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

齊調音律
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

齊調音律 Singers Sing And Dancers Dance

jiǎchūnjiāoyòudào:「wángniángnianghuìzhòngshìhuìchàngdegōngchàngshàndelái。」shuōwèizhǐtīngpàishēng調tiáoyīnchàngdechàngdeliǎngyòuyǐnleduōniángniangjiàozhùlejiǎchūnjiāoyòudào:「wángniángnianghuìzhòngshìhuìchàngdegōngchàngshàndelái。」shuōwèizhǐtīngpàishēngtiáoyīnchàngdechàngdeliǎngyòuyǐnleduōniángniangjiàozhùle


逐句解 Line by line

jiǎchūnjiāoyòudào:「wángniángnianghuì jiǎchūnjiāoyòudào:「wángniángnianghuì

The false Chunjiao spoke again: "The Great King and the Queen are met in joy,

The source puts the name in quotation marks this once, marking that the speaker is not who the room thinks. It is the printed equivalent of a nudge. 喜會 is a joyful meeting, another wedding word.

zhòngshìhuìchàngdegōngchàngshàndelái。」 zhòngshìhuìchàngdegōngchàngshàndelái。」

"so let all the maids who can sing give us a song, and those who dance well get up and dance!"

is gōng, to furnish or provide, not the reading for an offering or a confession. is , the exclamatory particle that turns the order into a call.

shuōwèizhǐtīngpàishēng調tiáoyīnchàngdechàngde shuōwèizhǐtīngpàishēngtiáoyīnchàngdechàngde

Before the words were out, there came a burst of song, all tuned to the modes, the singers singing and the dancers dancing.

Two readings settled. is in 只聽得, the lexicalised suffix on a verb of perception. And 調 is tiáo here, the tuning band — 康熙 言部八畫 files 和也 and 和合也 at 音迢, citing 《禮·月令》仲夏調竽笙竾簧, tuning the reed pipes. The same character took the other reading 104 characters back, for moving furniture.

liǎngyòuyǐnleduōniángniangjiàozhùle liǎngyòuyǐnleduōniángniangjiàozhùle

The two of them drank a great deal more, and then the Queen called a halt to the singing and dancing.

She stops the entertainment when it has done its work. is the neutral le twice over, once for the drinking and once for the stopping.


總評 Commentary

唱的唱,舞的舞 is a lovely piece of shorthand — those who sing, sing; those who dance, dance. Six characters of pattern doing the work of a paragraph of staging, and it arrives before the sentence that ordered it has even finished: 說未畢, the words were not yet out.

One character carries the difference between two jobs in this passage. 調 is a reading question the automatic default gets wrong here and right by luck 104 characters earlier: 調開桌椅 is deploying the furniture, which belongs to the band the dictionary glosses 選調也, while 齊調音律 is tuning the instruments, which belongs to the band glossed 和也 and illustrated with reed pipes.

The queen calling a halt is the tell. She has let the party run exactly as long as she needed and stops it the moment the fiend has drunk enough. Nobody in the room is drunk except the one who is supposed to be.