Canonical Classics ← 第六十六回
第六十六回
zhūshénzāoshǒu
yāo

The Gods Fall Victim to a Vicious Hand · Maitreya Binds the Demon Fiend

掙挫不得
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

掙挫不得 You Cannot Wriggle Out

suíyòujiéshùzhěngdàilebǎobèizheqīngruǎnlángbàngzǒuchūménláijiàodào:「sūnkōngjīnfānzhèngcuòdele。」xíngzhědào:「guàizěnmezhèngcuòde?」yāowángdào:「jiànqióngjiéchùqiúrénqiángláizhīchíjīnzhùzàiméishénmeshénbīngjiùsuǒshuōzhèngcuòde。」xíngzhědào:「zhèguàizhīhuóshuōzuǐchībàng。」suíyòujiéshùzhěngdàilebǎobèizheqīngruǎnlángbàngzǒuchūménláijiàodào:「sūnkōngjīnfānzhèngcuòdele。」xíngzhědào:「guàizěnmezhèngcuòde?」yāowángdào:「jiànqióngjiéchùqiúrénqiángláizhīchíjīnzhùzàiméishénmeshénbīngjiùsuǒshuōzhèngcuòde。」xíngzhědào:「zhèguàizhīhuóshuōzuǐchībàng。」


逐句解 Line by line

suíyòujiéshùzhěngdàilebǎobèizheqīngruǎnlángbàngzǒuchūménláijiàodào:「sūnkōngjīnfānzhèngcuòdele。」 suíyòujiéshùzhěngdàilebǎobèizheqīngruǎnlángbàngzǒuchūménláijiàodào:「sūnkōngjīnfānzhèngcuòdele。」

He girded himself up neatly, took his treasure, raised that light pliant wolf-tooth club and came out at the gate, calling, "Sun Wukong, this time there is no wriggling out."

is zhèng. 康熙字典 gives this character exactly two sound-bands — one meaning to stab, one glossed as the same word as the standing beside it here — and no level-tone band at all, which rules out the reading a modern dictionary offers first. is the unstressed particle: a verb followed by 不得 means cannot manage to.

xíngzhědào:「guàizěnmezhèngcuòde?」 xíngzhědào:「guàizěnmezhèngcuòde?」

Pilgrim cursed him: "You wretched monster, why can I not wriggle out?"

The taunt is thrown straight back with the same four characters, which is Monkey's habitual way of answering an insult in this chapter.

yāowángdào:「jiànqióngjiéchùqiúrénqiángláizhīchíjīnzhùzàiméishénmeshénbīngjiùsuǒshuōzhèngcuòde。」 yāowángdào:「jiànqióngjiéchùqiúrénqiángláizhīchíjīnzhùzàiméishénmeshénbīngjiùsuǒshuōzhèngcuòde。」

The fiend king said, "I see your schemes are spent and your strength gone, and you have nowhere left to ask; you have come alone to force it out. Once I have you, there will be no divine troops of any sort to pull you free — that is why I say there is no wriggling out."

is méi and shén. The fiend sets out his reasoning in full, which no opponent in the chapter has done before, and every step of it is true.

xíngzhědào:「zhèguàizhīhuó xíngzhědào:「zhèguàizhīhuó

Pilgrim said, "This monster does not know life from death.

不知死活 — cannot tell living from dead — is abuse, but given what is about to happen it is also a statement about the fiend's grasp of his own position.

shuōzuǐchībàng。」 shuōzuǐchībàng。」

Don't brag — take a taste of my rod!"

Seven characters, and all but one of them the challenge the fiend threw at the five dragons earlier in the chapter — 不要走,吃吾一棒 against this 莫說嘴,吃我一棒. The formula comes back in Monkey's mouth with exchanged for .


總評 Commentary

The fiend explains himself at length for the only time in the chapter, and what he produces is a piece of accurate strategic analysis: the enemy is out of allies, out of schemes, and has come alone; take him now and no rescue can follow. Every premise is correct.

The conclusion is wrong because a premise is missing, and the missing premise is a word written in spittle on a closed hand. This is the chapter's method in miniature — the fiend has beaten everything he could see, and is undone by the one thing that was never shown to him.

No wriggling out is said three times in five segments, twice by the fiend and once thrown back at him. It is the most repeated phrase in the chapter and it is about to be proved false.