化作老婦 She Becomes an Old Woman
好妖精，按落陰雲，在那前山坡下搖身一變，變作個老婦人，年滿八旬，手拄著一根彎頭竹杖，一步一聲的哭著走來。八戒見了，大驚道：「師父，不好了，那媽媽兒來尋人了。」唐僧道：「尋甚人？」八戒道：「師兄打殺的定是他女兒，這個定是他娘尋將來了。」行者道：「兄弟莫要胡說，那女子十八歲，這老婦有八十歲，怎麼六十多歲還生產？斷乎是個假的，等老孫去看來。」好妖精，按落阴云，在那前山坡下摇身一变，变作个老妇人，年满八旬，手拄著一根弯头竹杖，一步一声的哭著走来。八戒见了，大惊道：「师父，不好了，那妈妈儿来寻人了。」唐僧道：「寻甚人？」八戒道：「师兄打杀的定是他女儿，这个定是他娘寻将来了。」行者道：「兄弟莫要胡说，那女子十八岁，这老妇有八十岁，怎么六十多岁还生产？断乎是个假的，等老孙去看来。」
逐句解 Line by line
Excellent fiend! Settling its shadowy cloud, it gave its body a shake below the slope of the mountain ahead and turned into an old woman, fully eighty years of age, propping herself on a crook-headed bamboo staff and coming along with a wail at every step.
那前山坡 (nà qián shān pō) "the slope of the mountain ahead," 那 (nà). 搖身一變 (yáo shēn yí biàn) "with one shake transformed." 手拄著 (shǒu zhǔ zhe) "leaning on," and 哭著走來 (kū zhe zǒu lái) "coming weeping," both aspect-marker 著 (zhe). The second disguise is calculated: an aged, grieving mother, come (as Bajie will suppose) to seek her murdered daughter.
Eight Rules, seeing her, cried out in alarm: "Master, this is bad! That old dame has come looking for someone!"
不好了 (bù hǎo le) "this is bad!" 那媽媽兒 (nà mā ma er) "that old dame," 那 (nà) and the familiar suffix 兒 (er). Bajie, who had championed the maiden, now recoils in fear — the same credulity that trusted the first disguise is spooked by the second.
The Tang Monk said, "Looking for whom?"
尋甚人 (xún shén rén) "seeking what person," 甚 (shén) "what." The elder's uneasy question shows the demon's new guise already working on his fears.
Said Eight Rules, "The one Elder Brother struck dead must surely be her daughter, and this must be her mother come looking for her."
女兒 (nǚ ér) "daughter," the noun 兒 (ér) (contrast the suffix 兒 (er) of 媽媽兒). 尋將來 (xún jiāng lái) "come seeking," 將 (jiāng). Bajie supplies the demon's own script for her — mother seeking murdered daughter — the very reading she needs the pilgrims to make.
Said Pilgrim, "Brother, don't talk nonsense. That woman was eighteen, and this old dame is eighty — how could she be bearing children at sixty-odd?
那女子 (nà nǚ zǐ) "that woman," 那 (nà), 子 (zǐ). 六十多歲還生產 (liù shí duō suì hái shēng chǎn) "still giving birth at sixty-odd," 還 (hái) "still." Wukong dismantles the fiction with arithmetic — an eighty-year-old cannot be mother to an eighteen-year-old — reasoning as sharp as his eyes.
"It's certainly a fake — let old Sun go and take a look."
斷乎 (duàn hū) "surely, without doubt." 等老孫去看來 "let old Sun go and see." Wukong, though bound by his promise not to strike, cannot let a second fiend pass — and moves to confront it, setting up the second blow.
The second disguise is a shrewd escalation. Where the first mask exploited the pilgrims' susceptibility to beauty, this one — an aged, weeping mother seeking her slain daughter — exploits their guilt and pity. The narrator's admiring 好妖精 again relishes the craft, and the ploy immediately spooks the very Bajie who had championed the maiden.
Bajie's reaction is finely observed. Having lusted after the first disguise, he now recoils from the second in superstitious fear, and — worse — supplies the demon's own script unbidden: "this must be her mother come looking for her." His credulity works in the demon's favour whichever way it turns, first advocating, now dreading, always misreading.
Against this, Wukong applies plain reason to match his plain sight: an eighty-year-old cannot have borne an eighteen-year-old daughter at sixty. The demon's fictions never survive contact with his logic. But logic and sight together avail nothing against a master governed by feeling — and Wukong, though he has sworn not to strike, is once again drawn toward the blow that will look like a second murder.