Canonical Classics ← 第六十五回
第六十五回
yāoxiéjiǎshèxiǎoléiyīn
zhòngjiēzāoènàn

A Fiend Falsely Sets Up a Lesser Thunderclap · The Four Pilgrims All Fall into Great Calamity

包袱放光
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

包袱放光 It Was The Bundle Glowing

shùnzhefēngkǒuchuánzizhīxiàzuānjiāngjìnyuèménguòdàolezhōngjiānkànshízhǐjiànsānchónglóuchuāngzhīxiàshǎnzhuózhuódàoháoguāngshìdēngzhúzhīguāngyínghuǒzhīguāngyòushìfēixiázhīguāngchèdiànzhīguāngbànfēibàntiàojìnchuāngqiánkànshíquèshìbāofàngguāngyāojīngtángsēngdejiāshātuōlecéngzhéjiùluànluàndesāizàibāozhīnèishùnzhefēngkǒuchuánzizhīxiàzuānjiāngjìnyuèménguòdàolezhōngjiānkànshízhǐjiànsānchónglóuchuāngzhīxiàshǎnzhuózhuódàoháoguāngshìdēngzhúzhīguāngyínghuǒzhīguāngyòushìfēixiázhīguāngchèdiànzhīguāngbànfēibàntiàojìnchuāngqiánkànshíquèshìbāofàngguāngyāojīngtángsēngdejiāshātuōlecéngzhéjiùluànluàndesāizàibāozhīnèi


逐句解 Line by line

shùnzhefēngkǒuchuánzizhīxiàzuānjiāngjìnyuèménguòdàolezhōngjiānkànshízhǐjiànsānchónglóuchuāngzhīxiàshǎnzhuózhuódàoháoguāngshìdēngzhúzhīguāngyínghuǒzhīguāngyòushìfēixiázhīguāngchèdiànzhīguāng shùnzhefēngkǒuchuánzizhīxiàzuānjiāngjìnyuèménguòdàolezhōngjiānkànshízhǐjiànsānchónglóuchuāngzhīxiàshǎnzhuózhuódàoháoguāngshìdēngzhúzhīguāngyínghuǒzhīguāngyòushìfēixiázhīguāngchèdiànzhīguāng

He followed the line of an unsealed tile-gap under the rafters, bored his way in, crossed door after door, and when he had got to the middle and looked, there below the window of the third storey was one glittering thread of light — and it was not lamplight or candlelight or the light of fireflies, nor the light of flying cloud or of lightning.

Four kinds of light named and all four denied, which is how this novel describes something it wants the reader to guess at. is chóng, a storey or a layer, not the zhòng of weight.

bànfēibàntiàojìnchuāngqiánkànshíquèshìbāofàngguāng bànfēibàntiàojìnchuāngqiánkànshíquèshìbāofàngguāng

Half flying and half hopping, he got up close to the window and looked, and it was the bundle giving off the light.

半飛半跳, half flying and half hopping, is a bat's actual gait, and the only moment in the passage where the transformation is visible from outside. The answer to those four grand denials is one of the plainest objects in the book.

yāojīngtángsēngdejiāshātuōlecéngzhéjiùluànluàndesāizàibāozhīnèi yāojīngtángsēngdejiāshātuōlecéngzhéjiùluànluàndesāizàibāozhīnèi

The demon had stripped the Tang Monk's cassock off, had not folded it, and had simply stuffed it anyhow into the bundle.

不曾摺 — did not fold it — is the detail the entire discovery turns on. The light gets out because a demon crammed a robe into a bundle without folding it. is céng, the adverb.


總評 Commentary

A hundred graphs of stealth resolved by a housekeeping failure. Pilgrim gets through the roof, past the doors and up to the third storey; what actually finds the bundle for him is that a demon could not be bothered to fold a robe.

The four denied lights are worth reading aloud — lamp, firefly, cloud, lightning, each with 之光 after it. The prose builds an expectation of something celestial and then answers it with 卻是包袱放光: six graphs, the luggage.