Canonical Classics ← 第七十四回
第七十四回
chánggēngchuánbàotóuhěn
xíngzhěshīwéibiànhuànéng

Long Geng Brings Word of a Fierce Demon Chief · Pilgrim Works His Powers of Transformation

問他個實信
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

問他個實信 Let Old Hog Go And Ask

jièdào:「zhīzěnmezuānguòtóuwěidewènleliǎngshēnggāndejiùpǎohuíláileděnglǎozhūwènshíxìnlái。」tángsēngdào:「néngzhe。」jièdào:「zhīzěnmezuānguòtóuwěidewènleliǎngshēnggāndejiùpǎohuíláileděnglǎozhūwènshíxìnlái。」tángsēngdào:「néngzhe。」


逐句解 Line by line

jièdào:「zhīzěnmezuānguòtóuwěidewènleliǎngshēnggāndejiùpǎohuíláile jièdào:「zhīzěnmezuānguòtóuwěidewènleliǎngshēnggāndejiùpǎohuíláile

Bajie said, "I do not know how, but he went poking in headfirst without a thought for his own tail, asked a couple of questions, and came running back with nothing settled either way.

is zuān, the verb — to bore or burrow through — as against the tool of the same character, which takes the departing tone; 康熙 settles the pair by name in 金部十九畫. 過頭不顧尾 is going in head-first with no thought for the back end, and 不尷不尬 is the perfect word for the result: neither one thing nor the other, awkward, unresolved. Both are still current.

děnglǎozhūwènshíxìnlái。」 děnglǎozhūwènshíxìnlái。」

Let Old Hog go and get a straight answer out of him."

實信 is the same straight answer Tripitaka asked for in the first place, and 老豬 is Bajie's name for himself, wheeled out whenever he is volunteering for something.

tángsēngdào:「néngzhe。」 tángsēngdào:「néngzhe。」

The Tang Monk said, "Wuneng, mind how you go."

仔細 takes — careful, painstaking. on the end is zhe, the particle that turns the phrase into an instruction: mind you are careful. And Tripitaka uses the religious name 悟能 rather than the nickname, which is what he does when he is being serious.


總評 Commentary

Bajie's account of his brother's failure is unkind and completely accurate. Pilgrim did go in headfirst, did ask a couple of questions, and did come back with nothing settled — the chapter has just shown us all three.

The two idioms he reaches for are the good part. Poking in headfirst without a thought for the tail, and the result neither one thing nor the other: both are still ordinary Chinese, and both are more precise than anything Pilgrim said in his own defence.

Tripitaka sends him with a two-word warning and the formal name. He has learned something from the first attempt, though not, as it turns out, enough.