七十二變 The Seventy-Two Transformations
悟空聞說，毛骨悚然，叩頭禮拜道：「萬望老爺垂憫，傳與躲避三災之法，到底不敢忘恩。」祖師道：「此亦無難，只是你比他人不同，故傳不得。」悟空道：「我也頭圓頂天，足方履地，一般有九竅四肢，五臟六腑，何以比人不同？」祖師道：「你雖然像人，卻比人少腮。」原來那猴子孤拐面，凹臉尖嘴。悟空伸手一摸，笑道：「師父沒成算。我雖少腮，卻比人多這個素袋，亦可準折過也。」祖師說：「也罷，你要學那一般？有一般天罡數，該三十六般變化；有一般地煞數，該七十二般變化。」悟空道：「弟子願多裡撈摸，學一個地煞變化罷。」祖師道：「既如此，上前來，傳與你口訣。」遂附耳低言，不知說了些甚麼妙法。這猴王也是他一竅通時百竅通，當時習了口訣，自修自煉，將七十二般變化都學成了。悟空闻说，毛骨悚然，叩头礼拜道：「万望老爷垂悯，传与躲避三灾之法，到底不敢忘恩。」祖师道：「此亦无难，只是你比他人不同，故传不得。」悟空道：「我也头圆顶天，足方履地，一般有九窍四肢，五脏六腑，何以比人不同？」祖师道：「你虽然像人，却比人少腮。」原来那猴子孤拐面，凹脸尖嘴。悟空伸手一摸，笑道：「师父没成算。我虽少腮，却比人多这个素袋，亦可准折过也。」祖师说：「也罢，你要学那一般？有一般天罡数，该三十六般变化；有一般地煞数，该七十二般变化。」悟空道：「弟子愿多里捞摸，学一个地煞变化罢。」祖师道：「既如此，上前来，传与你口诀。」遂附耳低言，不知说了些甚么妙法。这猴王也是他一窍通时百窍通，当时习了口诀，自修自炼，将七十二般变化都学成了。
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing this, Wukong felt his hair and bones bristle with dread, and bowing his head in worship he said: “I earnestly beg your honor to take pity and pass me the method for evading the Three Calamities; to the end I shall never forget the kindness.”
毛骨悚然 (máo gǔ sǒng rán): "hair and bones bristling with terror"; 悚 = sǒng. 萬望 (wàn wàng): "to entreat earnestly." 老爺 (lǎo yé): "your honor, the old master." 垂憫 (chuí mǐn): "to bestow pity"; 憫 = mǐn. Sandhi: 不敢 → bù.
The Patriarch said: “This is no hard matter either — only that you are unlike other men, and so it cannot be passed to you.”
無難 (wú nán): "no difficulty." 傳不得 (chuán bu de): "cannot be transmitted" — a potential complement; 得 = de. Sandhi: 不同 → bù, 不得 → bù.
Wukong said: “But I too have a round head topping heaven and square feet treading earth; I have the nine orifices and four limbs, the five viscera and six bowels, just as others do. How am I unlike a man?”
頭圓頂天，足方履地: "round head topping heaven, square feet treading earth" — the classical figure of the body as a microcosm; 履 = lǚ. 一般 (yì bān): "the same, just as." Sandhi: 一般 → yì; 不同 → bù.
The Patriarch said: “You may resemble a man, yet you lack the cheeks a man has.”
少腮 (shǎo sāi): "to lack cheeks/jowls"; 多音字 少 = shǎo "to lack" (not shào "young"); 腮 = sāi "cheek."
For that monkey had a face with jutting cheekbones, sunken cheeks and a pointed snout.
那猴子: 那 = nà "that," 子 = zi (neutral suffix, vs the toned zǐ of 弟子). 孤拐面 (gū guǎi miàn): "a lantern-jawed face, with prominent cheekbones"; 拐 = guǎi. 凹臉 (āo liǎn): "a sunken, concave face"; 凹 = āo. 尖嘴 (jiān zuǐ): "pointed snout."
Wukong reached up a hand and felt them, then laughed: “The master has reckoned wrong! I may lack the cheeks, but I have, more than a man, this throat-pouch here — surely that can make up the difference.”
