Canonical Classics ← 第七十六回
第七十六回
心xīn神shén居jū舍shè魔mó歸guī性xìng
木mù母mǔ同tóng降xiáng怪guài體tǐ真zhēn

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

救命索
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script 繁
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

救命索 Why Did You Not Pull

他tā那nà般bān說shuō,教jiào你nǐ扯chě扯chě救jiù命mìng索suǒ,你nǐ怎zěn麼me不bù扯chě,還hái將jiāng索suǒ子zi丟diū去qù?如rú今jīn教jiào他tā被bèi害hài,卻què如rú之zhī何hé?」他tā那nà般bān说shuō,教jiào你nǐ扯chě扯chě救jiù命mìng索suǒ,你nǐ怎zěn么me不bù扯chě,还hái将jiāng索suǒ子zi丢diū去qù?如rú今jīn教jiào他tā被bèi害hài,却què如rú之zhī何hé?」


逐句解 Line by line

他tā那nà般bān說shuō,教jiào你nǐ扯chě扯chě救jiù命mìng索suǒ,你nǐ怎zěn麼me不bù扯chě,還hái將jiāng索suǒ子zi丟diū去qù? 他tā那nà般bān说shuō,教jiào你nǐ扯chě扯chě救jiù命mìng索suǒ,你nǐ怎zěn么me不bù扯chě,还hái将jiāng索suǒ子zi丢diū去qù?

He told you so plainly — pull the lifeline, pull it. Why did you not pull? Why throw the cord away instead?

還 reads hái, meaning on top of that. 將 is jiāng, putting the object before the verb.

如rú今jīn教jiào他tā被bèi害hài,卻què如rú之zhī何hé?」 如rú今jīn教jiào他tā被bèi害hài,却què如rú之zhī何hé?」

Now you have let him be taken. What is to be done?"

如之何 — what is to be done about it. A literary formula, and the master reaches for one when he is agitated.


總評 Commentary

The accusation is precise and it is unanswerable. Bajie asked for one thing, said when to do it, and Wukong did the opposite. Tripitaka has reconstructed the whole arrangement from the far side of a slope, which is more attention than he usually pays to what his disciples are doing.

His closing question is in the literary register rather than the spoken one — a formula out of the classics dropped into an argument on a hillside. Tripitaka does this whenever he is upset, and the effect is of a man retreating into the vocabulary he was trained in because the situation has got away from him.