勾銷死籍 Striking Out the Names
悟空執著如意棒，徑登森羅殿上，正中間南面坐下。十王即命掌案的判官取出文簿來查。那判官不敢怠慢，便到司房裡捧出五六簿文書並十類簿子。逐一查看：臝蟲、毛蟲、羽蟲、昆蟲、鱗介之屬，俱無他名。又看到猴屬之類，原來這猴似人相，不入人名；似臝蟲，不居國界；似走獸，不伏麒麟管；似飛禽，不受鳳凰轄。另有個簿子，悟空親自檢閱，直到那「魂」字一千三百五十號上，方注著孫悟空名字，乃「天產石猴，該壽三百四十二歲，善終」。悟空道：「我也不記壽數幾何，且只消了名字便罷。取筆過來。」那判官慌忙捧筆，飽掭濃墨。悟空拿過簿子，把猴屬之類，但有名者，一概勾之。捽下簿子道：「了帳，了帳，今番不伏你管了。」一路棒，打出幽冥界。那十王不敢相近，都去翠雲宮，同拜地藏王菩薩，商量啟表，奏聞上天，不在話下。悟空执着如意棒，径登森罗殿上，正中间南面坐下。十王即命掌案的判官取出文簿来查。那判官不敢怠慢，便到司房里捧出五六簿文书并十类簿子。逐一查看：臝虫、毛虫、羽虫、昆虫、鳞介之属，俱无他名。又看到猴属之类，原来这猴似人相，不入人名；似臝虫，不居国界；似走兽，不伏麒麟管；似飞禽，不受凤凰辖。另有个簿子，悟空亲自检阅，直到那「魂」字一千三百五十号上，方注着孙悟空名字，乃「天产石猴，该寿三百四十二岁，善终」。悟空道：「我也不记寿数几何，且只消了名字便罢。取笔过来。」那判官慌忙捧笔，饱掭浓墨。悟空拿过簿子，把猴属之类，但有名者，一概勾之。捽下簿子道：「了帐，了帐，今番不伏你管了。」一路棒，打出幽冥界。那十王不敢相近，都去翠云宫，同拜地藏王菩萨，商量启表，奏闻上天，不在话下。
逐句解 Line by line
Wukong, gripping the As-You-Will rod, went straight up onto the Hall of Darkness and sat down facing south in the very center.
He does not sit where a visitor sits. Facing south in the middle of the hall is the presiding judge's place, and he takes it without asking. 執著 is "gripping, holding fast," 著 the state-marking zhe; 徑登 is "went straight up"; 森羅殿 is the Hall of Darkness, 羅 read luó.
The Ten Kings at once ordered the registrar-judge in charge of records to bring out the registers for inspection.
掌案的判官 is the registrar-judge in charge of the records, 掌 read zhǎng, "to be in charge of"; 文簿 is "the registers," 簿 read bù.
Not daring to be remiss, the judge went into the records office and brought out five or six registers of documents along with the books of the ten classes.
不敢怠慢 is "dared not be remiss," 不 read bù and 怠 dài; 司房 is the records office; 十類簿子 is "the books of the ten classes," 簿 read bù and 子 the unstressed zi.
He examined them one by one: the naked creatures, the furred, the feathered, the crawling, and the scaled-and-shelled and their kinds — none bore his name.
The filing system for all living things has five drawers, and the monkey is in none of them. 臝蟲 is the naked creatures (臝 luǒ, the same as 裸), humans among them; 毛蟲 the furred beasts; 羽蟲 the feathered birds; 昆蟲 the crawling things; and 鱗介 the scaled and the shelled. 逐一 is "one by one," 一 read yì; 之屬 is "and their kinds," 屬 read shǔ.
Then he came to the monkey-kind, and it turned out that this monkey resembles humans yet is not entered among human names; resembles the naked creatures yet is not placed within any nation's bounds; resembles the running beasts yet is not under the unicorn's rule; resembles the flying birds yet is not under the phoenix's jurisdiction.
This is the passage the whole underworld episode rests on, and it is built as a fourfold paradox. Like men (似人相, with 相 as xiàng, "form") but not entered among human names; like the naked creatures but belonging to no nation; like the running beasts but not under the 麒麟, the qilin; like the birds but not under the 鳳凰, the phoenix. Belonging to no category, he falls through the net — which is the ground of his exemption, arrived at not by argument but by bad paperwork. The repeated 不 shifts with what follows: 不入 bú, 不居 bù, 不伏 bù, 不受 bú.
There was another register, which Wukong examined himself, down to entry one thousand three hundred and fifty under the character 'soul,' where Sun Wukong's name was at last recorded: 'Heaven-born Stone Monkey — allotted span three hundred and forty-two years, a natural death.'
