天門受阻 Barred at Heaven's Gate
那太白金星與美猴王同出了洞天深處，一齊駕雲而起。原來悟空觔斗雲比眾不同，十分快疾，把個金星撇在腦後，先至南天門外。正欲收雲前進，被增長天王領著龐、劉、苟、畢、鄧、辛、張、陶一路大力天丁，槍刀劍戟，擋住天門，不肯放進。猴王道：「這個金星老兒乃奸詐之徒，既請老孫，如何教人動刀動槍，阻塞門路？」正嚷間，金星倏到。悟空就覿面發狠道：「你這老兒，怎麼哄我？被你說奉玉帝招安旨意來請，卻怎麼教這些人阻住天門，不放老孫進去？」金星笑道：「大王息怒。你自來未曾到此天堂，卻又無名，眾天丁又與你素不相識，他怎肯放你擅入？等如今見了天尊，授了仙籙，注了官名，向後隨你出入，誰復擋也？」悟空道：「這等說，也罷，我不進去了。」金星又用手扯住道：「你還同我進去。」將近天門，金星高叫道：「那天門天將、大小吏兵，放開路者。此乃下界仙人，我奉玉帝聖旨，宣他來也。」那增長天王與眾天丁俱才斂兵退避。猴王始信其言，同金星緩步入裡觀看。真個是：那太白金星与美猴王同出了洞天深处，一齐驾云而起。原来悟空觔斗云比众不同，十分快疾，把个金星撇在脑后，先至南天门外。正欲收云前进，被增长天王领著庞、刘、苟、毕、邓、辛、张、陶一路大力天丁，枪刀剑戟，挡住天门，不肯放进。猴王道：「这个金星老儿乃奸诈之徒，既请老孙，如何教人动刀动枪，阻塞门路？」正嚷间，金星倏到。悟空就觌面发狠道：「你这老儿，怎么哄我？被你说奉玉帝招安旨意来请，却怎么教这些人阻住天门，不放老孙进去？」金星笑道：「大王息怒。你自来未曾到此天堂，却又无名，众天丁又与你素不相识，他怎肯放你擅入？等如今见了天尊，授了仙箓，注了官名，向后随你出入，谁复挡也？」悟空道：「这等说，也罢，我不进去了。」金星又用手扯住道：「你还同我进去。」将近天门，金星高叫道：「那天门天将、大小吏兵，放开路者。此乃下界仙人，我奉玉帝圣旨，宣他来也。」那增长天王与众天丁俱才敛兵退避。猴王始信其言，同金星缓步入里观看。真个是：
逐句解 Line by line
The Star-Lord of Venus and the Handsome Monkey King came forth together from the depths of the grotto-heaven and rose as one upon the clouds.
洞天 (dòngtiān, “grotto-heaven”) is the Daoist term for a sacred cave-world; the thirty-six 洞天 were imagined as self-contained paradises linking earth to the heavens. The epithet 美猴王 (“Handsome Monkey King”) is Wukong's title from chapter 1, carried here as he ascends in apparent glory.
Now Wukong's somersault cloud was unlike the others' — so swift that it flung the Star-Lord far behind, and he reached the gate of the Southern Heaven first.
The 觔斗雲 (jīndǒu yún, “somersault cloud”), learned from Patriarch Subhūti, will later be said to span 108,000 li at a single leap; 觔 is a variant of 筋 (jīn). His outstripping of his escort quietly marks the distance between raw attainment and Heaven's ordered ranks.
Just as he meant to rein in his cloud and press ahead, Heavenly King Virūḍhaka, leading the mighty heavenly troops — Páng, Liú, Gǒu, Bì, Dèng, Xīn, Zhāng, and Táo — with spears, sabers, swords, and halberds, blocked the gate and would not let him pass.
增長天王 (Zēngzhǎng; Skt. Virūḍhaka) is the Guardian King of the South among the 四大天王 — here 長 is zhǎng, “to increase.” The eight surnames 龐、劉、苟、畢、鄧、辛、張、陶 name the dàlì tiāndīng, mighty celestial soldiers later linked in Daoist ritual to the marshals of the Thunder Department (雷部).
The Monkey King said, “This Star-Lord is a crafty old schemer! He himself summoned me — so why has he set men here to brandish blade and spear and bar my way?”
