悟空回報 豬剛鬣其人 Wukong Reports: Who Zhu Ganglie Is
卻說三藏與那諸老談今論古，一夜無眠。正想行者不來，只見天井裡忽然站下行者。行者收藏鐵棒，整衣上廳。叫道：「師父，我來了。」慌得那諸老一齊下拜，謝道：「多勞，多勞。」三藏問道：「悟空，你去這一夜，拿得妖精在那裡？」行者道：「師父，那妖不是凡間的邪祟，也不是山間的怪獸。他本是天蓬元帥臨凡，只因錯投了胎，嘴臉像一個野豬模樣，其實性靈尚存。他說以相為姓，喚名豬剛鬣。是老孫從後宅裡掣棒就打，他化一陣狂風走了。被老孫著風一棒，他就化道火光，徑轉他那本山洞裡，取出一柄九齒釘鈀，與老孫戰了一夜。適才天色將明，他怯戰而走，把洞門緊閉不出。老孫還要打開那門，與他見個好歹，恐師父在此疑慮盼望，故先來回個信息。」却说三藏与那诸老谈今论古，一夜无眠。正想行者不来，只见天井里忽然站下行者。行者收藏铁棒，整衣上厅。叫道：「师父，我来了。」慌得那诸老一齐下拜，谢道：「多劳，多劳。」三藏问道：「悟空，你去这一夜，拿得妖精在那里？」行者道：「师父，那妖不是凡间的邪祟，也不是山间的怪兽。他本是天蓬元帅临凡，只因错投了胎，嘴脸像一个野猪模样，其实性灵尚存。他说以相为姓，唤名猪刚鬣。是老孙从后宅里掣棒就打，他化一阵狂风走了。被老孙着风一棒，他就化道火光，径转他那本山洞里，取出一柄九齿钉钯，与老孙战了一夜。适才天色将明，他怯战而走，把洞门紧闭不出。老孙还要打开那门，与他见个好歹，恐师父在此疑虑盼望，故先来回个信息。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now Sanzang had sat talking of past and present with the several elders, and had not slept the whole night through.
談今論古, talking of present and past: the polite, empty conversation of hosts who cannot get to sleep and will not admit it. 三藏 is always zàng, the scriptural "treasury," never cáng.
He was just thinking that the Pilgrim had not returned when, of a sudden, there stood the Pilgrim in the courtyard.
天井 is the sunken open courtyard at the centre of a southern house — literally a "sky well." The staging is exact and slightly eerie: Wukong does not descend in a blaze of cloud, he is simply standing there.
The Pilgrim put away his iron rod, straightened his robe, and came up into the hall, calling: "Master, I am back."
The etiquette is precise. He puts the weapon away and straightens his robe before he sets foot in the hall, like a man wiping his boots. 收藏 takes 藏 as cáng, to store away.
In a flurry the elders bowed down together and thanked him: "Great labour, great labour!"
慌得 takes 得 as the manner-marker de: startled to the point of bowing. 多勞, "much toil," is the set phrase for thanking somebody who has put themselves to trouble on your behalf.
Sanzang asked: "Wukong, you have been gone the whole night. Where is the monster you took?"
在那裡 is a question, so 那 is nǎ — where is he? And 拿得 takes 得 as dé: Sanzang assumes the capture succeeded. He is wrong, and the assumption is characteristic.
The Pilgrim said: "Master, that fiend is no earthly goblin, nor is he a beast of the hills.
Wukong rules out the two obvious categories: 邪祟, a common goblin, and 怪獸, a monstrous beast. What is left is both better and worse — a disgraced officer of Heaven, which means he has rank, a record, and grievances.
He is Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds come down among men. It was only that he entered the wrong womb,
錯投了胎, he entered the wrong womb. The doctrine is exact: to be reborn as an animal is a judicial outcome, not an accident of biology. Somebody decided this.
so that his face and snout have the look of a wild boar; but in truth his spirit is intact.
性靈尚存 — the spiritual nature survived the body it was issued. Everything that happens to Bajie for the next eighty chapters hangs on this clause.
He says he takes his surname from his appearance, and is called Zhu Ganglie, Bristles the Boar.
以相為姓: he takes his appearance for a surname, so 相 is xiàng; and in the frame 以…為…, 為 is wéi. Which makes 豬, Boar, a family name earned by the flesh rather than inherited from a father — the one kind of surname a Chinese family tree has no room for.
Old Sun drew out the rod in the back apartments and struck; he turned into a gust of wild wind and went off.
後宅 is the inner apartment where the daughter had been shut away. 一陣狂風 — a gust of wild wind, and the wind is both his element and his nerve failing him.
Old Sun struck a blow into that wind, and he turned into a streak of fire and made straight back to his own mountain cave,
著風一棒 takes 著 as the full verb zhuó, to strike upon, to land on — Wukong hit the wind itself, which is the sort of thing only he would think to try. This is one of three readings the character 著 takes in this chapter, and the notes will flag each as it comes. 化道火光: 道 is the counter, a streak of light.
and brought out a nine-toothed muckrake, and fought old Sun the whole night long.
The muckrake is named in full every time it appears — 一柄九齒釘鈀, one nine-toothed muckrake — the way a hero's sword gets its epithet in an epic. That is the joke, and it never quite stops being funny.
Just now, as the sky began to lighten, he shrank from the fight and ran, and shut his cave door fast and would not come out.
天色將明 takes 將 as jiāng, "about to." 怯戰, flinching from battle, is a formal disgrace in a soldier, and Wukong picks the word deliberately: he is filing a report on a fellow officer.
Old Sun meant to break that door down and have it out with him,
見個好歹 — to settle which of the two is better, with the strong implication that only one of them walks away from the settling.
but feared the master would be waiting here in anxiety, and so came first to bring word."
疑慮盼望, doubting and watching the road. Wukong gives his real reason last and almost in passing, the way people do when they have not yet admitted it to themselves.
Wukong has been fighting all night and comes back not with a prisoner but with a biography. Three clauses carry the whole thing: 他本是天蓬元帥臨凡, he is a Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds come down among men; 只因錯投了胎, it was only that he entered the wrong womb; 其實性靈尚存, his spirit is intact underneath. Everything a reader needs in order to like Bajie is sitting in that last clause.
The passage also quietly repairs Wukong. He stows his weapon and straightens his robe before entering the hall; he breaks off a fight so his master will not fret; and he speaks of his opponent with something close to professional respect, using 怯戰, "flinched from battle," as though appraising a colleague who let the side down. Two chapters ago he was throwing a tantrum outside a burning monastery. The fillet is not the only thing that has changed him.