火眼金睛,為風所傷 The Fiery Eyes Are Blinded
那妖怪使出這陣狂風,就把孫大聖毫毛變的小行者刮得在那半空中卻似紡車兒一般亂轉,莫想掄得棒,如何攏得身?慌得行者將毫毛一抖,收上身來。獨自個舉著鐵棒,上前來打。又被那怪劈臉噴了一口黃風,把兩隻火眼金睛刮得緊緊閉合,莫能睜開。因此難使鐵棒,遂敗下陣來。那妖收風回洞不題。那妖怪使出这阵狂风,就把孙大圣毫毛变的小行者刮得在那半空中却似纺车儿一般乱转,莫想抡得棒,如何拢得身?慌得行者将毫毛一抖,收上身来。独自个举著铁棒,上前来打。又被那怪劈脸喷了一口黄风,把两只火眼金睛刮得紧紧闭合,莫能睁开。因此难使铁棒,遂败下阵来。那妖收风回洞不题。
逐句解 Line by line
The fiend loosed this mad gale, and it whirled the little Pilgrims that the Great Sage's hairs had become round and round in the middle air, for all the world like so many spinning-wheels;
刮得 takes the resultative de. 似 is corrected to sì, and 紡車兒 ends in the diminutive er. The image is domestic and slightly ridiculous: a hundred Great Sages spinning like the wheels of a household loom.
not one of them could manage to swing his rod, and how were they to gather their bodies together? In alarm the Pilgrim gave his hairs a shake and drew them back onto his body.
Three occurrences of 得, and two readings: 掄得棒 and 攏得身 are potential (dé, "could manage to"), while 慌得 is the resultative de. A positional fixspec is required. 將 is jiāng, the disposal marker.
Alone now, he lifted his iron rod and went forward to strike.
獨自個 — the vernacular "all on his own." 著 is zhe. The hundred have become one, and the sentence is eleven graphs long.
But the fiend blew a mouthful of yellow wind full in his face, and it scoured his two fiery eyes with golden pupils until they were shut fast and could not be opened.
火眼金睛, the fiery eyes with golden pupils, were burned into the Pilgrim in Laozi's crucible in chapter 7, and have never failed him. This is the first time in the novel that they are put out.
He could not wield the iron rod after that, and so he fell back from the field. The fiend gathered in his wind and returned to his cave, of which no more.
不題, "of which no more," is the storyteller's formula for setting a thread down. 難 is nán, "hard to," here shading into "could not."
The chapter's first movement closes on a defeat, and the defeat is specific. The Pilgrim is not overpowered; he is blinded. 火眼金睛 — the eyes that see through every disguise, that were the one gift of his forty-nine days in the eight-trigram crucible — are shut by a mouthful of wind. Everything that follows in this chapter is a consequence: the search for an eye-doctor, the ointment given by night, the transformation into a mosquito that needs sight above all else.
There is a structural joke here too. The Pilgrim's answer to being outmatched is always multiplication — a hundred bodies, a hundred rods. The wind answers multiplication with dispersal, and the hairs must be shaken back onto the one body they came from. He then advances alone, and is beaten in a single line. The novel is quietly making the point that the 身外身 is a trick of quantity, and that quantity is not what this adversary lacks.