原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
半截脫身
Escape by the Half-Body
那大聖聞言，就拔了一根毫毛，叫：「變！」變作個半截的身子，在葫蘆底上。真身卻變做個蟭蟟蟲兒，釘在那葫蘆口邊。只見那二魔揭起帖子看時，大聖早已飛出。打個滾，又變做個倚海龍。倚海龍卻是原去請老奶奶的那個小妖，他變了，站在旁邊。那老魔扳著葫蘆口張了一張，見是個半截身子動耽，他也不認真假，慌忙叫：「兄弟，蓋上，蓋上，還不曾化得了哩。」二魔依舊貼上。大聖在傍暗笑道：「不知老孫已在此矣。」那大圣闻言，就拔了一根毫毛，叫：「变！」变作个半截的身子，在葫芦底上。真身却变做个蟭蟟虫儿，钉在那葫芦口边。只见那二魔揭起帖子看时，大圣早已飞出。打个滚，又变做个倚海龙。倚海龙却是原去请老奶奶的那个小妖，他变了，站在旁边。那老魔扳着葫芦口张了一张，见是个半截身子动耽，他也不认真假，慌忙叫：「兄弟，盖上，盖上，还不曾化得了哩。」二魔依旧贴上。大圣在傍暗笑道：「不知老孙已在此矣。」
逐句解 Line by line
那大聖聞言，就拔了一根毫毛，叫：「變！」變作個半截的身子，在葫蘆底上。真身卻變做個蟭蟟蟲兒，釘在那葫蘆口邊。只見那二魔揭起帖子看時，大聖早已飛出。
那大圣闻言，就拔了一根毫毛，叫：「变！」变作个半截的身子，在葫芦底上。真身却变做个蟭蟟虫儿，钉在那葫芦口边。只见那二魔揭起帖子看时，大圣早已飞出。
Hearing this, the Great Sage plucked out a hair and cried “Change!” — making it into a half-body lying at the bottom of the gourd; his true self he changed into a mosquito-gnat and lit at the gourd's mouth. The moment that second fiend lifted the seal to look, the Great Sage had already flown out.
半截的身子 bàn jié de shēn zi, a half-body — a decoy melted to the waist, matching the cries exactly. 蟭蟟蟲兒 jiāo liáo chóng er, a mosquito-gnat, the diminutive er shrinking him to nothing at the very rim of the vessel. 釘在那葫蘆口邊 dīng zài nà hú lu kǒu biān, lit fast at the gourd's mouth, pointing 那 — the same verb used for the fly on the door-frame at the chapter's beginning.
打個滾，又變做個倚海龍。倚海龍卻是原去請老奶奶的那個小妖，他變了，站在旁邊。那老魔扳著葫蘆口張了一張，見是個半截身子動耽，他也不認真假，慌忙叫：「兄弟，蓋上，蓋上，還不曾化得了哩。」
打个滚，又变做个倚海龙。倚海龙却是原去请老奶奶的那个小妖，他变了，站在旁边。那老魔扳着葫芦口张了一张，见是个半截身子动耽，他也不认真假，慌忙叫：「兄弟，盖上，盖上，还不曾化得了哩。」
With a tumble he changed again into Sea-Reclining Dragon — Sea-Reclining Dragon being the very imp who had first gone to invite Old Grandma; into that he changed, and stood off to the side. That old fiend pried at the gourd's mouth and took a peer, saw a half-body stirring inside, and, not troubling to tell true from false, cried in a fluster: “Brother, cap it, cap it — it hasn't finished melting yet!”
扳著葫蘆口張了一張 bān zhe hú lu kǒu zhāng le yì zhāng, prised at the mouth and took a peer, with the ongoing zhe and another doubled verb for a quick look. 還不曾化得了哩 hái bù céng huà de liǎo li, hasn't finished melting yet — 還 read hái, and 化得了 is a can-do complement with 了 read liǎo, to finish, closing on the light particle 哩. The old fiend is looking straight at a hair and reporting on a monkey.
二魔依舊貼上。大聖在傍暗笑道：「不知老孫已在此矣。」
二魔依旧贴上。大圣在傍暗笑道：「不知老孙已在此矣。」
The second fiend sealed it up again as before. The Great Sage, off to one side, laughed to himself: “Little do they know Old Monkey is already out here.”
依舊貼上 yī jiù tiē shàng, sealed it up again as before — here 貼 is tiē, to paste, the companion verb to the 帖 slip itself. 不知老孫已在此矣 bù zhī lǎo sūn yǐ zài cǐ yǐ, little do they know Old Monkey is already out here — spoken from a foot away, in the shape of one of their own staff.
總評 Commentary
The escape mirrors the imprisonment, and the same trick that trapped him now frees him. Where the gourd swallowed him for answering, he leaves it a hair-conjured half-body to answer for him — a melting corpse in effigy — while his true self slips out as a gnat the instant the seal is lifted. Substitution is by now the chapter's deepest habit: the real Wukong is never where the demons think he is, and there is always a decoy in his place.
The re-sealing is the crowning stroke. The old fiend sees a half-body stirring, cannot be bothered to tell true from false, and orders the gourd capped again on an empty decoy, while the genuine article stands beside him wearing the shape of one of their own imps. Wukong's aside seals the joke: the fiends guard a phantom with elaborate care while their real enemy watches from arm's length, and the whole apparatus of the melting-test has been converted into a machine for their own gulling.