Canonical Classics ← 第四十五回
第四十五回
sānqīngguànshèngliúmíng
chēchíguóhóuwángxiǎn

At the Abbey of the Three Pure Ones the Great Sage leaves his name; in the Kingdom of Cart-Slow the Monkey King displays his magic.

冤家路窄
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

冤家路窄 Enemies on a Narrow Road

jīnháizàijiānzhèngsuǒwèiyuānjiāerzhǎi。」guówángwényánzhūzhòngjīnháizàijiānzhèngsuǒwèiyuānjiāerzhǎi。」guówángwényánzhūzhòng


逐句解 Line by line

jīnháizàijiānzhèngsuǒwèiyuānjiāerzhǎi。」 jīnháizàijiānzhèngsuǒwèiyuānjiāerzhǎi。」

Today he is here again in this very place — truly, as the saying goes, 'foes will meet where the road is narrow.'”

還在此間: = hái, still. Then the proverb, which the edition marks off as a quotation: 冤家路兒窄, "enemies meet where the road is narrow" -- there is no room to pass, so there is no avoiding the reckoning. It is still current, normally in a tighter four-character form without the extra syllable, and it is what you say when you run into precisely the person you were hoping not to. = er, the light ending on 路兒.

guówángwényánzhūzhòng guówángwényánzhūzhòng

At these words the king flew into a rage and would have put the four of them to death.

那國王: = . 發怒 "flew into a fury." 欲誅四眾: (zhū) "to put to death"; 四眾 "the four," the pilgrim band.


總評 Commentary

The Daoist finishes on a proverb and the king reaches for a death sentence. This is the chapter's first crisis, and it arrives fast: no defence has been heard, no witness called.

The proverb is well chosen and slightly too pleased with itself. Enemies meet on a narrow road -- so fate has delivered them, and nothing more need be argued. That smugness is the opening. Wukong is about to point out that a narrow road is not a witness.

What follows turns the whole shape of the chapter. A threatened execution becomes a public contest of powers, which is the arena Wukong wanted all along.