第七十三回 · 九齒釘鈀 A Nine Toothed Rake — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

九齒釘鈀 A Nine Toothed Rake

他tā就jiù跳tiào下xià水shuǐ，變biàn作zuò一yí個gè鮎nián魚yú，在zài我wǒ們men腿tuǐ襠dāng裡lǐ鑽zuān來lái鑽zuān去qù，欲yù行xíng姦jiān騙piàn之zhī事shì，果guǒ有yǒu十shí分fēn憊bèi懶lǎn。他tā又yòu跳tiào出chū水shuǐ去qù，現xiàn了le本běn相xiàng。見jiàn我wǒ們men不bù肯kěn相xiāng從cóng，他tā就jiù使shǐ一yì柄bǐng九jiǔ齒chǐ釘dīng鈀pá，要yào傷shāng我wǒ們men性xìng命mìng。他tā就jiù跳tiào下xià水shuǐ，变biàn作zuò一yí个gè鲇nián鱼yú，在zài我wǒ们men腿tuǐ裆dāng里lǐ钻zuān来lái钻zuān去qù，欲yù行xíng奸jiān骗piàn之zhī事shì，果guǒ有yǒu十shí分fēn惫bèi懒lǎn。他tā又yòu跳tiào出chū水shuǐ去qù，现xiàn了le本běn相xiàng。见jiàn我wǒ们men不bù肯kěn相xiāng从cóng，他tā就jiù使shǐ一yì柄bǐng九jiǔ齿chǐ钉dīng钯pá，要yào伤shāng我wǒ们men性xìng命mìng。

逐句解 Line by line

他tā就jiù跳tiào下xià水shuǐ，變biàn作zuò一yí個gè鮎nián魚yú，在zài我wǒ們men腿tuǐ襠dāng裡lǐ鑽zuān來lái鑽zuān去qù，欲yù行xíng姦jiān騙piàn之zhī事shì，果guǒ有yǒu十shí分fēn憊bèi懶lǎn。他tā就jiù跳tiào下xià水shuǐ，变biàn作zuò一yí个gè鲇nián鱼yú，在zài我wǒ们men腿tuǐ裆dāng里lǐ钻zuān来lái钻zuān去qù，欲yù行xíng奸jiān骗piàn之zhī事shì，果guǒ有yǒu十shí分fēn惫bèi懒lǎn。

"He jumped into the water, turned himself into a catfish, and went darting in and out between our legs, meaning to work some lewd trick on us. The creature is shameless through and through."

鮎魚 is a catfish, and the choice is exact rather than random: a catfish is smooth, slippery and impossible to grip, and a Chinese proverb about catching one with a gourd is the standing image for a hopeless task. 鑽來鑽去 — boring in and out — is the ordinary verb for wriggling through a gap. 憊懶 is Ming slang for a shameless rascal, and it is the word the Daoist himself will pick up and repeat in a moment.

他tā又yòu跳tiào出chū水shuǐ去qù，現xiàn了le本běn相xiàng。他tā又yòu跳tiào出chū水shuǐ去qù，现xiàn了le本běn相xiàng。

"Then he sprang out of the water and showed his own shape again."

本相 is the original form — what a shape-shifter looks like when it stops shifting — and 相 here is xiàng, an appearance. The same character a line from now is xiāng, mutually, in a completely different word.

見jiàn我wǒ們men不bù肯kěn相xiāng從cóng，他tā就jiù使shǐ一yì柄bǐng九jiǔ齒chǐ釘dīng鈀pá，要yào傷shāng我wǒ們men性xìng命mìng。见jiàn我wǒ们men不bù肯kěn相xiāng从cóng，他tā就jiù使shǐ一yì柄bǐng九jiǔ齿chǐ钉dīng钯pá，要yào伤shāng我wǒ们men性xìng命mìng。

"And when he saw we would not give in to him, he took up a nine-toothed muckrake and made to take our lives."

相從 takes 相 as xiāng, the reciprocal — to go along with someone. And the weapon is Eight Rules's own: a 九齒釘鈀, nine-toothed spiked rake, a farm implement for breaking clods, which he carries because he was once Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds. 鈀 is pá, the rake, not bā — one of the ten characters this pipeline raises everywhere it occurs, because the wrong reading turns a muckrake into a metal bar.

總評 Commentary

The catfish is the detail that makes this passage work, and it is a nasty one. Of all the shapes available to him, Eight Rules picks the one that is slippery, bottom-dwelling and impossible to catch hold of, and he uses it to swim between seven naked women in a pool. Nothing about that has been softened in the telling. 欲行姦騙之事 — meaning to work a lewd deception — is about as blunt as the vocabulary gets.

Then the account turns, and this is the part that matters legally, so to speak. He came out of the water, resumed his shape, and reached for a weapon. Whatever the reader thinks of the seven spider-women — and they did try to eat a monk this morning — the sequence they describe ends with an armed man swinging at unarmed and unclothed opponents.

The rake deserves a word too. Eight Rules is a former celestial marshal reduced to a pig, and his weapon is farm equipment: nine iron teeth on a shaft, for breaking up soil. It is comic in the way everything about him is comic, right up to the moment somebody describes being on the wrong end of it.