原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
四十二點 Rain to the Last Drop
玉帝聞言大喜，即傳旨：「著風部、雲部、雨部各遵號令，去下方，按鳳仙郡界，即於今日今時，聲雷佈雲，降雨三尺零四十二點。」玉帝闻言大喜，即传旨：「着风部、云部、雨部各遵号令，去下方，按凤仙郡界，即于今日今时，声雷布云，降雨三尺零四十二点。」
逐句解 Line by line
玉帝聞言大喜，即傳旨：「著風部、雲部、雨部各遵號令，去下方，按鳳仙郡界，即於今日今時，聲雷佈雲，降雨三尺零四十二點。」
玉帝闻言大喜，即传旨：「着风部、云部、雨部各遵号令，去下方，按凤仙郡界，即于今日今时，声雷布云，降雨三尺零四十二点。」
The Jade Emperor was greatly pleased at this, and issued the edict at once: "Let the Wind Department, the Cloud Department and the Rain Department each follow orders, go down to the world below, take the bounds of Fengxian Prefecture, and this very day and this very hour sound thunder, spread cloud, and send down rain to three chǐ and forty-two drops."
著 is zhuó, the dispatching sense. A 尺 is a chǐ, about thirty-two centimetres, so this is getting on for a metre of rain — and then forty-two drops on top, which is the joke. 零 here means and a remainder of, the way one says three feet odd.
And there is the figure. Three chǐ and forty-two drops.
The Dragon King told Pilgrim at the very start of all this that he could only send down rain to the amount the edict specified, and the reader has been waiting a long chapter to find out what such an edict looks like. It looks like this: a bulk measure, and then forty-two drops, counted.
It is the funniest line in the chapter and it is not really a joke at the expense of heaven. A cosmos that keeps its accounts to the last drop is the same cosmos that noticed one man kick over a table, and the same one that registered a single good thought and moved two mountains for it. The precision cuts both ways.