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。被老孙著风一棒，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, to talk of present and past: the courteous, empty conversation of hosts who cannot sleep. 三藏 is always zàng.
He was just thinking that the Pilgrim had not returned when, of a sudden, there stood the Pilgrim in the courtyard.
天井, the sunken courtyard of a southern house. The staging is precise — Wukong does not descend from the air, 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 exact: he stows the weapon and straightens his robe before entering the hall. 收藏 takes 藏 as cáng.
In a flurry the elders bowed down together and thanked him: "Great labour, great labour!"
慌得: 得 is the manner complement de, "so startled that." 多勞, "much toil" — the formula for thanking someone for trouble taken.
Sanzang asked: "Wukong, you have been gone the whole night. Where is the monster you took?"
在那裡 is interrogative — 那 read nǎ, "where." 拿得 takes 得 as dé: the goal was attained.
The Pilgrim said: "Master, that fiend is no earthly goblin, nor is he a beast of the hills.
邪祟 (goblin) and 怪獸 (monstrous beast) are the two categories Wukong rules out. What remains is worse and better at once: a fallen officer of Heaven.
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 precise: rebirth in animal form is a judicial consequence, not an accident of nature.
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 survives the body it was given. This is the hinge on which Bajie's whole future in the novel turns.
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 his surname, so 相 is xiàng; and 為, in the frame 以…為…, is wéi. The pig-graph 豬 is thus a surname earned by the flesh, not inherited.
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, the inner apartments where the daughter was confined. 一陣狂風 — the wind is his element and his cowardice.
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: 著 is the lexical verb zhuó, to strike upon, light upon — the same reading as 著臂照頭傷 in chapter seventeen. Wukong struck the wind itself. 化道火光: 道 is the classifier, a streak.
and brought out a nine-toothed muckrake, and fought old Sun the whole night long.
The muckrake reappears with its full epithet each time it is named — 一柄九齒釘鈀 — as a heroic weapon must be.
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: 將 is jiāng, "about to." 怯戰, to flinch from battle, is a formal military disgrace, and Wukong chooses the word deliberately.
Old Sun meant to break that door down and have it out with him,
見個好歹 — to settle which of them is the better, with the implication that one will not survive it.
but feared the master would be waiting here in anxiety, and so came first to bring word."
疑慮盼望, doubting and watching for him. Wukong's reason for coming back is given last, almost shyly, and it is the true one.
Wukong's report is a small triumph of the novel's comic method: he has been fighting all night, and what he brings back is not a captive but a biography. The three sentences that matter are 他本是天蓬元帥臨凡, 只因錯投了胎, and 其實性靈尚存 — a demotion, an accident of rebirth, and a nature that survived both. Everything the reader will need in order to like Bajie is contained 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 that his master will not worry; he speaks of the fiend with something close to professional respect, using 怯戰, "to flinch from battle," as though appraising a fellow officer. Two chapters ago he was throwing a tantrum outside a burning monastery. The fillet is not the only thing that has changed him.