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

有風方起浪
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

有風方起浪 No Waves Without A Wind

shèngzhuǎnshēndào:「shìsūnlǎotiānshèng。」lǎoxiàodào:「shìsūnxíngzhědǎnhóuquèwèizàijiàozhàn?」xíngzhědào:「『yǒufēngfānglàngcháoshuǐpíng。』shèngzhuǎnshēndào:「shìsūnlǎotiānshèng。」lǎoxiàodào:「shìsūnxíngzhědǎnhóuquèwèizàijiàozhàn?」xíngzhědào:「『yǒufēngfānglàngcháoshuǐpíng。』


逐句解 Line by line

shèngzhuǎnshēndào:「shìsūnlǎotiānshèng。」 shèngzhuǎnshēndào:「shìsūnlǎotiānshèng。」

The Great Sage turned round: "It is your Grandfather Sun, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

孫老爺 — Old Master Sun, Grandfather Sun — is the self-aggrandising form he uses on monsters, and it puns on his surname, which also means grandson. He is announcing himself as the elder while calling himself the junior.

lǎoxiàodào:「shìsūnxíngzhě lǎoxiàodào:「shìsūnxíngzhě

The old fiend laughed: "You are Sun Wukong?"

He asks the question he already knows the answer to, which is what people do when they need a moment.

dǎnhóuquèwèizàijiàozhàn?」 dǎnhóuquèwèizàijiàozhàn?」

"Bold, insolent ape! I have not provoked you — so why are you here calling for a fight?"

為何 takes at wèi, the for-what-purpose band, against the wéi of being or becoming that turns up twice in the reply. The complaint is also, on its face, false: this cave has been trying to eat his master since the previous chapter.

xíngzhědào:「『yǒufēngfānglàngcháoshuǐpíng。』 xíngzhědào:「『yǒufēngfānglàngcháoshuǐpíng。』

Wukong said, "'Only with a wind do waves get up; with no tide, water levels itself.'"

A two-part proverb, and Wukong is using it as an accusation: waves need a wind, so if there is trouble, somebody made it. Chinese argument leans on these paired sayings the way English leans on precedent.


總評 Commentary

The exchange is a formal challenge scene and both parties know the moves. Wukong announces his titles, the demon affects not to recognise him, and then they argue about who started it — which, in a book where the pilgrims are walking through somebody's territory to reach India, is not a trivial question.

The proverb does real work. Wukong is not saying he was provoked; he is saying that provocation is the only thing that produces this kind of disturbance, and inviting the demon to work out which of them supplied it. It is a more sophisticated opening than hammering on the door, which is how he opened this round.