智取扣繩 The Cord Cunningly Sprung
他兩個戰了有三十回合，不分勝負。行者暗喜道：「這潑怪倒也架得住老孫的鐵棒。我已得了他三件寶貝，卻這般苦苦的與他廝殺，可不誤了我的工夫？不若拿葫蘆或淨瓶裝他去，多少是好？」又想道：「不好，不好。常言道：『物隨主便。』倘若我叫他不答應，卻又不誤了事業？且使幌金繩扣頭罷。」好大聖，一隻手使棒，架住他的寶貝；一隻手把那繩執起，刷喇的扣了魔頭。他两个战了有三十回合，不分胜负。行者暗喜道：「这泼怪倒也架得住老孙的铁棒。我已得了他三件宝贝，却这般苦苦的与他厮杀，可不误了我的工夫？不若拿葫芦或净瓶装他去，多少是好？」又想道：「不好，不好。常言道：『物随主便。』倘若我叫他不答应，却又不误了事业？且使幌金绳扣头罢。」好大圣，一只手使棒，架住他的宝贝；一只手把那绳执起，刷喇的扣了魔头。
逐句解 Line by line
The two of them fought some thirty bouts without deciding a victor. Pilgrim thought with secret glee: “This foul demon can actually stand up to Old Monkey's iron cudgel. I've already got his three treasures, yet here I am bitterly hacking away at him — won't that just waste my time? Better to take the gourd or the vase and bottle him up — wouldn't that be far better?”
不分勝負 bù fēn shèng fù, no dividing winner from loser — 分 read fēn, to separate out. Thirty bouts and nothing to show. 倒也架得住 dào yě jià de zhù, can actually hold off, with the adversative dào and the can-do de; but 我已得了 wǒ yǐ dé le, I have already got, takes 得 as dé, attainment. 多少是好 duō shǎo shì hǎo, wouldn't that be a good deal better — 少 read shǎo.
Then he thought again: “No, no. As the common saying goes, ‘A thing follows its master.’ Suppose I call to him and he doesn't answer — wouldn't that again spoil the business? Better use the gold-glinting cord to noose his head.”
The proverb here is the whole chapter in four characters. 物隨主便 wù suí zhǔ biàn — a thing goes as its master pleases — is the rule that governs every treasure in this story: the vessels answer to whoever truly owns them, not to whoever is holding them. Wukong grasps it in time to avoid one trap and will forget it in time to fall into another. 我叫他不答應 wǒ jiào tā bù dá yìng, I call and he doesn't answer, with 應 read yìng; 扣頭罷 kòu tóu ba, noose his head, on the coaxing ba.
Good Great Sage! With one hand he plied his cudgel, fending off the fiend's treasure; with the other he took up that cord, and with a whish nooses the demon lord.
一隻手使棒 yì zhī shǒu shǐ bàng, one hand plying the cudgel — and the other hand doing something else entirely, which is the point. 把那繩執起 bǎ nà shéng zhí qǐ, took up that cord, pointing 那. 刷喇的扣了 shuā lǎ de kòu le, nooses it with a whish — the sound of rope moving fast.
The stalemate the rhapsody foretold now dictates the tactics. Thirty bouts settle nothing — the second fiend, unlike his gulled mother, is a genuine match — and the Great Sage, ever the pragmatist, judges open combat a waste of the very time he owes to the scripture-quest. His first impulse, to use gourd or vase, is sound; his second thought is sounder.
That second thought turns on the proverb 物隨主便, a thing goes as its master pleases, which is both the hinge of the treasure-contest and a piece of plain foreshadowing. Wukong works out that the vessels answer to their true owner and might not swallow a demon at a stranger's call — a caution the chapter will shortly vindicate. Choosing the gold-glinting cord instead, he springs the trap with the ambidextrous ease of a master combatant, one hand parrying while the other nooses. The victory looks complete; but the same proverb that guides him here warns the reader that a stolen weapon may yet betray its borrower.