Canonical Classics ← 第七十一回
第七十一回
xíngzhějiǎmíngxiángguàihǒu
guānyīnxiànxiàngyāowáng

Pilgrim Under a False Name Subdues the Monster Hou · Guanyin Shows Her Image and Puts Down the Fiend King

鳳閣龍樓
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

鳳閣龍樓 Open Your Eyes My Lady

bànshíchéndàijìnchéngànluòyúntóujiào:「niángniangkāiyǎn。」huánghòuzhēngkāiyǎnkànrènshìfènglónglóuxīnzhōnghuānpiēlecǎolóngxíngzhětóngdēngbǎo殿diànbànshíchéndàijìnchéngànluòyúntóujiào:「niángniangkāiyǎn。」huánghòuzhēngkāiyǎnkànrènshìfènglónglóuxīnzhōnghuānpiēlecǎolóngxíngzhětóngdēngbǎo殿diàn


逐句解 Line by line

bànshíchéndàijìnchéngànluòyúntóujiào:「niángniangkāiyǎn。」 bànshíchéndàijìnchéngànluòyúntóujiào:「niángniangkāiyǎn。」

In half a double-hour he had brought her into the city, set the cloud down, and called, "My lady, open your eyes."

時辰 is a DOUBLE hour, one twelfth of a day, so half of one is about an hour of ours. 按落雲頭 is to press the cloud down and land — a stock phrase for arriving by air.

huánghòuzhēngkāiyǎnkànrènshìfènglónglóuxīnzhōnghuān huánghòuzhēngkāiyǎnkànrènshìfènglónglóuxīnzhōnghuān

The queen opened her eyes and looked, recognised the phoenix towers and dragon halls, and was glad at heart,

is , the fixed ending on 認, to recognise. 鳳閣龍樓 is a set four-character phrase for a royal palace — she knows where she is by the architecture.

piēlecǎolóngxíngzhětóngdēngbǎo殿diàn piēlecǎolóngxíngzhětóngdēngbǎo殿diàn

cast the grass dragon aside and went up into the treasure hall with Pilgrim.

is to fling away without looking. The dragon that carried her three years' journey home is discarded in two characters.


總評 Commentary

半個時辰 is the whole return journey. A 時辰 is a double hour, so half of one is roughly sixty minutes — and it has taken her three years to be brought back over a distance Wukong crosses in an hour on a bundle of grass.

She recognises the place by its buildings. 鳳閣龍樓, phoenix towers and dragon halls, is a fixed phrase for a palace, and it is the first thing she has seen since the abduction that she knows. The narration gives her one clause of gladness and then moves on.

撇了草龍 — she flings the grass dragon aside. It is a small, careless, entirely human gesture, and it is the last free action anybody lets her take in the chapter.