第七十三回 · 無影無形 Hidden Beyond All Trace — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

無影無形 Hidden Beyond All Trace

忍rěn著zhe性xìng氣qì，淤yū淤yū的de立lì在zài空kōng中zhōng看kàn處chù，見jiàn那nà怪guài絲sī繩shéng晃huǎng亮liàng，穿chuān穿chuān道dào道dào，卻què是shì穿chuān梭suō的de經jīng緯wěi，頃qǐng刻kè間jiān，把bǎ黃huáng花huā觀guàn的de樓lóu臺tái殿diàn閣gé都dōu遮zhē得de無wú影yǐng無wú形xíng。行xíng者zhě道dào：「利lì害hài，利lì害hài。早zǎo是shì不bù曾céng著zháo他tā手shǒu。忍rěn着zhe性xìng气qì，淤yū淤yū的de立lì在zài空kōng中zhōng看kàn处chù，见jiàn那nà怪guài丝sī绳shéng晃huǎng亮liàng，穿chuān穿chuān道dào道dào，却què是shì穿chuān梭suō的de经jīng纬wěi，顷qǐng刻kè间jiān，把bǎ黄huáng花huā观guàn的de楼lóu台tái殿diàn阁gé都dōu遮zhē得de无wú影yǐng无wú形xíng。行xíng者zhě道dào：「利lì害hài，利lì害hài。早zǎo是shì不bù曾céng着zháo他tā手shǒu。

逐句解 Line by line

忍rěn著zhe性xìng氣qì，淤yū淤yū的de立lì在zài空kōng中zhōng看kàn處chù，見jiàn那nà怪guài絲sī繩shéng晃huǎng亮liàng，穿chuān穿chuān道dào道dào，卻què是shì穿chuān梭suō的de經jīng緯wěi，頃qǐng刻kè間jiān，把bǎ黃huáng花huā觀guàn的de樓lóu臺tái殿diàn閣gé都dōu遮zhē得de無wú影yǐng無wú形xíng。忍rěn着zhe性xìng气qì，淤yū淤yū的de立lì在zài空kōng中zhōng看kàn处chù，见jiàn那nà怪guài丝sī绳shéng晃huǎng亮liàng，穿chuān穿chuān道dào道dào，却què是shì穿chuān梭suō的de经jīng纬wěi，顷qǐng刻kè间jiān，把bǎ黄huáng花huā观guàn的de楼lóu台tái殿diàn阁gé都dōu遮zhē得de无wú影yǐng无wú形xíng。

Holding his temper, he stood sullenly in the air and looked, and saw the monsters' silk cords glittering, running back and forth in lines, warp and weft as though from a shuttle. In no time at all the towers and halls of the Yellow Flower Abbey were covered over beyond all trace.

The weaving vocabulary is exact and deliberate. 經緯 are the warp and the weft, the two directions of thread on a loom; 穿梭 is the shuttle flying to and fro, and it is still the word for anything moving busily back and forth. 忍著 takes 著 as zhe, holding it in and going on holding it. 遮得 takes 得 as de, because 無影無形 is a result. And 觀 is guàn, the abbey.

行xíng者zhě道dào：「利lì害hài，利lì害hài。行xíng者zhě道dào：「利lì害hài，利lì害hài。

"Formidable," said Pilgrim. "Formidable."

利害 means severe, formidable, a force to be reckoned with — said of an opponent it is half curse and half compliment, and modern Chinese still uses it (written 厲害) exactly this way. The sixth doubled utterance in the chapter.

早zǎo是shì不bù曾céng著zháo他tā手shǒu。早zǎo是shì不bù曾céng着zháo他tā手shǒu。

"Just as well I did not fall into their hands."

著 is zháo here — the reading for contact made, meaning to be caught by or come into contact with, as in 著火, to catch fire. Not the zhe of two lines above, and not the zhuó of dispatching. This passage alone uses two of the character's four readings, and the chapter so far has used three — nine zhe, three zhuó and this one zháo — which is the argument for hand-specifying it every single time.

總評 Commentary

The image is the best in the chapter. Silk cords crossing and re-crossing in the air until an entire monastery — towers, terraces, halls — has been woven out of sight, and Pilgrim hanging above it watching the pattern form. The narrator reaches for a loom: warp, weft, shuttle. What the spiders are doing is textile work at architectural scale.

It is also, quietly, a problem statement. His three companions are inside that. Whatever else the silk does, it has just put a wall between him and the only people he came here to protect, and the poison in them is on a three-day clock he does not yet know about.

And 著 takes three separate slots in eight lines and two different readings — 腆著 and 忍著 as zhe, 著他手 as zháo. One character, four readings across the language, three of them already live in this chapter. There is no rule that recovers this from context alone; every occurrence has to be read.