Canonical Classics ← 第八十一回
第八十一回
zhènhǎixīnyuánzhīguài
hēisōnglínsānzhòngxúnshī

At the Sea-Calming Monastery the Mind-Ape Knows the Fiend · In the Black Pine Wood the Three Seek Their Master

頂摩碧漢
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

頂摩碧漢 A Peak That Rubs The Sky

duōshízǎojiànzuòshānzhùyúnjiǎosānréncǎizhùdōuàndìngyúntóujiànshānduōshízǎojiànzuòshānzhùyúnjiǎosānréncǎizhùdōuàndìngyúntóujiànshān

dǐnghànfēngjiēqīngxiāodǐnghànfēngjiēqīngxiāo
zhōuwéishùwànwànqiānláiwǎngfēiqínzhāzhāzàozhōuwéishùwànwànqiānláiwǎngfēiqínzhāzhāzào

逐句解 Line by line

duōshízǎojiànzuòshānzhùyúnjiǎo duōshízǎojiànzuòshānzhùyúnjiǎo

Before long a great mountain came in sight and blocked the feet of their clouds.

雲腳, the feet of the cloud, is the underside a rider stands on — a nice bit of technical vocabulary for a mode of travel this book takes entirely for granted.

sānréncǎizhùdōuàndìngyúntóu sānréncǎizhùdōuàndìngyúntóu

The three of them took hold of the horse and all brought their clouds to a stop.

is dōu. They grab the horse first, which is what one does when landing with the luggage aboard.

jiànshān jiànshān

They saw that mountain:

is . The last set-piece verse of the chapter, and the tag is never parted from it.

dǐnghànfēngjiēqīngxiāo dǐnghànfēngjiēqīngxiāo

Its summit rubs the blue river of heaven, its peaks join the azure sky.

碧漢, the blue Han river, is the Milky Way — the same Silver River that appeared in the night poem at the very start of the chapter.

zhōuwéishùwànwànqiānláiwǎngfēiqínzhāzhāzào zhōuwéishùwànwànqiānláiwǎngfēiqínzhāzhāzào

Round about, ten thousand thousand mingled trees; birds coming and going, chattering and squalling.

The doubled numbers and the doubled bird noise are both intensifiers rather than exact counts — this is a mountain described by piling on.


總評 Commentary

The chapter's last mountain poem begins, and it opens by reaching for the Milky Way — the same river of stars the night poem used on the first evening, when everything was quiet.

That is not accidental. This chapter opened with a peaceful night sky over a monastery and closes with a sinister one over a mountain, and it uses the same image for both.

The birds are worth a moment. Every other creature in this poem will turn out to be a predator; the birds are simply loud, which is the last ordinary thing in the landscape.