中了金蟬脫殼計 They Have Fallen for the Cicada's Trick
卻說那行者、八戒趕那虎下山坡，只見那虎跑倒了，塌伏在崖前。行者舉棒儘力一打，轉震得自己手疼。八戒復築了一鈀，亦將鈀齒迸起。原來是一張虎皮，蓋著一塊臥虎石。行者大驚道：「不好了，不好了，中了他計也！」八戒道：「中他甚計？」行者道：「這個叫做金蟬脫殼計：他將虎皮蓋在此，他卻走了。我們且回去看看師父，莫遭毒手。」兩個急急轉來，早已不見了三藏。行者大叫如雷道：「怎的好？師父已被他擒去了。」八戒即便牽著馬，眼中滴淚道：「天哪，天哪！卻往那裡找尋？」行者擡著頭道：「莫哭，莫哭，一哭就挫了銳氣。橫豎想只在此山，我們尋尋去來。」却说那行者、八戒赶那虎下山坡，只见那虎跑倒了，塌伏在崖前。行者举棒尽力一打，转震得自己手疼。八戒复筑了一钯，亦将钯齿迸起。原来是一张虎皮，盖着一块卧虎石。行者大惊道：「不好了，不好了，中了他计也！」八戒道：「中他甚计？」行者道：「这个叫做金蝉脱壳计：他将虎皮盖在此，他却走了。我们且回去看看师父，莫遭毒手。」两个急急转来，早已不见了三藏。行者大叫如雷道：「怎的好？师父已被他擒去了。」八戒即便牵着马，眼中滴泪道：「天哪，天哪！却往那里找寻？」行者抬着头道：「莫哭，莫哭，一哭就挫了锐气。横竖想只在此山，我们寻寻去来。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now the Pilgrim and Bajie had chased that tiger down the slope, and there they saw the tiger drop in its tracks and lie flat before the cliff.
跑倒了 takes 倒 as dǎo, "to fall." 塌伏, to collapse flat. The novel lets the reader go on believing in the tiger for one sentence longer than the pilgrims do.
The Pilgrim raised his rod and struck with all his force, and the jarring of it set his own hands aching.
儘力, with all one's strength — the character here is 儘, not 盡, and it takes jǐn correctly without any override. 轉震得自己手疼: the rod rebounds and the striker's hands hurt. 得 is the result-linking de.
Bajie followed with a stroke of the rake, and the teeth of the rake sprang back from it.
亦將鈀齒迸起 takes the handling marker 將, jiāng; 鈀 is pá in both places. The teeth of a nine-toothed muckrake spring back off a rock. Neither pilgrim has yet looked at what he is hitting.
For it was in truth a single tiger-hide, spread over a crouching-tiger rock.
原來是 — "it turned out to be." The narrator holds the disclosure back through two blows and then gives it in fourteen characters. 蓋著 is zhe.
The Pilgrim was greatly startled. "This is bad, this is bad! We have walked into his stratagem." Bajie said, "What stratagem of his have we walked into?"
中了他計 and 中他甚計 take 中 as zhòng, "to be struck by, to fall into" — a verb reading quite distinct from the zhōng, "in the middle of," that governs every other appearance of the character in this chapter. 甚計 is the question-word, shén.
The Pilgrim said, "This is what is called the stratagem of the golden cicada that sheds its shell. He laid the tiger-skin over the place here, and himself made off.
殼 is qiào. The Pilgrim names the stratagem correctly and instantly, which is precisely the trouble: he is a connoisseur of tricks who has just been the object of one.
Let us go back and look to our master, lest he come to some cruel hand."
莫遭毒手, lest he meet a cruel hand — and he has met one already.
The two of them hurried back; and Sanzang was already nowhere to be seen.
早已不見了三藏. Seven characters. The novel does not describe the empty road.
The Pilgrim cried out like a thunderclap, "What is to be done? Our master has been carried off by him."
大叫如雷, a shout like thunder. The Great Sage's first response to loss is volume; his second, in the next line but one, will be to forbid his brother to cry.
Bajie took the horse by the rein at once, and the tears dripped from his eyes. "Heaven! O Heaven! And where are we to go looking for him?"
天哪 — the character is 哪, and the exclamatory 哪 takes the toneless na, as ruled in chapter 18. 卻往那裡找尋 takes the question-word 那, nǎ. Bajie weeps; the Pilgrim does not.
The Pilgrim raised his head. "Do not weep, do not weep. One weeping and the edge is off our spirit.
一哭就挫了銳氣 — one bout of weeping and the keen edge is off. The metaphor is military and it is the only comfort he offers.
In any case he must be somewhere on this mountain. Let us go and search and search."
橫豎, "crosswise and lengthwise," hence "in any case" — still the ordinary way of saying "either way, whatever happens." 尋尋去來 is a doubled command with the vernacular directional tail: let us go looking, and looking.
Two immortals beat a rock. The Pilgrim strikes with the iron rod and jars his own hands; Bajie brings the muckrake down and its teeth spring back; and only then does the narrator tell us, in fourteen characters, that the thing on the ground is a skin laid over a stone. It is one of the coldest pieces of comedy in the novel, because nothing in the writing signals the joke. The tiger simply falls, and lies flat, and is a hide.
What follows is a short essay in character. The Pilgrim, who has never been outwitted, names the stratagem at once and by its proper name; he shouts like thunder; and when Bajie takes the horse's rein and weeps, it is the pig who has understood what has happened. 一哭就挫了銳氣 — one bout of weeping and the edge is off our spirit. That is the whole of Sun Wukong's consolation, and it is a soldier's sentence, not a brother's.