第七十五回 · 四馬攢蹄 Trussed Like A Horse — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

四馬攢蹄 Trussed Like A Horse

三sān怪guài把bǎ行xíng者zhě扳bān翻fān倒dǎo，四sì馬mǎ攢cuán蹄tí綑kǔn住zhù。揭jiē起qǐ衣yī裳shang看kàn時shí，足zú足zú是shì個gè弼bì馬mǎ溫wēn。原yuán來lái行xíng者zhě有yǒu七qī十shí二èr般bān變biàn化huà，若ruò是shì變biàn飛fēi禽qín、走zǒu獸shòu、花huā木mù、器qì皿mǐn、昆kūn蟲chóng之zhī類lèi，卻què就jiù連lián身shēn子zi滾gǔn去qù了le；但dàn變biàn人rén物wù，卻què只zhǐ是shì頭tóu臉liǎn變biàn了le，身shēn子zi變biàn不bú過guò來lái。三sān怪guài把bǎ行xíng者zhě扳bān翻fān倒dǎo，四sì马mǎ攒cuán蹄tí捆kǔn住zhù。揭jiē起qǐ衣yī裳shang看kàn时shí，足zú足zú是shì个gè弼bì马mǎ温wēn。原yuán来lái行xíng者zhě有yǒu七qī十shí二èr般bān变biàn化huà，若ruò是shì变biàn飞fēi禽qín、走zǒu兽shòu、花huā木mù、器qì皿mǐn、昆kūn虫chóng之zhī类lèi，却què就jiù连lián身shēn子zi滚gǔn去qù了le；但dàn变biàn人rén物wù，却què只zhǐ是shì头tóu脸liǎn变biàn了le，身shēn子zi变biàn不bú过guò来lái。

逐句解 Line by line

三sān怪guài把bǎ行xíng者zhě扳bān翻fān倒dǎo，四sì馬mǎ攢cuán蹄tí綑kǔn住zhù。三sān怪guài把bǎ行xíng者zhě扳bān翻fān倒dǎo，四sì马mǎ攒cuán蹄tí捆kǔn住zhù。

The third monster wrenched Wukong over and trussed him with all four limbs gathered together.

攢 is cuán, to gather into a bunch, not the zǎn that means to hoard. 四馬攢蹄 — four horses with hooves bunched — is the standard phrase for hog-tying, and using a horse image on the monkey who was once the celestial stable boy is not an accident.

揭jiē起qǐ衣yī裳shang看kàn時shí，足zú足zú是shì個gè弼bì馬mǎ溫wēn。揭jiē起qǐ衣yī裳shang看kàn时shí，足zú足zú是shì个gè弼bì马mǎ温wēn。

They lifted his clothes to look, and it was the Ban-Horse Plague to the life.

弼馬溫, Ban-Horse Plague, is the joke title Heaven gave Wukong when it fobbed him off with the job of minding the imperial stables — a pun on a phrase for warding sickness off horses. It is the insult he started a war over, and the narrator uses it here, at the moment he is tied up like livestock.

原yuán來lái行xíng者zhě有yǒu七qī十shí二èr般bān變biàn化huà，若ruò是shì變biàn飛fēi禽qín、走zǒu獸shòu、花huā木mù、器qì皿mǐn、昆kūn蟲chóng之zhī類lèi，卻què就jiù連lián身shēn子zi滾gǔn去qù了le；原yuán来lái行xíng者zhě有yǒu七qī十shí二èr般bān变biàn化huà，若ruò是shì变biàn飞fēi禽qín、走zǒu兽shòu、花huā木mù、器qì皿mǐn、昆kūn虫chóng之zhī类lèi，却què就jiù连lián身shēn子zi滚gǔn去qù了le；

Now Wukong had seventy-two transformations, and if he changed into a bird, a beast, a flower, a tree, a vessel or an insect, his whole body went over with it;

The rule is being stated because it is about to be broken, which is how this book always introduces a limit. Note the six categories: everything that is not human.

但dàn變biàn人rén物wù，卻què只zhǐ是shì頭tóu臉liǎn變biàn了le，身shēn子zi變biàn不bú過guò來lái。但dàn变biàn人rén物wù，却què只zhǐ是shì头tóu脸liǎn变biàn了le，身shēn子zi变biàn不bú过guò来lái。

but when he changed into a person, only the head and face changed, and the body would not come over.

And there is the flaw at the centre of the whole chapter. The one shape Wukong cannot fully take is a person's. He has been walking round this cave in a borrowed face on his own monkey body, and the demons only ever had to lift his shirt.

總評 Commentary

This limitation is not invented for the occasion — the book has been consistent about it for seventy chapters, and it is the reason so many of Wukong's disguises end with somebody looking at his backside. But it is being spelled out here, in narrator's voice, in the middle of the action, which the novel does only when it wants a rule to feel like a verdict.

There is something quietly serious in it too. Wukong can be any animal, any object, any plant. He cannot be a man. A story about a creature earning his way into the human moral world puts that limit at the exact moment he is stripped and found out, and does not comment on it.