第六十五回 · 一壁廂嚴緊 All Was Kept Close — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

一壁廂嚴緊 All Was Kept Close

那nà時shí群qún妖yāo將jiāng唐táng僧sēng三sān眾zhòng收shōu藏cáng在zài後hòu；把bǎ馬mǎ拴shuān在zài後hòu邊biān；把bǎ他tā的de袈jiā裟shā、僧sēng帽mào安ān在zài行xíng李lǐ擔dàn內nèi，亦yì收shōu藏cáng了le。一yí壁bì廂xiāng嚴yán緊jǐn不bù題tí。那nà时shí群qún妖yāo将jiāng唐táng僧sēng三sān众zhòng收shōu藏cáng在zài后hòu；把bǎ马mǎ拴shuān在zài后hòu边biān；把bǎ他tā的de袈jiā裟shā、僧sēng帽mào安ān在zài行xíng李lǐ担dàn内nèi，亦yì收shōu藏cáng了le。一yí壁bì厢xiāng严yán紧jǐn不bù题tí。

逐句解 Line by line

那nà時shí群qún妖yāo將jiāng唐táng僧sēng三sān眾zhòng收shōu藏cáng在zài後hòu；那nà时shí群qún妖yāo将jiāng唐táng僧sēng三sān众zhòng收shōu藏cáng在zài后hòu；

At that the crowd of fiends stowed the Tang Monk and the three of them away at the back;

The source cuts one sentence into three disposal clauses with semicolons. They are not strictly parallel — this one carries a time word and a named subject that the other two drop, and the last adds a clause the first two have no answer to — so the three stand apart.

把bǎ馬mǎ拴shuān在zài後hòu邊biān；把bǎ马mǎ拴shuān在zài后hòu边biān；

tethered the horse behind;

Six graphs, the shortest thing in this stretch. The horse is the white dragon prince, which the chapter says outright much later; the demons tie it up round the back and take no further interest in it whatever.

把bǎ他tā的de袈jiā裟shā、僧sēng帽mào安ān在zài行xíng李lǐ擔dàn內nèi，亦yì收shōu藏cáng了le。把bǎ他tā的de袈jiā裟shā、僧sēng帽mào安ān在zài行xíng李lǐ担dàn内nèi，亦yì收shōu藏cáng了le。

and put his cassock and monk's cap into the luggage-pack, and stowed those away too.

The cassock and the cap go into the luggage-pack rather than onto a demon, which is why they are still there to be stolen back later. 行 is xíng in 行李 and 擔 is dàn, the carried load rather than the verb. This is the second place in the chapter where the automatic reading offers háng and is wrong — and it got the very same compound right four hundred and thirty-four graphs earlier.

一yí壁bì廂xiāng嚴yán緊jǐn不bù題tí。一yí壁bì厢xiāng严yán紧jǐn不bù题tí。

On that side all was kept close, and no more of it.

不題 is the storyteller putting a thread down: no more of this for now. It is the formula that lets the narrative cut away, and the next thing the reader hears comes from inside a pair of cymbals.

總評 Commentary

Four short clauses of housekeeping, and two of them matter a great deal later. The cassock and the monk's cap go into the luggage-pack, and the horse is tied up behind rather than eaten, so both come through the chapter in usable condition.

The passage also shuts the frame on the disaster. 嚴緊 is the demons' side of the story sealed up tight, and 不題 is the teller's own hand laid on top of it.