劖言劖語 Words Like Chisels
行者道：「別你後，頃刻就到這座山上，見一個女子，問訊，原來就是他愛妾玉面公主。被我使鐵棒諕他一諕，他就跑進洞，叫出那牛王來。與老孫劖言劖語，嚷了一會。又與他交手，鬥了有一個時辰。正打處，有人請他赴宴去了。行者道：「别你后，顷刻就到这座山上，见一个女子，问讯，原来就是他爱妾玉面公主。被我使铁棒諕他一諕，他就跑进洞，叫出那牛王来。与老孙劖言劖语，嚷了一会。又与他交手，斗了有一个时辰。正打处，有人请他赴宴去了。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "After parting from you I was at this mountain in a moment, and met a woman. I gave her greeting, and she turned out to be his favourite, the Jade-Faced Princess.
問訊 is the formal Buddhist greeting made with joined palms, and the Great Sage uses the religious word for what he did. What he did next was frighten her with an iron rod. 女子 takes the full zǐ, against the light zi of 扇子 and 獃子 later in this same account.
"I gave her one fright with my iron rod, and she ran into the cave and called the Bull King out.
諕 is xià, to frighten, and not the háo that the easy guess supplies at both of its sites. The correction pulls a neighbour with it: the ordinary tone rule had run against háo, a rising tone, and produced yì for 一, but the settled 諕 is falling tone, so 一 must go to yí. It is the second time in this chapter that a corrected reading has dragged a nearby 一 or 不 after it. 一諕 counts one act of frightening.
"He and old Monkey traded words like chisels and shouted at each other a while.
劖言劖語 is the best phrase in the speech: words like chisels. 劖 is chán. 康熙 gives it at 鋤銜切, 音巉, with 說文 斷也, to cut off, and 徐鍇's gloss 鑿也, to chisel; 韓愈 uses it of carving that nature itself could scarcely manage. Doubling the frame makes the exchange sustained rather than a single thrust — not one insult but a long mutual whittling. 嚷 is rǎng.
"Then we came to blows and fought a good double-hour.
鬥了有一個時辰 uses 有 to mean a full or good measure of time rather than merely some. He is accounting for the missing hours one item at a time, and the account will prove complete. (一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 個.)
"Just as we were at it, someone came and invited him away to a banquet.
The banquet is the one at the Green Wave Pool from the previous chapter. 正打處 uses 處 at chù in a sense of time rather than place — at the very point of — and the same character does the same work at 正掮了走處 three lines on.
The account runs in strict order and wastes nothing: parted, arrived, met a woman, frightened her, drew out the husband, quarrelled, fought an hour, and was interrupted by an invitation. Five sentences, and the whole first half of Chapter 60.
劖言劖語 is the finest phrase in it. The character 劖 is a chisel or a cutting-off, and doubling the frame makes the exchange sustained: not one insult but a long mutual whittling. The lexicographers preserve the sense with a line of Hán Yù's about carving that nature itself could scarcely manage.
問訊 in the first sentence repays attention. It is the formal Buddhist salutation with joined palms, and the Great Sage uses the religious word for his first approach to the Jade-Faced Princess. What he did next was frighten her with an iron rod, and the account gives both without appearing to notice the distance between them.