第六十五回 · 五瓣鑽兒 A Plum Blossom Headed Drill — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

五瓣鑽兒 A Plum Blossom Headed Drill

他tā又yòu把bǎ鐵tiě棒bàng，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」即jí變biàn做zuò旛fān竿gān一yí樣yàng，撐chēng住zhù金jīn鐃náo。他tā卻què把bǎ腦nǎo後hòu毫háo毛máo，選xuǎn長cháng的de拔bá下xià兩liǎng根gēn，叫jiào：「變biàn！」即jí變biàn做zuò梅méi花huā頭tóu五wǔ瓣bàn鑽zuàn兒er，挨āi著zhe棒bàng下xià，鑽zuān有yǒu千qiān百bǎi下xià，只zhǐ鑽zuān得de蒼cāng蒼cāng響xiǎng喨liàng，再zài不bù鑽zuān動dòng一yì些xiē。他tā又yòu把bǎ铁tiě棒bàng，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」即jí变biàn做zuò旛fān竿gān一yí样yàng，撑chēng住zhù金jīn铙náo。他tā却què把bǎ脑nǎo后hòu毫háo毛máo，选xuǎn长cháng的de拔bá下xià两liǎng根gēn，叫jiào：「变biàn！」即jí变biàn做zuò梅méi花huā头tóu五wǔ瓣bàn钻zuàn儿er，挨āi着zhe棒bàng下xià，钻zuān有yǒu千qiān百bǎi下xià，只zhǐ钻zuān得de苍cāng苍cāng响xiǎng喨liàng，再zài不bù钻zuān动dòng一yì些xiē。

逐句解 Line by line

他tā又yòu把bǎ鐵tiě棒bàng，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」他tā又yòu把bǎ铁tiě棒bàng，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」

So he took the iron cudgel, blew a magic breath on it, and cried, "Change!"

The formula is fixed across the whole novel — pick up the object, blow a magic breath on it, say the word — and the source runs the call into the same unit as the preparation rather than letting it stand alone.

即jí變biàn做zuò旛fān竿gān一yí樣yàng，撐chēng住zhù金jīn鐃náo。即jí变biàn做zuò旛fān竿gān一yí样yàng，撑chēng住zhù金jīn铙náo。

It turned at once into something like a banner-pole and propped the cymbals apart.

旛竿 is the tall pole a monastery flies its banner from, so the image is borrowed from the architecture of the very place he is trapped in. 撐住 is to hold something open by bracing it, not to lift it.

他tā卻què把bǎ腦nǎo後hòu毫háo毛máo，選xuǎn長cháng的de拔bá下xià兩liǎng根gēn，叫jiào：「變biàn！」他tā却què把bǎ脑nǎo后hòu毫háo毛máo，选xuǎn长cháng的de拔bá下xià两liǎng根gēn，叫jiào：「变biàn！」

Then he took the hairs at the back of his head, picked out two of the long ones and pulled them free, and cried, "Change!"

He picks out which hairs to use, which is the novel being unexpectedly precise about a trick it has described dozens of times. 長 is cháng here, the adjective — the long ones — and it is the only place in this stretch where the graph is not the zhǎng of growing.

即jí變biàn做zuò梅méi花huā頭tóu五wǔ瓣bàn鑽zuàn兒er，挨āi著zhe棒bàng下xià，鑽zuān有yǒu千qiān百bǎi下xià，只zhǐ鑽zuān得de蒼cāng蒼cāng響xiǎng喨liàng，再zài不bù鑽zuān動dòng一yì些xiē。即jí变biàn做zuò梅méi花huā头tóu五wǔ瓣bàn钻zuàn儿er，挨āi着zhe棒bàng下xià，钻zuān有yǒu千qiān百bǎi下xià，只zhǐ钻zuān得de苍cāng苍cāng响xiǎng喨liàng，再zài不bù钻zuān动dòng一yì些xiē。

They turned into a five-petalled plum-blossom-headed drill. Pressing it close along the cudgel he bored a thousand times and more, and all the boring got him was a hard ringing: it would not bite in at all.

A real toolmaker's detail: a drill bit with its flutes cut in a five-petalled plum-blossom pattern. It produces nothing but a ringing noise. 鑽 stands four times in this one sentence and the first takes a different reading from the other three — the Kāngxī dictionary quotes the 六書故 to exactly this effect, that the departing tone is the boring instrument and the level tone is the act of boring. So 鑽兒 is zuàn and the three verbs are zuān.

總評 Commentary

Two more attempts, and they fail in a new way. The cudgel braced inside will not force the cymbals apart and the drill will not cut them. What beats him now is not the object's knack of matching his size but simply that it is harder than anything he has.

The drill is a lovely invention and it is worth noticing where the novel spends its care. Two long hairs from the back of his head become a bit with a five-petalled flower head, described down to the shape of the cutting edge — and the most concrete description in the chapter is lavished on a tool that does not work.