飛龍寶杖擒黃毛貂鼠 The Flying-Dragon Staff Takes the Yellow Marten
不多時，至黃風山上。菩薩道：「大聖，這妖怪有些怕我，我只在雲端內住定，你下去與他索戰，誘他出來，我好施法力。」行者依言，按落雲頭，不容分說，掣鐵棒把他洞門打破。叫道：「妖怪，還我師父來也！」慌得那把門小妖急忙傳報。那怪道：「這潑猴著實無禮，再不伏善，反打破我門。這一出去，使陣神風，定要把他吹死。」仍前披掛，手綽鋼叉，又走出門來。見了行者，更不打話，撚叉當胸就刺；大聖側身躲過。舉棒對面相還戰不數合，那怪吊回頭，望巽地上，才待要張口呼風，只見那半空裡，靈吉菩薩將飛龍寶杖丟將下來，不知念了些甚麼咒語，卻是一條八爪金龍，撥喇的掄開兩爪，一把抓住妖精，提著頭，兩三捽，捽在山石崖邊，現了本相，卻是一個黃毛貂鼠。不多时，至黄风山上。菩萨道：「大圣，这妖怪有些怕我，我只在云端内住定，你下去与他索战，诱他出来，我好施法力。」行者依言，按落云头，不容分说，掣铁棒把他洞门打破。叫道：「妖怪，还我师父来也！」慌得那把门小妖急忙传报。那怪道：「这泼猴著实无礼，再不伏善，反打破我门。这一出去，使阵神风，定要把他吹死。」仍前披挂，手绰钢叉，又走出门来。见了行者，更不打话，撚叉当胸就刺；大圣侧身躲过。举棒对面相还战不数合，那怪吊回头，望巽地上，才待要张口呼风，只见那半空里，灵吉菩萨将飞龙宝杖丢将下来，不知念了些甚么咒语，却是一条八爪金龙，拨喇的抡开两爪，一把抓住妖精，提著头，两三捽，捽在山石崖边，现了本相，却是一个黄毛貂鼠。
逐句解 Line by line
In no long time they were above the Mountain of Yellow Wind. Said the Bodhisattva, "Great Sage, this fiend has some fear of me. I shall keep my station here at the edge of the cloud.
住定, to hold one's station. Lingji says outright that the fiend fears him — the intelligence the Pilgrim risked a mosquito's life to obtain.
Go down and challenge him, and draw him out; then I can put forth my power."
索戰, to demand battle. The plan is the ordinary plan of these chapters, and it works because for once the Pilgrim is only the bait.
The Pilgrim did as he was bid. He brought his cloud down, and without a word of parley he swung out his iron rod and broke the door of the cave to pieces.
不容分說 — "allowing no word of argument," 分 reading fēn. The same idiom the fiend used against him at P2.
"Fiend," he cried, "give me back my master!" In a fright the imp who kept the gate ran in to report.
還我師父來: 還 is huán, "give back," not hái. 慌得 takes the resultative de.
Said the fiend, "This wretched ape is truly past all manners. He will not submit to reason, and now he has broken down my door.
著實無禮: 著 is the adverb zhuó, as at P1. 不伏善, will not submit to good sense. The fiend is more offended by the broken door than by the challenge.
This once I go out, I shall raise my spirit-wind, and I will have him blown dead." He put on his armour as before, snatched up his steel trident, and came out through the gate again.
綽 reads chāo, "to snatch up" — the same graph and reading as in the chapter's opening passage, and the arming is described in the same words. The novel is closing a bracket.
He saw the Pilgrim, and would not stop to talk, but whirled the trident and thrust at his breast; and the Great Sage slipped aside from it.
更不打話 takes 更 as gèng. 當胸就刺, 當 reading dāng — again exactly as at P2. Everything about this second combat repeats the first.
He raised his rod and paid him back face to face; and they had not fought many bouts before the fiend turned his head away and looked toward the quarter of Xun, and was just about to open his mouth and call the wind —
Two readings of 還 in a single graph-pair: 相還 is huán, "to pay back" a blow. 戰不數合 — 數 is shù, and 不 takes bú before it. The fiend turns to the trigram Xun, as he did in P3, and the sentence stops on a dash.
when up in the middle air he saw the Bodhisattva Lingji cast the Flying-Dragon precious staff down. What spell he spoke over it nobody knew.
丟將下來: both 將 are jiāng, the first a disposal marker and the second a directional. 不知念了些甚麼咒語 — the narrator declines to know, which is how this novel keeps its miracles miraculous.
But it was a golden dragon with eight claws, which spread two of them with a rush, snatched the fiend up in one grip, took him by the head, shook him two or three times,
撥喇的 is onomatopoeia for the sudden opening of the claws (喇 as lǎ, per the ch16 rule). 提著頭 takes 著 as zhe. 捽 reads zuó, to seize and dash down.
and dashed him down on the rock of the cliff-side; and there he took on his true form, and it was a marten with yellow fur.
現了本相: 相 is xiàng, "form" — the second reading of the graph in this passage, against the xiāng of 相還 four segments above. 黃毛貂鼠 is a yellow-furred marten or weasel, and the wind that unmade the pantheon came out of it.
The second combat is written as a deliberate repetition of the first. The fiend arms himself in the same words (綽鋼叉), refuses parley, thrusts at the breast (當胸就刺), the Great Sage slips aside, and after a few bouts the fiend turns his head toward the trigram Xun. Everything is exactly as it was two hundred graphs into the chapter — and then a sentence breaks off on a dash, and the wind never comes.
What ends him is a weapon he never sees thrown and a spell nobody hears. And when the dragon has done with him he is 一個黃毛貂鼠, a yellow-furred marten: a small animal of the weasel kind, which the reader has been asked to imagine, for one whole chapter, as the power that blew Mount Potalaka down and scattered the arhats. The novel restores the proportion in six graphs and does not comment.