第七十回 · 可有頭沒頭 Look Whether It Has A Head — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

可有頭沒頭 Look Whether It Has A Head

行xíng者zhě道dào：「你nǐ看kàn看kàn可kě有yǒu頭tóu沒méi頭tóu。」八bā戒jiè笑xiào道dào：「原yuán來lái是shì沒méi頭tóu的de，我wǒ道dào如rú何hé築zhù他tā也yě不bú動dòng動dòng兒ér？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「師shī父fù在zài那nǎ裡lǐ？」八bā戒jiè道dào：「在zài殿diàn裡lǐ與yǔ王wáng敘xù話huà哩li。」行xíng者zhě道dào：「你nǐ看kàn看kàn可kě有yǒu头tóu没méi头tóu。」八bā戒jiè笑xiào道dào：「原yuán来lái是shì没méi头tóu的de，我wǒ道dào如rú何hé筑zhù他tā也yě不bú动dòng动dòng儿ér？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「师shī父fù在zài那nǎ里lǐ？」八bā戒jiè道dào：「在zài殿diàn里lǐ与yǔ王wáng叙xù话huà哩li。」

逐句解 Line by line

行xíng者zhě道dào：「你nǐ看kàn看kàn可kě有yǒu頭tóu沒méi頭tóu。」行xíng者zhě道dào：「你nǐ看kàn看kàn可kě有yǒu头tóu没méi头tóu。」

Pilgrim said: "Take a look and see whether it has a head or has none."

看看 doubles the verb to make the looking sound casual, which is the whole of the trap — just have a quick look. 可有頭沒頭 puts both branches of the question into five characters and leaves Bajie to discover which one is true.

八bā戒jiè笑xiào道dào：「原yuán來lái是shì沒méi頭tóu的de，我wǒ道dào如rú何hé築zhù他tā也yě不bú動dòng動dòng兒ér？」八bā戒jiè笑xiào道dào：「原yuán来lái是shì没méi头tóu的de，我wǒ道dào如rú何hé筑zhù他tā也yě不bú动dòng动dòng儿ér？」

Bajie laughed: "Why, it has no head at all! I did wonder why it never so much as stirred when I raked it."

原來是 marks something turning out otherwise than supposed — the same formula Wukong used of the gong on the road. 動動兒 doubles the verb and takes the suffix at ér: not a twitch out of it.

行xíng者zhě道dào：「師shī父fù在zài那nǎ裡lǐ？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「师shī父fù在zài那nǎ里lǐ？」

Pilgrim said: "Where is Master?"

那 is the questioning nǎ here, not the pointing nà — five times against thirty-four so far in this chapter, which is a fair measure of how much work one written character is doing. Eight characters, own he-said, own quotation closed: it stands alone.

八bā戒jiè道dào：「在zài殿diàn裡lǐ與yǔ王wáng敘xù話huà哩li。」八bā戒jiè道dào：「在zài殿diàn里lǐ与yǔ王wáng叙xù话huà哩li。」

Bajie said: "Inside the hall, talking with the king."

敘話 is to sit and talk things over at leisure — catching up, rather than conferring. The king has spent this entire scene indoors and unaware, which is where the chapter has kept him since the wine was declined.

總評 Commentary

The joke lands in two moves and Wukong makes neither of them explicitly. He asks Bajie to check for a head; Bajie checks, finds none, and immediately supplies the inference himself — that would be why it never moved. He has demolished his own case and he laughs while doing it.

What is funny is that the reasoning never falters. The nine holes were real, the corpse's stillness was real, and the connection he draws between them is correct. Only the conclusion he wanted has quietly vanished, and he does not appear to notice it going.

Then Wukong changes the subject in four characters. The argument is not won, or conceded, or mentioned again — it is simply over, because he has what he came for and Bajie was never the point of it.