原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
虎狼城
The City Of Tigers And Wolves
乃是：乃是：
攢攢簇簇妖魔怪，四門都是狼精靈。攒攒簇簇妖魔怪，四门都是狼精灵。
斑斕老虎為都管，白面雄彪作總兵。斑斓老虎为都管，白面雄彪作总兵。
丫叉角鹿傳文引，伶俐狐狸當道行。丫叉角鹿传文引，伶俐狐狸当道行。
千尺大蟒圍城走，萬丈長蛇占路程。千尺大蟒围城走，万丈长蛇占路程。
樓下蒼狼呼令使，臺前花豹作人聲。楼下苍狼呼令使，台前花豹作人声。
搖旗擂鼓皆妖怪，巡更坐鋪盡山精。摇旗擂鼓皆妖怪，巡更坐铺尽山精。
狡兔開門弄買賣，野豬挑擔幹營生。狡兔开门弄买卖，野猪挑担干营生。
先年原是天朝國，如今翻作虎狼城。先年原是天朝国，如今翻作虎狼城。
逐句解 Line by line
乃是：
乃是：
It was this:
乃是 — two characters, the storyteller's formula for handing over to a poem.
攢攢簇簇妖魔怪，四門都是狼精靈。
攒攒簇簇妖魔怪，四门都是狼精灵。
Fiends and monsters gathered thick and close · and at all four gates the wolf spirits stand.
攢 and 攢 both read cuán, to cluster together — not the zǎn of putting money by, which is the same character in its other sense. 都 is dōu, all.
斑斕老虎為都管，白面雄彪作總兵。
斑斓老虎为都管，白面雄彪作总兵。
Striped old tigers serve as chief stewards · and white-faced panthers act as commanders in chief.
為 reads wéi, to serve as. 都 here reads dū: 都管 is a stewardship, an office, and not the dōu of the line before.
丫叉角鹿傳文引，伶俐狐狸當道行。
丫叉角鹿传文引，伶俐狐狸当道行。
Forked-antlered deer carry the documents · and clever foxes hold the roads and walk them.
行 keeps xíng. The rhyme admits another reading, but 當道 is the unit — to hold the road — and the character after it is the verb. 文引 is a travel permit or official paper.
千尺大蟒圍城走，萬丈長蛇占路程。
千尺大蟒围城走，万丈长蛇占路程。
Great pythons a thousand chi long go round the walls · and long snakes of ten thousand zhang hold the roads.
尺 stays as chǐ and 丈 as zhàng: a thousand chǐ is about 320 metres, ten thousand zhàng about 32 kilometres. The figures are hyperbole and the units are real. 長 reads cháng, long.
樓下蒼狼呼令使，臺前花豹作人聲。
楼下苍狼呼令使，台前花豹作人声。
Grey wolves below the tower cry the orders · and dappled leopards before the terrace speak with human voices.
令使 — the passing on of commands. 作人聲 is to make the sound of a person.
搖旗擂鼓皆妖怪，巡更坐鋪盡山精。
摇旗擂鼓皆妖怪，巡更坐铺尽山精。
Those who wave the flags and beat the drums are all of them fiends · and the night watch and the guard posts are every one a mountain spirit.
更 reads gēng, the night watch, and 鋪 reads pù — a post or a stall, not the pū that means to spread out.
狡兔開門弄買賣，野豬挑擔幹營生。
狡兔开门弄买卖，野猪挑担干营生。
Cunning hares open the shops and drive the trade · and wild boars shoulder the loads and earn a living.
擔 reads dàn — a carried load, the noun — not the dān that means to bear a burden as a verb.
先年原是天朝國，如今翻作虎狼城。
先年原是天朝国，如今翻作虎狼城。
In earlier years it was a kingdom of the heavenly court · and now it is turned into a city of tigers and wolves.
天朝國 — a realm of the celestial dynasty, meaning a proper human kingdom under heaven's order. 翻作 is to turn into something else.
總評 Commentary
The poem is a piece of political horror and it works by being organised. This is not a wilderness full of beasts; it is a functioning city with beasts in every post. Tigers as stewards, panthers as generals, deer carrying the paperwork, foxes on road duty, wolves relaying orders, boars portering, hares keeping shop. Every rung of a real administration is occupied by the wrong species.
The detail that makes it frightening is the ordinariness. The hares are doing trade and the boars are earning a living. Nobody is rampaging. The watch is being kept and the guard posts are manned, and the whole machinery of civic order is running perfectly well without a single human being left in it.
The last couplet says what happened, and says it flatly. In earlier years it was a kingdom of the heavenly court, and now it is a city of tigers and wolves. A place that had a king, a calendar and a place in the world order has been taken over from the inside, and the poem does not describe the conquest at all — only the tidy administration that came after it.
It is worth remembering who is looking. Tripitaka is at this moment sitting up in a sedan chair being carried toward those gates, thoroughly pleased. Wukong is on the ground a li behind him, unable to stand up. Only one of them can see any of this.