識破妖屍 Seeing Through the Demons' Corpses
卻說那國王倚著龍床，淚如泉湧，只哭到天晚不住。行者上前高呼道：「你怎麼這等昏亂？見放著那道士的屍骸，一個是虎，一個是鹿，那羊力是一個羚羊。不信時，撈上骨頭來看，那裡人有那樣骷髏？他本是成精的山獸，同心到此害你，因見氣數還旺，不敢下手。若再過二年，你氣數衰敗，他就害了你性命，把你江山一股兒盡屬他了。幸我等早來，除妖邪救了你命。你還哭甚？哭甚？急打發關文，送我出去。」國王聞此，方才省悟。那文武多官俱奏道：「死者果然是白鹿、黃虎，油鍋裡果是羊骨。聖僧之言，不可不聽。」國王道：「既是這等，感謝聖僧。今日天晚，」教：「太師，且請聖僧至智淵寺。明日早朝，大開東閣，教光祿寺安排素淨筵宴酬謝。」果送至寺裡安歇。却说那国王倚着龙床，泪如泉涌，只哭到天晚不住。行者上前高呼道：「你怎么这等昏乱？见放着那道士的尸骸，一个是虎，一个是鹿，那羊力是一个羚羊。不信时，捞上骨头来看，那里人有那样骷髅？他本是成精的山兽，同心到此害你，因见气数还旺，不敢下手。若再过二年，你气数衰败，他就害了你性命，把你江山一股儿尽属他了。幸我等早来，除妖邪救了你命。你还哭甚？哭甚？急打发关文，送我出去。」国王闻此，方才省悟。那文武多官俱奏道：「死者果然是白鹿、黄虎，油锅里果是羊骨。圣僧之言，不可不听。」国王道：「既是这等，感谢圣僧。今日天晚，」教：「太师，且请圣僧至智渊寺。明日早朝，大开东阁，教光禄寺安排素净筵宴酬谢。」果送至寺里安歇。
逐句解 Line by line
Now that king lay slumped against his dragon-couch, tears welling like a spring, and wept without cease till the day grew late.
We come in on a king in pieces. The three court Daoists of Cart-Slow (車遲國) died in the contests of the last chapter, and he has been crying ever since. 那 points at him — nà. In 倚著, 著 is zhe, the reading for something still going on: he is not sitting on the dragon-couch so much as draped over it.
Pilgrim stepped forward and called out loudly: "Why are you in such a daze of grief?
No bedside manner whatever. 昏亂 is muddled, fuddled, wits gone wandering — and Wukong says it to a weeping monarch's face.
There lie the corpses of those Daoists: one a tiger, one a deer, and Goatpower yonder but an antelope.
Wukong's argument is: look at the bodies. Both 那 point at things in the room — nà, in 那道士 and 那羊力. 放著 takes 著 as zhe again, the corpses lying there in plain view. 羊力 is Goatpower, third of the Tiger-, Deer- and Goat-Strength Immortals.
If you doubt it, have the bones fished up and look — where would any man have skulls like those?
Two 那 in one line, and they are not the same word. The first is asking — nǎ, in 那裡人有: where would any human being get skulls like that? The second is pointing — nà, in 那樣, "that sort." 撈 is lāo, to drag a thing up out of water, which is exactly what he wants done with the bones.
They were mountain-beasts turned to goblins, come here of one mind to do you harm; but seeing your fated fortune still in its prime, they dared not lay a hand on you.
氣數 is the idea the whole speech rests on. A ruler holds a fixed allowance of vital force, and it runs down like a charge on a battery; while it is high nothing can touch him, and when it drains anything can. 數 is shù here, the noun — a reckoning, an allotted number. In 還旺, 還 is hái, "still": the charge was still strong, so the beasts kept their hands off.
Had two more years gone by and your fortune waned, they would have taken your life and made your whole realm, in a single lump, their own.
氣數 again, 數 again shù. 一股兒 is the little -r ending at work — 兒 read er, not the ér that means "child." The phrase comes off a market stall: the whole kingdom taken in one lot.
Happily we came in good time, cleared away the fiends, and saved your life.
妖邪 covers both halves of the trouble — 妖 the monstrous, 邪 the crooked. And then 救了你命: we saved your life. Wukong is not going to let that one go by unmentioned.
What are you still weeping for?
還 is hái, "still" — you are *still* at it. 甚 is shén, the short form of 甚麼, "what."
Weeping for what?
He says it again, cut down to two characters. 甚 is shén once more. The repetition is pure exasperation, the tone of somebody snapping their fingers in front of your face.
Hurry and issue our travel-rescript, and see us on our way."
關文 is the travel document the pilgrims carry, stamped at every border they cross — a passport with visa pages, and getting it back is how the kingdom-episodes tend to end. 打發 is to get a thing off your desk and gone.
Hearing this, the king at last came to his senses.
省悟 — 省 read xǐng, to look hard at something — is the moment the penny drops.
The officials, civil and military, all reported: "The dead are indeed a white deer and a yellow tiger, and in the oil-cauldron there truly lie a goat's bones.
The court closes ranks behind the monkey. 那 points — nà. 油鍋, the cauldron of boiling oil, is the contest Goatpower did not come out of in the last chapter.
The holy monk's words must not go unheeded."
不可不聽 stacks two negatives — cannot not heed — which in Chinese as in English lands harder than a plain "must."
The king said: "Since it is so, I thank the holy monk.
既是這等: since that is how it stands. The climb-down begins.
The hour grows late today." And he ordered: "Grand Preceptor, pray conduct the holy monks to the Monastery of Wisdom's Depths.
教 is jiào here, the "have somebody do it" reading, not "teach." 智淵寺 is the Monastery of Wisdom's Depths; 太師, Grand Preceptor, is a court title near the top of the tree.
Tomorrow at the morning court I shall throw open the Eastern Pavilion and have the Court of Imperial Entertainments lay out a pure vegetarian feast to render thanks."
教 is jiào again. 光祿寺 was a real Ming office, the Court of Imperial Entertainments — palace catering, in effect. 素淨筵宴 is the order it gets: a plain meatless spread, because the guests are monks.
And so they were duly escorted to the monastery to rest.
安歇: put up for the night.
The chapter opens on the wreckage of the Cart-Slow contests. In the previous chapter the three Daoist adepts — the Tiger-, Deer- and Goat-Strength Immortals, the last of them the 羊力 named here — staged a series of wagers against Wukong and lost every one, dying by rain-summoning, by meditation on poles, and in the trials of the severed head, the opened heart and the cauldron of oil. Their bodies now lie where they fell, showing what they always were: a tiger, a deer, an antelope. The king who honoured them and persecuted his own Buddhist clergy is left weeping over the ruin of his court.
Wukong's remedy is refreshingly unmystical. Fish the bones out of the oil and look at them. It is the plain, check-it-yourself empiricism the book keeps setting against credulity, and the officials back him with the same brisk literalism: a white deer, a yellow tiger, a goat's bones in the pan. The one piece of doctrine he does deploy is 氣數, a ruler's allotted store of vital force — the beasts could not touch the king while his ran strong, and would have struck the moment it thinned. It is a commonplace of Chinese political thinking, the sovereign's destiny imagined as a measurable reserve, and it lets the rescue register as a right order restored rather than a lucky escape. The Cart-Slow business then closes on penitent hospitality: a meatless banquet at the Eastern Pavilion, and the promise of the stamped travel papers that will send the pilgrims on.