搖葫戲敵 The Rattling Gourd, and Mockery
他就按落雲頭，拿著葫蘆，心心念念，只是要救師父，又往蓮花洞口而來。那山上都是些窪踏不平之路，況他又是個圈盤腿，拐呀拐的走著，搖的那葫蘆裡漷漷索索，響聲不絕。你道他怎麼便有響聲？原來孫大聖是熬煉過的身體，急切化他不得；那怪雖也能騰雲駕霧，不過是些法術，大端是凡胎未脫，到於寶貝裡就化了。行者還不當他就化了，笑道：「我兒子啊，不知是撒尿耶，不知是漱口哩？這是老孫幹過的買賣。不等到七八日，化成稀汁，我也不揭蓋來看。忙怎的？有甚要緊？想著我出來的容易，就該千年不看才好。」他就按落云头，拿著葫芦，心心念念，只是要救师父，又往莲花洞口而来。那山上都是些洼踏不平之路，况他又是个圈盘腿，拐呀拐的走著，摇的那葫芦里漷漷索索，响声不绝。你道他怎么便有响声？原来孙大圣是熬炼过的身体，急切化他不得；那怪虽也能腾云驾雾，不过是些法术，大端是凡胎未脱，到于宝贝里就化了。行者还不当他就化了，笑道：「我儿子啊，不知是撒尿耶，不知是漱口哩？这是老孙干过的买卖。不等到七八日，化成稀汁，我也不揭盖来看。忙怎的？有甚要紧？想著我出来的容易，就该千年不看才好。」
逐句解 Line by line
He brought his cloud down, gourd in hand, his every thought bent on rescuing his master, and made again for the mouth of the Lotus-Flower Cave.
按落雲頭 — "pressed his cloud down [to land]." 心心念念, "single-minded." 蓮花洞 is the demons’ lair.
The mountain paths were all pitted and uneven, and being besides somewhat bow-legged, he went hobbling along, jogging the gourd until it went swish-swish inside without cease.
窪踏不平 — "sunken and rough." 圈盤腿, "bandy legs." 漷漷索索 (huòhuò suǒsuǒ) is onomatopoeia for a sloshing, rustling sound — the rattle that sets up the next two jokes.
Now why, you ask, should there be a sound at all?
A narrator’s aside, drawing the reader in before the explanation.
It was because Sun the Great Sage had a body refined in the crucible, and could not be dissolved in haste;
熬煉過的身體 — "a body that has been tempered in the furnace" (Laozi’s crucible, in the early chapters). 化他不得, "could not melt him," 得 the potential complement de.
The fiend, for all he too could ride the clouds and mount the mist, had only some conjurer’s arts; being at bottom of unshed mortal flesh, once inside the treasure he simply melted away.
騰雲駕霧 — "riding cloud and mist." 凡胎未脫, "his mortal frame not yet cast off" — i.e. no true immortal. The contrast with Wukong’s tempered body is the point: the demon dissolves where the Sage would not.
Pilgrim, not yet reckoning that he had already melted, laughed: “My boy — is that you making water, or rinsing your mouth?”
不當 (bù dàng) — "did not reckon / suppose," 當 in the sense "to take [it] to be." 我兒子, "my son," the mocking endearment continued; 撒尿 / 漱口, "to piss / to gargle" — the slosh must be the demon at some undignified business. Coarse comedy in the Monkey King’s mouth.
“This is a line of work Old Sun has done before.”
幹過的買賣 — literally "a trade I have plied before"; Wukong claims veteran’s expertise in bottling foes.
“I’ll not lift the lid to look until seven or eight days are up and he’s gone to thin broth.”
化成稀汁 — "dissolved to a thin liquid," the grim fate the gourd works on whoever answers.
“What’s the hurry?”
忙怎的 — "why the rush?"
“Where’s the urgency?”
有甚要緊 (yǒu shén yàojǐn) — "what does it matter?"; 甚 = shén, "what / any." Two clipped rhetorical questions, all mock-leisure.
“Considering how easily I got out myself, by rights I ought not to look for a thousand years.”
想著 — "bearing in mind," durative 著 (zhe). Recalling his own escape from Laozi’s furnace, Wukong jests that the demon deserves far longer.
The scene turns on a piece of stagecraft. The gourd rattles as Wukong hobbles home over broken ground, and the narrator pauses to explain why: the Sage’s crucible-tempered body cannot be dissolved, whereas the fiend, "of unshed mortal flesh," melts at once. The distinction is doctrinally pointed — true immortality against mere conjurer’s art — and it primes the joke.
Mistaking the slosh for the demon still alive and busy, Wukong keeps up a stream of coarse mockery — is he pissing or gargling? — and vows, mock-leisurely, not to lift the lid for seven days, or a thousand years. The humour is broad, but it rests on what the reader knows and Wukong does not yet: the fiend is already gone.