老兒 (lǎo'ér) is colloquial for “old fellow / old codger,” faintly contemptuous; the 兒 is the full syllable ér (the nominal “one/fellow”), not the northern diminutive 兒-suffix. 教 is causative jiào, “to make / have someone do.”
In the midst of his shouting, the Star-Lord arrived in a flash.
倏 (shū), “in a flash” — the Star-Lord materializes the instant Wukong's temper boils over.
Wukong rounded on him face to face and said hotly, “You old codger — how dare you trick me? You said you came bearing the Jade Emperor's edict of amnesty to summon me, so why have you set these men to bar the gate of Heaven and keep me out?”
覿面 (dímiàn) is “face to face, head-on.” 招安 (zhāo'ān) is the set term for an imperial offer of amnesty-and-office to a rebel or outlaw — the very device by which Heaven keeps trying to absorb Wukong rather than destroy him.
The Star-Lord said with a smile, “Calm your anger, Great King. You have never come to this heavenly hall before; you have no name upon its rolls, and the heavenly troops have never met you — how could they let you barge in? Once you have seen the Most Honored One, received your immortal's register, and had your office entered, you may come and go as you please thereafter, and who would bar you then?”
仙籙 (xiānlù) is a register of immortals, a Daoist investiture document; to be “entered on the rolls” is to gain celestial standing and the right of passage. 天尊 (“Most Honored”) here designates the Jade Emperor. The Star-Lord's reasoning is purely bureaucratic: in Heaven, power without registration is illegitimate.
Wukong said, “Put that way — fine. I won't go in.”
也罷 (yěbà), “so be it, then” — a petulant climb-down. 不進: bú by sandhi before the fourth-tone 進.
The Star-Lord caught hold of his hand again and said, “Come in along with me, won't you.”
還 here is hái (“come now, after all”), not huán; the coaxing tug — half command, half cajolery — breaks the standoff.
Nearing the gate, the Star-Lord called out loudly, “You gate-wardens, generals, and officers great and small — clear the way! This is an immortal of the lower world; I come by the Jade Emperor's holy command to usher him in.”
The announcement is a credential-check made aloud: 下界仙人 (“an immortal of the lower world”) plus 玉帝聖旨 (“the Jade Emperor's command”) together license entry. 將 in 天將 is jiàng, “general.”
Only then did Heavenly King Virūḍhaka and the host of troops draw back their weapons and stand aside.
俱才 (jùcái), “only then did they all” — the troops stand down not for Wukong but for the edict he now visibly travels under.
The Monkey King, now trusting his words, stepped slowly inside alongside the Star-Lord to take it all in.
緩步, “with measured steps” — the swagger of the somersault yields to a guarded, deliberate entry.
And truly it was a sight to behold —
真個是 (“and truly it was —”) is the standard vernacular formula that ushers in a set-piece description; here it opens onto the rhapsody on the courts of Heaven that follows.
This chapter stands under the couplet 官封弼馬心何足，名注齊天意未寧 — “Appointed Bìmǎwēn, how could his heart be content; / his name enrolled as Equal to Heaven, his will is still unquiet.” The two lines announce the chapter's two movements, the menial post of stable-keeper and the grand-sounding title that follows, and both close on dissatisfaction (何足, 未寧). The real subject is not Wukong's defeat but the impossibility of buying off an appetite with rank: each office Heaven extends only sharpens the want it was meant to quiet.
The opening scene stages that theme in miniature at the gate of Heaven. Wukong's somersault cloud flings his escort behind him — raw attainment outrunning office — yet at the threshold sheer power counts for nothing: he is 無名, without a name on the rolls, and is barred. The Star-Lord's remedy is pure procedure: see the sovereign, receive the 仙籙, have the office entered, and the gates open of themselves. As Andrew Plaks notes of the novel's celestial machinery, Heaven is imagined as an empire of registers and ranks; the monkey who struck his name from the ledgers of death in the previous chapter must now consent to be written into the ledgers of office before he may pass.
Read inwardly, the episode tracks the 心猿 (“mind-monkey”) at the moment it seeks admission to a higher order. The cloud that overshoots its guide figures an unschooled mind whose speed outstrips its discipline; the closed gate is the resistance that ungoverned spirit meets when it would force its own way upward. 招安 — amnesty joined to investiture — is Heaven's wager that a restless faculty can be domesticated by station rather than subdued by force. The rest of the chapter tests that wager and finds it wanting: a title is not a transformation, and the mind-monkey cannot be stilled by a seal.