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

哭將來了
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

哭將來了 Coming Yonder in Tears

zhǎnglǎozàishàngtīngjiàndào:「zhèhānghuòzhèngzǒuzěnmeyòushuōle?」jièdào:「érzi便biànshuōkànjiànsūnxíngzhějiāngláileshìzuāntiānkǎnhuǒshāoxiàyóuguōdōudehǎohànjīndàilechóumàolèiwāngwāngdeláishìshānxiǎnjùnyāoguàixiōnghěnmenzhèyàngruǎnruòderénerzěnmede?」zhǎnglǎodào:「qiěxiūtándàiwènshēngkànshìzěnmeshuōhuà。」wèndào:「kōngyǒushénhuàdāngmiànjiàozěnmejiāfánnǎozhèbānyàngbāoliǎnshìxià?」zhǎnglǎozàishàngtīngjiàndào:「zhèhānghuòzhèngzǒuzěnmeyòushuōle?」jièdào:「érzi便biànshuōkànjiànsūnxíngzhějiāngláileshìzuāntiānkǎnhuǒshāoxiàyóuguōdōudehǎohànjīndàilechóumàolèiwāngwāngdeláishìshānxiǎnjùnyāoguàixiōnghěnmenzhèyàngruǎnruòderénerzěnmede?」zhǎnglǎodào:「qiěxiūtándàiwènshēngkànshìzěnmeshuōhuà。」wèndào:「kōngyǒushénhuàdāngmiànjiàozěnmejiāfánnǎozhèbānyàngbāoliǎnshìxià?」


逐句解 Line by line

zhǎnglǎozàishàngtīngjiàndào:「zhèhānghuòzhèngzǒuzěnmeyòushuōle?」 zhǎnglǎozàishàngtīngjiàndào:「zhèhānghuòzhèngzǒuzěnmeyòushuōle?」

The Elder, hearing this from horseback, said: "You blockhead — here we are walking along, and how is it you talk nonsense again?"

夯貨, hāng huò, "lump of goods" — is the heavy tamper used to pound earth, so the insult is "you great blunt instrument." The Elder's standing name for Eight Rules.

jièdào:「érzi便biànshuōkànjiànsūnxíngzhějiāngláileshìzuāntiānkǎnhuǒshāoxiàyóuguōdōudehǎohànjīndàilechóumàolèiwāngwāngdeláishìshānxiǎnjùnyāoguàixiōnghěnmenzhèyàngruǎnruòderénerzěnmede?」 jièdào:「érzi便biànshuōkànjiànsūnxíngzhějiāngláileshìzuāntiānkǎnhuǒshāoxiàyóuguōdōudehǎohànjīndàilechóumàolèiwāngwāngdeláishìshānxiǎnjùnyāoguàixiōnghěnmenzhèyàngruǎnruòderénerzěnmede?」

Said Eight Rules: "It's your own son who talks nonsense. Do you not see Sun the Pilgrim coming yonder in tears? He is a fellow who bores into the sky and burrows through the earth, who fears neither the axe's blow nor the fire's burning nor the cauldron of oil; and now he has put on a cap of woe and comes weeping, eyes streaming — it must be that the mountain is steep and the fiends fierce. How are weak folk like us to get through?"

Eight Rules argues his case, and it is a good one. 兒子, ér zi, "son," takes as the full syllable ér, while 人兒, "folk," takes the light ending er — the same character in two jobs, one line apart. in 哭將來 is the directional jiāng; is ; is dōu; 去得 takes as de. Note his logic: this is a creature who has been through axe, fire and the cauldron of oil without blinking, and he is crying — so how bad must it be? The reasoning is sound. Only the premise is fake.

zhǎnglǎodào:「qiěxiūtándàiwènshēngkànshìzěnmeshuōhuà。」 zhǎnglǎodào:「qiěxiūtándàiwènshēngkànshìzěnmeshuōhuà。」

Said the Elder: "Stop your idle talk; let me put him a question, and see what he says."

胡談, hú tán, "wild talk." is zhǎng.

wèndào:「kōngyǒushénhuàdāngmiànjiàozěnmejiāfánnǎozhèbānyàngbāoliǎnshìxià?」 wèndào:「kōngyǒushénhuàdāngmiànjiàozěnmejiāfánnǎozhèbānyàngbāoliǎnshìxià?」

He asked: "Wukong, whatever there is to say, let us reckon it out face to face — why do you fret to yourself? With such a woebegone, crumpled face, are you trying to frighten me with talk of tigers?"

The master's question, and there is suspicion in it. 哭包臉, kū bāo liǎn, "a face all screwed up for crying" — a crumpled, blubbering face. 虎諕, hǔ xià, "to frighten someone with tigers," where is an older written form of , "to scare," read xià. is shén. For one moment the Elder wonders whether he is being played.


總評 Commentary

The Elder calls Eight Rules a blockhead for talking nonsense, and gets "it is your own son who talks nonsense" straight back — a piece of Ming rudeness that works by implying the insulter is the insulted party's parent. Then Eight Rules makes his case, and it is genuinely well argued: Pilgrim fears neither axe nor fire nor boiling oil, Pilgrim is crying, therefore the danger is beyond anything they have met. The inference is valid. The premise is a lie.

What lifts the scene is the flicker of doubt in the master's reply. Asking whether that crumpled, blubbering face is meant "to frighten me with tigers" is the closest the Elder comes all chapter to catching on. He does not follow the thought, and Pilgrim is about to make full use of that, but the novel has taken care to show that the man is not quite as gullible as he behaves.