Canonical Classics ← 第八十六回
第八十六回
木mù母mǔ助zhù威wēi征zhēng怪guài物wù
金jīn公gōng施shī法fǎ滅miè妖yāo邪xié

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

中他計了
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script 繁
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

中他計了 We Have Fallen for It

行xíng者zhě氣qì得de暴bào跳tiào道dào:「中zhòng他tā計jì了le,中zhòng他tā計jì了le。」沙shā僧sēng道dào:「中zhòng他tā甚shén麼me計jì?」行xíng者zhě道dào:「這zhè是shì分fēn瓣bàn梅méi花huā計jì,把bǎ我wǒ弟dì兄xiōng們men調diào開kāi,他tā劈pī心xīn裡lǐ撈lāo了le師shī父fù去qù了le。天tiān天tiān天tiān,卻què怎zěn麼me好hǎo?」行xíng者zhě气qì得de暴bào跳tiào道dào:「中zhòng他tā计jì了le,中zhòng他tā计jì了le。」沙shā僧sēng道dào:「中zhòng他tā甚shén么me计jì?」行xíng者zhě道dào:「这zhè是shì分fēn瓣bàn梅méi花huā计jì,把bǎ我wǒ弟dì兄xiōng们men调diào开kāi,他tā劈pī心xīn里lǐ捞lāo了le师shī父fù去qù了le。天tiān天tiān天tiān,却què怎zěn么me好hǎo?」


逐句解 Line by line

行xíng者zhě氣qì得de暴bào跳tiào道dào:「中zhòng他tā計jì了le,中zhòng他tā計jì了le。」 行xíng者zhě气qì得de暴bào跳tiào道dào:「中zhòng他tā计jì了le,中zhòng他tā计jì了le。」

Pilgrim went hopping mad and said, "We are taken in. We are taken in."

The character 中 is zhòng here, to be struck by something aimed at you — the reading behind the modern phrase for hitting a target. It is the same character as the everyday middle, but the middle sense would be nonsense: nobody is inside a plan, they have been hit by one. In 氣得, angry to the point of something, 得 is de, the hinge that hangs a consequence off a verb — here, hopping.

沙shā僧sēng道dào:「中zhòng他tā甚shén麼me計jì?」 沙shā僧sēng道dào:「中zhòng他tā甚shén么me计jì?」

Sha Monk said, "Taken in by what?"

中 is zhòng once more. The novel repeats the character four times in twenty-five, which is how it makes sure a reader hears the word for being hit rather than the word for the middle. 甚麼 is the ordinary what.

行xíng者zhě道dào:「這zhè是shì分fēn瓣bàn梅méi花huā計jì,把bǎ我wǒ弟dì兄xiōng們men調diào開kāi,他tā劈pī心xīn裡lǐ撈lāo了le師shī父fù去qù了le。天tiān天tiān天tiān,卻què怎zěn麼me好hǎo?」 行xíng者zhě道dào:「这zhè是shì分fēn瓣bàn梅méi花huā计jì,把bǎ我wǒ弟dì兄xiōng们men调diào开kāi,他tā劈pī心xīn里lǐ捞lāo了le师shī父fù去qù了le。天tiān天tiān天tiān,却què怎zěn么me好hǎo?」

Pilgrim said, "This is the Parting the Plum Blossom Petals ploy. They split us brothers apart and snatched the master clean out of the middle of us. Heaven, heaven, heaven, what are we to do?"

分瓣梅花計 names itself: prise the petals off a plum blossom one at a time and the flower is gone without anyone striking the centre. 劈心裡 is literally split-heart-inside, meaning straight through the middle of them, and 撈 is to scoop something out of water — the master was fished out of his own bodyguard. The three bare 天 that follow are not a sentence at all, just the sound a person makes.


總評 Commentary

The stratagem is named after a flower and works like a pickpocket. Send several distractions, let each guard chase one, and walk off with what everybody was guarding. It belongs to the same family of thinking as the classical stratagem lists, where a plan is memorable because it has a picture attached to it.

Wukong's three shouted heavens are the closest the novel lets him come to helplessness. He does not weep here — that comes two lines later, and the narrator reports it rather than letting him do it.