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繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
黑松林失師
The Master Lost at Black Pine Wood
八戒道：「實不瞞哥哥說，自你回後，我與沙僧保師父前行，只見一座黑松林，師父下馬，教我化齋。我因許遠，無一個人家，辛苦了，略在草裡睡睡。不想沙僧別了師父，又來尋我。你曉得師父沒有坐性，他獨步林間玩景。出得林，見一座黃金寶塔放光，他只當寺院。不期塔下有個妖精，名喚黃袍，被他拿住。後邊我與沙僧回尋，止見白馬、行囊，不見師父。隨尋至洞口，與那怪廝殺。師父在洞，幸虧了一個救星。原是寶象國王第三個公主，被那怪攝來者。八戒道：「实不瞒哥哥说，自你回后，我与沙僧保师父前行，只见一座黑松林，师父下马，教我化斋。我因许远，无一个人家，辛苦了，略在草里睡睡。不想沙僧别了师父，又来寻我。你晓得师父没有坐性，他独步林间玩景。出得林，见一座黄金宝塔放光，他只当寺院。不期塔下有个妖精，名唤黄袍，被他拿住。后边我与沙僧回寻，止见白马、行囊，不见师父。随寻至洞口，与那怪厮杀。师父在洞，幸亏了一个救星。原是宝象国王第三个公主，被那怪摄来者。
逐句解 Line by line
八戒道：「實不瞞哥哥說，自你回後，我與沙僧保師父前行，只見一座黑松林，師父下馬，教我化齋。
八戒道：「实不瞒哥哥说，自你回后，我与沙僧保师父前行，只见一座黑松林，师父下马，教我化斋。
Bajie said, “I will hide nothing from you, elder brother. After you had gone back, Sha Seng and I escorted our master onward, until we came upon a wood of black pines. There the master dismounted and bade me go and beg a meal.
黑松林 (Hēisōnglín), “Black Pine Wood,” the scene of the master’s abduction. 化齋 (huà zhāi), to beg a vegetarian meal as alms.
我因許遠，無一個人家，辛苦了，略在草裡睡睡。
我因许远，无一个人家，辛苦了，略在草里睡睡。
Because I had gone so great a way and found not a single dwelling, I grew weary, and lay down a little while to sleep among the grass.
許遠 (xǔ yuǎn), “so far, such a distance.”
不想沙僧別了師父，又來尋我。
不想沙僧别了师父，又来寻我。
I had not reckoned that Sha Seng would leave the master and come out to look for me.
別了 (bié le), “took leave of”; 尋 (xún), to seek, to look for.
你曉得師父沒有坐性，他獨步林間玩景。
你晓得师父没有坐性，他独步林间玩景。
You know well that our master has no patience for sitting still: he walked out alone among the trees to take in the view.
坐性 (zuòxìng), “the temper to sit quietly and stay put”; 得 read de.
出得林，見一座黃金寶塔放光，他只當寺院。
出得林，见一座黄金宝塔放光，他只当寺院。
Coming clear of the wood, he spied a pagoda of yellow gold blazing with light, and took it for nothing but a monastery.
只當 (zhǐ dàng), “took it merely for, supposed it to be”; 當 read dàng, “to regard as.”
不期塔下有個妖精，名喚黃袍，被他拿住。
不期塔下有个妖精，名唤黄袍，被他拿住。
Little did he expect that beneath the tower dwelt a fiend, Yellow Robe by name, by whom he was seized and held.
黃袍 (Huángpáo), “Yellow Robe,” the demon of this chapter, later revealed as the star-lord Kui the Wood-Wolf (奎木狼).
後邊我與沙僧回尋，止見白馬、行囊，不見師父。
后边我与沙僧回寻，止见白马、行囊，不见师父。
Coming back to search, Sha Seng and I found only the white horse and the baggage; of our master there was no sign.
行囊 (xíngnáng), “the travelling packs”; 行 read xíng.
隨尋至洞口，與那怪廝殺。
随寻至洞口，与那怪厮杀。
Following the trail to the mouth of the cave, we did battle with the fiend.
廝殺 (sīshā), “to fight and kill at close quarters”; 那 read nà.
師父在洞，幸虧了一個救星。
师父在洞，幸亏了一个救星。
Our master, held within the cave, had the good fortune of one deliverer.
救星 (jiùxīng), lit. “star of rescue,” a saving benefactor.
原是寶象國王第三個公主，被那怪攝來者。
原是宝象国王第三个公主，被那怪摄来者。
She proved to be the third princess of the King of Baoxiang, carried off by that same fiend.
寶象國 (Bǎoxiàngguó), the Kingdom of Baoxiang. 攝來 (shè lái), spirited away, abducted by force; 攝 read shè.
總評 Commentary
Bajie’s narration folds the whole of the intervening chapter into a swift confession, and the teller’s character colours every line: he opens with a protest of candour — that he will hide nothing — precisely because he means, a few breaths later, to practise a calculated deceit. The recital is exact in its particulars, the black pinewood, the golden pagoda mistaken for a monastery, the fiend beneath the tower, so that the listener is disarmed by its very fidelity.
The narrative economy is characteristic of the vernacular novel’s handling of a returning traveller’s report: rather than re-enact the earlier episode, the storyteller has one witness compress it, and the compression itself carries dramatic weight, for it hurries toward the plea Bajie has come to make. The pagoda “taken for a monastery” is a small, telling stroke — the pilgrims’ piety is exactly the lure by which calamity draws the unwary Tripitaka in.