第七十回 · 現了本像 He Shows His Own Shape — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

現了本像 He Shows His Own Shape

娘niáng娘niang聞wén言yán，喝hè退tuì兩liǎng班bān狐hú、鹿lù。行xíng者zhě掩yǎn上shàng宮gōng門mén，把bǎ臉liǎn一yì抹mǒ，現xiàn了le本běn像xiàng，對duì娘niáng娘niang道dào：「你nǐ休xiū怕pà我wǒ。我wǒ是shì東dōng土tǔ大dà唐táng差chāi往wǎng大dà西xī天tiān天tiān竺zhú國guó雷léi音yīn寺sì見jiàn佛fó求qiú經jīng的de和hé尚shàng。娘niáng娘niang闻wén言yán，喝hè退tuì两liǎng班bān狐hú、鹿lù。行xíng者zhě掩yǎn上shàng宫gōng门mén，把bǎ脸liǎn一yì抹mǒ，现xiàn了le本běn像xiàng，对duì娘niáng娘niang道dào：「你nǐ休xiū怕pà我wǒ。我wǒ是shì东dōng土tǔ大dà唐táng差chāi往wǎng大dà西xī天tiān天tiān竺zhú国guó雷léi音yīn寺sì见jiàn佛fó求qiú经jīng的de和hé尚shàng。

逐句解 Line by line

娘niáng娘niang聞wén言yán，喝hè退tuì兩liǎng班bān狐hú、鹿lù。娘niáng娘niang闻wén言yán，喝hè退tuì两liǎng班bān狐hú、鹿lù。

The queen heard him and shouted the two ranks of foxes and deer away.

喝 is hè, to shout, not the hē of drinking. Ten characters and the room is cleared — she does it herself, at once, without asking what the word from her husband might be.

行xíng者zhě掩yǎn上shàng宮gōng門mén，把bǎ臉liǎn一yì抹mǒ，現xiàn了le本běn像xiàng，對duì娘niáng娘niang道dào：「你nǐ休xiū怕pà我wǒ。行xíng者zhě掩yǎn上shàng宫gōng门mén，把bǎ脸liǎn一yì抹mǒ，现xiàn了le本běn像xiàng，对duì娘niáng娘niang道dào：「你nǐ休xiū怕pà我wǒ。

Pilgrim pushed the palace door to, wiped a hand across his face, showed his own shape, and said to her: "Do not be afraid of me.

把臉一抹 is the whole of the transformation: one wipe of a hand across the face and it is undone. Note the order of operations. The door is shut before the face is changed, which is what a man does who has been in this cave long enough to think about it.

我wǒ是shì東dōng土tǔ大dà唐táng差chāi往wǎng大dà西xī天tiān天tiān竺zhú國guó雷léi音yīn寺sì見jiàn佛fó求qiú經jīng的de和hé尚shàng。我wǒ是shì东dōng土tǔ大dà唐táng差chāi往wǎng大dà西xī天tiān天tiān竺zhú国guó雷léi音yīn寺sì见jiàn佛fó求qiú经jīng的de和hé尚shàng。

"I am a monk sent from the Great Tang in the Eastern Land to the Thunderclap Monastery in India, in the Great Western Heaven, to see Buddha and seek the scriptures.

差 is chāi, sent on a commission — the same reading the character took of the courier's own errand, and Wukong is now using it of himself. 和尚 is hé shàng, as the sealed corpus reads it at every one of its twelve occurrences.

總評 Commentary

The reveal takes one gesture and twelve characters. He shuts the door, wipes his face, and is himself — no incantation, no cloud, no sign. Everything elaborate in this chapter has been the deception; the truth is dispatched with a hand across the features.

And the first thing he says is not who he is. It is do not be afraid, followed by a twenty-four-character account of a journey: Tang, India, Thunderclap, Buddha, scriptures. He introduces himself by the errand he is on rather than by his name — the exact opposite of how the demon's vanguard did it at the chapter's opening.