第七十三回 · 同堂學藝 Trained In The Same Hall — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

同堂學藝 Trained In The Same Hall

原yuán來lái那nà盤pán絲sī洞dòng七qī個gè女nǚ怪guài與yǔ這zhè道dào士shì同tóng堂táng學xué藝yì。自zì從cóng穿chuān了le舊jiù衣yī，喚huàn出chū兒ér子zi，徑jìng來lái此cǐ處chù。正zhèng在zài後hòu面miàn裁cái剪jiǎn衣yī服fú，忽hū見jiàn那nà童tóng子zǐ看kàn茶chá，便biàn問wèn道dào：「童tóng兒ér，有yǒu甚shén客kè來lái了le，這zhè般bān忙máng冗rǒng？」原yuán来lái那nà盘pán丝sī洞dòng七qī个gè女nǚ怪guài与yǔ这zhè道dào士shì同tóng堂táng学xué艺yì。自zì从cóng穿chuān了le旧jiù衣yī，唤huàn出chū儿ér子zi，径jìng来lái此cǐ处chù。正zhèng在zài后hòu面miàn裁cái剪jiǎn衣yī服fú，忽hū见jiàn那nà童tóng子zǐ看kàn茶chá，便biàn问wèn道dào：「童tóng儿ér，有yǒu甚shén客kè来lái了le，这zhè般bān忙máng冗rǒng？」

逐句解 Line by line

原yuán來lái那nà盤pán絲sī洞dòng七qī個gè女nǚ怪guài與yǔ這zhè道dào士shì同tóng堂táng學xué藝yì。原yuán来lái那nà盘pán丝sī洞dòng七qī个gè女nǚ怪guài与yǔ这zhè道dào士shì同tóng堂táng学xué艺yì。

Now as it happened, the seven women-monsters of Gossamer Cave and this Daoist had learned their arts in the same hall.

原來 is the storyteller's reveal word — "as it turns out", the hinge he uses when he steps back to explain something the characters do not know. 同堂學藝 means studying under one master in one hall, and it is a strong bond in Chinese fiction: fellow students of the same teacher call each other elder and younger brother and sister for life. They are not allies of convenience. They are family.

自zì從cóng穿chuān了le舊jiù衣yī，喚huàn出chū兒ér子zi，徑jìng來lái此cǐ處chù。自zì从cóng穿chuān了le旧jiù衣yī，唤huàn出chū儿ér子zi，径jìng来lái此cǐ处chù。

Ever since they had put their old clothes back on and called out their sons, they had come straight here.

Seven words of plot, compressed. 舊衣 and 兒子 are both callbacks to the last chapter, and both are needed to make sense of this one: the women lost their clothes at a bathing pool, and their "sons" are the little spiders that spin the webs. 徑 means directly, by the shortest way, with no stop — they did not wander here, they came for help.

正zhèng在zài後hòu面miàn裁cái剪jiǎn衣yī服fú，忽hū見jiàn那nà童tóng子zǐ看kàn茶chá，便biàn問wèn道dào：「童tóng兒ér，有yǒu甚shén客kè來lái了le，這zhè般bān忙máng冗rǒng？」正zhèng在zài后hòu面miàn裁cái剪jiǎn衣yī服fú，忽hū见jiàn那nà童tóng子zǐ看kàn茶chá，便biàn问wèn道dào：「童tóng儿ér，有yǒu甚shén客kè来lái了le，这zhè般bān忙máng冗rǒng？」

They were at the back cutting out clothes when they suddenly caught sight of the lad fetching tea, and asked, "Boy — what guests have arrived, that you are in such a scramble?"

The detail is almost funny: seven demons in a back room, sewing. 裁剪衣服 — cutting out clothes — is them replacing what they lost. 童子 takes 子 as zǐ, full tone, because this is the literary compound, the same 子 as in 弟子 and 君子; the neutral zi belongs to ordinary nouns like 罐子. And 甚 is shén, meaning what, not shèn, meaning very — a distinction the chapter needs eight times and gets right by sense alone, since the character is identical.

總評 Commentary

The trap snaps shut here, and it does so by explaining a coincidence. Until this sentence, the abbey was just the next building on the road. Now it is the one place in the world the pilgrims should not have stopped, because the man pouring their tea went to school with the seven women Pilgrim's party humiliated a chapter ago.

The relationship is worth taking seriously. 同堂學藝 — same hall, same master — creates an obligation in Chinese fiction closer to kinship than to friendship. Fellow disciples are 師兄 and 師妹, elder brother and younger sister, and an insult to one is a debt owed by all. The Daoist has not been told anything yet and already owes them.

And look what the women are doing while the world turns: sitting in a back room sewing, because they have no clothes. The book is perfectly willing to be funny and menacing in the same breath. It also quietly answers the question left hanging in the last passage — why did a Daoist flinch at the sight of four monks? He had not yet been told. He simply knew what his sisters looked like when they arrived.