第七十三回 · 捋下七十根 Seventy Hairs From His Tail — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

捋下七十根 Seventy Hairs From His Tail

行xíng者zhě卻què到dào黃huáng花huā觀guàn外wài，將jiāng尾wěi巴ba上shàng毛máo捋luō下xià七qī十shí根gēn，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」即jí變biàn做zuò七qī十shí個gè小xiǎo行xíng者zhě；又yòu將jiāng金jīn箍gū棒bàng吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」即jí變biàn做zuò七qī十shí一yì條tiáo雙shuāng角jiǎo叉chā兒ér棒bàng。行xíng者zhě却què到dào黄huáng花huā观guàn外wài，将jiāng尾wěi巴ba上shàng毛máo捋luō下xià七qī十shí根gēn，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」即jí变biàn做zuò七qī十shí个gè小xiǎo行xíng者zhě；又yòu将jiāng金jīn箍gū棒bàng吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」即jí变biàn做zuò七qī十shí一yì条tiáo双shuāng角jiǎo叉chā儿ér棒bàng。

逐句解 Line by line

行xíng者zhě卻què到dào黃huáng花huā觀guàn外wài，將jiāng尾wěi巴ba上shàng毛máo捋luō下xià七qī十shí根gēn，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」行xíng者zhě却què到dào黄huáng花huā观guàn外wài，将jiāng尾wěi巴ba上shàng毛máo捋luō下xià七qī十shí根gēn，吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」

Pilgrim went round to the outside of the Yellow Flower Abbey, stripped seventy hairs off his tail, blew an immortal breath on them and cried, "Change!"

捋 is luō — to strip something off by running your hand along it, the action in 捋起袖子, pushing a sleeve up your arm. It is not the lǚ of 捋鬍子, stroking a beard smooth. And 觀 is guàn, the abbey. The hair trick is Pilgrim's signature: he plucks hairs, breathes on them, and they become copies of himself.

即jí變biàn做zuò七qī十shí個gè小xiǎo行xíng者zhě；即jí变biàn做zuò七qī十shí个gè小xiǎo行xíng者zhě；

and at once they became seventy little Pilgrims;

小行者 — little Pilgrims — is exactly as literal as it sounds. The text does not describe them and does not need to.

又yòu將jiāng金jīn箍gū棒bàng吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān氣qì，叫jiào：「變biàn！」又yòu将jiāng金jīn箍gū棒bàng吹chuī口kǒu仙xiān气qì，叫jiào：「变biàn！」

then he blew an immortal breath on the gold-banded cudgel too and cried, "Change!"

The same operation applied to a weapon. 仙氣, immortal breath, is the medium of every transformation he performs — he does not gesture or incant, he exhales.

即jí變biàn做zuò七qī十shí一yì條tiáo雙shuāng角jiǎo叉chā兒ér棒bàng。即jí变biàn做zuò七qī十shí一yì条tiáo双shuāng角jiǎo叉chā儿ér棒bàng。

and it became seventy-one two-pronged forked staves.

Seventy-one, not seventy. Seventy for the copies and one for himself — the text does the arithmetic in a single character and expects you to keep up. 雙角叉兒棒 is a staff with a two-horned fork at the end, which is a winding tool, not a weapon.

總評 Commentary

Pilgrim's answer to a woven trap is to build seventy-one identical winding forks and hand them out, which is the most practical thing anyone does in this chapter. He is not going to cut the web or burn it. He is going to wind it up, the way you wind wool.

The hair trick deserves its moment because it is the character in miniature. Every other power in this book is grand — flight, transformation, a cudgel that weighs thirteen thousand catties. This one is that he can turn himself into a workforce. When the problem is labour rather than force, he solves it by becoming seventy-one people.

And the tool is chosen with care. A 雙角叉兒棒 — a two-horned fork on a shaft — is what you use to lift and turn a mass of fibre. He has looked at a monastery buried in silk and specified equipment.