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

騰那真本事
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

騰那真本事 Ten Thousand Kinds Of Shifting

yíngfēngniǎnjuékǒuniànzhòuyáoshēnbiànbiàndejiùxiàngxiǎozuānfēngyànghuíjìngzhuǎnjiùzhǎoxúndòngtànsānlǎoyāodeshízhèzhèngshìyíngfēngniǎnjuékǒuniànzhòuyáoshēnbiànbiàndejiùxiàngxiǎozuānfēngyànghuíjìngzhuǎnjiùzhǎoxúndòngtànsānlǎoyāodeshízhèzhèngshì

qiānbānbiànhuàměihóuwángwànyàngténgnuózhēnběnshìqiānbānbiànhuàměihóuwángwànyàngténgnuózhēnběnshì

逐句解 Line by line

yíngfēngniǎnjuékǒuniànzhòuyáoshēnbiànbiàndejiùxiàngxiǎozuānfēngyàng yíngfēngniǎnjuékǒuniànzhòuyáoshēnbiànbiàndejiùxiàngxiǎozuānfēngyàng

Facing the wind he pinched the sign, said a spell over to himself, shook himself and changed, and what he changed into was the very likeness of the Little Borer of the Wind.

模樣 is the pattern or likeness, with as — the second of this chapter's three, and the frame that carries it is consulted by nothing during the work, so it has to be forced each time.

huíjìngzhuǎnjiùzhǎoxúndòngtànsānlǎoyāodeshí huíjìngzhuǎnjiùzhǎoxúndòngtànsānlǎoyāodeshí

He turned on his heel, went straight back the way he had come and looked for the cave, to spy out the true state of the three old demons.

拽回步 has as , the corpus reading at all eight of its sealed sites. 虛實 is empty-and-solid, the paired word for the real state of an enemy — a term straight out of the military treatises, where knowing that about an opponent is the whole of intelligence.

zhèzhèngshì zhèzhèngshì

And this is the very thing:

這正是 is the teller's cue that a couplet is coming. Three characters, and they are the last such cue in the chapter.

qiānbānbiànhuàměihóuwángwànyàngténgnuózhēnběnshì qiānbānbiànhuàměihóuwángwànyàngténgnuózhēnběnshì

A thousand kinds of transformation, the Handsome Monkey King; ten thousand ways of shifting, and true ability in them all!

A parallel couplet, seven and seven — matched item for item, 千般 against 萬樣, transformation against shifting, and the two names at the ends. 騰那 is to vault and shift, with as nuó. ⚠ The two line-endings do not rhyme and are not meant to: a couplet of this kind asks for matched grammar and contrasting tone, not a rhyme.


總評 Commentary

The couplet is the chapter's only verse after the opening poems, and it is praise rather than scenery — the teller stepping forward to applaud his own hero at the moment he puts on a dead man's clothes.

The two halves are exactly matched: a thousand kinds against ten thousand ways, transformation against shifting, the Handsome Monkey King against true ability. Nothing rhymes, and nothing is supposed to; this form is built on parallel and on the contrast of tones at the ends.

It is also placed with some nerve. The applause comes immediately after the one action in the chapter Pilgrim has regretted.