Canonical Classics ← 第四十六回
第四十六回
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The Heterodox, Flaunting Their Strength, Affront the True Law · The Mind-Monkey, Manifesting His Sainthood, Destroys the Fiends

讓賭鹿力
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

讓賭鹿力 The King Stands Aside

guówángjīngjiāngguānwénpěngzàishǒuzhōngdào:「shèngsēng西xíngguānwénba。」xíngzhěxiàodào:「guānwénxiǎoqǐngèrguóshīpōupōuwānwān?」guówángduì鹿shuō:「zhèshìguǎrénxiānggānshìyàozuòduìtóudeqǐngqǐng。」鹿dào:「kuānxīnliàojuéshū。」guówángjīngjiāngguānwénpěngzàishǒuzhōngdào:「shèngsēng西xíngguānwénba。」xíngzhěxiàodào:「guānwénxiǎoqǐngèrguóshīpōupōuwānwān?」guówángduì鹿shuō:「zhèshìguǎrénxiānggānshìyàozuòduìtóudeqǐngqǐng。」鹿dào:「kuānxīnliàojuéshū。」


逐句解 Line by line

guówángjīngjiāngguānwénpěngzàishǒuzhōngdào:「shèngsēng西xíngguānwénba。」 guówángjīngjiāngguānwénpěngzàishǒuzhōngdào:「shèngsēng西xíngguānwénba。」

The king, greatly alarmed, took his travel-rescript up in his hands and said: "Holy Monk, delay not your westward road — here is your rescript; go."

The king tries again to end it, and this time he brings the paperwork over himself. 聖僧, Holy Monk, is a promotion from 那和尚, that monk, which is what he was calling Tripitaka an hour ago. 莫誤西行: = xíng, don't hold up your westward road. = jiāng; = ; = zhōng; = ba.

xíngzhěxiàodào:「guānwénxiǎoqǐngèrguóshīpōupōuwānwān?」 xíngzhěxiàodào:「guānwénxiǎoqǐngèrguóshīpōupōuwānwān?」

The Pilgrim laughed and said: "The rescript's a small matter — let the Second National Preceptor, too, do a little cutting and gouging; how about it?"

關文小可 — the travel papers are a trifle. Wukong has what he came for and does not want it. 剖剖剜剜 doubles both verbs into something almost playful: a little cutting, a little gouging. How about it?

guówángduì鹿shuō:「zhèshìguǎrénxiānggānshìyàozuòduìtóudeqǐngqǐng。」 guówángduì鹿shuō:「zhèshìguǎrénxiānggānshìyàozuòduìtóudeqǐngqǐng。」

The king said to Deer-Power: "This affair is no concern of Ours — it's you who would make yourself his adversary; go on, go on."

這事不與寡人相干 — this is no concern of Ours. 相干 ( = xiāng) is still the ordinary word for having anything to do with something. The king has spent the chapter handing his authority away, and here he formally disowns the consequences: it's you who wanted to be his 對頭, his opposite number, so off you go.

鹿dào:「kuānxīnliàojuéshū。」 鹿dào:「kuānxīnliàojuéshū。」

Deer-Power said: "Rest easy — I reckon I'll surely not lose to him."

寬心 — set your mind at ease. 料我決不輸與他, I reckon I shall certainly not lose to him. He has watched his brother die and revert to a tiger, and he still believes this.


總評 Commentary

The king makes two moves to extricate himself in this passage, and neither works. First he carries the travel papers over in his own hands and calls Tripitaka 聖僧, Holy Monk — a considerable promotion from the 那和尚, that monk, of an hour ago. Then, when Wukong declines to leave without seeing the second Preceptor cut open, he disclaims the whole business: 這事不與寡人相干, this is no concern of Ours, it's you who wanted to be his adversary.

Giving that up finishes his fall from ruler to onlooker. Having handed his kingdom to the immortals, he can now only stand and watch their contest destroy them. And Deer-Power's 料我決不輸與他, I reckon I shall certainly not lose — spoken by a man who has just watched his brother die and turn into a tiger — is the particular kind of confidence this chapter keeps staging so that it can be knocked down. The reader knows exactly how the wager ends. The passage is the last quiet beat before the hawk.