九曲盤桓洞 The Cave Of Nine Windings
卻說那妖精果然向東南方奔到竹節山。那山中有一座洞天之處，喚名九曲盤桓洞。洞中的九靈元聖是他的祖翁。當夜足不停風，行至五更時分，到於洞口，敲門而進。小妖見了道：「大王，昨晚有青臉兒下請書，老爺留他住到今早，欲同他來赴你釘鈀會，你怎麼又絕早親來邀請？」妖精道：「不好說，不好說，會成不得了。」正說處，見青臉兒從裡邊走出道：「大王，你來怎的？老大王爺爺起來就同我去赴會哩。」妖精慌張張的，只是搖手不言。却说那妖精果然向东南方奔到竹节山。那山中有一座洞天之处，唤名九曲盘桓洞。洞中的九灵元圣是他的祖翁。当夜足不停风，行至五更时分，到于洞口，敲门而进。小妖见了道：「大王，昨晚有青脸儿下请书，老爷留他住到今早，欲同他来赴你钉钯会，你怎么又绝早亲来邀请？」妖精道：「不好说，不好说，会成不得了。」正说处，见青脸儿从里边走出道：「大王，你来怎的？老大王爷爷起来就同我去赴会哩。」妖精慌张张的，只是摇手不言。
逐句解 Line by line
Now that fiend did indeed make away toward the south-east, to Bamboo-Node Mountain.
奔 is bèn again, the hurrying-towards reading before a named destination. The storyteller picks up the thread he set down at the end of the passage before, and it is the same bearing he fled on.
In that mountain is a cave-heaven, called the Nine-Bend Coiling Cave.
洞天, a cave-heaven, is a technical term: the Daoists counted particular caverns as gateways to worlds of their own, and this is the vocabulary of an immortal's home rather than a monster's den. The novel has quietly changed register.
In the cave the Nine-Spirit Primal Sage is his grandsire.
Twelve graphs, stated flatly, and it is the chapter's closing threat. The nine of the cave's name and the nine of the creature's title are not a coincidence, and the next chapter explains why.
That night his feet never stopped the wind, and travelling on he reached the fifth watch, came to the cave mouth, knocked, and went in.
五更 is the last of the five night watches, roughly the small hours before dawn. 足不停風 — his feet did not let the wind rest — is a vivid way of saying he flew all night without setting down.
A little fiend saw him and said, "Great king! Last evening the blue-faced one brought an invitation, and his lordship kept him here until this morning, meaning to come with him to your Rake Banquet. How is it you have come yourself, so very early, to invite him again?"
The doorkeeper has no idea, and his cheerfulness is the cruellest thing in the passage. The grandfather has already accepted, the messenger is asleep inside, and the party is still on as far as anyone here knows.
The fiend said, "It is bad to tell — bad to tell. The gathering cannot come off now."
得 is de here, the light syllable that makes a can or cannot of the verb, in the negative: the party cannot be brought about. The repeated three graphs are the sound of a creature who cannot start the sentence.
They were still speaking when the blue-faced one came out from within and said, "Great king, what brings you here? His lordship the old great king is up and coming with me to the feast this minute."
The messenger from the road, still in his own good mood, still holding the invitation he was so pleased to be trusted with. He walks into the worst possible moment without knowing there is one.
"His lordship the old great king is up and coming with me to the feast this minute."
The chapter's last piece of cheerfulness before the grief starts. Everything he says is true and everything he does not know makes it unbearable.
The fiend was all in a fluster, and only waved his hand and would not speak.
搖手不言 — waving the hand and saying nothing — is the gesture of a man who cannot get the words out. The chapter closes its last scene on a monster too upset to explain himself, which is not where it began.
The novel switches sides for its closing movement, and the change of register is deliberate. Bamboo-Node Mountain is not described as a lair. It has a cave-heaven, which in Daoist writing means a cavern that opens onto a world of its own — the address of an immortal, not a bandit.
What follows is written as domestic tragedy, and it is played entirely for sympathy. A creature flies all night, arrives before dawn, and is met by a doorman who congratulates him on his party. His own messenger comes out beaming with the news that the grandfather is up and ready to go. He waves his hand and cannot speak.
This is a hard trick for a novel to pull off eighty-nine chapters in, and it works because we have watched the whole thing from the other side. We know there is no banquet, no cave, no household and no beauty, and we know it because we helped. The reader has spent the chapter enjoying a caper and is now asked to watch what the caper cost.