徑上蓬萊 Off to Penglai
好猴王，急縱觔斗雲，別了五莊觀，徑上東洋大海。在半空中，快如掣電，疾如流星，早到蓬萊仙境。按雲頭，往下仔細觀看，真個好去處。有詩為證。詩曰：好猴王，急纵觔斗云，别了五庄观，径上东洋大海。在半空中，快如掣电，疾如流星，早到蓬莱仙境。按云头，往下仔细观看，真个好去处。有诗为证。诗曰：
逐句解 Line by line
Fine Monkey King! He leapt up on his somersault cloud, took his leave of the Five-Villages Abbey, and made straight for the Great Eastern Ocean.
觔斗雲 (also written 筋斗雲) is Wukong’s somersault cloud, which bears him a hundred and eight thousand li at a bound; 斗 is read dǒu. 五莊觀 (Wǔzhuāng Guàn), the Five-Villages Abbey, is Zhenyuan’s Daoist cloister — 觀 here in its "abbey" reading guàn.
High in the air, swift as a lightning-flash, quick as a shooting star, he came in no time to the immortal realm of Penglai.
掣電 ("darting lightning") and 流星 ("a shooting star") are stock similes of speed. 蓬萊 (Pénglái) is the most famous of the three sacred isles of the eastern sea, the dwelling of the immortals.
Reining in his cloud, he looked down and gazed carefully — a truly fine place indeed.
按雲頭 — "to press down the cloud-head," i.e., to slow and descend. 仔細 (zǐxì), "carefully, closely"; here 觀 is the verb "to look, observe" (guān), distinct from the "abbey" reading just above.
There is a poem to prove it:
有詩為證 ("there is a poem in witness") is the storyteller’s standard formula for introducing a descriptive verse; 為證 (wéizhèng), "as proof."
The poem says:
詩曰 ("the poem says") heads the verse proper, following the introductory formula.
On the great earth, an immortals’ land where ranks of sages throng; Penglai, now parting, now joined, holds down the surging waves.
仙鄉, "the immortals’ country"; 列聖曹, "the assembled ranks of the sages." 分合 ("parting and joining") evokes the isle’s mist-wreathed, shifting look as it "quells" (鎮) the ocean’s billows.
The jasper terrace dips its reflection where the heart of heaven is cold; the great gate-towers’ light floats high upon the ocean’s face.
瑤臺 ("jasper terrace") is a palace of the immortals; 影蘸, "its reflection dips [into the water]." 巨闕 are the towering gate-pylons of the immortal city.
Mists and glow of five hues enfold the jade pipes’ music; from the ninefold empyrean, star and moon strike the golden turtle.
玉籟, "jade pan-pipes," the music of the heavens. 金鰲 (jīn’áo) is the giant golden sea-turtle that, in ancient myth (the 列子), bears the floating isles of the immortals upon its back.
The Queen Mother of the Western Pool comes often to this place, to offer the three immortals her peaches, time and again.
西池王母 is the 西王母, Queen Mother of the West, whose 瑤池 ("Jasper Pool") lies in the far west; her 蟠桃 peaches confer immortality. 三仙, "the three immortals," are the presiding spirits of the sacred isles.
The quest proper begins with a flourish. Wukong’s somersault cloud whisks him from the Five-Villages Abbey to Penglai in the space of a sentence, and the narrative pauses, as it so often does at a change of scene, to unfurl a descriptive verse. The formula "there is a poem to prove it" (有詩為證) is a fossil of the novel’s origins in oral storytelling, where such set-pieces gave the reciter a moment to shine.
The verse assembles the standard furniture of the immortal isles: jasper terraces and gate-towers, five-hued mists, heavenly pipes, and the golden turtle of the 列子 that carries the floating mountains on its back. The presence of the Queen Mother of the West, bringing her immortality-conferring peaches "time and again," marks Penglai as a place outside death — fitting ground for a hero in search of the secret of raising the dead.
The passage also marks a structural turn. From here the chapter becomes a tour of the eastern paradise, and Wukong will call in turn upon Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou before his search bears fruit. The grandeur of the opening description sets the scale of the journey — and, by placing the cure among the highest immortals, quietly raises the question of whether even they can undo the harm he has done.