坎源魔山 The Demon's Mountain
好猴王，將身一縱，跳起去，一路斤斗，直至北下觀看，見一座高山，真是十分險峻。好山：筆峰挺立，曲澗深沉。筆峰挺立透空霄，曲澗深沉通地戶。兩崖花木爭奇，幾處松篁鬥翠。左邊龍，熟熟馴馴；右邊虎，平平伏伏。每見鐵牛耕，常有金錢種。幽禽𪾢睆聲，丹鳳朝陽立。石磷磷，波淨淨，古怪蹺蹊真惡獰。世上名山無數多，花開花謝蘩還眾。爭如此景永長存，八節四時渾不動。誠為三界坎源山，滋養五行水臟洞。美猴王正默觀看景致，只聽得有人言語，徑自下山尋覓。原來那陡崖之前，乃是那水臟洞。洞門外有幾個小妖跳舞，見了悟空就走。悟空道：「休走！借你口中言，傳我心內事。我乃正南方花果山水簾洞洞主。你家甚麼混世鳥魔，屢次欺我兒孫，我特尋來，要與他見個上下。」好猴王，将身一纵，跳起去，一路斤斗，直至北下观看，见一座高山，真是十分险峻。好山：笔峰挺立，曲涧深沉。笔峰挺立透空霄，曲涧深沉通地户。两崖花木争奇，几处松篁斗翠。左边龙，熟熟驯驯；右边虎，平平伏伏。每见铁牛耕，常有金钱种。幽禽𪾢睆声，丹凤朝阳立。石磷磷，波净净，古怪跷蹊真恶狞。世上名山无数多，花开花谢蘩还众。争如此景永长存，八节四时浑不动。诚为三界坎源山，滋养五行水脏洞。美猴王正默观看景致，只听得有人言语，径自下山寻觅。原来那陡崖之前，乃是那水脏洞。洞门外有几个小妖跳舞，见了悟空就走。悟空道：「休走！借你口中言，传我心内事。我乃正南方花果山水帘洞洞主。你家甚么混世鸟魔，屡次欺我儿孙，我特寻来，要与他见个上下。」
逐句解 Line by line
The fine Monkey King gave his body a leap, sprang up, and somersaulted all the way due north to look about, where he saw a high mountain, truly most precipitous. A fine mountain it was:
一縱 (yí zòng): "a leap"; sandhi 一 → yí. 一路斤斗 (yí lù jīn dǒu): "somersaulting all the way"; sandhi 一 → yí. 一座 (yí zuò): sandhi 一 → yí. 十分險峻 (shí fēn xiǎn jùn): "most precipitous" — introduces the landscape verse.
Brush-peaks standing erect,
筆峰 (bǐ fēng): "brush-peaks," summits shaped like a writing-brush.
winding ravines sunk deep.
曲澗 (qū jiàn): "winding ravine"; 澗 = jiàn.
Brush-peaks erect, piercing the empty sky;
透空霄 (tòu kōng xiāo): "piercing the empty heavens."
winding ravines deep, reaching the gate of earth.
通地戶 (tōng dì hù): "reaching the earth's gate"; 地戶, the cosmographic earth-gate (the southeast), paired with 天門.
On the two cliffs flowers and trees vie in wonder;
兩崖 (liǎng yá): "the two cliffs."
in places pines and bamboo contend in green.
松篁 (sōng huáng): "pines and bamboo"; 篁 = huáng. 鬥翠 (dòu cuì): "vie in greenness"; 鬥 = dòu.
On the left, dragons — tame and docile;
熟熟馴馴 (shú shú xún xún): "tame and docile"; 馴 = xún.
on the right, tigers — crouching calm.
平平伏伏 (píng píng fú fú): "lying low and quiet." The fierce beasts gentled — a mark of a numinous, auspicious mountain.
Ever the iron-ox is seen at the plow;
鐵牛耕 (tiě niú gēng): "the iron-ox plowing."
often the golden-coin is sown.
金錢種 (jīn qián zhòng): "sowing golden coins"; 種 = zhòng "to sow." Numinous images of a fairy-touched mountain — the iron-ox and the money-tree of the immortals' realm.
Hidden birds in their lovely singing;
𪾢睆 (xiàn huǎn): "lovely, melodious" (of birdsong); the graph 𪾢 (U+2AFA2) is a variant of 睍 (xiàn), and 睍睆 is the phrase of the Shijing (邶風·凱風): 睍睆黃鳥, "the sweet-singing oriole."
a vermilion phoenix standing to the sun.
丹鳳朝陽 (dān fèng cháo yáng): "a vermilion phoenix facing the sun," an auspicious emblem; 多音字 朝 = cháo "to face" (not zhāo).
The rocks all glitter,
磷磷 (lín lín): "glittering."
the waters all clear;
淨淨 (jìng jìng): "crystal-clear."
strange and uncanny, truly forbidding.
蹺蹊 (qiāo qī): "odd, uncanny" (= 蹊蹺); 蹊 = qī. 惡獰 (è níng): "fierce, forbidding"; 惡 = è, 獰 = níng.
