Canonical Classics ← 第三十二回
第三十二回
píngdǐngshāngōngcáochuánxìn
liánhuādòngféngzāi

On Level-Top Mountain the Merit-Officer Brings Word · In the Lotus-Flower Cave the Wood-Mother Meets Disaster

看師父
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

看師父 Minding the Master

jièdào:「kànshīshìzuòxúnshānshìzǒuzhōngránjiàozuòhuìyòuzǒuzǒuhuìyòuzuòliǎngchùzěnmepàndelái?」xíngzhědào:「shìjiàoliǎngjiàngànzhǐshìlǐnglejiàn便biàn。」jièyòuxiàodào:「zhèděnghǎojiàodànzhīkànshīshìzěnyàngxúnshānshìzěnyàngxiānjiǎngjiǎngděngxiāngyìngxiēerdegàn。」xíngzhědào:「kànshīashīchūgōnghòushīyàozǒuchíshīyàochīzhāihuàzhāiruòèlexiēergāihuánglexiēerliǎngāishòulexiēerxíngháigāi。」jièdào:「kànshīshìzuòxúnshānshìzǒuzhōngránjiàozuòhuìyòuzǒuzǒuhuìyòuzuòliǎngchùzěnmepàndelái?」xíngzhědào:「shìjiàoliǎngjiàngànzhǐshìlǐnglejiàn便biàn。」jièyòuxiàodào:「zhèděnghǎojiàodànzhīkànshīshìzěnyàngxúnshānshìzěnyàngxiānjiǎngjiǎngděngxiāngyìngxiēerdegàn。」xíngzhědào:「kànshīashīchūgōnghòushīyàozǒuchíshīyàochīzhāihuàzhāiruò饿èlexiēergāihuánglexiēerliǎngāishòulexiēerxíngháigāi。」


逐句解 Line by line

jièdào:「kànshīshìzuòxúnshānshìzǒuzhōngránjiàozuòhuìyòuzǒuzǒuhuìyòuzuòliǎngchùzěnmepàndelái?」 jièdào:「kànshīshìzuòxúnshānshìzǒuzhōngránjiàozuòhuìyòuzǒuzǒuhuìyòuzuòliǎngchùzěnmepàndelái?」

Said Eight Rules: “To mind the Master is to sit; to go patrol the mountain is to walk. Surely you would not have me sit a while, then walk, walk a while, then sit? How could I attend to both at once?”

顧盼 (gù pàn), "to look after, attend to." 得來 potential de.

xíngzhědào:「shìjiàoliǎngjiàngànzhǐshìlǐnglejiàn便biàn。」 xíngzhědào:「shìjiàoliǎngjiàngànzhǐshìlǐnglejiàn便biàn。」

Said Pilgrim: “I am not asking you to do both together — only to take on the one and be done.”

齊幹 (qí gàn), "to do together." , "to take on."

jièyòuxiàodào:「zhèděnghǎojiàodànzhīkànshīshìzěnyàngxúnshānshìzěnyàngxiānjiǎngjiǎngděngxiāngyìngxiēerdegàn。」 jièyòuxiàodào:「zhèděnghǎojiàodànzhīkànshīshìzěnyàngxúnshānshìzěnyàngxiānjiǎngjiǎngděngxiāngyìngxiēerdegàn。」

Eight Rules laughed again: “That’s a fair reckoning too. But I don’t yet know what minding the Master involves, or what patrolling the mountain involves. Explain them to me first, and let me pick whichever suits me better to go and do.”

相應 (xiāng yìng), "corresponding, suitable" — xiāng, yìng. 些兒 er.

xíngzhědào:「kànshīashīchūgōnghòushīyàozǒuchíshīyàochīzhāihuàzhāiruòèlexiēergāihuánglexiēerliǎngāishòulexiēerxíngháigāi。」 xíngzhědào:「kànshīashīchūgōnghòushīyàozǒuchíshīyàochīzhāihuàzhāiruò饿èlexiēergāihuánglexiēerliǎngāishòulexiēerxíngháigāi。」

Said Pilgrim: “As for minding the Master — when the Master goes to relieve himself, you attend him; when the Master would walk, you support him; when the Master would take his fast-meal, you go beg it. And if he grows the least bit hungry, you are to be beaten; if his face yellows the least bit, you are to be beaten; if his frame wastes the least bit, you are to be beaten.”

出恭 (chū gōng), "to relieve oneself." 化齋 (huà zhāi), "to beg a fast-meal." 形骸, "the body, frame." 些兒 er (thrice).


總評 Commentary

Eight Rules, ever the literalist, objects that the two duties are incompatible — one is sitting, the other walking — and is told he need only choose one. His request to hear the details before choosing sets up the joke: Pilgrim describes “minding the Master” in deliberately unappealing terms.

The description of attendance is a comic catalogue of thankless servitude, escalating to absurdity: Eight Rules would be beaten not only for the master’s hunger but for any yellowing of his face or wasting of his frame — outcomes wholly beyond a servant’s control. Pilgrim is plainly steering Eight Rules toward the mountain-patrol by making the alternative intolerable.