戴帽中咒 The Cap and the Spell
行者去解開包袱，在那包裹中間見有幾個粗麵燒餅，拿出來遞與師父。又見那光豔豔的一領綿布直裰、一頂嵌金花帽。行者道：「這衣帽是東土帶來的？」三藏就順口兒答應道：「是我小時穿戴的。這帽子若戴了，不用教經，就會念經；這衣服若穿了，不用演禮，就會行禮。」行者道：「好師父，把與我穿戴了罷。」三藏道：「只怕長短不一，你若穿得，就穿了罷。」行者遂脫下舊白布直裰，將綿布直裰穿上，也就是比量著身體裁的一般。把帽兒戴上。三藏見他戴上帽子，就不吃乾糧，卻默默的念那緊箍咒一遍。行者叫道：「頭痛，頭痛。」那師父不住的又念了幾遍，把個行者痛得打滾，抓破了嵌金的花帽。三藏又恐怕扯斷金箍，住了口不念。不念時，他就不痛了。行者去解开包袱，在那包裹中间见有几个粗面烧饼，拿出来递与师父。又见那光艳艳的一领绵布直裰、一顶嵌金花帽。行者道：「这衣帽是东土带来的？」三藏就顺口儿答应道：「是我小时穿戴的。这帽子若戴了，不用教经，就会念经；这衣服若穿了，不用演礼，就会行礼。」行者道：「好师父，把与我穿戴了罢。」三藏道：「只怕长短不一，你若穿得，就穿了罢。」行者遂脱下旧白布直裰，将绵布直裰穿上，也就是比量着身体裁的一般。把帽儿戴上。三藏见他戴上帽子，就不吃干粮，却默默的念那紧箍咒一遍。行者叫道：「头痛，头痛。」那师父不住的又念了几遍，把个行者痛得打滚，抓破了嵌金的花帽。三藏又恐怕扯断金箍，住了口不念。不念时，他就不痛了。
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim went and undid the bundle, and among the wrappings saw several coarse wheaten cakes, which he took out and handed to his master.
He opens the bundle for the cakes, and the trap is lying underneath them. 行者 reads 行 as xíng; 那包裹 reads 那 as nà.
He also saw a gleaming quilted cotton cassock and a cap set with gold flowers.
光豔豔 — gleaming, glossy, catching the light. The word is doing the work of bait, and this is a monkey who has never once left a fine thing alone. 那光豔豔 reads 那 as nà.
The Pilgrim said, "Was this clothing brought from the Eastern Land?"
An innocent question. What follows is not an innocent answer. 行者 reads 行 as xíng.
Sanzang answered offhandedly, "It is what I wore in my youth.
順口兒答應 — answering offhand, the words simply following the mouth. The gentlest character in the book lies without a pause, because a bodhisattva told him to.
If you put on this cap, without being taught the sutras you will know how to recite them; if you put on this robe, without rehearsing the rites you will know how to perform them."
And here is the lure Guanyin coached him in: wear the cap and you will know the sutras without being taught; wear the robe and you will know the rites without rehearsing. Instant learning, no work — aimed with some precision at a creature who has just been lectured about diligence. 帽子 takes the light 子 (zi); in 教經, 'be taught the sutras', 教 is the concrete verb 'to teach' and reads jiāo, not the jiào of 'to make someone do'; 行禮 reads 行 as xíng.
The Pilgrim said, "Good master, let me have them to wear."
'Good master, let me have them.' He asks for it. That detail matters — nobody puts the cap on him. 行者 reads 行 as xíng.
Sanzang said, "I only fear they may not fit, but if you can wear them, then put them on."
The final touch of the deception is a show of reluctance: they may not fit, but try if you like. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 長短, 'length', reads 長 as cháng; 穿得 takes 得 as dé, the 'if you can manage it' sense.
The Pilgrim thereupon took off his old white cotton cassock and put on the quilted one, which fitted as though cut to the measure of his body; and he set the cap on his head.
And it fits as though cut to his measure — which is the sentence the whole chapter has been walking toward. Then the cap goes on. 行者 reads 行 as xíng; 將綿布 reads 將 as jiāng; in 比量著 the character 量 is the verb 'to measure', read liáng, with the ongoing-action 著 (zhe).
When Sanzang saw him wearing the cap, he stopped eating the dry rations and silently recited the Tight-Fillet Spell once through.
He stops eating to do it. Nothing is said aloud; the spring of the trap is a silence. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng; 帽子 takes the light 子 (zi); 乾糧 reads 乾 as gān; 那緊箍咒 reads 那 as nà.
The Pilgrim cried out, "My head aches, my head aches!" The master, ceaselessly, recited it several times more, till the Pilgrim rolled on the ground in agony and clawed the gold-flowered cap to shreds.
My head aches, my head aches — and the master does not stop, but recites it several times more, until the monkey is rolling on the ground tearing the cap to pieces. 行者 reads 行 as xíng; 那師父 reads 那 as nà; 痛得 reads 得 as de, marking pain to the point of rolling.
Sanzang, fearing he would snap the golden fillet, closed his mouth and stopped reciting; and when he stopped, the pain stopped too.
He stops — and note what stops him, which is not pity but the fear of breaking the band. When he stops, the pain stops. Cause and effect, demonstrated once, and the mechanism that will govern this creature for the rest of the journey is now on the table. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng.
The chapter's climax is staged with quiet domestic irony. The instruments of the monkey's lifelong subjection — a golden cap and a spell — reach him not by force but through the homeliest scene imaginable: a roadside meal, a bundle opened for dry cakes, a set of clothes too handsome to leave alone. Sanzang, following Guanyin's coaching, tells a flat lie about them being his own boyhood things, magically endowed; and the eager, vain monkey asks to put them on.
That the robe fits 'as though cut to the measure of his body' is the detail to watch. The constraint has been made for him exactly, as though the discipline he keeps refusing were already his own true shape. The moment the cap settles, the point of no return has gone by — though Wukong, delighted with his new finery, has no idea of it.
Then the spell, and the first agony. The passage lays the whole mechanism bare in one clean stroke: the master recites and the pain comes, the master stops and the pain goes. It is a stark picture of control imposed from outside, and the chapter does not prettify it — the monkey rolls on the ground and claws his own head bloody. What persuasion began, coercion now finishes.