第八十回 · 完全身體 A Whole Body Going Down — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

完全身體 A Whole Body Going Down

三sān藏zàng道dào：「我wǒ救jiù他tā出chū林lín，得dé其qí活huó命mìng，怎zěn麼me反fǎn是shì害hài他tā？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「他tā當dāng時shí綁bǎng在zài林lín間jiān，或huò三sān五wǔ日rì，十shí日rì半bàn月yuè，沒méi飯fàn吃chī，餓è死sǐ了le，還hái得dé個gè完wán全quán身shēn體tǐ歸guī陰yīn。三sān藏zàng道dào：「我wǒ救jiù他tā出chū林lín，得dé其qí活huó命mìng，怎zěn么me反fǎn是shì害hài他tā？」行xíng者zhě道dào：「他tā当dāng时shí绑bǎng在zài林lín间jiān，或huò三sān五wǔ日rì，十shí日rì半bàn月yuè，没méi饭fàn吃chī，饿è死sǐ了le，还hái得dé个gè完wán全quán身shēn体tǐ归guī阴yīn。

逐句解 Line by line

三sān藏zàng道dào：「我wǒ救jiù他tā出chū林lín，得dé其qí活huó命mìng，怎zěn麼me反fǎn是shì害hài他tā？」三sān藏zàng道dào：「我wǒ救jiù他tā出chū林lín，得dé其qí活huó命mìng，怎zěn么me反fǎn是shì害hài他tā？」

Tripitaka said, "I have brought her out of the wood and got her a living life. How is that doing her harm?"

A fair question, and he asks it in good faith. Having accepted one of Pilgrim's objections he is now willing to hear the next.

行xíng者zhě道dào：「他tā當dāng時shí綁bǎng在zài林lín間jiān，或huò三sān五wǔ日rì，十shí日rì半bàn月yuè，沒méi飯fàn吃chī，餓è死sǐ了le，還hái得dé個gè完wán全quán身shēn體tǐ歸guī陰yīn。行xíng者zhě道dào：「他tā当dāng时shí绑bǎng在zài林lín间jiān，或huò三sān五wǔ日rì，十shí日rì半bàn月yuè，没méi饭fàn吃chī，饿è死sǐ了le，还hái得dé个gè完wán全quán身shēn体tǐ归guī阴yīn。

Pilgrim said, "When she was tied up in the wood, in three or five days, or ten days or a fortnight, with no food to eat, she would have starved — and she would still have gone down to the shades with her body whole.

完全身體, a body still entire, and 歸陰, to go back to the shadowed world. It matters because Chinese burial practice held that the dead should go into the ground intact; being eaten by a tiger was a fate distinct from, and worse than, simply dying.

總評 Commentary

The argument is monstrous and it is entirely serious. Pilgrim's case is that starving to death slowly, tied to a tree, is preferable to what will happen when she is abandoned on a mountain road, because at least the corpse would be complete.

It is worth taking the reasoning at its own weight rather than as black comedy. In the world of this book an intact body is a real good, and a mangled one is a real harm that outlasts death. Pilgrim is not being callous. He is applying his master's own frame — the welfare of this one person — and arriving somewhere his master will not follow.