猴王自陳 The Monkey Names Himself
劉太保誠然膽大，走上前來，與他拔去了鬢邊草，頷下莎，問道：「你有甚麼說話？」那猴道：「我沒話說，教那個師父上來，我問他一問。」三藏道：「你問我甚麼？」那猴道：「你可是東土大王差往西天取經去的麼？」三藏道：「我正是，你問怎麼？」那猴道：「我是五百年前大鬧天宮的齊天大聖，只因犯了誑上之罪，被佛祖壓於此處。前者有個觀音菩薩，領佛旨意，上東土尋取經人。我教他救我一救，他勸我再莫行兇，歸依佛法，盡慇懃保護取經人，往西方拜佛，功成後自有好處。故此晝夜提心，晨昏弔膽，只等師父來救我脫身。我願保你取經，與你做個徒弟。」刘太保诚然胆大，走上前来，与他拔去了鬓边草，颔下莎，问道：「你有甚么说话？」那猴道：「我没话说，教那个师父上来，我问他一问。」三藏道：「你问我甚么？」那猴道：「你可是东土大王差往西天取经去的么？」三藏道：「我正是，你问怎么？」那猴道：「我是五百年前大闹天宫的齐天大圣，只因犯了诳上之罪，被佛祖压于此处。前者有个观音菩萨，领佛旨意，上东土寻取经人。我教他救我一救，他劝我再莫行凶，归依佛法，尽慇懃保护取经人，往西方拜佛，功成后自有好处。故此昼夜提心，晨昏吊胆，只等师父来救我脱身。我愿保你取经，与你做个徒弟。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Grand Guardian was bold indeed. Stepping forward, he pulled away the grass at the monkey's temples and the sedge beneath his chin, and asked, "What is it you have to say?"
Boqin's nerve is played against Sanzang's timidity all through this scene. He walks straight up to the talking rock and starts grooming it, clearing away the very grass and sedge the portrait has just catalogued, as though tidying the creature up to be looked at properly. 莎, the sedge, is again read suō.
The monkey said, "I have nothing to say to you. Have that master there come up; I have a question to put to him."
The monkey brushes the hunter aside and asks for the monk. He knows whose business he is, and his flat 我沒話說 — nothing to say to you — draws the line between a passer-by and the master he has been waiting five hundred years for.
Sanzang said, "What would you ask me?"
The first words Sanzang speaks in the chapter, and they answer a question with a question. 甚 is read shén in its asking use, 甚麼 meaning 'what' — against the emphasising shèn of 甚喜, 'most glad', later in the chapter. Of the eighteen times the character turns up here, three are the emphasiser and the rest are asking-words.
The monkey said, "Are you the one the sovereign of the Eastern Land has sent to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures?"
Before he says who he is, he checks who is listening. 東土 (dōng tǔ), the Eastern Land, is Tang China; the Western Heaven, 西天, is India, where the scriptures live. 差, to dispatch someone on a mission, is read chāi here.
Sanzang said, "I am indeed. Why do you ask?"
Sanzang confirms it flatly, with 正是, before he has the faintest idea who is asking. 怎麼 asks the reason here — why do you ask? — where the same pair asks about manner in 怎麼敢與他爭持 and elsewhere among its fourteen appearances in the chapter.
The monkey said, "I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who five hundred years ago made havoc in the Halls of Heaven; only because I committed the crime of deceiving those above was I pressed down here by the Buddha Patriarch.
The self-introduction doubles as a recap for readers who have been away from him for a dozen chapters. 齊天大聖, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is the title he claimed before his rebellion; 大鬧天宮, the great havoc in Heaven, is that rebellion; and 誑上之罪, the crime of deceiving those above, is the charge sheet. The Buddha who sealed him here is 佛祖, with 佛 read fó.
Some time ago a Bodhisattva, Guanyin, came at the Buddha's command to the Eastern Land to seek out a scripture-pilgrim.
This is the mission that frames the whole book. 觀音菩薩, the bodhisattva Guanyin, was sent by the Buddha to the Eastern Land to find a monk worthy of fetching the scriptures, and on the way she signed up the disciples-to-be — Wukong among them, in this very rock.
I begged her to save me, and she urged me to do no more violence, to take refuge in the Buddha's Law, and with all diligence to guard the scripture-pilgrim on his way west to worship the Buddha — after which good fortune would surely be mine.
Three conditions, and they are the terms of his parole: give up violence, take refuge in the Law, escort the pilgrim. Everything the chapter does later is a test of them. 盡 here is jìn, 'to the utmost', and 慇懃 is the earnest, unstinting devotion she asked for.
So day and night I have kept my heart on guard, watchful from dusk to dawn, waiting only for a master to come and set me free.
晝夜提心，晨昏弔膽 — the heart held up by day and by night, the gall hung in alarm from dusk to dawn. It is a striking way to describe five hundred years under a rock, because it recasts a punishment as a vigil, which is what he wants his listener to hear.
I am willing to guard you on your journey, and to become your disciple."
He finishes by offering precisely what the plot requires: protection on the road, and the place of first disciple.
With the monkey finally visible, the scene turns into a dialogue of recognition. He waves the hunter off, asks for the monk directly, and delivers a compact self-introduction that also serves as a recap: he is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, imprisoned by the Buddha for his rebellion, and — the point that matters — already promised to this pilgrimage by Guanyin.
That is the hinge the whole rescue turns on. His release is not a lucky accident but the closing of a bargain struck chapters earlier, when the bodhisattva was out recruiting future disciples. The three conditions she set — renounce violence, take refuge in the Law, escort the scripture-pilgrim — mark out the discipline the rest of the chapter will test to destruction against six armed men on a winter road.
Notice how he tells it. Five hundred years of punishment become a penitent's watch, 晝夜提心，晨昏弔膽. Whether the repentance goes deep or is simply the right thing to say is a question the novel leaves open, and pointedly: within a few pages he will kill six men without a flicker. For now he says exactly what is needed and offers himself as Sanzang's first disciple.