Canonical Classics ← 第三十八回
第三十八回
yīngérwènzhīxiézhèng
jīncānxuánjiànjiǎzhēn

The Infant Questions His Mother and Learns the Crooked from the Upright · Metal and Wood, Probing the Mystery, Perceive the False and the True

夤夜賺豬
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

夤夜賺豬 Rousing the Pig by Night

xíngzhěleshījìngdàojièchuángbiānjiào:「jièjiè。」dāizishìzǒuxīnderéndiūdǎotóuzhǐqíngjiàodexǐngxíngzhějiūzheěrduǒzhuāzhezōngláijiàoshēng:「jiè。」dāiziháiléngzhēngxíngzhěyòujiàoshēngdāizidào:「shuìlebawánmíngyàozǒuli。」xíngzhědào:「shìwányǒuzhuāngmǎimàizuò。」jièdào:「shénmemǎimài?」xíngzhědào:「zēngtīngdetàishuōme?」jièdào:「céngjiànmiàncéngtīngjiànshuōshénme。」xíngzhěshuō:「tàigàoshuōyāojīngyǒujiànbǎobèiwàndāngzhīyǒngmenmíngjìnchéngmiǎnzhēngtǎngguàizhílebǎobèixiángdǎomenquèfǎnchéngměixiǎngzherénguòxiānxiàshǒutōudeláiquèshìhǎo?」xíngzhěleshījìngdàojièchuángbiānjiào:「jièjiè。」dāizishìzǒuxīnderéndiūdǎotóuzhǐqíngjiàodexǐngxíngzhějiūzheěrduǒzhuāzhezōngláijiàoshēng:「jiè。」dāiziháiléngzhēngxíngzhěyòujiàoshēngdāizidào:「shuìlebawánmíngyàozǒuli。」xíngzhědào:「shìwányǒuzhuāngmǎimàizuò。」jièdào:「shénmemǎimài?」xíngzhědào:「zēngtīngdetàishuōme?」jièdào:「céngjiànmiàncéngtīngjiànshuōshénme。」xíngzhěshuō:「tàigàoshuōyāojīngyǒujiànbǎobèiwàndāngzhīyǒngmenmíngjìnchéngmiǎnzhēngtǎngguàizhílebǎobèixiángdǎomenquèfǎnchéngměixiǎngzherénguòxiānxiàshǒutōudeláiquèshìhǎo?」


逐句解 Line by line

xíngzhěleshījìngdàojièchuángbiānjiào:「jièjiè。」 xíngzhěleshījìngdàojièchuángbiānjiào:「jièjiè。」

The Pilgrim left his master, went straight to Bajie's bedside, and called: 'Bajie! Bajie!'

He leaves his master and goes straight to the next mark. = xíng; = le.

dāizishìzǒuxīnderéndiūdǎotóuzhǐqíngjiàodexǐng dāizishìzǒuxīnderéndiūdǎotóuzhǐqíngjiàodexǐng

That blockhead, being a fellow worn out from the road, had flung himself down headlong and was snoring away with a will — how could he be roused by calling?

丟倒頭: flung himself down head-first ( = dǎo, to topple). 只情打呼: snoring away with a will. 那裡叫得醒 — 'however could he be called awake?' — uses the questioning , while the of 那獃子 at the head of the line is the pointing : two readings of the character in a single sentence. = de.

xíngzhějiūzheěrduǒzhuāzhezōngláijiàoshēng:「jiè。」 xíngzhějiūzheěrduǒzhuāzhezōngláijiàoshēng:「jiè。」

The Pilgrim grabbed him by the ear, seized him by the bristles, gave him a heave, hauled him upright, and called: 'Bajie!'

揪著耳朵抓著鬃: by the ear and by the mane-bristles ( twice = zhe). The novel never lets you forget that Bajie is a pig, and it reaches for his ears and bristles whenever a scene needs livening up.

dāiziháiléngzhēng dāiziháiléngzhēng

The blockhead was still groggily struggling.

打棱掙: thrashing about half-awake, the way anyone does when hauled upright out of deep sleep. = ; = hái.

xíngzhěyòujiàoshēngdāizidào:「shuìlebawánmíngyàozǒuli。」 xíngzhěyòujiàoshēngdāizidào:「shuìlebawánmíngyàozǒuli。」

The Pilgrim called once more, and the blockhead said: 'Let's sleep — no fooling; tomorrow we've the road to walk.'

