節候之問 A Question of Seasons
師徒們嘆玩多時，只見陳家老者，著兩個僮僕掃開道路，又兩個送出熱湯洗面。須臾，又送滾茶、乳餅，又擡出炭火。俱到廂房，與師徒們敘坐。長老問道：「老施主，貴處時令，不知可分春夏秋冬？」陳老笑道：「此間雖是僻地，但只風俗人物，與上國不同；至於諸凡穀苗牲畜，都是同天共日，豈有不分四時之理？」三藏道：「既分四時，怎麼如今就有這般大雪，這般寒冷？」陳老道：「此時雖是七月，昨日已交白露，就是八月節了。我這裡常年八月間就有霜雪。」三藏道：「甚比我東土不同，我那裡交冬節方有之。」师徒们叹玩多时，只见陈家老者，着两个僮仆扫开道路，又两个送出热汤洗面。须臾，又送滚茶、乳饼，又抬出炭火。俱到厢房，与师徒们叙坐。长老问道：「老施主，贵处时令，不知可分春夏秋冬？」陈老笑道：「此间虽是僻地，但只风俗人物，与上国不同；至于诸凡谷苗牲畜，都是同天共日，岂有不分四时之理？」三藏道：「既分四时，怎么如今就有这般大雪，这般寒冷？」陈老道：「此时虽是七月，昨日已交白露，就是八月节了。我这里常年八月间就有霜雪。」三藏道：「甚比我东土不同，我那里交冬节方有之。」
逐句解 Line by line
Master and disciples had been admiring it a good while when they saw old Chen of the house set two boy-servants to sweep the paths clear, and two more to bring out hot water for washing.
著 is zhuó here — the word for setting someone to a task, the same construction the Mandarin-Fish Dame used at 著我等善變化者, have those of us who can transform do such-and-such. Not zhù.
Presently they brought boiling tea and milk-cakes as well, and carried out a charcoal fire.
乳餅 is a pressed curd cake, something between a firm cheese and a block of tofu. The Chens are feeding their guests well past village custom.
All of them went into the side chamber and sat down with master and disciples.
敘坐, to sit down together in order of precedence. Who sits where gets settled first.
The Elder asked: 「Old benefactor, in the seasons of your honourable district — is there no dividing of spring, summer, autumn and winter?」
長老: 長 is zhǎng. 貴處: 處 is chù, "place." 分 is fēn, "to divide."
Old Chen said with a laugh: 「This is a remote place, true enough, but it is only our customs and our people that differ from those of your superior country;
此間: 間 is jiān. 上國, "the superior state," is the standard courteous term for the Tang — the deference a smaller place pays a larger one.
as for grain and seedlings and livestock and all the rest, we are under the same heaven and the same sun. How should there be no dividing of the four seasons?」
牲畜: 畜 is chù, the noun, a domestic animal — not xù, the verb, to rear. 都 is dōu.
Tripitaka said: 「If the four seasons are divided, then how is it there is so great a snow just now, and such cold?」
Tripitaka is asking the right question for the wrong reason. He suspects a local oddity of climate. He does not suspect sabotage.
Old Chen said: 「It is the seventh month, to be sure, but yesterday we passed White Dew, and that puts us into the term of the eighth month.
白露, White Dew, is the fifteenth of the twenty-four solar terms and falls in early September. The Chens reckon by the farming calendar, which is why the answer sounds so reasonable: by the terms they are already in the eighth month, whatever the moon says.
Here with us there is regularly frost and snow about the eighth month.」
八月間: 間 is jiān, "in the course of."
Tripitaka said: 「That is very unlike our Eastern Land. Where I come from we have none until the coming of winter.」
甚比…不同: 甚 is shèn, "very." 我那裡 is nà — "back where I come from," pointing, not asking.
A quiet exchange about the calendar, and the novel is careful with it. Old Chen's explanation is entirely reasonable: it is the seventh month, but White Dew has passed, so by the solar terms they are already into the eighth, and in this district there is often frost and snow by then. Nothing he says is false. It is simply that the snow now falling has nothing to do with any of it.
This is a favourite structure of the book — a rational explanation offered in good faith, fitting the facts closely enough that nobody thinks to look past it. Tripitaka's only objection is geographical: back east we get none until winter. Neither man reaches for the possibility that the weather has been made. Wukong, who might, says nothing at all in this passage.
Worth noticing what the Chens are doing while the talk goes on: sweeping the paths, carrying out hot water, tea, milk-cakes, a brazier of charcoal. The hospitality is being laid on thick, and it is the reason the pilgrims stay put long enough for the river to freeze solid.