闔家姓孫 A Nest of Suns
好猴王,念聲咒語,駕陣狂風,雲頭落下。叫:「孩兒們睜眼。」眾猴腳躧實地,認得是家鄉,個個歡喜,都奔洞門舊路。那在洞眾猴,都一齊簇擁同入,分班序齒,禮拜猴王。安排酒果,接風賀喜,啟問降魔救子之事。悟空備細言了一遍,眾猴稱揚不盡道:「大王去到那方,不意學得這般手段。」悟空又道:「我當年別汝等,隨波逐流,飄過東洋大海,到西牛賀洲地界,徑至南贍部洲,學成人像,著此衣,穿此履,擺擺搖搖,雲遊了八九年馀,更不曾有道。又渡西洋大海,到西牛賀洲地界,訪問多時,幸遇一老祖,傳了我與天同壽的真功果,不死長生的大法門。」眾猴稱賀,都道:「萬劫難逢也!」悟空又笑道:「小的們,又喜我這一門皆有姓氏。」眾猴道:「大王姓甚?」悟空道:「我今姓孫,法名悟空。」眾猴聞說,鼓掌忻然道:「大王是老孫,我們都是二孫、三孫、細孫、小孫……一家孫、一國孫、一窩孫矣!」都來奉承老孫,大盆小碗的椰子酒、葡萄酒、仙花、仙果,真個是合家歡樂。咦!好猴王,念声咒语,驾阵狂风,云头落下。叫:「孩儿们睁眼。」众猴脚躧实地,认得是家乡,个个欢喜,都奔洞门旧路。那在洞众猴,都一齐簇拥同入,分班序齿,礼拜猴王。安排酒果,接风贺喜,启问降魔救子之事。悟空备细言了一遍,众猴称扬不尽道:「大王去到那方,不意学得这般手段。」悟空又道:「我当年别汝等,随波逐流,飘过东洋大海,到西牛贺洲地界,径至南赡部洲,学成人像,着此衣,穿此履,摆摆摇摇,云游了八九年馀,更不曾有道。又渡西洋大海,到西牛贺洲地界,访问多时,幸遇一老祖,传了我与天同寿的真功果,不死长生的大法门。」众猴称贺,都道:「万劫难逢也!」悟空又笑道:「小的们,又喜我这一门皆有姓氏。」众猴道:「大王姓甚?」悟空道:「我今姓孙,法名悟空。」众猴闻说,鼓掌忻然道:「大王是老孙,我们都是二孙、三孙、细孙、小孙……一家孙、一国孙、一窝孙矣!」都来奉承老孙,大盆小碗的椰子酒、葡萄酒、仙花、仙果,真个是合家欢乐。咦!
畢竟不知怎生結果,居此界終始如何,且聽下回分解。毕竟不知怎生结果,居此界终始如何,且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
The fine Monkey King recited a spell, rode a gust of wild wind, and brought his cloud down. "Open your eyes, children," he called.
駕陣狂風, riding a blast of wind (陣 is the measure word for a gust). And then the gentlest line in the chapter: open your eyes, children.
The monkeys' feet touched solid ground; recognizing their home, every one of them rejoiced and ran for the old paths to the cave-gate.
腳躧實地 — feet treading solid ground (躧 xǐ). They open their eyes on home, recognise it, and run. Note that Wukong had to hunt for the path a few passages back. They do not.
The monkeys who had stayed in the cave all thronged in together, ranged themselves by age, and did obeisance to the Monkey King.
分班序齒 is to form up in ranks by seniority — literally "by teeth," 齒 being the old way of reckoning age in animals and, by extension, in people. A colony of monkeys arranging itself into a court. (一齊 is yì qí.)
They set out wine and fruit, held a welcome feast and offered congratulations, and asked about the subduing of the demon and the rescue of the young.
接風 is the welcome feast thrown for somebody back from a journey, and it is still the ordinary word for one. 降 here is xiáng, to subdue and receive submission, not jiàng, to descend.
Wukong told it through in detail, and the monkeys praised him without end: "To think the Great King, going off to that far place, learned such arts!"
備細 is in full detail. And the compliment is nicely backhanded: nobody had expected him to come back with anything at all. (一遍 is yí biàn; 不盡 and 不意 both take bú.)
Wukong went on: "In that year I parted from you, drifted with the waves across the Eastern Ocean to the borders of the Western Continent, went straight on to the Southern Continent, learned to take human form, put on this robe and these shoes, and went swaggering along — wandering eight or nine years and more, yet never finding the Way.
The recap of the first chapter, and it repays reading for what he leaves out. 隨波逐流, drifting with wind and current, is a living idiom for having no direction of one's own. 學成人像 is learning to look human — the years of copying human speech, clothes and walking. 擺擺搖搖 is swaggering along. Eight or nine years of that, and 更不曾有道, still no Way. The two continents named are 西牛賀洲, Aparagodānīya in the west, and 南贍部洲, Jambudvīpa in the south — and the geography is characteristically loose, the names invoked more for their music than for their positions on any map. 著 is zhuó, to wear, not zhe. (不曾 keeps bù.)
Then I crossed the Western Ocean to the borders of the Western Continent, inquired for a long while, and was lucky enough to meet an old patriarch, who passed me the true attainment that is long-lived as Heaven, the great dharma-gate of deathless immortality."
