釘鈀之力 The Nail-Rake
國王又問道：「長老此去，有何兵器與他交戰？」八戒腰裡掣出鈀來道：「老豬使的是釘鈀。」國王笑道：「可敗壞門面。我這裡有的是鞭、簡、瓜、鎚，刀、槍、鉞、斧，劍、戟、矛、鐮，隨你選稱手的拿一件去。那鈀算做甚麼兵器？」八戒道：「陛下不知。我這鈀雖然粗夯，實是自幼隨身之器。曾在天河水府為帥，轄押八萬水兵，全仗此鈀之力。今臨凡世，保護吾師，逢山築破虎狼窩，遇水掀翻龍蜃穴，皆是此鈀。」国王又问道：「长老此去，有何兵器与他交战？」八戒腰里掣出钯来道：「老猪使的是钉钯。」国王笑道：「可败坏门面。我这里有的是鞭、简、瓜、锤，刀、枪、钺、斧，剑、戟、矛、镰，随你选称手的拿一件去。那钯算做甚么兵器？」八戒道：「陛下不知。我这钯虽然粗夯，实是自幼随身之器。曾在天河水府为帅，辖押八万水兵，全仗此钯之力。今临凡世，保护吾师，逢山筑破虎狼窝，遇水掀翻龙蜃穴，皆是此钯。」
逐句解 Line by line
The king asked further, 'Elder, when you go, what weapon have you to do battle with him?'
Reassured, the king turns to logistics. 此去 is "on this expedition," 兵器 a weapon, 交戰 to join battle. A reasonable question, about to receive an unreasonable-looking answer.
Eight Rules drew out the rake from his waist and said, 'What Old Zhu wields is a nail-rake.'
掣出鈀來 — 鈀 is pá — is to whip out the rake. Its full name is the 九齒釘鈀, the nine-toothed nail-rake, and it looks exactly like what a farmer would use to break up soil, because that is what it is shaped like. 老豬, "Old Zhu," again.
The king laughed and said, 'That would only disgrace your appearance. Here I have whips and maces, melon-hammers and mallets; sabres and spears, battle-axes and hatchets; swords and halberds, lances and sickles — choose whichever suits your hand and take it with you. What sort of weapon do you call that rake?'
The king's reaction is the reaction of a man who judges by appearances, and the novel gives him a full twelve weapons to make the point, in three groups of four: 鞭簡瓜鎚, whips and maces and melon-hammers and mallets; 刀槍鉞斧, sabres and spears and battle-axes and hatchets; 劍戟矛鐮, swords and halberds and lances and sickles. 敗壞門面 is "spoils your appearance, lets down the shopfront." 稱手 (稱 = chèn) is "suited to the hand." 那鈀 (那 = nà) 算做甚麼 (甚 = shén) — what does that rake even count as? He is offering to re-equip a god with municipal hardware.
Said Eight Rules, 'Your Majesty does not understand. This rake of mine, coarse and clumsy though it seems, has in truth been my constant weapon since youth. When I was a marshal in the water-mansion of the Heavenly River, in command of eighty thousand water-troops, it was wholly upon the power of this rake that I relied.'
粗夯 is coarse and lumpish, which Eight Rules concedes at once — and then quietly produces the provenance. 自幼隨身之器 is "the weapon at my side since I was young"; 天河水府為帥 (為 = wéi) is "was marshal in the water-mansion of the Heavenly River"; 轄押八萬水兵 is "had eighty thousand water-troops under command." The farm tool the king is embarrassed by outranks his entire armoury.
'Now, come down into the mortal world to guard my master, whenever I meet a mountain I break open the dens of tigers and wolves, and whenever I meet a river I overturn the lairs of dragons and sea-clams — and all of it is this rake.'
He finishes with a matched pair of seven-character clauses — 逢山築破虎狼窩, at mountains, smash open the tiger-and-wolf dens, and 遇水掀翻龍蜃穴, at rivers, overturn the lairs of dragons and 蜃, the giant clam of legend whose breath was said to raise mirages. It is the same pattern Tripitaka used to describe his disciples to the court, "at mountains open a road, at rivers throw a bridge," and Eight Rules has swapped the verbs for demolition.
The weapon exchange is a small comedy of appearances. The king, judging entirely by eye, takes the nail-rake for a farm implement that would only let down its owner's dignity, and runs through the whole glittering inventory of a royal armoury — twelve weapons in three tidy groups of four — urging his guest to pick something worthier. The joke is that the humble-looking rake is a celestial weapon of enormous power, and Eight Rules' reply corrects the error without raising its voice: coarse as it looks, it has been his since youth, and it was on its strength that he commanded eighty thousand troops as Marshal of the Heavenly River. The reader gets to enjoy a piece of knowledge the king lacks, and Eight Rules gets back some of the dignity his buffoonery has been spending.