Canonical Classics ← 第五十三回
第五十三回
禪chán主zhǔ吞tūn餐cān懷huái鬼guǐ孕yùn
黃huáng婆pó運yùn水shuǐ解jiě邪xié胎tāi

The Master of Dhyāna, Swallowing His Meal, Conceives a Ghostly Pregnancy · The Yellow Dame Draws Water and Dissolves the Demon Foetus

下回分解
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script 繁
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

下回分解 To Be Continued

畢bì竟jìng不bù知zhī到dào國guó界jiè中zhōng還hái有yǒu甚shén麼me理lǐ會huì,且qiě聽tīng下xià回huí分fēn解jiě。毕bì竟jìng不bù知zhī到dào国guó界jiè中zhōng还hái有yǒu甚shén么me理lǐ会huì,且qiě听tīng下xià回huí分fēn解jiě。


逐句解 Line by line

畢bì竟jìng不bù知zhī到dào國guó界jiè中zhōng還hái有yǒu甚shén麼me理lǐ會huì,且qiě聽tīng下xià回huí分fēn解jiě。 毕bì竟jìng不bù知zhī到dào国guó界jiè中zhōng还hái有yǒu甚shén么me理lǐ会huì,且qiě听tīng下xià回huí分fēn解jiě。

In the end there is no knowing what further business awaited them within that kingdom's borders; and for that, listen to the explanation in the next chapter.

國界中 takes 中 as zhōng; 還 is hái, further; 甚麼 takes 甚 as shén; 分解 takes 分 as fēn and 解 as jiě. The formula is the same at the end of every chapter in the novel, and by house convention it gets a passage to itself.


總評 Commentary

The storyteller's closing formula, unvarying across all hundred chapters and set here as its own passage. 畢竟不知…且聽下回分解 preserves the spoken frame of the vernacular novel: a narrator breaking off at a point of his own choosing and promising to go on next time. The written book keeps the manners of the marketplace storyteller who wanted his audience back tomorrow.

The forward reference is to 國界, the kingdom's borders. The pilgrims have crossed the Child-and-Mother River and are well inside the Women's Country of Western Liang, but they have not reached its capital or met its ruler. Chapter fifty-three has dealt only with the countryside. The court, and the marriage proposal waiting for Tripitaka there, belong to the chapter that follows.