小龍現身 The Little Dragon Comes Forth
那揭諦果去澗邊叫了兩遍。那小龍翻波跳浪，跳出水來，變作一個人像，踏了雲頭，到空中對菩薩禮拜道：「向蒙菩薩解脫活命之恩，在此久等，更不聞取經人的音信。」菩薩指著行者道：「這不是取經人的大徒弟？」小龍見了道：「菩薩，這是我的對頭。我昨日腹中饑餒，果然吃了他的馬匹。他倚著有些力量，將我鬥得力怯而回，又罵得我閉門不敢出來。他更不曾提著一個『取經』的字樣。」行者道：「你又不曾問我姓甚名誰，我怎麼就說？」小龍道：「我不曾問你是那裡來的潑魔？你嚷道：『管甚麼那裡不那裡，只還我馬來。』何曾說出半個『唐』字？」菩薩道：「那猴頭專倚自強，那肯稱讚別人？今番前去，還有歸順的哩。若問時，先提起『取經』的字來，卻也不用勞心，自然拱伏。」那揭谛果去涧边叫了两遍。那小龙翻波跳浪，跳出水来，变作一个人像，踏了云头，到空中对菩萨礼拜道：「向蒙菩萨解脱活命之恩，在此久等，更不闻取经人的音信。」菩萨指著行者道：「这不是取经人的大徒弟？」小龙见了道：「菩萨，这是我的对头。我昨日腹中饥馁，果然吃了他的马匹。他倚著有些力量，将我斗得力怯而回，又骂得我闭门不敢出来。他更不曾提著一个『取经』的字样。」行者道：「你又不曾问我姓甚名谁，我怎么就说？」小龙道：「我不曾问你是那里来的泼魔？你嚷道：『管甚么那里不那里，只还我马来。』何曾说出半个『唐』字？」菩萨道：「那猴头专倚自强，那肯称赞别人？今番前去，还有归顺的哩。若问时，先提起『取经』的字来，却也不用劳心，自然拱伏。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Guardian did indeed go to the brink of the gorge and call out twice.
果, "indeed, as she had said." The Bodhisattva's instruction was to call once; the Guardian, prudently, calls twice.
The little dragon churned the billows and leapt the waves, sprang out of the water, changed into human likeness, and trod upon a cloud;
翻波跳浪, "to churn the billows and leap the waves." 變作一個人像 — the dragon takes human likeness, not the beast's shape in which it fought: the form in which one answers a Bodhisattva is not the form in which one brawls.
and rising into the air he did reverence to the Bodhisattva, saying:
禮拜, "to do reverence." The creature that would not so much as answer Wukong's abuse now kneels in the air without being asked.
"I have long awaited here the grace by which the Bodhisattva loosed me and spared my life, and never yet have I heard tidings of the scripture-seeker."
向蒙, "having formerly received [the grace]"; 解脫 is Buddhist vimokṣa, "release, deliverance," and carries here both its technical and its plain sense. 更不聞 takes 更 as gèng, "not once, never yet." The reproach is gentle and entirely justified.
The Bodhisattva pointed to the Pilgrim and said: "Is this not the scripture-seeker's chief disciple?"
指著 takes the durative 著 (zhe). Her whole rebuke is contained in the gesture: the enemy has been standing in front of him all along.
Seeing him, the little dragon said: "Bodhisattva, this is my adversary.
對頭, "adversary, opposite number." The dragon does not deny the deed; he simply misidentified the man.
Yesterday my belly was famished, and I did indeed eat his horse.
饑餒 (jī něi), "famished, starving." 果然, "indeed, sure enough" — the confession is immediate and without excuse, which is itself a kind of dignity.
Trusting to a certain strength of his, he fought me until my courage failed and I withdrew, and then so railed at me that I shut my door and dared not come out.
倚著 takes durative 著 (zhe); 力量 reads 量 as liàng, the noun. 將我鬥得 and 罵得我 both take the resultative 得 (de); 將 is the coverb, jiāng. 閉門, "to shut one's door," of a creature that has no door — the idiom of a beaten householder.
Never once did he so much as mention the words 'seeking the scriptures.'"
更不曾提著, "never once brought up": 提著 is verb-plus-resultative, the mention attained (or here, negated), and its 著 is read zháo. The dragon's grievance is the chapter's hinge: a single word would have prevented the whole battle, and Wukong never spoke it.
Said the Pilgrim: "You never asked my surname or my name. How should I have said it?"
姓甚名誰, "what surname, what given name" (甚 read shén). The retort is pure Wukong: the fault lies with whoever failed to ask.
Said the little dragon: "Did I not ask, 'Whence come you, rascally demon?'
那裡來的 is interrogative, nǎ. The dragon quotes the exchange back verbatim — the novel is fond of these little forensic reconstructions.
And you bawled back, 'Never mind whence or whence not — only give me back my horse.'
管甚麼那裡不那裡 quotes Wukong's own words from the fight, both 那裡 read nǎ; 只還我馬來 takes 還 as huán. Set in the dragon's mouth, the battle-cry sounds exactly as senseless as it was.
When did you ever utter half a syllable of the word 'Tang'?"
半個字, "half a character" — a single syllable. The Tang, the scriptures, the pilgrimage: all of it turned on a name that was never spoken.
Said the Bodhisattva: "That monkey-head trusts to nothing but his own strength. When would he ever praise another?
猴頭, "monkey-head," is affectionately contemptuous. The two 那 here differ: 那猴頭 is demonstrative (nà), while 那肯 is the rhetorical interrogative (nǎ) — "how would he ever be willing." 專倚自強, "relies on nothing but his own strength."
On this journey forward there will yet be others who submit and follow.
歸順, "to submit and give allegiance." The Bodhisattva looks past this episode to the whole road ahead: Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing are foreshadowed here, and both will be won the same way.
When they question you, speak first of the scripture-seeking, and then, without troubling your heart, they will yield of themselves."
勞心, "to trouble the heart, to expend effort"; 拱伏, "to bow with folded hands and submit." Her counsel is the moral of the chapter reduced to practical advice: say who you are and what you seek, and the enemy will not be an enemy.
The dragon's defence is devastating precisely because it is not a defence. He admits eating the horse — he was hungry — and then delivers the fact that unmakes the entire episode: 他更不曾提著一個「取經」的字樣, "never once did he so much as mention the words 'seeking the scriptures.'" Guanyin had stationed him in this gorge for one purpose, to await a scripture-seeker; the scripture-seeker's own disciple came to the water and shouted about a horse. Wukong's reply is characteristic and hopeless: you never asked my name. The dragon then quotes the battle-cry back at him, and hears it, as the reader now hears it, for what it was — 管甚麼那裡不那裡，只還我馬來 — a demand issued by nobody, on behalf of nothing.
Guanyin's diagnosis is one line long and covers the rest of the novel: 那猴頭專倚自強, "that monkey-head trusts to nothing but his own strength." The vice named here is not cruelty or disobedience but a kind of solipsism — a self-sufficiency so complete that it does not occur to him to say who he is or what he is for. Her remedy is correspondingly plain: on the road ahead there will be others to be won, and the dragon is to speak first of the scriptures, whereupon they will 拱伏, submit, of themselves. It is advice that renders the cudgel superfluous, and it will prove true for Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing alike.