Canonical Classics ← 第八十六回
第八十六回
zhùwēizhēngguài
jīngōngshīmièyāoxié

The Wood Mother Lends His Strength to Fight the Monster · The Metal Lord Works His Art to Destroy the Fiend

恨苦相持
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

恨苦相持 Locked in Bitter Struggle

guàizhǐshuōjiāngchīlejiǎréntóuhǒngmenhènxiāngchíshīfàngxīnqiězàiáoáoérděngyāojīngnòngdǎofānghǎoláijiějiù。」guàizhǐshuōjiāngchīlejiǎréntóuhǒngmenhènxiāngchíshīfàngxīnqiězàiáoáoérděngyāojīngnòngdǎofānghǎoláijiějiù。」


逐句解 Line by line

guàizhǐshuōjiāngchīlejiǎréntóuhǒngmenhènxiāngchí guàizhǐshuōjiāngchīlejiǎréntóuhǒngmenhènxiāngchí

That fiend only said he had already eaten you and took a false human head to hoodwink me, and we have been locked with him in a bitter struggle.

恨苦相持 — and here is xiāng, the mutual reading, because a struggle takes two. The machinery gives the appearance reading instead, which is one of the two places in this chapter it leans the wrong way. is the ordinary jiāng fronting the object.

shīfàngxīnqiězàiáoáoérděngyāojīngnòngdǎofānghǎoláijiějiù。」 shīfàngxīnqiězàiáoáoérděngyāojīngnòngdǎofānghǎoláijiějiù。」

Set your mind at rest, master, and bear up a little longer. Let me get that fiend brought down, and then it will be time to come and free you."

熬熬兒 is to endure a bit — the same verb used of simmering something slowly, which is a hard word to use to a man the household is planning to boil. 弄倒 takes as dǎo, to bring down. Wukong is refusing to untie him yet, and he is right.


總評 Commentary

Wukong tells his teacher the truth in two sentences: there was a false head, we were taken in, we fought. He does not mention the grave, the weeping or the pebbles.

The decision not to untie him immediately is the correct one and it costs the master several more hours on a tree. A freed prisoner in a cave full of fiends is a liability. Wukong has learned, over this chapter, to think before he acts, and his teacher pays the price of the lesson.