Canonical Classics ← 第八十回
第八十回
chàyángqiúpèiǒu
xīnyuánzhǔshíyāoxié

The Fair Girl, Nursing the Yang, Seeks a Mate · The Mind-Ape, Guarding His Master, Knows a Fiend

奇花異卉
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

奇花異卉 The Master Wants to Sit

zhèlínzhōnghuāhuìshírénqíngyàozàizuòzuòxiēèrzhōnglehuàxiēzhāiláichī。」zhèlínzhōnghuāhuìshírénqíngyàozàizuòzuòxiēèrzhōnglehuàxiēzhāiláichī。」


逐句解 Line by line

zhèlínzhōnghuāhuìshírénqíng zhèlínzhōnghuāhuìshírénqíng

The rare flowers and uncommon plants in this wood are truly pleasing to the heart.

奇花異卉 is a set four-character phrase for exotic flora — the sort of thing written on the gate of a garden.

yàozàizuòzuòxiē yàozàizuòzuòxiē

I should like to sit here a while: first, to rest the horse;

The doubled 坐坐 softens it to "sit a little." He is asking rather than instructing, which he rarely troubles to do.

èrzhōnglehuàxiēzhāiláichī。」 èrzhōnglehuàxiēzhāiláichī。」

second, my stomach is empty. Go somewhere and beg a little food for me to eat."

The 那裡 here is the vague, open kind — go somewhere, anywhere — and it takes the question-word reading , since the indefinite grew out of the question and not out of the "over there." Chapter 27 has Tripitaka saying almost this exact sentence, and it ended with him driving Pilgrim away.


總評 Commentary

Everything in this passage is an echo. Tripitaka stops in a wood, admires the flowers, sends Pilgrim off for food and settles down to wait. He has done this before, most memorably in chapter 27 before the White Bone Demon, and it went very badly indeed.

The novel is not being lazy in repeating the setup. It is counting on the reader recognising it, so that the moment Pilgrim leaves, the dread arrives without a word of warning being needed. Sending the only disciple who can see through a disguise off to fetch lunch is, by this point in the book, practically a summoning ritual.