The world's famous mountains are beyond counting;
無數多: "beyond all counting."
flowers bloom and fade, yet the white-asters still abound.
蘩 (fán): the white aster / mugwort plant. 還眾 (hái zhòng): "still many." The line marks the mountain's unfailing flora.
How could anything match a scene that endures forever —
爭如 (zhēng rú): "how could it compare to" (爭 here = 怎 "how"). 永長存: "endures forever."
through the eight terms and four seasons wholly unchanging?
八節四時 (bā jié sì shí): "the eight solar terms and four seasons." 渾不動 (hún bù dòng): "wholly unchanging"; sandhi 不 → bú.
Truly the Kan-Source Mountain of the Three Realms,
坎源山 (Kǎn yuán shān): "the Kan-Source Mountain"; 坎 = kǎn, the trigram ☵ (Water). 三界 (sān jiè): "the Three Realms."
nourishing the Water-Viscera Cave of the Five Phases.
水臟洞 (Shuǐ zàng dòng): "the Water-Viscera Cave," the demon's lair; 臟 = zàng. 五行 (wǔ xíng): "the Five Phases." The names are pointedly alchemical — see the commentary.
The Handsome Monkey King was just silently taking in the scene when he heard someone speaking, and went straight down the mountain to look.
默觀看 (mò guān kàn): "to gaze in silence." 景致 (jǐng zhì): "the scenery." 徑自 (jìng zì): "went straight." 尋覓 (xún mì): "to search"; 覓 = mì.
It turned out that before that steep cliff was the Water-Viscera Cave.
那陡崖 (nà dǒu yá): "that steep cliff"; 那 = nà; 陡 = dǒu. 乃是 (nǎi shì): "was indeed." 那水臟洞: 那 = nà.
Outside the cave-gate several little demons were dancing; seeing Wukong, they fled.
幾個小妖 (jǐ gè xiǎo yāo): "several little demons." 跳舞 (tiào wǔ): "dancing." 就走 (jiù zǒu): "fled."
Wukong said: “Don't run! I'll borrow the words in your mouths to carry the matter in my heart. I am the lord of the Water-Curtain Cave on Flower-Fruit Mountain, in the due south. That damned Havoc-demon of yours has bullied my children and grandchildren again and again, and I have come on purpose to seek him out, to settle which of us is the better.”
休走 (xiū zǒu): "don't flee"; 休 = xiū "do not." 借你口中言，傳我心內事: "borrow your mouths to convey my message." 正南方: Wukong locates himself "in the due south" — relative to the demon's due-north lair (his home is in fact the Eastern Continent, 東勝神洲). 混世鳥魔: a contemptuous distortion of 混世魔王 — Wukong wedges in the vulgar 鳥 (niǎo); "that damned Havoc-demon." 屢次 (lǚ cì): "again and again." 兒孫 (ér sūn): "children and grandchildren"; 兒 = ér. 見個上下 (jiàn gè shàng xià): "to settle who is superior."
The arrival at the demon's mountain calls forth a full landscape 賦, the set-piece description that convention demands when a hero reaches a new place. Its imagery is deliberately numinous: the fierce beasts are gentled (dragons 熟熟馴馴, "tame and docile," tigers 平平伏伏, "crouching calm"), and the slopes yield the iron-ox at the plow and the sown golden coin — emblems of an immortal, fairy-touched terrain, with a vermilion phoenix facing the sun for good measure. (The hidden birds' song is given in a learned key: the rare graph 𪾢 stands for 睍, and 睍睆 is the phrase of the Book of Songs, the "sweet-singing oriole" of the 凱風 ode.) Yet the beauty has an edge — 古怪蹺蹊真惡獰, "strange and uncanny, truly forbidding" — for all its loveliness, this is a monster's den.
The poem's last couplet is where the description turns into code. The mountain is 三界坎源山, the "Kan-Source Mountain of the Three Realms," and it nourishes 五行水臟洞, the "Water-Viscera Cave of the Five Phases." Both names are built on Water: 坎 is the trigram ☵, Water, and 水臟, the "water-organ," is the kidneys, which in Chinese medicine store the body's essence (精) and govern its water. In internal alchemy this is freighted ground — the trigram 坎 conceals a single line of true yang at the heart of its water, the very thing the adept must extract and restore. To house Wukong's first opponent at the "source of Kan" and the "water-viscera" is to mark this fight, on the esoteric reading the neidan commentators favor, as a contest waged at the seat of the body's essence: the newly perfected mind going to subdue the disordering force lodged in its own depths.
Against this gravity the scene plays Wukong for comedy and bravado. He plants himself rhetorically 正南方, "in the due south" — squarely opposite the demon's northern lair, though his home is in fact the Eastern Continent — and he cannot resist deforming the enemy's title: 混世魔王, the "King of Havoc," becomes 混世鳥魔, with the vulgar 鳥 wedged in, roughly "that damned Havoc-demon." His demand is the swaggering challenge of the loyal king come to avenge his abducted people — 要與他見個上下, "to settle which of us is the better." The seeker of the Way has become, in the space of a chapter, a fighter; and the battle is set.