原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
兔死狐悲 The Fox Grieves For The Hare
行者說道：「我們住了三日，已是吃了這寺裡六個小和尚了。」長老道：「『兔死狐悲，物傷其類。』行者说道：「我们住了三日，已是吃了这寺里六个小和尚了。」长老道：「『兔死狐悲，物伤其类。』
逐句解 Line by line
行者說道：「我們住了三日，已是吃了這寺裡六個小和尚了。」
行者说道：「我们住了三日，已是吃了这寺里六个小和尚了。」
Pilgrim said, "In the three days we have stayed, he has already eaten six of the young monks of this monastery."
The same figure the monks gave, repeated to the one person who had not heard it. Three days, six monks.
長老道：「『兔死狐悲，物傷其類。』
长老道：「『兔死狐悲，物伤其类。』
The Elder said, "'When the hare dies the fox grieves; creatures are wounded by the fate of their own kind.'
兔死狐悲 is one of the best-known four-character phrases in the language and it is usually said with a sneer, of insincere mourning. Tripitaka uses it in its straight sense, and the second clause spells out why.
The proverb turns the argument over completely, and it does so on the strength of a single word: kind. The hare and the fox are not friends. They grieve because they are the same sort of animal.
Tripitaka has been refusing to let his disciple fight for three passages, on grounds of doctrine and of his own safety. Told that monks are being eaten, he changes sides at once, and his reason is not compassion in the abstract. It is that he is a monk.
The phrase is normally used cynically in Chinese, of crocodile tears. It is worth noticing that this novel gives it to the one character who means it without irony.