Soul number 1,350, allotted span 342 years, cause of death: natural. The mock-precision is the joke — the cosmos keeps a spreadsheet. 親自檢閱 is "examined in person"; 魂字一千三百五十號 is "entry 1350 under the character soul," with 一 as yì before the level tone of 千; 注著 is "was marked," 著 the state-marking zhe; 天產石猴 is "Heaven-born Stone Monkey"; and 該壽三百四十二歲，善終 is "allotted a span of 342 years, a natural death," 該 read gāi and 善終 (shàn zhōng) meaning "to die a natural death."
Wukong said, 'I don't even keep count of how long my span is — I need only strike out the name and be done. Bring me a brush.'
He will not even read his own number. 不記 takes bú; 壽數幾何 is "how great my span is," 數 read shù; 只消了名字 is "need only cancel the names," 只消 (zhǐ xiāo) meaning "merely need to" and 了 the finishing le; 便罷 is "and be done," 罷 read bà.
The judge hurriedly took up a brush and dipped it full of rich ink.
The judge loads the brush for him, which is the most eloquent detail in the scene. 慌忙 is "hurriedly"; 飽掭濃墨 is "dipped the brush full of thick ink," 掭 (tiàn) meaning to load or even out a brush against the inkstone.
Wukong took the register and, for the whole monkey-kind, struck out every one that bore a name.
Not only his own name — every monkey in the book. 拿過簿子 is "took the register," 簿 read bù and 子 zi; 把猴屬之類 is "the whole monkey-kind," 把 read bǎ; 但有名者 is "all that bore a name," 者 read zhě; and 一概勾之, "struck them all out," takes yí before the falling tone of 概, with 勾 as gōu.
He flung the register down and said, 'Settled! Settled! This time I'm no longer under your rule!'
了帳 is bookkeeper's slang — the account is settled, the books are closed — and it is exactly the right register for a man who has just audited death out of existence. 了 reads liǎo, "to finish, to settle," and 帳 zhàng. 捽下簿子 is "flung the register down," 捽 (zuó) meaning to seize and throw down; 今番 is "this time," 番 read fān; and in 不伏你管了, "no longer under your rule," 不 is bù, 伏 is fú, and the final 了 is the aspect marker le.
And laying about with the rod all the way, he fought his way out of the Land of Darkness.
一路棒 is "laying about with the rod all the way," taking yí before the falling tone of 路.
The Ten Kings dared not go near him; they all went to the Cuiyun Palace and together paid homage to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, conferring about sending up a memorial to report the matter to High Heaven — but of that, no more for now.
Beaten in their own court, the kings do what everyone in this chapter does when force fails: they file upstairs. 不敢相近 is "dared not approach," 不 read bù and 相 xiāng; 翠雲宮 is the Cuiyun, or Kingfisher-Cloud, Palace; 地藏王菩薩 is the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Dìzàng), the great vow-bearer who presides over the underworld, 藏 read zàng; 商量 is "to confer," 量 read liáng; 奏聞上天 is "to report to High Heaven"; and 不在話下 is the storyteller's formula for setting a thread aside, 不 taking bú before the falling tone of 在.
The chapter's underworld climax is an act of bureaucratic vandalism that doubles as a liberation: Wukong seizes the presiding judge's south-facing seat, calls for the registers, finds the monkey-clan's names and strikes out every one — not merely his own. The famous fourfold paradox of his place in the order of beings (like men yet not human, like beasts yet not under the qilin, like birds yet not under the phoenix) supplies the logic of the deed: belonging to no fixed category, the monkey-kind slips the net of cosmic accounting altogether. The detail that his entry sits at soul number 1,350 with an allotted span of 342 years is the novel's mock-precise bureaucratic texture — and he scorns even to read it.
Wukong's conquest of death is won here not by alchemical refinement but by erasure: he simply deletes the record. For the inner-alchemical commentators this is a charged image, since the adept who has "returned to the root" stands outside the ledger of birth and death, and the monkey's literal striking-out of the names dramatizes that escape in its crudest, most external form. The benefit extends to his whole clan, so the act is also his first gift of his own transcendence to his subjects. Plaks notes the comedy and the hubris together: the mind-monkey now believes itself wholly beyond limit — a conviction the rest of the novel exists to correct.
The kings' recourse — fleeing to the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and drafting a memorial to Heaven — sets the second of the chapter's two complaints in motion, running parallel to the dragons'. Both the sea and the underworld, unable to control Wukong by force, turn to the celestial bureaucracy above them; the meeting of those two petitions is what will summon Heaven's response in the chapters to come.