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

來顯魂哩
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

來顯魂哩 The Master Come Back as a Ghost

xíngzhědào:「liǎngdōuzàilijiàoshēng。」zhǎnglǎoguǒshēnggāojiàodào:「jièjiè。」dāizidehūntóuhūnnǎodekāikāiyǎnlèidào:「shāshàngshīhuíjiāláixiǎnhúnlizàijiàomenshì?」xíngzhědào:「liǎngdōuzàilijiàoshēng。」zhǎnglǎoguǒshēnggāojiàodào:「jièjiè。」dāizidehūntóuhūnnǎodekāikāiyǎnlèidào:「shāshàngshīhuíjiāláixiǎnhúnlizàijiàomenshì?」


逐句解 Line by line

xíngzhědào:「liǎngdōuzàilijiàoshēng。」 xíngzhědào:「liǎngdōuzàilijiàoshēng。」

Pilgrim said, "Those two are over there weeping for you. Give them a call."

Nineteen characters, and Wukong declines to explain. He could say that they think you are dead, that they buried a stranger's head, that Bajie laid out pebbles. He says none of it, and lets the master walk into the scene cold. 那裡 is , over there — the pointing reading, not the questioning one.

zhǎnglǎoguǒshēnggāojiàodào:「jièjiè。」 zhǎnglǎoguǒshēnggāojiàodào:「jièjiè。」

The elder duly raised his voice and called loudly, "Bajie! Bajie!"

厲聲 is a sharp, carrying voice. The master is shouting across a hillside to a pig who has spent two days at his graveside.

dāizidehūntóuhūnnǎodekāikāiyǎnlèidào:「shāshàngshīhuíjiāláixiǎnhúnlizàijiàomenshì?」 dāizidehūntóuhūnnǎodekāikāiyǎnlèidào:「shāshàngshīhuíjiāláixiǎnhúnlizàijiàomenshì?」

The Idiot, weeping till his head was dazed and his brain befuddled, wiped his snot and tears and said, "Sha Monk — the master has come home to show his ghost, and is that not him calling us over there?"

This is the funniest line in the chapter and it is built on real belief. 顯魂 is for a soul to manifest, and the newly dead were held to return to the house — so Bajie's conclusion is not stupid, it is orthodox. In 哭得, is de, hanging the daze off the weeping, and 昏頭昏腦 doubles a frame to mean thoroughly muddled in the head.


總評 Commentary

Bajie hears his master's voice and concludes, reasonably, that he is being haunted. The soul of the newly dead was expected to come back to the house, and he has spent two days making sure the funeral was done properly. Of course it worked.

The joke has a real tenderness under it. The ghost does not frighten Bajie at all. Believing his dead master is calling him, he turns to Sha Monk and points it out, as though the two of them had a guest.