Canonical Classics ← 第三十一回
第三十一回
zhūjièhóuwáng
sūnxíngzhězhìxiángyāoguài

Zhu Bajie, Roused by Duty, Provokes the Monkey King · Sun the Pilgrim, by Wit, Subdues the Fiend

妖精已絕
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

妖精已絕 The Fiends All Gone

shèngànluòxiángguāngjìngzhuǎnwǎnzishānyuèdòngxúnchūgōngzhǔjiāngfánxiàjièshōuyāodeyánzhèngránchénzhǐtīngdebànkōngzhōngjièshāsēngshēnggāojiàodào:「shīxiōngyǒuyāojīngliúermen。」xíngzhědào:「yāojīngjìnjué。」shāsēngdào:「yāojīngjuéshènguààijiānggōngzhǔyǐncháozhōngyàozhēngyǎnxiōngmen使shǐsuōlái。」shèngànluòxiángguāngjìngzhuǎnwǎnzishānyuèdòngxúnchūgōngzhǔjiāngfánxiàjièshōuyāodeyánzhèngránchénzhǐtīngdebànkōngzhōngjièshāsēngshēnggāojiàodào:「shīxiōngyǒuyāojīngliúermen。」xíngzhědào:「yāojīngjìnjué。」shāsēngdào:「yāojīngjuéshènguààijiānggōngzhǔyǐncháozhōngyàozhēngyǎnxiōngmen使shǐsuōlái。」


逐句解 Line by line

shèngànluòxiángguāngjìngzhuǎnwǎnzishānyuèdòngxúnchūgōngzhǔjiāngfánxiàjièshōuyāodeyánzhèngránchén shèngànluòxiángguāngjìngzhuǎnwǎnzishānyuèdòngxúnchūgōngzhǔjiāngfánxiàjièshōuyāodeyánzhèngránchén

The Great Sage brought down his auspicious cloud, went straight back to the Wave-Moon Cave on Bowl Mountain, sought out the princess, and was in the very act of setting forth the whole story — her yearning for the mortal world, her descent, and the subduing of the fiend—

碗子山波月洞, Wǎnzǐ Shān Bōyuè Dòng, the Wave-Moon Cave on Bowl Mountain — the demon's address, given in full at the moment it stops being his. 陳訴, chén sù, to lay out an account of something in order.

zhǐtīngdebànkōngzhōngjièshāsēngshēnggāojiàodào:「shīxiōngyǒuyāojīngliúermen。」 zhǐtīngdebànkōngzhōngjièshāsēngshēnggāojiàodào:「shīxiōngyǒuyāojīngliúermen。」

— when he heard Bajie and Sha Seng calling out shrilly from mid-air, "Elder brother, if there are fiends, leave us a few to fight!"

半空中, bàn kōng zhōng, in mid-air; 留幾個兒, liú jǐ ge'r, "leave us a few" — with the soft making it a request rather than a demand. They have arrived after the fighting, and are asking for some.

xíngzhědào:「yāojīngjìnjué。」 xíngzhědào:「yāojīngjìnjué。」

Pilgrim said, "The fiends are all utterly done away with."

盡絕, jìn jué, wholly wiped out; , , a classical final particle. Wukong answers a request for demons in literary Chinese, which is its own small joke.

shāsēngdào:「yāojīngjuéshènguààijiānggōngzhǔyǐncháozhōng shāsēngdào:「yāojīngjuéshènguààijiānggōngzhǔyǐncháozhōng

Sha Seng said, "Since the fiends are all destroyed and there is no further hindrance, let us bring the princess into the court.

無甚罣礙, wú shèn guà ài, no hindrance to speak of — here means "much" and is read shèn. The word 罣礙 is borrowed from the Heart Sutra, where it is the obstruction the mind is to be free of; Sha Seng uses it to mean there is nothing left to stop them leaving.

yàozhēngyǎnxiōngmen使shǐsuōlái。」 yàozhēngyǎnxiōngmen使shǐsuōlái。」

Do not open your eyes — brothers, let us work the earth-shrinking art."

縮地法, suō dì fǎ, the "earth-shrinking" art, which folds the ground so that a long road passes underfoot in a moment. Telling the passenger to keep her eyes shut is the practical part.


總評 Commentary

With the star recalled above, the action returns to earth for the winding-up. Wukong relates the whole celestial back-story to the princess, and the reappearance of Bajie and Sha Seng — clamouring, far too late, for demons to fight — restores the comic ensemble after the solemnities of Heaven. Their eagerness for a battle already finished is a small, affectionate joke at their expense.

The turn to practical business — conveying the princess to court by the earth-shrinking art — begins the chapter's homeward gathering of threads. Instantaneous travel is one of the pilgrims' stock conveniences, invoked here in passing, and its use sets up the reunion at court and the restoration of the tiger-transformed Tripitaka that the ending requires.