一摸 (yì mō): "gave a feel"; 摸 = mō. 沒成算 (méi chéng suàn): "to have miscalculated, reckoned wrong." 素袋 (sù dài): "the plain pouch" — the monkey's cheek/throat pouch, offered as a humorous substitute for the missing cheeks. 準折 (zhǔn zhé): "to offset, count in compensation"; 多音字 折 = zhé "to discount" (not zhē, shé). Sandhi: 一摸 → yì.
The Patriarch said: “Very well then — which sort will you learn? There is one sort, the tally of the Heavenly Gang, which comes to thirty-six transformations; and one sort, the tally of the Earthly Sha, which comes to seventy-two transformations.”
也罷 (yě ba): "well then." 那一般 (nǎ yì bān): "which sort?"; 那 = nǎ "which" (interrogative), while 一般 = yì bān "one sort, one category." 天罡 (tiān gāng): the thirty-six martial "Heavenly Gang" stars; 罡 = gāng. 地煞 (dì shà): the seventy-two baleful "Earthly Sha" stars; 多音字 煞 = shà (not shā). 該 = gāi "amounts to." Sandhi: 一般 → yì (all).
Wukong said: “Your disciple would rather fish from the larger pile — let me learn one of the Earthly-Sha transformations.”
多裡撈摸 (duō lǐ lāo mō): a colloquial expression, "to fish about in the larger heap" — i.e., to go for the greater number; 撈 = lāo, 摸 = mō. Wukong picks the 72 over the 36. Sandhi: 一個 → yí.
The Patriarch said: “In that case, come forward, and I will pass you the oral formula.”
既如此 (jì rú cǐ): "since it is so." 上前 (shàng qián): "to come forward."
Thereupon he put his mouth to Wukong's ear and spoke low — and what wondrous method he imparted, none can say.
遂 (suì): "thereupon." 附耳低言 (fù ěr dī yán): "to put one's mouth to the ear and speak low" — to whisper. 些甚麼: exactly what he said is left unrevealed. Sandhi: 不知 → bù.
And this Monkey King was one for whom, the moment a single aperture opened, a hundred apertures opened: there and then he practiced the formula, cultivating and refining on his own, and learned every one of the seventy-two transformations.
一竅通時百竅通 (yí qiào tōng shí bǎi qiào tōng): "when one aperture opens, a hundred open" — a proverb for quick wit; 竅 = qiào. 自修自煉 (zì xiū zì liàn): "to cultivate and refine on one's own"; 煉 = liàn. Sandhi: 一竅 → yí.
After the grim catalogue of calamities, the chapter snaps back to comedy, and the join is pure Journey to the West: the sublime and the slapstick share a single breath. The master's grave reason that the method "cannot be passed" turns out to hinge on the fact that Wukong, being a monkey, 少腮 — "lacks cheeks" — a detail at once naturalistic (the jutting cheekbones, sunken face, and pointed snout of a real macaque) and absurd. And Wukong's response is perfectly in character: he feels his own face, declares the master has "reckoned wrong," and offers his 素袋, his throat-pouch, as more than adequate compensation. The cosmic stakes of a moment ago are deflated by monkey cheek, and the teaching proceeds anyway.
The two options the master lays out are drawn straight from astral lore. The 天罡, the thirty-six "Heavenly Gang" stars, and the 地煞, the seventy-two "Earthly Sha," together make the canonical one hundred and eight — the same set that supplies the roster of heroes in Water Margin. Wukong's choice is again pure character. He wants the bigger number, reaching for it with the wonderfully colloquial 多裡撈摸, "fishing from the larger pile"; and what he thereby acquires — the 七十二變, the seventy-two transformations — will become perhaps the single most famous ability in all of Chinese fiction. There is a quiet aptness, too, in his taking the earthly and baleful tally rather than the heavenly one: the gift suits a creature who will shortly set himself against Heaven.
The passage closes on the speed of his mastery. The Patriarch whispers the formula 附耳低言, mouth to ear — and the narrator coyly declines to repeat it (不知說了些甚麼妙法), keeping the real secret, as ever, just out of the reader's reach. But it hardly slows Wukong down, for he is 一竅通時百竅通, one of those for whom the opening of a single aperture opens a hundred; he practices alone and masters all seventy-two at a stroke. With this his apprenticeship is nearly complete — essence-and-life cultivated, the elixir formula received, the calamities understood, the transformations learned. Only one thing remains, and the next passage will give it to him: a way to travel as fast as his new powers deserve.