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

下回分解
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

下回分解 To Be Continued

jìngzhījiànlǎotóuyǒushènxiōngqiětīngxiàhuífēnjiějìngzhījiànlǎotóuyǒushènxiōngqiětīngxiàhuífēnjiě


逐句解 Line by line

jìngzhījiànlǎotóuyǒushènxiōngqiětīngxiàhuífēnjiě jìngzhījiànlǎotóuyǒushènxiōngqiětīngxiàhuífēnjiě

In the end there is no knowing what fortune, good or ill, awaited him on meeting that old demon chief; and for that you must listen to the next chapter to have it explained.

畢竟 is in the end, when all is said. here is shèn, what sort of, against the shén it takes inside the two-character question word a few passages back — both bands one last time. 吉凶 is auspicious-and-inauspicious, the pair standing for the outcome whichever way it falls. And 下回分解 is the formula that closes every chapter of this novel: the next instalment will take it apart and explain.


總評 Commentary

The chapter ends where it began, with somebody about to walk into something they have been warned about. Tripitaka was told not to go on and went on; Pilgrim has been told what the three kings can do and is going in anyway.

The closing formula is a professional storyteller's, and it is doing what it always did: stopping at the door. Everything the chapter set out to establish has been established — the mountain, the cave, the numbers, the road, the three sets of powers — and the one thing nobody has yet seen is a demon.