第七十回 · 皮開頸折 Skin Split And Neck Broken — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

皮開頸折 Skin Split And Neck Broken

好hǎo行xíng者zhě，拱gǒng手shǒu抽chōu身shēn就jiù走zǒu。那nà妖yāo依yī舊jiù敲qiāo鑼luó前qián行xíng。行xíng者zhě就jiù行xíng起qǐ兇xiōng來lái，掣chè出chū棒bàng，復fù轉zhuǎn身shēn，望wàng小xiǎo妖yāo腦nǎo後hòu一yí下xià，可kě憐lián，就jiù打dǎ得de頭tóu爛làn血xuè流liú漿jiāng迸bèng出chū，皮pí開kāi頸jǐng折zhé命mìng傾qīng之zhī。收shōu了le棍gùn子zi，卻què又yòu自zì悔huǐ道dào：「急jí了le些xiē兒ér，不bù曾céng問wèn他tā叫jiào做zuò甚shén麼me名míng字zì。罷bà了le。」好hǎo行xíng者zhě，拱gǒng手shǒu抽chōu身shēn就jiù走zǒu。那nà妖yāo依yī旧jiù敲qiāo锣luó前qián行xíng。行xíng者zhě就jiù行xíng起qǐ凶xiōng来lái，掣chè出chū棒bàng，复fù转zhuǎn身shēn，望wàng小xiǎo妖yāo脑nǎo后hòu一yí下xià，可kě怜lián，就jiù打dǎ得de头tóu烂làn血xuè流liú浆jiāng迸bèng出chū，皮pí开kāi颈jǐng折zhé命mìng倾qīng之zhī。收shōu了le棍gùn子zi，却què又yòu自zì悔huǐ道dào：「急jí了le些xiē儿ér，不bù曾céng问wèn他tā叫jiào做zuò甚shén么me名míng字zì。罢bà了le。」

逐句解 Line by line

好hǎo行xíng者zhě，拱gǒng手shǒu抽chōu身shēn就jiù走zǒu。好hǎo行xíng者zhě，拱gǒng手shǒu抽chōu身shēn就jiù走zǒu。

Fine Pilgrim! He put his hands together, drew himself back and walked away.

拱手 is the same joined-hands salute the disguise opened with, now closing the interview. 抽身 is to draw one's body out of a situation — a set phrase, and the last civil thing that happens in this passage.

那nà妖yāo依yī舊jiù敲qiāo鑼luó前qián行xíng。那nà妖yāo依yī旧jiù敲qiāo锣luó前qián行xíng。

The fiend went on beating his gong and walking ahead as before.

依舊 puts the courier back exactly where the scene found him, and that is the point of the sentence: nothing has changed for him, he is walking and beating his gong as he was, and the next sentence kills him.

行xíng者zhě就jiù行xíng起qǐ兇xiōng來lái，掣chè出chū棒bàng，復fù轉zhuǎn身shēn，望wàng小xiǎo妖yāo腦nǎo後hòu一yí下xià，可kě憐lián，就jiù打dǎ得de頭tóu爛làn血xuè流liú漿jiāng迸bèng出chū，皮pí開kāi頸jǐng折zhé命mìng傾qīng之zhī。行xíng者zhě就jiù行xíng起qǐ凶xiōng来lái，掣chè出chū棒bàng，复fù转zhuǎn身shēn，望wàng小xiǎo妖yāo脑nǎo后hòu一yí下xià，可kě怜lián，就jiù打dǎ得de头tóu烂làn血xuè流liú浆jiāng迸bèng出chū，皮pí开kāi颈jǐng折zhé命mìng倾qīng之zhī。

Then Pilgrim turned savage. He whipped out his rod, swung round and brought it down on the back of the little fiend's head — pity of it — so that the skull was crushed and the blood ran and the brains burst out, the skin split, the neck broke and the life was spilled.

The killing is told in a matched pair of seven-character members — skull, blood and brains against skin, neck and life — three items each, as tightly built as anything in the chapter's verse. It stays prose all the same: no colon announces it and the edition leaves it running on in the line. 得 is the light de, tying 打 to everything that follows from the blow. And 可憐, pity of it, is the storyteller leaning in mid-sentence to say so.

收shōu了le棍gùn子zi，卻què又yòu自zì悔huǐ道dào：「急jí了le些xiē兒ér，不bù曾céng問wèn他tā叫jiào做zuò甚shén麼me名míng字zì。罷bà了le。」收shōu了le棍gùn子zi，却què又yòu自zì悔huǐ道dào：「急jí了le些xiē儿ér，不bù曾céng问wèn他tā叫jiào做zuò甚shén么me名míng字zì。罢bà了le。」

He put up his rod, and then reproached himself: "A shade too hasty — I never asked him what his name was. Well, it is done."

罷了 is bà le, the interjection for giving something up as lost — never mind, then — and not the sentence-final particle ba that turns a statement into a suggestion. 曾 is céng again, marking that the asking never happened.

總評 Commentary

Seventeen characters of courtesy and then a rod to the back of the head. Wukong salutes, withdraws, lets the man start walking again, and only then turns round. The courier is killed from behind doing exactly what he was doing when the scene opened, and the narrative marks the continuity deliberately: as before.

The description of the death is the most formal writing in the passage — six items in two matched sevens — and the storyteller drops pity of it into the middle of his own sentence. He is not withdrawing the sympathy and he is not stopping the blow either.

What Wukong regrets is not the killing. It is having been too quick to ask the name first, which is a professional complaint about an interrogation cut short. That regret is what sends him through the dead man's clothes, and everything the rest of the scene yields comes out of the search.