睡了罷: 'let's just sleep' ( = ba). 莫頑: stop messing about ( = wán). Tomorrow, he points out reasonably, there is walking to do.

xíngzhědào:「shìwányǒuzhuāngmǎimàizuò。」 xíngzhědào:「shìwányǒuzhuāngmǎimàizuò。」

The Pilgrim said: 'It's no fooling — there's a piece of business you and I are going to do.'

一樁買賣 — a piece of business, a deal. Calling it a 'venture' rather than an errand is the first move of the con, and it is aimed precisely where Bajie lives. = .

jièdào:「shénmemǎimài?」 jièdào:「shénmemǎimài?」

Bajie said: 'What business?'

One word, and he is awake. 甚麼 = shén me.

xíngzhědào:「zēngtīngdetàishuōme?」 xíngzhědào:「zēngtīngdetàishuōme?」

The Pilgrim said: 'Did you happen to hear what that prince said?'

The question is bait, since Wukong knows perfectly well he was asleep for all of it. 聽得: to have heard ( = de). = ; 太子: = .

jièdào:「céngjiànmiàncéngtīngjiànshuōshénme。」 jièdào:「céngjiànmiàncéngtīngjiànshuōshénme。」

Bajie said: 'I never saw his face, and never heard him say anything.'

He never met the prince, which is exactly why the story about to be told him cannot be checked. 甚麼 = shén me.

xíngzhěshuō:「tàigàoshuōyāojīngyǒujiànbǎobèiwàndāngzhīyǒng xíngzhěshuō:「tàigàoshuōyāojīngyǒujiànbǎobèiwàndāngzhīyǒng

The Pilgrim said: 'That prince told me the fiend has a treasure whose might ten thousand men could not withstand.'

萬夫不當之勇: a might that ten thousand men could not stand against ( = dāng, 'to withstand'). It is a standard heroic formula, deployed here for a treasure that does not exist. , twice, = ; 太子: = .

menmíngjìnchéngmiǎnzhēngtǎngguàizhílebǎobèixiángdǎomenquèfǎnchéngměi menmíngjìnchéngmiǎnzhēngtǎngguàizhílebǎobèixiángdǎomenquèfǎnchéngměi

'Tomorrow when we enter the city we can hardly avoid a fight with him; and should that fiend wield the treasure and beat us down, would that not turn out badly indeed?'

不免: we can hardly avoid it. 降倒我們: subdue us and knock us flat ( = xiáng, to subdue; = dǎo). = . Fear is the second hook, and it goes in after greed.

xiǎngzherénguòxiānxiàshǒu xiǎngzherénguòxiānxiàshǒu

'I've been thinking: if we can't out-fight a man, better to strike first.'

打人不過: can't out-fight him (不過 = ). 先下手, strike first — the front half of the proverb 先下手為強, which everyone hearing it would finish silently. = zhe.

tōudeláiquèshìhǎo?」 tōudeláiquèshìhǎo?」

'You and I will go and steal it away from him — wouldn't that be the thing?'

偷他的來: steal it off him. 卻不是好: wouldn't that be the thing? ( = ). = . The pitch is complete, and every word of it is false except the danger.


總評 Commentary

The recruitment of Bajie is one of the chapter's comic centerpieces, and it opens with pure slapstick. The exhausted pig snores with a will, impervious to shouting, and has to be hauled upright by the ear and the bristles. The physical comedy establishes the pair's dynamic — the tireless schemer and the immovable sleeper — before a word of the con is spoken.

Wukong's manipulation is a small masterclass. He frames the grave-robbing not as unpleasant duty but as a piece of business, then baits the hook with treasure: the demon has an invincible weapon, and they had better steal it before it is used on them. Every step is calibrated to Bajie's two great motives, greed and self-preservation, and taken in that order.

The lie works because it is half true. There really is danger in facing the demon, and there really is a treasure of a sort — but the errand Wukong is recruiting for is the recovery of a corpse, not the theft of a weapon. That gap between the venture as pitched and the venture as it will actually unfold is the engine of everything comic still to come.