Canonical Classics ← 第六十八回
第六十八回
zhūguótángsēnglùnqiánshì
sūnxíngzhěshīwéisānzhégōng

At Purpuria the Tang Monk Discourses on a Former Life · Pilgrim Sun Practises as a Thrice-Broken Arm

生人面
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

生人面 He Cannot Bear Strange Faces

zhòngguānyánzhuójìnshìchuánzòudào:「zhǎnglǎoyàoyòngwàngwénwènqièzhīfāngrènbìngyòngyào。」guówángshuìzàilóngchuángshàngshēngshēnghuàndào:「jiàobaguǎrénjiàndeshēngrénmiànle。」zhòngguānyánzhuójìnshìchuánzòudào:「zhǎnglǎoyàoyòngwàngwénwènqièzhīfāngrènbìngyòngyào。」guówángshuìzàilóngchuángshàngshēngshēnghuàndào:「jiàobaguǎrénjiàndeshēngrénmiànle。」


逐句解 Line by line

zhòngguānyánzhuójìnshìchuánzòudào:「zhǎnglǎoyàoyòngwàngwénwènqièzhīfāngrènbìngyòngyào。」 zhòngguānyánzhuójìnshìchuánzòudào:「zhǎnglǎoyàoyòngwàngwénwènqièzhīfāngrènbìngyòngyào。」

The officers acted on this and had an attendant carry in the report: "The Elder requires the principle of looking, listening, asking and feeling, before he can know the sickness and apply a medicine."

is zhuó here, setting somebody to a task, and not the weak zhe it took a line earlier. The two readings stand thirteen characters apart. is zhǎng in 長老.

guówángshuìzàilóngchuángshàngshēngshēnghuàndào:「jiàobaguǎrénjiàndeshēngrénmiànle。」 guówángshuìzàilóngchuángshàngshēngshēnghuàndào:「jiàobaguǎrénjiàndeshēngrénmiànle。」

The king, lying on the dragon couch, called out again and again, "Tell him to go away. I cannot bear the face of a stranger."

is the weak sentence-final ba, softening the order, not the full-tone of the interjection. in 見不得 weakens to de: the character follows its verb and reduces, where the 不得 of 不得好 came before one and did not.


總評 Commentary

The whole negotiation collapses on a symptom. Pilgrim demanded to be fetched by the king; the king has been fetched as far as a couch and can go no further, because the thing wrong with him includes not being able to look at people.

Calling and calling is the first thing the king does in this chapter that is simply illness rather than majesty, and it comes immediately after a passage full of dragon couches and golden mouths.