Canonical Classics ← 第六十三回
第六十三回
èrsēngdàngguàinàolónggōng
qúnshèngchúxiéhuòbǎobèi

Two Monks Quell a Fiend and Make Havoc in the Dragon Palace · A Host of Sages Puts Down the Evil and Recovers the Treasure

留個活的
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

留個活的 Keep One Of Them Alive

háiyǒulǎolóngchèshēnjiùzǒubèijièchězhùcáizhùxíngzhědào:「qiězhùliúhuódehǎoguónèijiàngōng。」suìjiānglóngchūshuǐmiànháiyǒulǎolóngchèshēnjiùzǒubèijièchězhùcáizhùxíngzhědào:「qiězhùliúhuódehǎoguónèijiàngōng。」suìjiānglóngchūshuǐmiàn


逐句解 Line by line

háiyǒulǎolóngchèshēnjiùzǒubèijièchězhùcáizhùxíngzhědào:「qiězhùliúhuódehǎoguónèijiàngōng。」 háiyǒulǎolóngchèshēnjiùzǒubèijièchězhùcáizhùxíngzhědào:「qiězhùliúhuódehǎoguónèijiàngōng。」

There was still the old dragon dame; she turned to go, and Eight Rules caught hold of her and had the rake up to strike when Pilgrim said, "Hold. Do not beat her to death. Keep one alive, so we have something to show at the capital."

is hái, still or besides — the adverb — and not the huán of giving back that this graph has taken three times in the chapter. holds de and is . 一個 takes at before the falling .

suìjiānglóngchūshuǐmiàn suìjiānglóngchūshuǐmiàn

And so they carried the dragon dame up out of the water.

is the disposal marker jiāng. Eight graphs, a short narrator's clause standing alone on grammar — the seventh of its kind in the chapter, and it lands on the same eight-graph mark that four quote-closing tails have landed on and been declined at.


總評 Commentary

The dragon dame lives because she is useful. Pilgrim's reason is stated without any decoration at all: keep one alive, so there is something to show at the capital. She is not spared out of pity but because a court expects a prisoner.

It is worth setting against the rest of the chapter. Her husband was killed on the bank, a son at his own father's funeral, a grandson chopped into pieces on the shore, and her daughter has just been struck down with a rake. She survives the destruction of her entire house on the grounds of administrative convenience.