五百年前 Five Hundred Years Ago
行者道：「實不瞞師父說，老孫五百年前，居花果山水簾洞大展英雄之際，收降七十二洞邪魔，手下有四萬七千小怪，頭戴的是紫金冠，身穿的是赭黃袍，腰繫的是藍田帶，足踏的是步雲履，手執的是如意金箍棒，著實也曾為人。自從涅槃罪度，削髮秉正沙門，跟你做了徒弟，把這個金箍兒勒在我頭上，若回去，卻也難見故鄉人。行者道：「实不瞒师父说，老孙五百年前，居花果山水帘洞大展英雄之际，收降七十二洞邪魔，手下有四万七千小怪，头戴的是紫金冠，身穿的是赭黄袍，腰系的是蓝田带，足踏的是步云履，手执的是如意金箍棒，著实也曾为人。自从涅槃罪度，削发秉正沙门，跟你做了徒弟，把这个金箍儿勒在我头上，若回去，却也难见故乡人。
逐句解 Line by line
Said Pilgrim, "I'll not deceive you, Master: five hundred years ago, when old Sun dwelt in the Water-Curtain Cave of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and displayed his full heroic might, I subdued the demons of seventy-two caves and had forty-seven thousand lesser fiends under my hand. On my head I wore a cap of purple gold, on my body a robe of ochre-yellow, at my waist a belt of Lantian jade, on my feet a pair of cloud-treading boots, and in my hand I held the As-You-Will gold-banded cudgel. In those days I too was truly somebody.
Wukong recites the regalia of his kingship: 紫金冠 (zǐ jīn guān) "purple-gold cap" (冠 (guān) the noun "crown"), 赭黃袍 "ochre-yellow robe," 藍田帶 "Lantian-jade belt," 步雲履 "cloud-treading boots," and the 如意金箍棒 "As-You-Will gold-banded staff." 收降七十二洞 (shōu xiáng qī shí èr dòng) "subdued the seventy-two caves," 降 (xiáng) "to subdue, receive [in surrender]." 著實也曾為人 (zhuó shí yě céng wéi rén) "was truly once a person [of consequence]" — 著實 (zhuó shí) "truly, really" (著 (zhuó)), 為人 (wéi rén) "to be somebody" (為 (wéi) "to be").
"But ever since I was redeemed from my sin at the Nirvāṇa-crossing, shaved my head and turned upright to the Buddhist gate, and became your disciple, this gold band has been clamped on my head — and were I to go back now, I could hardly face the folk of my old home.
涅槃罪度 (niè pán zuì dù) "redeemed from sin at the [gate of] Nirvāṇa." 削髮秉正 (xuē fà bǐng zhèng) "shaved the head and held to the right [path]." 金箍兒 (jīn gū er) "the gold band," the suffix 兒 (er). 難見故鄉人 (nán jiàn gù xiāng rén) "could hardly face the people of [my] old home," 難 (nán) "hard to." The band is the emblem of both his conversion and his bondage — and the shame of a fruitless return.
Stung by the charge of greed, Wukong answers with a proud recitation of everything he renounced to follow Tripitaka. The catalogue of regalia — purple-gold cap, ochre robe, jade belt, cloud-boots, the As-You-Will staff — conjures the sovereign Monkey King who ruled seventy-two caves and forty-seven thousand fiends, 著實也曾為人, "truly once somebody." It is a boast, but a poignant one: he lists his lost kingdom to show the measure of what loyalty has cost him.
The speech pivots on the gold band. It is at once the sign of his redemption — 涅槃罪度, sin washed away, the head shaved, the wild king turned monk — and the instrument of his bondage, clamped on and unremovable. In two clauses Wukong compresses his whole arc from rebel to disciple, and names the price: a return home would be a homecoming in shame, 難見故鄉人, unable to face his own people.
This is the emotional heart of the second cycle, and it reframes the quarrel entirely. Wukong does not want luggage or leave; he wants the bond honoured. Having given up a kingdom for the pilgrimage, to be cast out over an illusion is not merely unjust but a kind of unmaking — and it prepares the terrible request of the next passage, that if he must go, the master at least remove the band.