Canonical Classics ← 第五十七回
第五十七回
zhēnxíngzhěluòqiéshān
jiǎhóuwángshuǐliándòngténgwén

The True Pilgrim Lays His Grievance at Mount Potalaka · The False Monkey King Copies Out the Rescript at the Water-Curtain Cave

咬牙發火
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

咬牙發火 Bajie Grinds His Teeth

quètǎoshuǐchīlekǒucáishuō:「mengāngkōnggèngláichánshìjiānzhíshōusuìjiānglebàngqīngzhānbāodōuqiǎngle。」jiètīngshuōyǎoxiǎngkǒuzhōngxīntóuhuǒdào:「nàizhèhóuzizěngǎnzhèbān?」jiào:「shāsēngshìshīděngdàojiātǎobāo。」shāsēngdào:「qiěxiūmenshīdàoshānāorénjiāhuàxiēchátāngjiāngxiānhuàdefàn調tiáoshīzàixún。」quètǎoshuǐchīlekǒucáishuō:「mengāngkōnggèngláichánshìjiānzhíshōusuìjiānglebàngqīngzhānbāodōuqiǎngle。」jiètīngshuōyǎoxiǎngkǒuzhōngxīntóuhuǒdào:「nàizhèhóuzizěngǎnzhèbān?」jiào:「shāsēngshìshīděngdàojiātǎobāo。」shāsēngdào:「qiěxiūmenshīdàoshānāorénjiāhuàxiēchátāngjiāngxiānhuàdefàntiáoshīzàixún。」


逐句解 Line by line

quètǎoshuǐchīlekǒucáishuō:「mengāngkōnggèngláichán quètǎoshuǐchīlekǒucáishuō:「mengāngkōnggèngláichán

He got some water and drank a few mouthfuls, and only then said: “Disciples, no sooner had you gone than that Wukong came back to plague me again.

更來 takes as "again, further", gèng. 那悟空 is the pointing , -- that Wukong -- and the elder names him without a flicker of doubt, which is the whole difficulty of the chapter in three characters.

shìjiānzhíshōusuìjiānglebàngqīngzhānbāodōuqiǎngle。」 shìjiānzhíshōusuìjiānglebàngqīngzhānbāodōuqiǎngle。」

“I stood firm and would not take him back, so he struck me a blow with his rod and carried off the blue felt bundles, every one.”

堅執不收 is the elder's own account of his conduct, and it is accurate: he did refuse, twice. What he reports is his firmness, not what it produced.

jiètīngshuōyǎoxiǎngkǒuzhōngxīntóuhuǒdào:「nàizhèhóuzizěngǎnzhèbān?」 jiètīngshuōyǎoxiǎngkǒuzhōngxīntóuhuǒdào:「nàizhèhóuzizěngǎnzhèbān?」

Bajie heard it out, ground the teeth in his mouth till they rang, and felt the fire rise in his heart: “Insufferable, that wretched monkey! How dare he be so outrageous?”

Two five-character clauses built to match, each hanging its emotion on a body part: 咬響口中牙 and 發起心頭火 -- teeth ground in the mouth, fire started in the heart -- and the translation keeps the pairing. 叵耐 is a set exclamation of exasperation: insufferable, not to be borne.

jiào:「shāsēngshìshīděngdàojiātǎobāo。」 jiào:「shāsēngshìshīděngdàojiātǎobāo。」

And he ordered: “Sha Monk, you attend on the master, and let me go to his house and demand the bundles back.”

stands alone as the verb introducing the speech, with no subject named, and takes jiào. Notice where Bajie proposes to go: 他家, his house, which can only mean the Water-Curtain Cave. He has already decided who did it.

shāsēngdào:「qiěxiūmenshīdàoshānāorénjiāhuàxiēchátāngjiāngxiānhuàdefàn調tiáoshīzàixún。」 shāsēngdào:「qiěxiūmenshīdàoshānāorénjiāhuàxiēchátāngjiāngxiānhuàdefàntiáoshīzàixún。」

Sha Monk said: “Do not lose your temper yet. Let us get the master to that house in the fold of the hills and beg some hot tea-broth, warm up the rice we begged earlier, put him to rights, and then go and look for him.”

調理 takes 調 at tiáo, to regulate or nurse back to health, not the diào of transferring somebody to another post that an automatic reading supplies. appears twice, both fixed at huà. Sha Monk sets three practical steps against Bajie's one furious impulse.


總評 Commentary

Tripitaka's account is short, accurate and completely misleading. Everything in it happened: Wukong came back, he refused him, he was struck, the bundles were taken. The one thing he cannot report is the only thing that matters, and he reports the rest with the confidence of a man who watched it happen.

The two disciples divide exactly along their characters. Bajie's rage comes out in two matched five-character clauses -- teeth ground in the mouth, fire lit in the heart -- and produces a plan to go and demand the bundles back, which is the worst idea available. Sha Monk's answer is a sequence of small practical steps: shelter, hot broth, warm the rice, nurse the master, and only then look for anybody.

It is worth noting that Sha Monk is right for the second time in two passages, and that nobody defers to him. He was right about tying the horse and he is right about the tea. The next chapter's business will nonetheless be settled by Bajie's instinct to go and confront somebody.