原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
編詞誆怪
The Fabricated Tale
你昨日進朝認親，怎不回來？今早被豬八戒劫了沙和尚，又把我兩個孩兒搶去，是我苦告，更不肯饒。他說拿去朝中認認外公，這半日不見孩兒，又不知存亡如何，你又不見來家，教我怎生割捨？故此止不住傷心痛哭。」那怪聞言，心中大怒道：「真個是我的兒子？」行者道：「正是，被豬八戒搶去了。」你昨日进朝认亲，怎不回来？今早被猪八戒劫了沙和尚，又把我两个孩儿抢去，是我苦告，更不肯饶。他说拿去朝中认认外公，这半日不见孩儿，又不知存亡如何，你又不见来家，教我怎生割舍？故此止不住伤心痛哭。」那怪闻言，心中大怒道：「真个是我的儿子？」行者道：「正是，被猪八戒抢去了。」
逐句解 Line by line
你昨日進朝認親，怎不回來？
你昨日进朝认亲，怎不回来？
Yesterday you went to court to claim your kinship — why did you not come back?
進朝認親 (jìn cháo rèn qīn), to enter the court and claim kinship; 朝 read cháo.
今早被豬八戒劫了沙和尚，又把我兩個孩兒搶去，是我苦告，更不肯饒。
今早被猪八戒劫了沙和尚，又把我两个孩儿抢去，是我苦告，更不肯饶。
This morning Zhu Bajie carried off Sha the Monk by force, and seized my two children besides; for all my bitter pleading, he would not be moved.
劫 (jié), to seize by force, to rob. 苦告 (kǔ gào), to plead bitterly. 孩兒 (hái’ér), children; 兒 read ér.
他說拿去朝中認認外公，這半日不見孩兒，又不知存亡如何，你又不見來家，教我怎生割捨？
他说拿去朝中认认外公，这半日不见孩儿，又不知存亡如何，你又不见来家，教我怎生割舍？
He said he would take them to court to acknowledge their grandsire; this half-day I have not seen the children, nor know whether they live or die, and you too are not come home — how am I to bear the parting?
朝中 (cháo zhōng), at court; 中 read zhōng. 存亡 (cún wáng), life or death. 怎生割捨 (zěnshēng gēshě), how is one to bear the parting; 兒 read ér.
故此止不住傷心痛哭。」
故此止不住伤心痛哭。」
And so I could not stop this grieving and weeping.”
止不住 (zhǐ bu zhù), unable to stop, cannot help. 傷心痛哭 (shāngxīn tòngkū), to grieve and weep bitterly.
那怪聞言，心中大怒道：「真個是我的兒子？」
那怪闻言，心中大怒道：「真个是我的儿子？」
The fiend, hearing this, in a great rage said, “Are they truly my sons?”
大怒 (dà nù), great wrath. 兒子 (érzi), sons; 兒 read ér. 心中 with 中 as zhōng; 那 read nà.
行者道：「正是，被豬八戒搶去了。」
行者道：「正是，被猪八戒抢去了。」
Pilgrim said, “Just so — seized and carried off by Zhu Bajie.”
搶去 (qiǎng qù), to snatch away, to carry off by force.
總評 Commentary
Wukong’s fabricated account is a small masterwork of provocation, calculated in every particular to enrage: it lays the children’s seizure squarely on Bajie, dwells on the mother’s helpless pleading, and leaves their fate hanging between life and death. The false grief of the previous passage now finds its object, working upon the demon’s paternal feeling until his tenderness turns to fury.
The demon’s eruption — “Are they truly my sons?” — is the hinge on which the trap turns, for it is his rage on their behalf that will draw the elixir from his mouth in the passages to come. Wukong’s flat confirmation, delivered in the princess’s voice, completes the goading; the whole exchange is a study in how the pilgrim, denied a straight fight, wins by working upon his enemy’s heart.