龍馬本相 The Dragon-Horse Revealed
行者道：「你說他是馬哩，他不是凡馬，本是西海龍王敖閏之子，喚名龍馬三太子。只因縱火燒了殿上明珠，被他父親告了忤逆，身犯天條，多虧觀音菩薩救了他的性命。他在那鷹愁陡澗久等師父，又幸得菩薩親臨，卻將他退鱗去角，摘了項下珠，才變做這匹馬，願馱師父往西天拜佛。這個都是各人的功果，你莫攀他。」那沙僧聞言道：「哥哥，真個是龍麼？」行者道：「是龍。」八戒道：「哥啊，我聞得古人云：龍能噴雲噯霧，播土揚沙；有巴山㨝嶺的手段，有翻江攪海的神通。怎麼他今日這等慢慢而走？」行者道：「你要他快走，我教他快走個兒你看。」行者道：「你说他是马哩，他不是凡马，本是西海龙王敖闰之子，唤名龙马三太子。只因纵火烧了殿上明珠，被他父亲告了忤逆，身犯天条，多亏观音菩萨救了他的性命。他在那鹰愁陡涧久等师父，又幸得菩萨亲临，却将他退鳞去角，摘了项下珠，才变做这匹马，愿驮师父往西天拜佛。这个都是各人的功果，你莫攀他。」那沙僧闻言道：「哥哥，真个是龙么？」行者道：「是龙。」八戒道：「哥啊，我闻得古人云：龙能喷云嗳雾，播土扬沙；有巴山㨝岭的手段，有翻江搅海的神通。怎么他今日这等慢慢而走？」行者道：「你要他快走，我教他快走个儿你看。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, “You call him a horse, but he is no common horse. He was in truth the son of Ao Run, Dragon King of the Western Sea, and went by the name Dragon-Horse, the Third Prince.”
行者 is Sun Wukong, the Pilgrim. The white steed is the transformed dragon-prince of chapter 15: 龍馬三太子, the “Third Prince, Dragon-Horse.” 敖閏 (Ào Rùn) is the Dragon King of the Western Sea in the 世德堂本 (some editions read 敖順). Both 之子 (“son of”) and 三太子 (“Third Prince”) take the noun 子 zǐ, not the suffix zi.
“Only because he set fire to the hall and burned the luminous pearl there, his own father charged him with unfilial revolt; having broken the statutes of Heaven, he owed his very life to the mercy of the Bodhisattva Guanyin, who delivered him.”
A recap of the prince's crime. 明珠 is the night-shining pearl he destroyed; 忤逆 (wǔnì) is the capital charge of filial revolt; 天條 the “statutes of Heaven.” The three 了 (燒了 / 告了 / 救了) are all the aspectual le.
“There at the Eagle's-Sorrow Steep-Gorge he waited long for the Master; and by good fortune the Bodhisattva came in person, stripped him of his scales, drew off his horns, plucked the pearl from beneath his throat, and only then made him into this horse — willing to bear the Master westward to worship the Buddha.”
鷹愁陡澗 (Yīngchóu Dǒujiàn), the Eagle's-Sorrow Ravine of chapter 15. Here 幸得 reads the full verb of attainment dé (“obtained, was granted”) — set it against the resultative de in Bajie's speech below. 將 is the disposal jiāng (卻將他退鱗去角, “took him and stripped his scales”); 退鱗去角 is the un-dragoning of the prince.
“All this is each one's own store of merit — do not measure yourself against him.”
功果 (gōngguǒ), “meritorious fruits,” is the karmic account each pilgrim earns toward buddhahood. 攀 here is pān, “to drag in by comparison, to liken oneself to.” 都 reads dōu (“all, entirely”).
Sha Monk, hearing this, said, “Elder brother — is he truly a dragon?”
沙僧 is Sha Wujing. 真個 (zhēnge) is the colloquial “really, in truth”; 麼 the interrogative final particle.
“A dragon,” said Pilgrim.
A two-word confirmation, the storyteller's beat before Bajie's learned digression. No cruxes.
Bajie said, “Brother, I have heard the ancients say: a dragon can spew cloud and belch fog, scatter earth and fling up sand; it has the craft to cleave hills and split ridges, the power to overturn rivers and churn seas.”
八戒 is Zhu Bajie. 聞得 reads the resultative de (“have heard”), against pypinyin's contextual guess — the mirror of 幸得 above. 巴山㨝嶺 “to cleave hills and split ridges”: 㨝 (xiē) (U+3A1D) is a rare hand-radical verb of wedging/splitting, the chapter's one lone Ext-A graph. 噯 (ài) is “to belch forth.”
“How is it that today he plods along at such a crawl?”
這等 (zhèděng) is “in this manner, so”; 慢慢而走 an ambling, unhurried gait.
Pilgrim said, “You want him to go fast? I'll make him go fast for you to see.”
教 reads jiào, the causative “to make, to cause.” 個兒 is a colloquial verbal complement — 快走個兒, “put on a burst of speed.”
This passage settles the business of the dragon-horse before the pilgrims reach the trial. Wukong's speech is a recapitulation of chapter 15 — prompted by Sha Monk's and Bajie's questions — reminding the reader that the white steed is no beast of burden but the transformed Third Prince of the Western Sea, un-dragoned by Guanyin in penance for burning his father's pearl. The exchange re-gathers the full symbolic cast just cataloged in the opening verse.
The comedy belongs to Bajie. His bookish recitation of dragon-lore — spewing cloud, overturning seas — collides with the plain fact of the horse's plodding pace, and the complaint hands Wukong his cue for the small cruelty that follows. The tonal swing, from Wukong's grave account of merit and heavenly statute to Bajie's grumbling, is characteristic of the novel's weave.
Note the doctrinal undertone of 功果, “each one's own store of merit.” Wukong's warning that Bajie must not measure himself against the dragon-prince quietly restates the chapter's theme: each pilgrim's advancement is his own karmic labor, not a thing to be borrowed or envied. The point will be tested, pointedly, when the widow's offer tempts each of the four in turn.