Canonical Classics ← 第七十六回
第七十六回
xīnshénshèguīxìng
tóngxiángguàizhēn

The Spirit Settles in Its Dwelling and the Demon Returns to Its Nature · The Wood Mother Joins to Subdue the Monster's True Form

良宵一宿
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

良宵一宿 Meals On The Road

huǒyāotóngxīndeshìwèizuǒyòuzǎowǎnyīnqínxíngjīngsānshíxiànzhāishíyòuzhāiwèiwǎnqǐngxiē沿yánzhěngzhěngsāncānsuìxīn滿mǎnliángxiāo宿xiǔhǎochùānshēnhuǒyāotóngxīndeshìwèizuǒyòuzǎowǎnyīnqínxíngjīngsānshíxiànzhāishíyòuzhāiwèiwǎnqǐngxiē沿yánzhěngzhěngsāncānsuìxīnmǎnliángxiāo宿xiǔhǎochùānshēn


逐句解 Line by line

huǒyāotóngxīndeshìwèizuǒyòuzǎowǎnyīnqín huǒyāotóngxīndeshìwèizuǒyòuzǎowǎnyīnqín

That crowd of monsters attended on either side with one mind and one purpose, diligent from early to late.

慇懃 — attentive and painstaking in service. 侍衛 is to attend and guard, the word for a bodyguard.

xíngjīngsānshíxiànzhāishíyòuzhāiwèiwǎnqǐngxiē沿yánzhěngzhěng xíngjīngsānshíxiànzhāishíyòuzhāiwèiwǎnqǐngxiē沿yánzhěngzhěng

Thirty li on they served a meal; fifty li on, another; before dusk they asked him to rest; and all along the road everything was in good order.

獻齋 — to present a monastic meal. 齊齊整整 doubles both characters: everything neat and in place. Thirty is about seventeen kilometres.

sāncānsuìxīn滿mǎn sāncānsuìxīnmǎn

Three meals a day, and everything as the heart could wish;

遂心滿意 — the heart followed and the wish filled, two expressions of the same contentment.

liángxiāo宿xiǔhǎochùānshēn liángxiāo宿xiǔhǎochùānshēn

a fine night's lodging, and a good place to lay the body down.

reads chù, a place. 一宿 takes xiǔ for a night's stay, not the of lodging as a verb.


總評 Commentary

The trap is comfort, and the novel describes it with real warmth. A meal at thirty li, another at fifty, a rest called before dark, three meals a day and a good bed at night. After seventy-five chapters of hunger and sleeping rough, the pilgrims are being looked after properly for the first time in a very long while.

That is what makes it work. There is nothing to see through. The service is genuine, the food is real, the shelters were built to a plan and staffed with cooks. The third fiend's stratagem does not require anybody to be deceived about anything except the purpose, and the purpose is invisible.

The prose slips into pairs and doublings — one mind and one purpose, neat and in order, the heart followed and the wish filled — and the rhythm is soothing on purpose. The narrator has already told us that grief is coming. He now spends four segments describing how pleasant the road is, which is a colder piece of craft than anything the demons have managed.