Canonical Classics ← 第三十四回
第三十四回
wángqiǎosuànkùnxīnyuán
shèngténgnuópiànbǎobèi

The Demon King, by artful reckoning, confounds the Mind-Monkey; the Great Sage, by shifting sleight, filches away the treasures.

假妖誆魔
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

假妖誆魔 The False Imp Cozens the Fiend

jièyòuzàiliángshànghǎndào:「hǎolehǎoleshuāndeshìjiǎhuòdiàodeshìzhèngshēn。」lǎotíngbēi便biànwèn:「zhūjièyāodeshìshénme?」xíngzhěbiànzuòxiǎoyāoshàngqiándào:「zhūjiècuāndàosūnxíngzhějiàobiànhuàzǒulebakěnzǒuzàiyāoli。」èrdào:「háishuōzhūjièlǎoshíyuánláizhèděnglǎoshígāièrshíduōzuǐgùn。」jièyòuzàiliángshànghǎndào:「hǎolehǎoleshuāndeshìjiǎhuòdiàodeshìzhèngshēn。」lǎotíngbēi便biànwèn:「zhūjièyāodeshìshénme?」xíngzhěbiànzuòxiǎoyāoshàngqiándào:「zhūjiècuāndàosūnxíngzhějiàobiànhuàzǒulebakěnzǒuzàiyāoli。」èrdào:「háishuōzhūjièlǎoshíyuánláizhèděnglǎoshígāièrshíduōzuǐgùn。」


逐句解 Line by line

jièyòuzàiliángshànghǎndào:「hǎolehǎoleshuāndeshìjiǎhuòdiàodeshìzhèngshēn。」lǎotíngbēi便biànwèn:「zhūjièyāodeshìshénme?」 jièyòuzàiliángshànghǎndào:「hǎolehǎoleshuāndeshìjiǎhuòdiàodeshìzhèngshēn。」lǎotíngbēi便biànwèn:「zhūjièyāodeshìshénme?」

Bajie, up on the beam again, shouted: “It's bad, it's bad — what's tied is a fake, what's hung is the real thing!” The old fiend set down his cup and asked: “What's that Pig Bajie bawling about?”

拴的是假貨吊的是正身 shuān de shì jiǎ huò, diào de shì zhèng shēn — what's tied is a fake, what's hung is the genuine article. Bajie is telling the exact truth at the top of his voice, and it does no harm whatsoever. 那豬八戒吆喝的是甚麼 nà zhū bā jiè yāo hè de shì shén me, what's that Pig bawling about — pointing , read , to shout.

xíngzhěbiànzuòxiǎoyāoshàngqiándào:「zhūjiècuāndàosūnxíngzhějiàobiànhuàzǒulebakěnzǒuzàiyāoli。」èrdào:「háishuōzhūjièlǎoshíyuánláizhèděnglǎoshígāièrshíduōzuǐgùn。」 xíngzhěbiànzuòxiǎoyāoshàngqiándào:「zhūjiècuāndàosūnxíngzhějiàobiànhuàzǒulebakěnzǒuzàiyāoli。」èrdào:「háishuōzhūjièlǎoshíyuánláizhèděnglǎoshígāièrshíduōzuǐgùn。」

Pilgrim, already changed into a little imp, stepped forward and said: “Pig Bajie is egging on Sun the Pilgrim, telling him to change shape and be off; but he won't go, and stands there bawling.” The second fiend said: “And they said Pig Bajie was honest — so this is how honest he is! He deserves twenty blows for a loose mouth.”

攛道孫行者教變化走了罷 cuān dào sūn xíng zhě jiào biàn huà zǒu le ba, egging Sun the Pilgrim on to change shape and be off — read jiào, causative, and the coaxing ba inside the reported speech. 還說豬八戒老實 hái shuō zhū bā jiè lǎo shí, and they say Pig is honest, as hái. The word is exactly right: 老實 is the standing description of Bajie's one virtue, and here it is being used to convict him.


總評 Commentary

The chapter's running joke reaches its perfect turn. Bajie, incapable of holding his tongue, blurts out the exact truth — the bound figure is a fake, the real Wukong is loose — and it saves nothing, because truth from Bajie's mouth is worthless currency. The demon lord's reaction is not alarm but irritation: what is that Pig bawling about? An accurate warning is discounted purely for coming from the party's least credible member.

And Wukong, now a bystander imp, seals the deception by turning Bajie's honesty into evidence against him: he reports that Pig is trying to help Sun the Pilgrim escape. The second fiend's verdict — so much for Pig's honesty, twenty blows for a loose mouth — completes the inversion, punishing the one truth-teller in the room for telling the truth. In a house of fiends, a fool's veracity is indistinguishable from a knave's lie.