空山靈雨 Empty Mountain, Spiritual Rain6 / 45

三遷 Three Moves

三遷Three Moves

三迁

花嫂子着了魔了！Sister Flower had gone mad!她只有一個孩子，捨不得敎他入學．她說：『阿同底父親是因She had only one child, and could not bear to send him to school. She said: 'Ah Tong's father died from studying too hard.'

花嫂子着了魔了！她只有一个孩子，舍不得教他入学．她说：『阿同底父亲是因

爲念書念死的．』'Ah Tong's father died from studying too hard.'

为念书念死的．』

阿同整天在街上和他底小伙伴玩．城市中應有的游戲，他們都玩過。Ah Tong spent all day in the streets playing with his little companions. Whatever games were to be had in the city, they had all played.他們最喜They loved best of all

阿同整天在街上和他底小伙伴玩．城市中应有的游戏，他们都玩过。他们最喜

歡學警察、人犯、老爺、財主、乞丐．阿同常要做人犯，被人用繩子綑起來，帶到老爺跟前to play at policeman, criminal, master, rich man, and beggar. Ah Tong often had to play the criminal, bound up with rope by the others and hauled before the "master"

欢学警察、人犯、老爷、财主、乞丐．阿同常要做人犯，被人用绳子捆起来，带到老爷跟前

挨打．to be beaten.

一天給花嫂子看見了，說：『這還了得！One day Sister Flower saw this and said, 'This will never do!孩子要學壞了．我得找地方搬家．』The boy is turning bad. I must find another place to move to.'

一天给花嫂子看见了，说：『这还了得！孩子要学坏了．我得找地方搬家．』

她带着孩子到村莊裏住．孩子整天在阡陌間和他底小伙伴玩：村莊裏應有的She took the child to live in a village. All day long the child played among the fields and footpaths with his little companions: whatever games were to be had in the village,

她带着孩子到村庄里住．孩子整天在阡陌间和他底小伙伴玩：村庄里应有的

游戲，他們都玩過．他們最喜歡做牛馬、牧童、肥猪、公鷄．阿同常要做牛被人牽着騎着，they had all played. They loved best of all to play at ox, horse, herdboy, fat pig, and rooster. Ah Tong often had to play the ox, led about and ridden by the others,

游戏，他们都玩过．他们最喜欢做牛马、牧童、肥猪、公鸡．阿同常要做牛被人牵着骑着，

鞭着他學耕田．whipped on to make him plough the fields.

鞭着他学耕田．

一天又給花嫂子看見了，就說：『這還了得！One day Sister Flower saw this again, and said, 'This will never do!孩子要變畜生了．我得找地方搬家．』The boy is turning into a beast. I must find another place to move to.'

一天又给花嫂子看见了，就说：『这还了得！孩子要变畜生了．我得找地方搬家．』

她帶孩子到深山底洞裏住．孩子整天在懸崖斷谷間和他底小伙伴玩．他底小She took the child to live in a cave deep in the mountains. All day long the child played among the cliffs and ravines with his little companions. His little

她带孩子到深山底洞里住．孩子整天在悬崖断谷间和他底小伙伴玩．他底小

伙伴就是小生番、小獮猴、大鹿、長尾三娘、大蛺蝶．他最愛學鹿底跳躍，猴底攀緣，蛺companions were now a little savage boy, a little macaque, a great deer, a long-tailed lady-monkey, and a great butterfly. He loved best to imitate the deer's leaping, the monkey's climbing,

伙伴就是小生番、小狝猴、大鹿、长尾三娘、大蛱蝶．他最爱学鹿底跳跃，猴底攀缘，蛱

蝶底飛舞．and the butterfly's fluttering flight.

蝶底飞舞．

有一天，阿同從懸崖上飛下去了．他底同伴小生番來給花嫂子報信，花嫂子說，『他飛下去麼？One day, Ah Tong flew down from the cliff. His companion the little savage boy came to bring Sister Flower the news. Sister Flower said, 'Did he fly down?那麼他就有本領了．』Then he has gained real skill.'

有一天，阿同从悬崖上飞下去了．他底同伴小生番来给花嫂子报信，花嫂子说，『他飞下去么？那么他就有本领了．』

呀，花嫂子瘋了！Ah, Sister Flower had gone mad!

呀，花嫂子疯了！

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What it’s about

Sister Hua refuses to send her only child Atong to school because, she says, studying killed his father. In the city he and his friends imitate the roles around them—policeman, prisoner, official, rich man and beggar—and he repeatedly chooses to be the prisoner bound and beaten before the magistrate. Alarmed that he will become bad, she moves him to the countryside. There his games reproduce village labor and livestock, and he chooses to be an ox led, ridden and whipped at the plough.

She moves a third time, now to a mountain cave, where his companions include Indigenous children, monkeys, deer and butterflies. Atong loves copying their leaps, climbing and flight until one day he flies off a cliff. When a companion reports it, his mother says that if he has flown down, he has acquired a skill; the narrator closes by declaring her mad. The dark revision of Mencius' exemplary mother shows that no environment is neutral. Children imitate whatever social or natural world adults select, while frantic attempts to prevent every risk may only change the form in which danger arrives.

When it was written 背景

The title invokes the famous story of Mencius' mother moving three times to find a morally suitable neighborhood for her son, finally settling beside a school. Xu rewrites that educational parable for a modern environment containing police violence, class hierarchy, agricultural exploitation and colonial-era representations of Indigenous mountain people. The mother's first distrust of schooling also reverses the original, since book learning is associated with the father's death. 生番 is now an offensive historical label; in Republican writing it commonly referred to Indigenous Taiwanese communities imagined as outside state assimilation. Readers should treat that vocabulary as evidence of the text's period and limits. The fable's escalating three-part pattern is simple, but its last sentence turns pedagogical anxiety into tragedy and shocked laughter.

Words in this chapter 生词