第八十回 · 附葛攀藤 Bound to the Great Tree — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

附葛攀藤 Bound to the Great Tree

那nà長zhǎng老lǎo起qǐ身shēn挪nuó步bù，穿chuān過guò千qiān年nián柏bǎi，隔gé起qǐ萬wàn年nián松sōng，附fù葛gé攀pān藤téng，近jìn前qián觀guān之zhī。只zhǐ見jiàn那nà大dà樹shù上shàng綁bǎng著zhe一yí個gè女nǚ子zǐ，上shàng半bàn截jié使shǐ葛gé滕téng綁bǎng在zài樹shù上shàng，下xià半bàn截jié埋mái在zài土tǔ裡lǐ。那nà长zhǎng老lǎo起qǐ身shēn挪nuó步bù，穿chuān过guò千qiān年nián柏bǎi，隔gé起qǐ万wàn年nián松sōng，附fù葛gé攀pān藤téng，近jìn前qián观guān之zhī。只zhǐ见jiàn那nà大dà树shù上shàng绑bǎng着zhe一yí个gè女nǚ子zǐ，上shàng半bàn截jié使shǐ葛gé滕téng绑bǎng在zài树shù上shàng，下xià半bàn截jié埋mái在zài土tǔ里lǐ。

逐句解 Line by line

那nà長zhǎng老lǎo起qǐ身shēn挪nuó步bù，穿chuān過guò千qiān年nián柏bǎi，隔gé起qǐ萬wàn年nián松sōng，附fù葛gé攀pān藤téng，近jìn前qián觀guān之zhī。那nà长zhǎng老lǎo起qǐ身shēn挪nuó步bù，穿chuān过guò千qiān年nián柏bǎi，隔gé起qǐ万wàn年nián松sōng，附fù葛gé攀pān藤téng，近jìn前qián观guān之zhī。

The elder rose and stepped out, passing through thousand-year cypresses, putting aside ten-thousand-year pines, clinging to the kudzu and hauling on the creeper, and drew near to look.

The kudzu and the creeper are the same two plants the rhapsody had binding each other. He is now inside that tangle, using it as handholds.

只zhǐ見jiàn那nà大dà樹shù上shàng綁bǎng著zhe一yí個gè女nǚ子zǐ，上shàng半bàn截jié使shǐ葛gé滕téng綁bǎng在zài樹shù上shàng，下xià半bàn截jié埋mái在zài土tǔ裡lǐ。只zhǐ见jiàn那nà大dà树shù上shàng绑bǎng着zhe一yí个gè女nǚ子zǐ，上shàng半bàn截jié使shǐ葛gé滕téng绑bǎng在zài树shù上shàng，下xià半bàn截jié埋mái在zài土tǔ里lǐ。

All he could see was a woman bound to a great tree, her upper half tied to the trunk with kudzu vine and her lower half buried in the earth.

The 著 in 綁著 is the sustained zhe — bound and remaining bound. Note the arrangement: tied above, buried below. It is a strange, deliberate, ritual-looking way to leave a person, and nobody in the chapter ever remarks on how odd it is.

總評 Commentary

The image is genuinely unsettling and the book delivers it flatly, without a word of comment. Half tied and half buried is not how bandits leave a captive. It is how you plant something.

Everything about the staging should be a warning. She is deep inside a wood the verse spent eighteen lines describing as impassable, in a spot a traveller could only reach by hauling himself through vines, arranged in a posture nobody has ever been left in by accident. Tripitaka walks up and asks her what happened.