原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
捉虎降龍
Catching Tigers Subduing Dragons
三藏道：「實不瞞陛下說，我那頑徒，俱是山野庸才，只會挑包背馬，轉澗尋波，帶領貧僧登山涉嶺，或者到峻險之處，可以伏魔擒怪，捉虎降龍而已，更無一個能知藥性者。」三藏道：「实不瞒陛下说，我那顽徒，俱是山野庸才，只会挑包背马，转涧寻波，带领贫僧登山涉岭，或者到峻险之处，可以伏魔擒怪，捉虎降龙而已，更无一个能知药性者。」
逐句解 Line by line
三藏道：「實不瞞陛下說，我那頑徒，俱是山野庸才，只會挑包背馬，轉澗尋波，帶領貧僧登山涉嶺，或者到峻險之處，可以伏魔擒怪，捉虎降龍而已，更無一個能知藥性者。」
三藏道：「实不瞒陛下说，我那顽徒，俱是山野庸才，只会挑包背马，转涧寻波，带领贫僧登山涉岭，或者到峻险之处，可以伏魔擒怪，捉虎降龙而已，更无一个能知药性者。」
Tripitaka said, "I will not deceive Your Majesty. Those unruly disciples of mine are coarse fellows of the hills and wilds. They can carry a pack and see to the horse, cross gullies and find their way to water, and bring this poor monk over mountains and ridges; and where the way turns steep and dangerous they can subdue demons and seize monsters, catch tigers and quell dragons — and that is all. Not one of them knows anything of the properties of medicines."
降 reads xiáng in 降龍, to quell or bring into submission — the sealed chapters read the character that way before 龍 too. It stands against the jiàng of 下降 in the officials' greeting a few hundred characters back, and the machine offers jiàng at both. 挑 is tiāo, to carry something on a shoulder-pole.
總評 Commentary
Sixty-five characters — the second longest single stretch in the chapter, after Pilgrim's food catalogue — and the whole of it is a disclaimer. Tripitaka is trying to head off an expectation he can see forming, and the more he lists what his disciples can do the more impressive they sound.
That is the joke, and it is built into the structure. Packs, gullies, mountains — then demons, monsters, tigers, dragons — and the sentence keeps escalating right up to the words 'and that is all'. He means it as a limitation. The king will hear it as a résumé.
The last clause is the only one that matters and it is perfectly true: not one of them knows the first thing about medicine. Nobody in the room is going to believe it.