Canonical Classics ← 第三十九回
第三十九回
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One Grain of Cinnabar-Sand Is Got from Heaven · The Three-Years-Dead Former Lord Is Born Again in the World

三僧圍魔
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原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

三僧圍魔 Three Monks Ring the Fiend

hǎojièshēngjiàyúntóugǎnshànghuāngdeshāshàngdiūletángsēngchèchūbǎozhàngláitángsēngcáitínglezhòusūnshèngrěnzhetóuténgzǎnzhetiěbànggǎnzàikōngzhōngyazhèchángsānhěnshàngwéizhùyāowángbèijièshāsēng使shǐdīngbǎozhàngzuǒyòugōngzhùlexíngzhěxiàodào:「yàozàidāngmiànquèyǒuxiēzhǐkǒngyòuzǒuleděnglǎosūntiàogāoxiēdǎosuànjiéguǒleba。」hǎojièshēngjiàyúntóugǎnshànghuāngdeshāshàngdiūletángsēngchèchūbǎozhàngláitángsēngcáitínglezhòusūnshèngrěnzhetóuténgzǎnzhetiěbànggǎnzàikōngzhōngyazhèchángsānhěnshàngwéizhùyāowángbèijièshāsēng使shǐdīngbǎozhàngzuǒyòugōngzhùlexíngzhěxiàodào:「yàozàidāngmiànquèyǒuxiēzhǐkǒngyòuzǒuleděnglǎosūntiàogāoxiēdǎosuànjiéguǒleba。」


逐句解 Line by line

hǎojièshēngjiàyúntóugǎnshàng hǎojièshēngjiàyúntóugǎnshàng

The fine Eight Rules gave a shout and, mounting a cloud-head too, gave chase.

喝一聲, gave a shout. 駕雲頭趕上, rode a cloud in pursuit — Bajie, who spends most of the book avoiding work, is first off the ground this time.

huāngdeshāshàngdiūletángsēngchèchūbǎozhànglái huāngdeshāshàngdiūletángsēngchèchūbǎozhànglái

In alarm that Sha the monk dropped the Tang Monk and also drew his precious staff to strike.

慌得: hinging = de. Pointing 那沙和尚: = . The 寶杖 is Sha Monk's demon-quelling staff. He drops the Tang Monk to join in, which is either loyalty or bad prioritising.

tángsēngcáitínglezhòu tángsēngcáitínglezhòu

Only then did the Tang Monk stop the spell.

才停了咒語, only then ceased chanting. A small, precise detail: the true Tripitaka has been reciting the spell all the way through the fight, and Wukong has been fighting with a splitting head.

sūnshèngrěnzhetóuténgzǎnzhetiěbànggǎnzàikōngzhōng sūnshèngrěnzhetóuténgzǎnzhetiěbànggǎnzàikōngzhōng

Sun the Great Sage, bearing his headache and gripping his iron cudgel, gave chase in mid-air.

Both (忍著, 揝著) = zhe, the action held. 空中: = zhōng. zǎn is to grip. Bearing the pain and gripping the cudgel are given the same construction, which is the sentence's quiet joke about him.

ya ya

Aha!

— the narrator clearing his throat before the melee.

zhèchángsānhěnshàngwéizhùyāo zhèchángsānhěnshàngwéizhùyāo

This bout: three fierce monks ringing one vile fiend.

三個狠和尚圍住一個潑妖魔 — three ferocious monks hemming in one vile fiend. Three monks against one beast is also, if you have been counting, the first time this chapter's pilgrims have all fought together.

wángbèijièshāsēng使shǐdīngbǎozhàngzuǒyòugōngzhùle wángbèijièshāsēng使shǐdīngbǎozhàngzuǒyòugōngzhùle

That demon-king was held off on left and right by Eight Rules and Sha Monk with their nail-rake and precious staff.

Pointing 那魔王: = . 釘鈀: = . 左右攻住, pressed on both sides.

xíngzhěxiàodào:「yàozàidāngmiànquèyǒuxiēzhǐkǒngyòuzǒule xíngzhěxiàodào:「yàozàidāngmiànquèyǒuxiēzhǐkǒngyòuzǒule

Pilgrim laughed: "If I go again and strike him to his face, he's a bit afraid of me — I only fear he'll run off once more.

當面打他: = dāng, to the face. 只恐他又走了, only fear he will run again — twice burnt, Wukong now plans for the escape before the blow.

děnglǎosūntiàogāoxiēdǎosuànjiéguǒleba。」 děnglǎosūntiàogāoxiēdǎosuànjiéguǒleba。」

Let old Sun leap up high and give him a garlic-pounding blow, and finish him off."

搗蒜打 is a downward pestle-stroke, the motion of pounding garlic in a mortar — a kitchen image for a killing blow, and all the nastier for being domestic. 結果了他, do him in; closing = ba.


總評 Commentary

The chase closes into a melee. Bajie and Sha Monk join Wukong in the air and the three ring the fiend, rake and staff pinning him left and right while Wukong looks for the finishing stroke. The passage is brief and kinetic, a gathering of force — and it carries one quiet, telling detail. The true Tripitaka "only then stopped the spell": the Tight-Fillet Spell that opened this chapter as an instrument of Wukong's torment has just served, in his Master's mouth, as the instrument of the fiend's exposure, and Wukong has been fighting through the headache without complaint.

Wukong's plan — to leap high and bring down a garlic-pounding blow to finish him off — sets up an expectation of a kill precisely so the next passage can overturn it. The novel's settled rule with mount-demons is that they may be beaten but not slain by the pilgrims, because they belong to a higher master; the reader half-senses the reprieve coming even as the three monks close the ring.