馬mǎ，他tā是shì我wǒ丈zhàng人rén，怎zěn麼me不bú去qù認rèn認rèn？」老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「认rèn你nǐ父fù王wáng。我wǒ是shì他tā驸fù马mǎ，他tā是shì我wǒ丈zhàng人rén，怎zěn么me不bú去qù认rèn认rèn？」

The old fiend said: "Your royal father, to be sure. I am his son-in-law and he my father-in-law — how should I not go and own the kinship?"

The comedy of this is in how correct he is. 駙馬 is the husband of a princess, an imperial son-in-law; 丈人 is one's wife's father. He lays out the whole grammar of in-law relations with perfect propriety, having acquired the relation by kidnapping.

公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ去qù不bù得dé。』公gōng主zhǔ道dào：「你nǐ去qù不bù得dé。』

The princess said: "You cannot go."

A blunt refusal. 去不得 takes 得 as dé, "cannot manage it, may not." (The closing bracket printed here is the irregular 』 of the woodblock edition, kept as it stands in the source.)

老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「怎zěn麼me去qù不bù得dé？」老lǎo妖yāo道dào：「怎zěn么me去qù不bù得dé？」

The old fiend said: "Why can I not go?"

He asks why, and gets the same 去不得 back, with 得 again as dé. The refusal is repeated before it is ever explained.

總評 Commentary

The exchange turns the imposture into a small comedy of manners. He proposes to claim kinship at court, invoking the bonds of 駙馬 and 丈人 with impeccable decorum — the same courtly reasonableness that has been masking his monstrousness since the chapter began.

Her flat "you cannot go" is what produces the transformation to come. As the next passage makes plain, her objection is not moral in the least. It is his face, not his intentions, that would give him away.