十殿冥王 The Ten Kings of the Underworld
慌得那十代冥王急整衣來看，見他相貌兇惡，即排下班次，應聲高叫道：「上仙留名！上仙留名！」猴王道：「你既認不得我，怎麼差人來勾我？」十王道：「不敢，不敢。想是差人差了。」猴王道：「我本是花果山水簾洞天生聖人孫悟空。你等是甚麼官位？」十王躬身道：「我等是陰間天子十代冥王。」悟空道：「快報名來，免打。」十王道：「我等是秦廣王、初江王、宋帝王、忤官王、閻羅王、平等王、泰山王、都市王、卞城王、轉輪王。」悟空道：「汝等既登王位，乃靈顯感應之類，為何不知好歹？我老孫修仙了道，與天齊壽，超昇三界之外，跳出五行之中，為何著人拘我？」十王道：「上仙息怒。普天下同名同姓者多，敢是那勾死人錯走了也？」悟空道：「胡說！胡說！常言道：『官差吏差，來人不差。』你快取生死簿子來我看！」十王聞言，即請上殿查看。慌得那十代冥王急整衣来看，见他相貌凶恶，即排下班次，应声高叫道：「上仙留名！上仙留名！」猴王道：「你既认不得我，怎么差人来勾我？」十王道：「不敢，不敢。想是差人差了。」猴王道：「我本是花果山水帘洞天生圣人孙悟空。你等是甚么官位？」十王躬身道：「我等是阴间天子十代冥王。」悟空道：「快报名来，免打。」十王道：「我等是秦广王、初江王、宋帝王、忤官王、阎罗王、平等王、泰山王、都市王、卞城王、转轮王。」悟空道：「汝等既登王位，乃灵显感应之类，为何不知好歹？我老孙修仙了道，与天齐寿，超升三界之外，跳出五行之中，为何着人拘我？」十王道：「上仙息怒。普天下同名同姓者多，敢是那勾死人错走了也？」悟空道：「胡说！胡说！常言道：『官差吏差，来人不差。』你快取生死簿子来我看！」十王闻言，即请上殿查看。
逐句解 Line by line
In alarm the Ten Kings of the underworld hastily straightened their robes and came to look; seeing his fierce appearance, they at once drew themselves up in ranks and called out in chorus: 'Honored Immortal, leave your name! Honored Immortal, leave your name!'
The lords of death straighten their robes and ask the intruder, politely, who he is. 十代冥王 are the Ten Kings (十殿閻王) who preside over the courts of the underworld, 代 here meaning "in succession." 急整衣 is "hastily straightened their robes"; 相貌 is "appearance," 相 read xiàng; 排下班次 is "drew up in ranks"; 應聲 is "in response, in chorus," 應 read yìng; and 留名, "leave your name," is a demand to identify oneself.
The Monkey King said, 'Since you do not even know me, why did you send men to summon me?'
The retort is unanswerable and he knows it: if you cannot recognize me, why did you send for me? 認不得 is "do not recognize," 不 read bù and 得 the unstressed de; 差人 is "to send men," 差 read chāi, "to dispatch"; 勾 is gōu.
The Ten Kings said, 'We dare not, we dare not. It must be that the men we sent were mistaken.'
A pun the text plants deliberately: 差人差了 uses the same character twice, first as chāi, "to dispatch," then as chà, "to err" — the men we sent got it wrong. 不敢, "we dare not," is the standard deferential disclaimer, 不 read bù.
The Monkey King said, 'I am Sun Wukong, the heaven-born sage of the Water-Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. And what offices are you?'
He gives his address, then asks for theirs — the posture of a man filing a complaint rather than answering a summons. 水簾洞 is the Water-Curtain Cave of ch.1, 簾 read lián; 你等 is "you all"; 甚麼官位 is "what offices."
The Ten Kings bowed and said, 'We are the Sons of Heaven of the realm of shade, the Ten Kings of the underworld.'
躬身 is "bowing"; 陰間天子 is "the Sons of Heaven of the realm of shade," 陰間 being the world of yin and darkness, and 天子, "Son of Heaven," taking 子 as zǐ.
Wukong said, 'Report your names at once, and spare yourselves a beating.'
Ten sovereign gods of the dead, told to recite their names or be hit. 報名 is "report your names"; 免打 is "spare yourselves a beating."
The Ten Kings said, 'We are King Qinguang, King Chujiang, King Songdi, King Wuguan, King Yama, King Pingdeng, King Taishan, King Dushi, King Biancheng, and King Zhuanlun.'
