化兔戲儲 A Rabbit to Tease the Heir
行者在空暗喜道：「不須說，那個就是皇帝的太子了。等我戲他一戲。」好大聖，按落雲頭，撞入軍中太子馬前，搖身一變，變作一個白兔兒，只在太子馬前亂跑。太子看見，正合歡心，拈起箭，拽滿弓，一箭正中了那兔兒。行者在空暗喜道：「不须说，那个就是皇帝的太子了。等我戏他一戏。」好大圣，按落云头，撞入军中太子马前，摇身一变，变作一个白兔儿，只在太子马前乱跑。太子看见，正合欢心，拈起箭，拽满弓，一箭正中了那兔儿。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim, up in the air, rejoiced in secret and said, “No need to say it — that one is the emperor’s crown prince.
He identifies the prince instantly and privately. 那個 takes the pointing nà; 太子 keeps 子 as zǐ.
Let me play him a trick.”
And then, before the serious business, cannot resist. 戲他一戲 — play him a trick — with 一 as yí before a falling tone.
The fine Great Sage pressed down his cloud-head, rushed into the host before the prince’s horse, shook himself and changed into a white rabbit, and went darting about right before the prince’s horse.
The same four characters that did the murder now do a joke: 搖身一變, a shake of the body and he is changed. Last time it produced a false king; this time a white rabbit. The chapter uses the formula exactly twice, and the pairing is not accidental. 白兔兒 ends in the light er; 軍中 takes the locative zhōng; 太子 appears twice here, 子 read zǐ each time.
The prince, seeing it, was pleased to the heart; he fitted an arrow, drew the bow to the full, and one arrow struck the rabbit square.
The boy takes the bait with real pleasure — 正合歡心, exactly to his liking. The verb to watch is 中, here zhòng, to hit a mark, not the locative zhōng that has run through the whole chapter: the same character, a different word, and it will come back at every stage of the chase. 拽滿弓 is to haul the bow to full draw, 拽 read zhuài, to pull, not zhuāi, to fling; 那兔兒 takes the pointing nà and the light er.
Having found the prince, Wukong cannot begin without a joke: he drops out of the air, turns himself into a white rabbit, and goes darting about under the boy's horse. The trickster instinct colours even his most carefully planned missions.
The transformation formula here — a shake of the body and he was changed — is the same one the murdered king used to describe his own killer, and it occurs only twice in the chapter. The prince, delighted, looses an arrow and hits the rabbit square. That the hit was arranged by the target is the whole point: this is the lure that will draw a boy away from three thousand men and into a temple alone.