神鐵誇能 The Cudgel and the Boast
兩個前進，長老在馬上問道：「悟空，你才打虎的鐵棒，如何不見？」行者笑道：「師父，你不曉得。我這棍，本是東洋大海龍宮裡得來的，喚做天河鎮底神珍鐵，又喚做如意金箍棒。當年大反天宮，甚是虧他。隨身變化，要大就大，要小就小。剛才變做一個繡花針兒模樣，收在耳內矣。但用時，方可取出。」三藏聞言暗喜。又問道：「方才那虎見了你，怎麼就不動動？讓你自在打他，何說？」悟空道：「不瞞師父說，莫道是隻虎，就是一條龍，見了我也不敢無禮。我老孫頗有降龍伏虎的手段，翻江攪海的神通；見貌辨色，聆音察理；大之則量於宇宙，小之則攝於毫毛；變化無端，隱顯莫測。剝這個虎皮，何為稀罕？若到那疑難處，看展本事麼。」三藏聞得此言，愈加放懷無慮，策馬前行。两个前进，长老在马上问道：「悟空，你才打虎的铁棒，如何不见？」行者笑道：「师父，你不晓得。我这棍，本是东洋大海龙宫里得来的，唤做天河镇底神珍铁，又唤做如意金箍棒。当年大反天宫，甚是亏他。随身变化，要大就大，要小就小。刚才变做一个绣花针儿模样，收在耳内矣。但用时，方可取出。」三藏闻言暗喜。又问道：「方才那虎见了你，怎么就不动动？让你自在打他，何说？」悟空道：「不瞒师父说，莫道是只虎，就是一条龙，见了我也不敢无礼。我老孙颇有降龙伏虎的手段，翻江搅海的神通；见貌辨色，聆音察理；大之则量于宇宙，小之则摄于毫毛；变化无端，隐显莫测。剥这个虎皮，何为稀罕？若到那疑难处，看展本事么。」三藏闻得此言，愈加放怀无虑，策马前行。
逐句解 Line by line
As the two went forward, the elder asked from horseback, "Wukong, the iron rod with which you just now killed the tiger — how is it I no longer see it?"
A useful question, and not only for Sanzang: the reader has been away from this weapon for a dozen chapters and would also like to know where it went. 長老 reads 長 as zhǎng.
The Pilgrim laughed and said, "Master, you do not know.
Master, you do not know — 你不曉得, said with the patience of someone about to enjoy himself. In 曉得, 'to know', the 得 is de, marking the knowing as something arrived at.
This staff of mine was got long ago from the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean; it is called the Divine Iron that Fixes the Bed of Heaven's River, and again the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel.
The pedigree, recited in full and with relish. He took it from the undersea Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean in the novel's opening chapters, and it answers to two grand names: 天河鎮底神珍鐵, the Divine Iron that Anchors the Bed of the Milky Way — it was the pole that held the celestial river down — and 如意金箍棒, the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel. 得來, 'got, obtained', reads 得 as dé.
In the year I made my great rebellion in Heaven, I leaned on it heavily.
甚是虧他 — I leaned on it heavily. Here 甚 is the emphasiser, 'very', read shèn. The occasion he is being so casual about is the Havoc in Heaven.
It transforms at my will — grows great when I would have it great, small when I would have it small.
This is the 如意, the as-you-will half of its name, doing what it says: big when he wants it big, small when he wants it small. No other property of the weapon matters as much.
Just now I turned it into the likeness of an embroidery needle and tucked it in my ear. Only when it is needed do I bring it out."
Which the reader watched happen ten minutes ago, when a needle from behind his ear met a tiger.
Sanzang heard this with secret delight, and asked again, "When that tiger caught sight of you just now, why did it not stir at all, but let you strike it at your ease — how do you account for that?"
Sanzang's second question — why did the tiger simply lie there and let you hit it? — is the opening Wukong has been waiting for. 三藏 reads 藏 as zàng.
Wukong said, "I will not deceive you, Master: not to speak of a tiger, were it even a dragon, at the sight of me it would not dare be uncivil.
He begins by waving away tigers and dragons together. 老孫, 'old Sun', is how he refers to himself when he is pleased with himself, which is most of the time.
I, old Sun, have some skill at subduing dragons and taming tigers, some power to overturn rivers and churn seas;
The heart of the boast comes in matched clauses that answer each other two by two, and this is the first pair. 降龍伏虎, to subdue dragons and tame tigers, takes 降 in its 'subdue' sense and reads it xiáng, not jiàng, 'to descend' — the same character the Dragon King will use later for a guest coming down to visit.
I read a face and tell its colour, I hear a sound and discern its meaning; at my largest I take the measure of the cosmos, at my smallest I withdraw into a hair;
The pairs keep coming, and they get larger as they go: read a face, hear a sound, then span the cosmos and shrink into a hair. In 大之則量於宇宙 — at its largest it takes the measure of the cosmos — 量 is the verb 'to measure, to take the measure of', read liáng, set against the verb 攝, shè, 'to draw in', in the answering clause.
my changes are without end, my appearing and vanishing beyond all fathoming. To skin a tiger like this — what is there rare in that?
The matched clauses close on the two things he is best at, changing without end and vanishing beyond anyone's reckoning — and then the cap on it all: skinning a tiger, what is rare about that? He is belittling the exact feat that knocked his master off a horse. In 何為稀罕, 為 is doing the work of 'to be, to count as' and is read wéi.
If ever we come to some knotty pass, then you shall see my true arts."
Hold that thought. The 疑難處, the knotty passes still to come — 難 read nán, 'difficult' — is a wink over the monk's head at the reader, who has eighty-six chapters of them ahead.
Hearing these words, Sanzang grew all the more untroubled and at ease, and whipped his horse onward.
The speech has done its job. The timid monk is reassured and rides on, which is presumably what the boasting was for. 聞得 reads 得 as de.
The dead tiger prompts a set-piece of self-advertisement. Sanzang's two questions — where did the rod go, and why did the beast not resist — hand Wukong the opening for a full recital of his weapon's pedigree and his own powers, and hand the reader, long parted from the Great Sage, a compact reminder of who this is.
The rod's history runs back to the novel's opening arc: the As-You-Will Gold-Banded Cudgel, taken from the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean, able to stretch to fill the sky or shrink to a needle. The boast that follows is built in ringing matched clauses — subduing dragons, taming tigers, spanning the cosmos, withdrawing into a single hair — and it is the voice of the unbeatable Monkey King of the early chapters, unchanged by five centuries under a rock.
There is a light irony in the framing, though. Wukong dismisses as trivial the very kill that sent the monk tumbling from his saddle, and hints broadly at the knotty passes ahead — a promise the rest of the journey keeps in full. On Sanzang the effect is simply comfort: his alarming disciple is a bodyguard, and he rides on easier in his mind.