Canonical Classics ← 第八十四回
第八十四回
nánmièchíyuánjué
wángchéngzhèngtiānrán

Hard to Extinguish, the Sustaining Power Perfects the Great Awakening · The Dharma King Attains the True Body, Natural and Whole

那裡透亮
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

那裡透亮 Where the Light Gets In

háimenkànkàntòuliàng使shǐxiēzhǐérmíngzǎoxiēérláikāi。」guǎdào:「xiǎoxīnle。」suìguānménshuìháimenkànkàntòuliàng使shǐxiēzhǐérmíngzǎoxiēérláikāi。」guǎdào:「xiǎoxīnle。」suìguānménshuì


逐句解 Line by line

háimenkànkàntòuliàng使shǐxiēzhǐér háimenkànkàntòuliàng使shǐxiēzhǐér

and have a look for us where the light gets in, and paste a bit of paper over it.

is , wherever — the indefinite use of the questioning reading. doubled is to paste over loosely, the ordinary repair for a gap, with the oiled paper that also served for windows.

míngzǎoxiēérláikāi。」 míngzǎoxiēérláikāi。」

Come and open it early tomorrow."

The instruction that will not be carried out. By the time the lid comes off, the chest will be somewhere else entirely.

guǎdào:「xiǎoxīnle。」 guǎdào:「xiǎoxīnle。」

The widow said: "You are over-careful."

is the vernacular intensifier, too, excessively — and her comment is the last thing anyone says to the pilgrims before the lid closes.

suìguānménshuì suìguānménshuì

With that they all shut their doors and went to sleep, and no more of that.

不題 is the storyteller's formula for dropping a thread: we say no more of it for now. It marks the end of a scene the way a curtain does.


總評 Commentary

The widow is right and does not know how right. Paper over the light gaps in a box you have asked to be padlocked from outside — she has watched four grown men arrange their own imprisonment and finds it faintly excessive.

The formula that closes the passage is the novel's equivalent of a scene break, and it is doing a second job here. Everyone in the household goes to sleep; the story stays with the box.