Canonical Classics ← 第九十六回
第九十六回
kòuyuánwàidàigāosēng
tángzhǎnglǎotānguì

Squire Kou Gladly Entertains the Eminent Monk · The Tang Elder Is Not Greedy for Wealth and Rank

莫放肆
模式 Mode Read Study
拼音 Pinyin Off
字體 Script
原文 Original text 繁體 Traditional Reader's edition

莫放肆 Don't Make a Show of Yourselves

zhǎnglǎosānrénhuǎnchángjiēyòudeshìkǒuréndōujīngjīngkǒngkǒngcāicāidewéiràozhēngkànmenxiàngmàozhǎnglǎofēnfukǒuzhǐjiào:「fàngfàng。」sānrénguǒzhetóugǎnyǎngshìzhuǎnguòguǎijiǎoguǒjiàntiáonánběijiēzhǎnglǎosānrénhuǎnchángjiēyòudeshìkǒuréndōujīngjīngkǒngkǒngcāicāidewéiràozhēngkànmenxiàngmàozhǎnglǎofēnfukǒuzhǐjiào:「fàngfàng。」sānrénguǒzhetóugǎnyǎngshìzhuǎnguòguǎijiǎoguǒjiàntiáonánběijiē


逐句解 Line by line

zhǎnglǎosānrénhuǎnchángjiēyòudeshìkǒuréndōujīngjīngkǒngkǒngcāicāidewéiràozhēngkànmenxiàngmào zhǎnglǎosānrénhuǎnchángjiēyòudeshìkǒuréndōujīngjīngkǒngkǒngcāicāidewéiràozhēngkànmenxiàngmào

The elder and the three of them walked slowly down the long street, and once again set the whole marketplace off — frightened and suspicious, crowding round and jostling for a look at their faces.

— again. One word, and it tells you this has happened in every town they have ever walked into. Tripitaka's instructions in the previous passage were not caution; they were experience. ⚠ 驚驚恐恐 and 猜猜疑疑 are both ordinary two-character words with each half said twice over. Chinese does this to spread a state out over a crowd and over time — not one person alarmed at one moment, but a whole marketplace being alarmed continuously. English has no clean equivalent; the nearest thing is the way we might say a crowd was all nudging and muttering. ⚠ here is the long street again, not the elder — and 惹得 takes the light reading, handing off to what the crowd did. Both are cases where the plain dictionary answer is the other word.

zhǎnglǎofēnfukǒuzhǐjiào:「fàngfàng。」sānrénguǒzhetóugǎnyǎngshìzhuǎnguòguǎijiǎoguǒjiàntiáonánběijiē zhǎnglǎofēnfukǒuzhǐjiào:「fàngfàng。」sānrénguǒzhetóugǎnyǎngshìzhuǎnguòguǎijiǎoguǒjiàntiáonánběijiē

The elder told them to keep their mouths shut, saying only: "Don't make a show of yourselves. Don't make a show of yourselves." The three did keep their heads down, and did not dare look up. Round the corner, sure enough, was a broad street running north and south.

⚠ He says it twice, back to back. And he had already said it once before, three hundred and fifty-nine characters earlier, when he first got off the horse. Three times in one arrival, to three companions who have been travelling with him for fourteen years. ⚠ Then twice in twenty-two characters, and it is the same word both times: sure enough, just as expected. The disciples did keep their heads down, sure enough — and the street was where the old man said it would be, sure enough. The sentence gives the same little nod of confirmation to two completely different things, one about character and one about geography. It is a small piece of craft and easy to miss. Everything in this arrival is going exactly as somebody said it would, which is not a sensation this novel hands out often.


總評 Commentary

Seventy-one characters of walking down a street, and the chapter is still refusing to produce a monster. What it produces instead is a crowd — frightened, curious, pressing in for a look — and the problem of three companions who cannot be taken anywhere.

The doubled words are the passage's best effect. The marketplace is not described; it is heard, as a set of syllables each said twice, which is what a crowd sounds like from inside it. And against that noise Tripitaka's one instruction, also said twice, sounds exactly as futile as it is.

By the end of it everything has gone right. The disciples obeyed, the street was where it was promised, and the same small word of confirmation covers both. This is the calmest arrival in the second half of the novel, and the chapter is taking its time over it on purpose — because when the trouble finally comes it will not be a demon, and it will not come for another chapter and a half.