原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
憐香惜玉 No Pity For The Fragrant
獃子一味粗夯，顯手段，那有憐香惜玉之心，舉著鈀，不分好歹，趕上前亂築。呆子一味粗夯，显手段，那有怜香惜玉之心，举着钯，不分好歹，赶上前乱筑。
逐句解 Line by line
獃子一味粗夯，顯手段，那有憐香惜玉之心，舉著鈀，不分好歹，趕上前亂築。
呆子一味粗夯，显手段，那有怜香惜玉之心，举着钯，不分好歹，赶上前乱筑。
The blockhead is coarse all through and thinks only of showing what he can do. Where would he have any tenderness for the fragrant and the fair in him? He raised his rake, made no distinction between good and bad, and rushed forward hacking at them.
那 is nǎ — where would he have any. 憐香惜玉, pitying the fragrant and sparing the jade, is a set phrase for a man's tenderness toward women, and the narrator says flatly that he has none. 不分好歹 — no telling good from bad — is the phrase the local god used about Pilgrim's cudgel.
The narrator steps in to say what he thinks of this. Coarse all through, out to show off, no tenderness in him — and then the rake comes down.
The phrase for tenderness is a stock one and worth knowing: pitying the fragrant, sparing the jade. It describes the consideration a man is supposed to show a woman, and the book states that Eight Rules has none of it while he swings at seven naked people who have just begged for their lives.
The other phrase, making no distinction between good and bad, is the same one the local god used about Pilgrim two dozen passages ago — he hits you whether you deserve it or not. It has moved from Pilgrim to Eight Rules, and this time the narrator is saying it rather than a frightened witness.