原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
淨瓶放光
The Pure Vase Shines
那大聖打絕了小妖，撞入洞裡，要解師父。又見那內面有火光焰焰，諕得他手慌腳忙道：「罷了，罷了，這火從後門口燒起來，老孫卻難救師父也。」正悚懼處，仔細看時，呀！原來不是火光，卻是一道金光。他正了性，往裡視之，乃羊脂玉淨瓶放光，卻自心中歡喜道：「好寶貝耶！那瓶子曾是那小妖拿在山上放光，老孫得了，不想那怪又復搜去。今日藏在這裡，原來也放光。」那大圣打绝了小妖，撞入洞里，要解师父。又见那内面有火光焰焰，諕得他手慌脚忙道：「罢了，罢了，这火从后门口烧起来，老孙却难救师父也。」正悚惧处，仔细看时，呀！原来不是火光，却是一道金光。他正了性，往里视之，乃羊脂玉净瓶放光，却自心中欢喜道：「好宝贝耶！那瓶子曾是那小妖拿在山上放光，老孙得了，不想那怪又复搜去。今日藏在这里，原来也放光。」
逐句解 Line by line
那大聖打絕了小妖，撞入洞裡，要解師父。
那大圣打绝了小妖，撞入洞里，要解师父。
The Great Sage, having done the imps to the last, burst into the cave to free his master.
打絕了 — "wiped out entirely." 解師父, "to free the master," 解 read jiě.
又見那內面有火光焰焰，諕得他手慌腳忙道：「罷了，罷了，這火從後門口燒起來，老孫卻難救師父也。」
又见那内面有火光焰焰，諕得他手慌脚忙道：「罢了，罢了，这火从后门口烧起来，老孙却难救师父也。」
But he saw flames blazing within, and it frightened him into a fluster: “It’s over, it’s over! The fire has caught from the back door, and Old Sun can hardly save the master now.”
諕得手慢腳忙 — "frightened into a hand-flustered, foot-hurried [panic]," 諕 read xià, 得 the degree complement de. 罷了，罷了, "done for!"; 難救, "hard to save," 難 read nán.
正悚懼處，仔細看時，呀！
正悚惧处，仔细看时，呀！
Just at this moment of dread, looking closer — ah!
正悚懼處 — "just at the point of terror," 處 here the noun chù ("moment, point"), against the verbal chǔ above. 仔細 (zǐxì), "closely," 仔 read zǐ.
原來不是火光，卻是一道金光。
原来不是火光，却是一道金光。
It turned out to be no fire at all, but a shaft of golden light.
一道金光 — "a single shaft of golden radiance." The dreaded blaze resolves into the glow of a treasure.
他正了性，往裡視之，乃羊脂玉淨瓶放光，卻自心中歡喜道：「好寶貝耶！
他正了性，往里视之，乃羊脂玉净瓶放光，却自心中欢喜道：「好宝贝耶！
He steadied himself and looked within: it was the mutton-fat jade Pure Vase giving off light, and he rejoiced in his heart: “A fine treasure!”
正了性 — "composed his nature, collected himself." 羊脂玉 (yángzhī yù), "mutton-fat jade," a prized creamy-white jade; 淨瓶, the Pure Vase.
那瓶子曾是那小妖拿在山上放光，老孫得了，不想那怪又復搜去。
那瓶子曾是那小妖拿在山上放光，老孙得了，不想那怪又复搜去。
That vase was the very one the imp had held glowing on the mountain; Old Sun had got it once, only for the fiend to search it out again.
A backward glance at the earlier episode: the vase had first betrayed itself by its glow in an imp’s hands. 得了 (dé le), "got [it]," 得 read dé ("obtained"); 又復搜去, "searched it out and took it back again."
今日藏在這裡，原來也放光。」
今日藏在这里，原来也放光。」
And here it lies hidden today — and, sure enough, it shines too.”
藏在這裡 — "hidden here," 藏 read cáng. The same betraying glow now leads Wukong straight to it.
總評 Commentary
The passage turns terror to fortune. Bursting in to save Tripitaka, Wukong sees flames within and despairs — the fire has reached the cave — only for a closer look to reveal not fire but "a shaft of golden light," the mutton-fat jade Pure Vase glowing in the dark. The sequence (dread, second look, recognition) is a small, deftly timed reversal.
The recognition knots the arc together. This is the same name-swallowing vase that has passed back and forth between Wukong and the demons since the previous chapter, and the very glow that once betrayed it on the mountain now leads him to it. Note how the treasure displaces, for the moment, the rescue itself: the object catches his eye, the master waits — a hesitation the next passage will make pointed.