Canonical Classics ← 第七十五回
第七十五回
xīnyuánzuāntòuyīnyáng
zhǔhuánguīdàozhēn

The Mind-Monkey Bores Through the Body of Yin and Yang · The Demon Lord Returns to the True Great Way

嘓的嚥下
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

嘓的嚥下 Every Cup Caught Below

guàiguōdeyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdejiēchīleèrzhōngyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdeyòujiēchīleliánchīlezhōngdōushìjiēchīleguàiguōdeyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdejiēchīleèrzhōngyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdeyòujiēchīleliánchīlezhōngdōushìjiēchīle


逐句解 Line by line

guàiguōdeyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdejiēchīle guàiguōdeyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdejiēchīle

The creature swallowed it down with a gulp, and Wukong with a gulp caught it and drank it.

is a sound-word for a swallow, and the sentence uses it twice — once for each of them. The joke is entirely in the repetition: the same noise, one after the other, a few inches apart.

èrzhōngyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdeyòujiēchīle èrzhōngyànxiàbèixíngzhěguōdeyòujiēchīle

The second cup went down, and Wukong with a gulp caught and drank that too.

The same sentence again with one character changed. Chinese narrative is happy to repeat a structure verbatim to show a process continuing, where English wants variation.

liánchīlezhōngdōushìjiēchīle liánchīlezhōngdōushìjiēchīle

Seven or eight cups in a row went down, and he caught and drank every one.

is dōu, all of them. And the count is the point: the demon believes he has drunk seven or eight cups of poisoned wine and is waiting for it to work on somebody else.


總評 Commentary

The comedy is mechanical and perfectly timed. Three sentences, each one a small variation on the last, and the reader watches a demon methodically drink himself into trouble while believing he is administering a dose.

There is a nice piece of physics in it too. The wine is doing exactly what wine does — going down a throat — and the only thing that has changed is that there is now a funnel at the far end. Nobody has been outfought. The plumbing has simply been altered.