And the whole of the mountain — twenty years, the four gates, the riddle, the third watch, the elixir, the calamities, the transformations, the cloud, the expulsion — comes out as 幸遇一老祖, "I was lucky enough to meet an old patriarch." He is keeping his promise already. No name, no school, no address. (一老祖 is yì lǎo zǔ; 不死 keeps bù.)
The monkeys offered congratulations, all crying: "A thing hardly met in ten thousand kalpas!"
萬劫難逢, not to be met with in ten thousand kalpas — a 劫 being a whole world-age, which makes this about the largest superlative available.
Wukong laughed again: "Little ones — and here's another joy, that this clan of ours now all has a surname."
一門 is a household or clan. And he has clearly been waiting to say this. (一門 is yì mén.)
The monkeys asked: "What is the Great King's surname?"
The straight line.
Wukong said: "My surname now is Sun, and my dharma-name Wukong."
法名 is a dharma-name, the one conferred on entering religion, as distinct from the surname. Both were given to him in a single scene in the last chapter — the surname carved out of 猢猻, macaque, with the animal radical stripped away.
Hearing this, the monkeys clapped and said joyfully: "The Great King is Old Sun, and we are all Second Sun, Third Sun, Fine Sun, Little Sun — a household of Suns, a nation of Suns, a whole nestful of Suns!"
Here is the joke the whole chapter has been walking toward. 孫 is a surname, but it is also the ordinary word for "grandson" — so when the king announces that he is 老孫, "Old Sun," his monkeys hear "Old Grandson" and take off with it. Second Grandson, Third Grandson, Fine Grandson, Little Grandson, and then 一家孫、一國孫、一窩孫: a household of them, a nation of them, a whole nestful. English can keep the surname or the pun but not both at once. 忻 is xīn, a variant of 欣, glad. (All three 一 take yì.)
All came waiting upon Old Sun, with big basins and small bowls of coconut wine and grape wine, immortal flowers and immortal fruits — truly the whole household made merry. Ah!
The stone basins and bowls, recovered from the demon's cave a page ago, go straight back into service. 合家歡樂 is the whole household making merry. And 咦 (yí) is the storyteller clearing his throat for the closing verse.
Joined through into a single surname, the self returns to its root;
貫通一姓, threaded through into a single surname, and 身歸本, the self returned to its root. This is the chapter title's 歸本 being cashed in. (一姓 is yí xìng.)
only awaiting glad promotion — a name on the immortals' roll.
仙籙 (xiān lù) is the Daoist register on which the names of the perfected are entered — heaven's roll, and by extension the ledgers where lifespans are kept. 榮遷 is a glad promotion. The line points forward, and readers who know what is coming will enjoy it: Wukong's next major act will be to get hold of a register very like this one and take a brush to it himself.
After all, there is no knowing how it will turn out, or how his dwelling in this realm will begin and end — so listen to the telling in the next chapter.
且聽下回分解 — "listen for the explanation in the next chapter" — is the fixed sign-off of the 章回小說, the chaptered novel, inherited directly from the storyteller's platform, where it meant: come back tomorrow. All hundred chapters end this way. (不知 keeps bù.)
The chapter ends where it is happiest, in a homecoming feast, and its last comedy is a pun. When Wukong announces that he is now surnamed 孫, Sun, his monkeys seize on the word with delight — because 孫 also means "grandson" — and run riot with it: he is 老孫, Old Sun, and they are Second Sun, Third Sun, Little Sun, 一家孫、一國孫、一窩孫, "a household of Suns, a nation of Suns, a whole nestful of Suns." The surname Patriarch Subodhi conferred on one nameless creature in the first chapter is here handed round the entire tribe, and the long naming-arc of these opening chapters — stone egg to Stone Monkey to Handsome Monkey King to Sun Wukong — closes in a shared and joyful christening.
Wukong's own recap to the assembled monkeys folds the two chapters into a single sentence — the parting, the raft across the ocean, the years spent learning to wear clothes and walk like a man, the meeting with the old patriarch, the gift of deathless life — and so rounds off the origin story before the novel's real machinery starts up. (The continental geography he recites is characteristically loose, the seas and lands of Buddhist cosmography invoked more for music than for the map. And note what is missing: no name, no mountain, no school. He is keeping his word.) The closing couplet then states the chapter's deeper claim. 貫通一姓身歸本, "joined through into a single surname, the self returns to its root": the scattered is unified and the wanderer comes home, in exact fulfilment of the chapter-title's promise to 斷魔歸本合元神, to cut down the demon, return to the root and unite the original spirit. The 混世魔王, the force of havoc, has been cut down; the self has come back to its source.
But the very last line looks forward rather than back. 只待榮遷仙籙名, "only awaiting glad promotion — a name on the immortals' roll": the attainment of these two chapters is not an end but a threshold, and the register named here is the one Wukong will shortly go and rewrite by force, striking his own name out of the ledgers of death. With the customary 且聽下回分解, "listen to the telling in the next chapter," the 章回 form hands us on. The seeker has become a sage and then a slayer; the monkey who left home to escape death has mastered it, named himself and come back a king — and the trouble the patriarch foresaw is only just getting started.