第八十四回 · 靜鞭三響 Three Cracks of the Silence Whip — Journey to the West

原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition 含詞賦 With rhapsody

靜鞭三響 Three Cracks of the Silence Whip

卻què說shuō那nà五wǔ府fǔ六liù部bù，合hé衙yá門mén大dà小xiǎo官guān員yuán，天tiān不bù明míng都dōu要yào去qù朝cháo王wáng拜bài闕què。原yuán來lái這zhè半bàn夜yè一yí個gè個gè也yě沒méi了le頭tóu髮fà。各gè人rén都dōu寫xiě表biǎo啟qǐ奏zòu此cǐ事shì。只zhǐ聽tīng那nà：却què说shuō那nà五wǔ府fǔ六liù部bù，合hé衙yá门mén大dà小xiǎo官guān员yuán，天tiān不bù明míng都dōu要yào去qù朝cháo王wáng拜bài阙què。原yuán来lái这zhè半bàn夜yè一yí个gè个gè也yě没méi了le头tóu发fà。各gè人rén都dōu写xiě表biǎo启qǐ奏zòu此cǐ事shì。只zhǐ听tīng那nà：

靜jìng鞭biān三sān響xiǎng朝cháo皇huáng帝dì，表biǎo奏zòu當dāng今jīn剃tì髮fà因yīn。静jìng鞭biān三sān响xiǎng朝cháo皇huáng帝dì，表biǎo奏zòu当dāng今jīn剃tì发fà因yīn。

逐句解 Line by line

卻què說shuō那nà五wǔ府fǔ六liù部bù，合hé衙yá門mén大dà小xiǎo官guān員yuán，天tiān不bù明míng都dōu要yào去qù朝cháo王wáng拜bài闕què。却què说shuō那nà五wǔ府fǔ六liù部bù，合hé衙yá门mén大dà小xiǎo官guān员yuán，天tiān不bù明míng都dōu要yào去qù朝cháo王wáng拜bài阙què。

Now as for the five offices and the six ministries and the officials of every department, great and small, they all had to go before daylight to attend the king and do reverence at the palace gate.

朝 is cháo, to attend court — not the zhāo that means morning, though the audience is a morning one. 拜闕 is to bow at the gate-towers.

原yuán來lái這zhè半bàn夜yè一yí個gè個gè也yě沒méi了le頭tóu髮fà。原yuán来lái这zhè半bàn夜yè一yí个gè个gè也yě没méi了le头tóu发fà。

And it turned out that in the night every one of them had lost his hair too.

Thirteen characters, and the ambush is sprung. The order not to mention the shaving was given about ninety seconds too late.

各gè人rén都dōu寫xiě表biǎo啟qǐ奏zòu此cǐ事shì。各gè人rén都dōu写xiě表biǎo启qǐ奏zòu此cǐ事shì。

Every man of them wrote out a memorial to report the matter.

表 is a formal memorial to the throne. The bureaucracy answers waking up bald by filing, each man for himself, in writing.

只zhǐ聽tīng那nà：只zhǐ听tīng那nà：

One heard only this:

Three characters and a colon. The chapter's last verse follows, and it is a single matched pair of lines.

Three cracks of the silence-whip, and they attend the emperor; memorials report the reason for today's head-shaving.

靜鞭 is the silence-whip, cracked three times to bring a court audience to order — a real instrument of Ming and Qing ceremony. The two lines set the grandest sound in the palace against the one item on the agenda.

總評 Commentary

The king ordered silence and every official in the kingdom has independently written it up. It is the best-timed joke in the chapter and it needs no telling.

Those two lines are also the last thing the chapter does with its own frame. The whip cracks, the court assembles in full ceremony, and the business of state is that everybody's hair has fallen off.