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，着实也曾为人。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.
This is a man emptying out a wallet of old photographs. Seventy-two caves of demons brought to heel, forty-seven thousand fiends under his command, and then the kit, item by item: a purple-gold cap, an ochre-yellow robe in the colour reserved for emperors, a belt of Lantian jade from the most famous jade quarry in China, cloud-treading boots, and the 如意金箍棒, the As-You-Will gold-banded cudgel — still in his hand, and currently used for clearing brush. Then the line that hurts: 著實也曾為人, I really was somebody once. Readings: 降 in 收降 is xiáng, "to subdue, to take in surrender", not jiàng, "to descend"; 冠 is the noun guān, a cap; 著實 takes 著 as zhuó; and 為人 takes 為 as wéi.
"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.
And then the turn. Since the day his sin was cancelled and his head was shaved, this band has been on his skull. 難見故鄉人 — I could hardly face the people back home. Note that 難 here is nán, "hard to", not the nàn, "calamity", from a few passages back. The gold band is doing double work in the sentence: it is the sign that he was saved, and it is the thing he cannot take off. (The 兒 of 金箍兒 is the small toneless tag.)
Stung by the charge of greed, Wukong answers with a proud inventory of everything he gave up. The 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. It is a boast, and a poignant one: he lists a lost kingdom to show the size of what loyalty has cost him.
The speech pivots on the gold band, which is two things at once. It is the mark of his redemption — sin cancelled, head shaved, wild king turned monk — and it is the instrument of his bondage, clamped on and immovable. Two clauses compress his whole arc from rebel to disciple and name the price: a return home would be a homecoming in shame.
This is the emotional centre of the second cycle, and it reframes the quarrel completely. Wukong does not want the baggage and does not want leave. He wants the bond honoured. Having given up a kingdom for this road, to be thrown off it over an illusion is not merely unjust but a kind of unmaking — which sets up the terrible request of the next passage.