行者抓風 The Pilgrim Catches the Wind
八戒上前一把扯住行者道：「師兄，十分風大，我們且躲一躲兒乾淨。」行者笑道：「兄弟不濟。風大時就躲，倘或親面撞見妖精，怎的是好？」八戒道：「哥啊，你不曾聞得『避色如避仇，避風如避箭』哩？我們躲一躲，也不虧人。」行者道：「且莫言語，等我把這風抓一把來聞一聞看。」八戒笑道：「師兄又扯空頭謊了，風又好抓得過來聞？就是抓得來，便也鑽了去了。」行者道：「兄弟，你不知道老孫有個『抓風』之法。」好大聖，讓過風頭，把那風尾抓過來聞了一聞，有些腥氣。道：「果然不是好風，這風的味道不是虎風，定是怪風，斷乎有些蹊蹺。」八戒上前一把扯住行者道：「师兄，十分风大，我们且躲一躲儿干净。」行者笑道：「兄弟不济。风大时就躲，倘或亲面撞见妖精，怎的是好？」八戒道：「哥啊，你不曾闻得『避色如避仇，避风如避箭』哩？我们躲一躲，也不亏人。」行者道：「且莫言语，等我把这风抓一把来闻一闻看。」八戒笑道：「师兄又扯空头谎了，风又好抓得过来闻？就是抓得来，便也钻了去了。」行者道：「兄弟，你不知道老孙有个『抓风』之法。」好大圣，让过风头，把那风尾抓过来闻了一闻，有些腥气。道：「果然不是好风，这风的味道不是虎风，定是怪风，断乎有些蹊跷。」
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie came up and caught hold of the Pilgrim. "Brother, the wind is very great. We had best get under cover, and have done."
躲一躲兒乾淨: 乾淨 is here the adverb "and be done with it," taking gān, and the 兒 is the suffix, er. Bajie's instinct is sound, and the chapter will vindicate it twice.
The Pilgrim laughed. "Brother, you are no use at all. If we hide whenever the wind blows hard, what shall we do when we come face to face with a fiend?"
不濟, "no use." 親面撞見, to meet something face to face — which is exactly what happens in the very next passage.
Bajie said, "Brother, have you never heard it said, 'Shun lust as you would shun an enemy; shun the wind as you would shun an arrow'? If we take cover, we wrong nobody."
The proverb 避色如避仇，避風如避箭 — shun lust as you would an enemy, shun a draught as you would an arrow — was a medical commonplace of the Song and Yuan: cold air and lechery alike shorten your life. Bajie produces it in a discussion about demons, and the misapplication is the joke. But this is his second proverb of the chapter, after the one about judging men by their faces, and on both occasions he is nearer right than his brother. 聞得 takes toneless de; 哩 is li.
The Pilgrim said, "Say no more. Let me take a handful of this wind and give it a smell."
抓一把來聞一聞看. The proposal is absurd, is taken literally, and works.
Bajie laughed. "There goes my brother telling his empty lies again. How should a wind be caught and brought over to be smelled?
扯空頭謊, to spin an empty lie. 好抓得過來聞 takes 得 as the "can it be done" reading dé.
And if you did catch it, it would only bore its way out and be gone."
抓得來, again the "can it be done" reading, dé. 鑽了去了 — bore its way out and be gone. The pig has thought harder about the physics of the thing than the monkey has.
The Pilgrim said, "Brother, you do not know that Old Monkey has a method he calls the wind-catch."
The source sets 抓風之法 between inner quotation marks, 『』: it is the name of a technique, and the Pilgrim produces it as though he were quoting from a manual.
Excellent Great Sage! He let the head of the wind go past, caught its tail, drew it over and gave it a smell; and there was a rankness in it.
讓過風頭，把那風尾抓過來 — he lets the head of the wind go past and takes it by the tail. The precision is deadpan. 腥氣 is a raw, fishy rankness, the standing sign in this book of a beast-demon.
He said, "It is no good wind indeed. The savor of this wind is no tiger's wind. It must be a fiend's wind, and there is certainly something strange about it."
不是虎風，定是怪風. He is exactly half right: the wind belongs to a fiend, and the fiend has sent a tiger. 蹊蹺, qī qiāo, "queer, out of true" — a word the novel keeps for the moment just before an ambush.
A comic exchange that turns into the plot without any change of tone. Bajie wants to hide; the Pilgrim calls him useless; Bajie produces a proverb about draughts and lechery; the Pilgrim announces that he will catch a handful of the wind and smell it. Bajie objects on grounds of physics. Sun Wukong then does precisely what he said he would do: lets the head of the wind pass, takes it by the tail, brings it to his nose. It is the single most characteristic thing he does in the chapter — the impossible performed as a matter of routine, and used for reconnaissance.
His conclusion, 不是虎風，定是怪風, is a fine piece of misplaced confidence. It is a fiend's wind. It is also, within half a page, a tiger's. The Great Sage can smell the difference between a beast and a demon and cannot conceive that a demon might keep one. And Bajie, who wanted to get out of the wind, is about to be the one who fights.