直直的豎立 A Needle That Stands Up Straight
行者去耳朵裡取出一個針兒來，迎風幌一幌，就有碗來粗細，直直的豎立面前。那王父子都皆悚懼，眾官員個個心驚。行者去耳朵里取出一个针儿来，迎风幌一幌，就有碗来粗细，直直的竖立面前。那王父子都皆悚惧，众官员个个心惊。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim took a little needle out of his ear, gave it a shake into the wind, and there it was as thick as a bowl, standing bolt upright before them.
迎風, meeting the wind, is the trigger — the rod grows when air moves over it, which is why he shakes it rather than speaking to it. 直直的, straight-straight, is a doubled adverb doing exactly what doubling does in this novel: the thing is very upright indeed. The sequence from a needle in an ear to a bowl-thick pillar takes eleven characters.
The prince and his sons were all struck with awe, and every one of the officers took fright.
悚懼 is a heavier, more formal fear than the everyday word for fright — awe with dread in it. The sentence divides the room in two, the ruling family and the officials, and gives each half its own reaction. The officers have now been frightened four separate times in this chapter and the novel has counted every one.
It is the fourth time a weapon has been produced and the novel still finds a new way to do it. The rake was drawn from a belt, the staff parried a cudgel, the rod was driven into the ground — and this time it simply stands there, upright, in a room full of people.
The needle in the ear is one of the oldest gags in the book and it never stops being funny, because the joke depends on scale rather than surprise. Everyone knows what is coming. Watching a bowl-thick pillar come out of an ear is the pleasure.