Canonical Classics ← 第八十八回
第八十八回
chándàohuáshīhuì
xīnyuánshòuménrén

Chan Reaches Yuhua and a Dharma Assembly Is Held · The Mind-Ape and the Wood and the Earth Take Disciples

做孫子
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

做孫子 Your Rake Could Be Its Grandson

èrwángchèkāishuāngshǒu便biànyàojièjièxiàodào:「zhǐhǎozhèzuòsūnzile。」èrwángchèkāishuāngshǒu便biànyàojièjièxiàodào:「zhǐhǎozhèzuòsūnzile。」


逐句解 Line by line

èrwángchèkāishuāngshǒu便biànyàojiè èrwángchèkāishuāngshǒu便biànyàojiè

The second prince stepped out, swung his rake in both hands, and made to strike Bajie.

掣開步 is to draw the feet apart into a fighting stance — the boy sets himself properly before he swings, which tells you he has been taught. He has also chosen, out of everyone in the room, the one opponent whose own weapon is a rake.

jièxiàodào:「zhǐhǎozhèzuòsūnzile。」 jièxiàodào:「zhǐhǎozhèzuòsūnzile。」

Bajie grinned and said, "That rake of yours is fit to be a grandson to this rake of mine."

The insult is a very Chinese shape: you belittle a thing by assigning it a junior place in a family. 做孫子, to be a grandson, puts the prince's rake two generations below Bajie's. 罷了 at the end is the dismissive tag — and that is all it is fit for. 嘻嘻 is the sound of a wide, unbothered grin, which is exactly the wrong response to a weapon coming at your head.


總評 Commentary

Of the three princes it is the second who moves first, and he moves at Bajie, whose rake he has unknowingly been imitating for years.

Bajie's reply is the perfect measure of how little danger he is in. He does not block, dodge or draw. He makes a joke about the boy's family tree and lets the rake come.