鳥盡弓藏 The Bow Is Stored Away
那大聖一聞得說他兩個是人，止不住傷情悽慘，對唐僧道聲：「苦啊！你那時節出了長安，有劉伯欽送你上路。到兩界山，救我出來，投拜你為師。我曾穿古洞，入深林，擒魔捉怪，收八戒，得沙僧，吃盡千辛萬苦。今日昧著惺惺使糊塗，只教我回去。這才是：『鳥盡弓藏，兔死狗烹！』罷，罷，罷，但只是多了那緊箍兒咒。」那大圣一闻得说他两个是人，止不住伤情凄惨，对唐僧道声：「苦啊！你那时节出了长安，有刘伯钦送你上路。到两界山，救我出来，投拜你为师。我曾穿古洞，入深林，擒魔捉怪，收八戒，得沙僧，吃尽千辛万苦。今日昧著惺惺使糊涂，只教我回去。这才是：『鸟尽弓藏，兔死狗烹！』罢，罢，罢，但只是多了那紧箍儿咒。」
逐句解 Line by line
The moment the Great Sage heard the two of them called human, he could not hold back his grief and desolation, and said to the Tang Monk: "Alas!
那大聖 (nà dà shèng) "the Great Sage," 那 (nà); 一聞得說 (yì wén de shuō) "as soon as [he] heard [it] said," 得 (de). 止不住傷情悽慘 (zhǐ bú zhù shāng qíng qī cǎn) "could not stem [his] grief and desolation." The retort about the others being human wounds Wukong not to anger but to sorrow — the injustice cuts deepest here.
"When you set out from Chang'an that time, it was Liu Boqin who saw you on your way.
那時節 (nà shí jié) "at that time," 那 (nà). 出了長安 (chū le Cháng ān) "left Chang'an," 長 (cháng) (長安 the capital). 劉伯欽 (Liú Bó qīn) is the hunter who escorted Tripitaka to the frontier in the early chapters. Wukong begins his recital of the whole shared journey — the ground of the loyalty now being spurned.
"At the Mountain of Two Frontiers you saved me and brought me out, and I bowed to take you as my master.
投拜你為師 (tóu bài nǐ wéi shī) "bowed to make you [my] master," 為 (wéi) "to be, as." Wukong recalls the founding moment of the bond — his release from under the mountain and his taking of vows — the debt he invoked in his earlier plea, now recited in sorrow rather than supplication.
"I have gone through ancient caves and deep forests, seized demons and caught monsters, recruited Eight Rules, gained Sha Monk — and tasted a full measure of a thousand toils and ten thousand hardships.
擒魔捉怪 (qín mó zhuō guài) "seizing demons and catching monsters." 收八戒，得沙僧 (shōu Bā jiè, dé Shā sēng) "recruited Bajie, gained Sha Monk," 得 (dé) "to gain, obtain." 吃盡千辛萬苦 (chī jìn qiān xīn wàn kǔ) "suffered every hardship," 盡 (jìn). Wukong tallies his services — the very disciples now set above him were won by his own toil.
"And today, clouding your own good sense and playing the fool, you would only send me back.
昧著惺惺使糊塗 (mèi zhe xīng xīng shǐ hú tú) "muffling [your] clear wits and acting muddled," 著 (zhe); 教 (jiào) (只教我). Wukong's reproach is precise: it is not that the master lacks sense, but that he is smothering it — 昧著惺惺, wilfully blinding a mind that could see.
"This is truly a case of 'the birds all shot, the bow is put away; the hares all dead, the hounds are cooked!'
鳥盡弓藏，兔死狗烹 (niǎo jìn gōng cáng, tù sǐ gǒu pēng) "birds gone, bow stored; hares dead, hounds cooked" — 藏 (cáng) "to store away," 盡 (jìn). This famous proverb (from the Records of the Grand Historian, of Han Xin's fate) names the discarding of a loyal servant once his usefulness is spent. Wukong applies it to himself with bitter justice.
"Enough, enough, enough! — only, there's that Tight-Fillet Spell to reckon with."
罷，罷，罷 (bà, bà, bà) "enough, enough, enough." 那緊箍兒咒 (nà jǐn gū er zhòu) "that Tight-Fillet Spell," 那 (nà), the suffix 兒 (er). Wukong's resignation — the tripled "enough" — is checked by the one thing that still binds him: the spell that can torment him even after he is gone.
Wukong's answer to the elder's cruel retort is not anger but a lament, and its emotional core is the proverb 鳥盡弓藏，兔死狗烹 — "the birds gone, the bow is stored; the hares dead, the hounds are cooked." Drawn from the Records of the Grand Historian and the fate of the loyal general Han Xin, it names with bitter exactness the discarding of a servant whose work is done. Wukong recites the whole shared journey — Chang'an, the Mountain of Two Frontiers, the demons subdued, the disciples won — to measure the ingratitude of his dismissal.
The reproach is aimed with precision. Wukong does not say the master is a fool but that he is 昧著惺惺, wilfully clouding a clear mind — smothering his own judgement out of fear and pity. This is the chapter's fairest diagnosis of Tripitaka: not stupidity but a failure of nerve, a good man refusing to see. The grief in Wukong's voice is for a bond betrayed by weakness, not malice.
The lament closes on the one thread that still binds him — 那緊箍兒咒, the spell. His tripled 罷, "enough," would end the matter, but the fillet means his going cannot be clean: even parted from the master, he remains subject to a pain the master can inflict at will. The next passage takes up exactly this — whether the spell will follow him into exile.