掘地見井 Digging Down, He Finds the Well
行者道：「八戒，動手麼，寶貝在芭蕉樹下埋著哩。」那獃子雙手舉鈀，築倒了芭蕉。然後用嘴一拱，拱了有三四尺深，見一塊石板蓋著。獃子歡喜道：「哥呀，造化了，果有寶貝，是一片石板蓋著哩。不知是罈兒盛著，是櫃兒裝著哩。」行者道：「你掀起來看看。」那獃子果又一嘴拱開，看處，又見霞光灼灼，白氣明明。八戒笑道：「造化，造化，寶貝放光哩。」又近前細看時，呀！原來是星月之光，映得那井中水亮。行者道：「八戒，动手么，宝贝在芭蕉树下埋着哩。」那呆子双手举钯，筑倒了芭蕉。然后用嘴一拱，拱了有三四尺深，见一块石板盖着。呆子欢喜道：「哥呀，造化了，果有宝贝，是一片石板盖着哩。不知是坛儿盛着，是柜儿装着哩。」行者道：「你掀起来看看。」那呆子果又一嘴拱开，看处，又见霞光灼灼，白气明明。八戒笑道：「造化，造化，宝贝放光哩。」又近前细看时，呀！原来是星月之光，映得那井中水亮。
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim said: 'Bajie, set to — the treasure lies buried beneath the plantain tree.'
The fiction holds: there is treasure, and it is under the tree. 埋著: lies buried (著 = zhe, marking a state that continues). 行 = xíng.
The blockhead raised his rake in both hands and struck the plantain down.
Thirteen couplets of praise, and down it goes at one stroke. 築倒了芭蕉: struck the plantain down (倒 = dǎo, to topple). 那 = nà. The novel has an unerring instinct for when a beautiful thing has been admired long enough.
Then, rooting with his snout, he dug down some three or four chǐ deep and came upon a stone slab covering something.
用嘴一拱: rooting with his snout, which is how a pig digs and how this pig always digs. 三四尺 is three or four chǐ, the Chinese foot-measure, left in Chinese rather than converted since English has no borrowed name for it. 蓋著: covering something (著 = zhe).
The blockhead said gleefully: 'Brother! Our luck's in — there really is treasure; it's covered over with a stone slab.'
造化了: 'our luck's in.' A stone slab over a hole means, to Bajie's mind, a buried hoard.
'Who knows whether it's held in a jar or packed in a chest.'
罈兒盛著…櫃兒裝著: held in a jar or packed in a chest (兒 the light ending twice; 著 = zhe twice). He is already sorting the packaging.
The Pilgrim said: 'Lift it up and have a look.'
掀起來看看: lift it and have a look. Wukong, who knows exactly what is under there, keeps his voice flat. 行 = xíng.
The blockhead indeed rooted it open again with his snout, looked, and saw a glow of rosy light and a clear white vapor.
一嘴拱開: one thrust of the snout and it is open. 霞光…白氣: rosy light and white vapor, which in this novel are the standard advertisement of something magical below. That is precisely the expectation being set up to fall. 那 = nà.
Bajie laughed: 'Luck, luck — the treasure is giving off light!'
He crows. It is his last happy moment for some time.
But looking closer — ah!
The narrator's 呀！ — a small sharp intake of breath, warning you the next line is a letdown.
It turned out to be only the light of the stars and moon, reflected off the water shining in the well.
Starlight on water. 映得那井中水亮: reflected off the bright water in the well (得 = de; 那 = nà; 中 = zhōng). The glow was real and it was not treasure — and this is the well with a king in it.
The comedy of the false treasure plays out entirely at Bajie's expense. He fells the delicately celebrated plantain at a single stroke — as neat a deflation of the preceding poem as the novel could manage — and roots down with his snout to a covering stone, certain that Wukong's promised treasure lies beneath it. His greedy speculation about the packaging and his crow of delight at the gleam below are the setup for the reveal.
The reveal is a small masterpiece of anticlimax. The rosy light and white vapor that seem to announce something magical are only starlight and moonlight glancing off water — the water of a well. Wukong's fiction has walked the pig, step by greedy step, to the exact spot he needed him to be.
Every earlier misdirection has been preparation for this. The staged hunt, the 'business,' the invincible weapon that does not exist: all of it to get a reluctant pig standing at a well's mouth believing he is about to be rich. The long, grim, funny labor of hauling up a king begins here.