Canonical Classics ← 第七十七回
第七十七回
qúnběnxìng
bàizhēn

The Host of Fiends Imposes on the Original Nature · Of One Body They Bow to the True Thus-Come

兩個做種
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

兩個做種 Two Kept Back For Seed

wǎngyāojiānshùndàiháiyǒushíèr。「sòngshíháiliúliǎngzuòzhǒng。」jiāngchóngérpāolesànzàishíxiǎoyāoliǎnshàngzuānkǒngjiànjiàndǔndōushuìdǎolewǎngyāojiānshùndàiháiyǒushíèr。「sòngshíháiliúliǎngzuòzhǒng。」jiāngchóngérpāolesànzàishíxiǎoyāoliǎnshàngzuānkǒngjiànjiàndǔndōushuìdǎole


逐句解 Line by line

wǎngyāojiānshùndàiháiyǒushíèr wǎngyāojiānshùndàiháiyǒushíèr

He felt about in the pouch at his waist: there were still twelve of them.

順帶 is the belt-pouch, and the verb is doubled — 摸摸, a bit of a rummage. The Great Sage patting his pockets.

sòngshíháiliúliǎngzuòzhǒng。」 sòngshíháiliúliǎngzuòzhǒng。」

"I shall send him ten, and keep two back for seed."

做種, to keep for seed, is a farmer's phrase: the portion of the crop you do not eat so that there will be a crop next year. He is treating magical insects as agricultural stock.

jiāngchóngérpāolesànzàishíxiǎoyāoliǎnshàngzuānkǒngjiànjiàndǔndōushuìdǎole jiāngchóngérpāolesànzàishíxiǎoyāoliǎnshàngzuānkǒngjiànjiàndǔndōushuìdǎole

He threw the insects out, and they scattered onto the faces of the ten little demons and bored into their nostrils, so that little by little they began to nod, and all of them dropped asleep.

is dǎo here, the falling-over reading, not dào. The pacing is careful: 漸漸打盹, gradually nodding, then all down at once.


總評 Commentary

Ten insects for ten guards, and two held back. The arithmetic is the passage, and it is arithmetic Wukong does out loud.

Keeping two for seed is a farmer's instinct and it tells you something about this character that the fights never do. He is not hoarding treasure; he is thinking about the next harvest. Whatever else the Great Sage is, he grew up on a mountain and knows you do not eat everything you have.

It is also, quietly, a piece of plot engineering. Two spare insects have been placed on the table and named, and no reader who has got this far expects them to stay in the pouch.