從頭至尾 From Beginning To End
又變化,復偷出,與他對敵。幸遇觀音菩薩將他收去,又與我說拆鳳之故。……」從頭至尾,細說了一遍。那舉國君臣內外,無一人不感謝稱讚。又变化,复偷出,与他对敌。幸遇观音菩萨将他收去,又与我说拆凤之故。……」从头至尾,细说了一遍。那举国君臣内外,无一人不感谢称赞。
逐句解 Line by line
"Then I changed shape again, stole out once more, and met him in battle.
Ten characters for the escape, the disguise and the fight — three clauses of three and four characters, the shortest run in the summary.
"By good fortune I met the Bodhisattva Guanyin, who took him back, and she also told me the reason for the parting of the phoenixes …"
將 is jiāng, the disposal marker. 拆鳳 is the fifth and last time the phrase appears in the chapter — the queen sang it, the Bodhisattva pronounced it, and Wukong has now used it three times. The row of dots and the closing bracket end the speech: the storyteller declines to write the rest of it out.
and so from beginning to end he told it all through in detail.
從頭至尾 is a set phrase, from head to tail, and it stands in for the speech the storyteller has just declined to finish. 一 takes yí before the falling tone of 遍.
In the whole kingdom, ruler and ministers, inside and out, there was not one who did not give thanks and praise.
A double negative — 無一人不, not one who did not — which is emphatic in Chinese as in English. 一 takes yì before the level tone of 人.
The ellipsis is the interesting thing on this page. 拆鳳之故。……」 — the source puts a row of dots inside the quotation marks and then closes them, and follows with 從頭至尾,細說了一遍, he told it from head to tail in detail. The storyteller is explicitly refusing to repeat himself.
It is a device the novel uses often and it is worth noticing here, because the reader has just spent six thousand characters on the events being summarised. The ellipsis is a courtesy to the audience of a storyteller who knows they were listening.
拆鳳 closes its account here, at five occurrences. The queen sang it in her lament not knowing it was a sentence; the Bodhisattva pronounced it as the sentence; Wukong explained it to the queen, and now explains it to the court. The same four characters have travelled the length of the chapter.