三個兒子 Three Sons And One Daughter
現有牌位、香爐在御前作證，說是你親女哩。」天王道：「我止有三個兒子，一個女兒。大小兒名金吒，侍奉如來，做前部護法；二小兒名木叉，在南海隨觀世音做徒弟；现有牌位、香炉在御前作证，说是你亲女哩。」天王道：「我止有三个儿子，一个女儿。大小儿名金咤，侍奉如来，做前部护法；二小儿名木叉，在南海随观世音做徒弟；
逐句解 Line by line
The tablets and the incense burner are there before the throne as evidence, and they say she is a daughter of your own."
作證 is to serve as evidence, and it is still the courtroom word. Venus is explaining to a soldier why an object in a hall four miles away is a problem.
The Heavenly King said, "I have only three sons and one daughter.
兒子 takes 子 at the light everyday zi, because it is a plain word for a child and not a title. The whole defence is about to be an inventory, and the novel gets a lot out of the flatness of it.
My eldest boy is called Jinzha. He serves the Tathagata and is a guardian of the vanguard;
Jinzha, Muzha and Nezha are the three sons of the Buddhist and Daoist Li Jing alike, and each has been placed in a different institution — which is what a well-connected family looked like.
my second boy is called Muzha, and is in the Southern Sea, a disciple following Guanyin;
Muzha is Huian, whom the reader met carrying messages for Guanyin much earlier in the journey. The Heavenly King is producing character references, and they are extremely good ones.
The defence is a list, delivered like a man reading out a family register, and its flatness is exactly the strategy. He is not arguing; he is accounting for every child he has.
It works as rhetoric because each son is placed with a figure the court cannot question. A boy serving the Buddha and a boy serving Guanyin are not the household of a man who lets his daughters turn demon.