They comply, in order: 秦廣王 (Qinguang), 初江王 (Chujiang), 宋帝王 (Songdi), 忤官王 (Wuguan; 忤 wǔ), 閻羅王 (Yama; 閻 yán), 平等王 (Pingdeng), 泰山王 (Taishan), 都市王 (Dushi, where 都 reads dū, "city," as in 都市), 卞城王 (Biancheng; 卞 biàn) and 轉輪王 (Zhuanlun, King of the Turning Wheel of rebirth; 轉 zhuǎn). These are the standard ten kings of the Chinese Buddhist and Daoist underworld.
Wukong said, 'Since you hold royal rank, you are beings of numinous power and spirit-response — why do you not know better?
The argument is that gods of their rank ought to have better records. 既登王位 is "since you hold royal rank"; 靈顯感應之類 is "beings of numinous manifestation and spirit-response," 應 read yìng; 為何 is "why," 為 read wèi; 不知好歹 is "not know better," 不 read bù.
Old Sun has cultivated immortality and attained the Way; my lifespan is equal to Heaven's; I have ascended beyond the Three Realms and leapt clear of the Five Phases. Why have you sent men to seize me?'
修仙了道 is "cultivated immortality and attained the Way," with 了 as liǎo, "to complete, to accomplish," not the toneless le. 與天齊壽 is "lifespan equal to Heaven's"; in 超昇三界之外，跳出五行之中, 五行 is wǔ xíng with 行 as xíng. 為何著人拘我 is "why have you had men seize me?", with 為 as wèi, 著 as the ordering zhuó, and 拘 "to detain."
The Ten Kings said, 'Let the Honored Immortal calm his anger. Throughout the world there are many of the same name and surname — could it be that the death-fetcher went to the wrong place?'
The excuse is the oldest one in any office: it must be a case of mistaken identity, plenty of people share a name. 息怒 is "calm your anger"; 普天下 is "throughout the world"; 同名同姓 is "the same given name and surname"; 敢是 is the vernacular "could it be that…"; and 錯走了 is "went to the wrong place," 錯 read cuò.
Wukong said, 'Nonsense! Nonsense! As the common saying goes, "the official may err and the clerk may err, but the man who comes does not err." Quick — fetch me the register of life and death to look at!'
He answers with a proverb aimed straight at the excuse: 官差吏差，來人不差 — the official may err and the clerk may err, but the man who actually turns up does not. In all three the 差 is chà, "to err," and 不 takes bú before its falling tone. 胡說 is "nonsense!"; 常言道 is "as the common saying goes"; and 生死簿子 is the register of life and death, 簿 read bù and 子 the unstressed zi. He is not arguing theology now; he wants to see the file.
Hearing this, the Ten Kings at once invited him up to the hall to inspect it.
聞言 is "hearing this"; 即請上殿查看 is "at once invited him up to the hall to inspect" — an invitation extended, one senses, with some speed.
The underworld is staffed, like the dragon-court before it, as a celestial bureaucracy — here the canonical Ten Kings (十殿閻王) of the Chinese afterlife, each presiding over one court of judgment. Their instant capitulation is the comedy of the scene: confronted with Wukong's fierce face, the lords of death straighten their robes, line up in ranks, beg the "Honored Immortal" to identify himself, and then try to fob him off with the blandest excuse in the world, a clerical error. That these are genuine divinities — "beings of numinous manifestation and spirit-response," 靈顯感應之類 — only sharpens the satire: even true gods of the dead are, in front of Wukong, frightened clerks. The full roll-call of the Ten Kings, recited on demand to spare a beating, is a small set-piece of the novel's appetite for naming the furniture of the cosmos.
Wukong's rebuttal turns on a folk proverb — the official may err, the clerk may err, but the man who comes does not err (官差吏差，來人不差) — wielded, as ever, as a weapon: he refuses to let his summons be written off as a mistake, insisting that the warrant naming him was no accident, and demands the register itself. The argument restates the chapter's central claim, that he has attained the Way and stands beyond the Three Realms and the Five Phases, but now presses it as a documentary dispute. Not "am I subject to death?" debated in the abstract, but "show me my name in the book." Anthony C. Yu notes how persistently the novel renders cosmic and spiritual questions in the idiom of paperwork and procedure — and Wukong, the supreme anti-bureaucrat, beats the bureaucracy at its own game by going straight to the file.