孽龍吞馬 The Dragon Devours the Horse
師徒兩個正然看處，只見那澗當中響一聲，鑽出一條龍來，推波掀浪，攛出崖山，就搶長老。慌得個行者丟了行李，把師父抱下馬來，回頭便走。那條龍就趕不上，把他的白馬連鞍轡一口吞下肚去，依然伏水潛蹤。行者把師父送在那高阜上坐了，卻來牽馬挑擔，止存得一擔行李，不見了馬匹。他將行李擔送到師父面前道：「師父，那孽龍也不見蹤影，只是驚走我的馬了。」三藏道：「徒弟啊，卻怎生尋得馬著麼？」行者道：「放心，放心，等我去看來。」师徒两个正然看处，只见那涧当中响一声，钻出一条龙来，推波掀浪，撺出崖山，就抢长老。慌得个行者丢了行李，把师父抱下马来，回头便走。那条龙就赶不上，把他的白马连鞍辔一口吞下肚去，依然伏水潜踪。行者把师父送在那高阜上坐了，却来牵马挑担，止存得一担行李，不见了马匹。他将行李担送到师父面前道：「师父，那孽龙也不见踪影，只是惊走我的马了。」三藏道：「徒弟啊，却怎生寻得马著么？」行者道：「放心，放心，等我去看来。」
逐句解 Line by line
As master and disciple stood there gazing, all at once from the middle of the gorge came a great splash, and a dragon came boring up out of the water,
正然 is "just as, in the very act of" — they are absorbed in the view when the dragon strikes. 鑽 (zuān), "to bore, to drill through," is an apt verb for the creature erupting from the depths. 那澗 is demonstrative, nà.
shoving the billows and heaving the waves, and shot out past the cliff-face straight at the elder.
攛 (cuān) is "to fling oneself, to leap out"; 搶 here is "to snatch at, make a grab for." 長老 (zhǎnglǎo), "the elder," is a standing epithet for the monk (長 read zhǎng).
In his alarm the Pilgrim dropped the baggage, caught his master down off the horse, and turned to flee.
慌得 (huāng de) — "so flustered that" — is the resultative complement, 得 read de. Wukong's first instinct is to save Sanzang, letting horse and load fend for themselves.
The dragon could not overtake them, so it swallowed the white horse — saddle, bridle and all — at a single gulp, and sank back into the water to hide its trail as before.
鞍轡 (ānpèi) is the saddle-and-bridle; 一口吞下, "to gulp down in a mouthful"; 潛蹤, "to hide one's tracks." The dragon vanishes as suddenly as it came, leaving no quarry to strike at.
The Pilgrim set his master down to sit on a high mound, then came back to lead the horse and take up the load — but only the one load of baggage was left, and the horse was nowhere to be seen.
高阜 (gāofù) is a raised hillock; 挑擔, "to shoulder a carrying-pole." 止存得, "there remained only," with 得 again read de. The bald inventory — one load left, no horse — lets the loss register plainly.
He carried the load of baggage over before his master and said: "Master, that vile dragon has left no trace either; it has only frightened my horse away."
將 is the coverb "taking" (jiāng), marking 行李擔 as the thing handled. 孽龍 (nièlóng), "the sinful dragon," carries a moral charge — 孽 is karmic wrongdoing. Wukong understates the disaster, and misreads it: the horse has not bolted but been eaten.
Said Sanzang: "Disciple, ah — however are we to find the horse now?"
怎生 (zěnshēng), "how, in what way," is a Song–Yuan colloquialism common in the vernacular novel. 尋得 here has the sense of managing to get, so 得 is read dé; the sentence-final 著麼 softens it into an anxious question.
Said the Pilgrim: "Rest easy, rest easy; let me go and take a look."
放心, "set your heart at ease," doubled for reassurance. Wukong's breezy confidence here will curdle into anger a moment later, when the horse cannot be found.
The ambush is staged with the vernacular novel's characteristic economy of violence. The dragon does not fight for the horse; it simply erupts, gulps mount and tack down "at a single gulp," and is gone — 依然伏水潛蹤, "sinking back to hide its trail as before." The point is precisely the frustration of it: no enemy is left to grapple, no body to strike. Wukong's prodigious strength, so decisive against the brigands of the previous chapter, is here made suddenly useless, and the tension of the episode comes from that helplessness rather than from any contest.
Notice how the loss is told — through a plain accounting rather than lament. Wukong carries the load over, finds "only the one load left, and the horse nowhere to be seen," and even misdiagnoses the disaster as a bolt rather than a devouring. Sanzang's answer is the first of many in this chapter: not resource but tears, and the anxious refrain 怎生 ("however are we…"). The contrast between the disciple's brisk "rest easy" and the master's rising dismay sets up the quarrel to come, and with it the chapter's real difficulty — not the dragon, but the pilgrims' own want of patience.