三頭六臂 Three Heads and Six Arms
悟空迎近前來問曰：「你是誰家小哥？闖近吾門，有何事幹？」哪吒喝道：「潑妖猴！豈不認得我？我乃托塔天王三太子哪吒是也，今奉玉帝欽差，至此捉你。」悟空笑道：「小太子，你的嬭牙尚未退，胎毛尚未乾，怎敢說這般大話？我且留你的性命，不打你。你只看我旌旗上是甚麼字號，拜上玉帝：是這般官銜，再也不須動眾，我自皈依；若是不遂我心，定要打上靈霄寶殿。」哪吒擡頭看處，乃「齊天大聖」四字。哪吒道：「這妖猴能有多大神通，就敢稱此名號？不要怕，吃吾一劍。」悟空道：「我只站下不動，任你砍幾劍罷。」那哪吒奮怒，大喝一聲，叫：「變！」即變做三頭六臂，惡狠狠，手持著六般兵器，乃是斬妖劍、砍妖刀、縛妖索、降妖杵、繡毬兒、火輪兒，丫丫叉叉，撲面來打。悟空見了，心驚道：「這小哥倒也會弄些手段。莫無禮，看我神通。」好大聖，喝聲：「變！」也變做三頭六臂；把金箍棒幌一幌，也變作三條。六隻手拿著三條棒架住。這場鬥，真個是地動山搖，好殺也：悟空迎近前来问曰：「你是谁家小哥？闯近吾门，有何事干？」哪咤喝道：「泼妖猴！岂不认得我？我乃托塔天王三太子哪咤是也，今奉玉帝钦差，至此捉你。」悟空笑道：「小太子，你的嬭牙尚未退，胎毛尚未干，怎敢说这般大话？我且留你的性命，不打你。你只看我旌旗上是甚么字号，拜上玉帝：是这般官衔，再也不须动众，我自皈依；若是不遂我心，定要打上灵霄宝殿。」哪咤抬头看处，乃「齐天大圣」四字。哪咤道：「这妖猴能有多大神通，就敢称此名号？不要怕，吃吾一剑。」悟空道：「我只站下不动，任你砍几剑罢。」那哪咤奋怒，大喝一声，叫：「变！」即变做三头六臂，恶狠狠，手持着六般兵器，乃是斩妖剑、砍妖刀、缚妖索、降妖杵、绣毬儿、火轮儿，丫丫叉叉，扑面来打。悟空见了，心惊道：「这小哥倒也会弄些手段。莫无礼，看我神通。」好大圣，喝声：「变！」也变做三头六臂；把金箍棒幌一幌，也变作三条。六只手拿着三条棒架住。这场斗，真个是地动山摇，好杀也：
逐句解 Line by line
Wukong came up close and asked, "Whose lad are you? You barge up to my gate — what's your business?"
誰家小哥, "whose lad are you?" — a greeting calculated to shrink him, and the opening move of the whole exchange. 事幹 takes 幹 as gàn, "business."
Nezha bellowed, "Reckless demon-ape! Don't you know me? I am the Third Prince Nezha, son of the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, come by the Jade Emperor's commission to take you."
喝 is hè, to bellow. In 豈不認得 the 不 takes bú before the falling tone of 認. Nezha answers the insult by reciting his pedigree — son of the Heavenly King, sent by the Jade Emperor — which is the only kind of credential he has, and the only kind Wukong does not respect.
Wukong laughed, "Little prince, your milk-teeth aren't out yet and your baby-down isn't dry — how dare you talk so big? I'll spare your life for now and not strike you. Just look at the title on my banner, and report it up to the Jade Emperor: grant me that rank, and there'll be no need to trouble the host again — I'll submit of myself; but if my wish isn't met, I'll surely fight my way up to the Hall of Miraculous Mist."
The taunt is all about age: 嬭牙 (a variant writing of 奶牙, milk-teeth) not yet out, 胎毛, baby-down, not yet dry. Here 乾 is gān, "dry," not qián, the first trigram of the 易經. The tones: 不打 bù, 不須 bù, 不遂 bú; 你只看 takes 看 as kàn. 皈依 is the Buddhist "take refuge, submit" — Wukong is offering, in a religious word, to come quietly if he gets the name.
Nezha raised his head and looked: it was "Great Sage Equal to Heaven,"
He looks up, and the banner does its work again. In 擡頭看處 the 擡 is a variant writing of 抬; 看 is kàn and 處 is chù.
four characters.
The four characters again land at the head of their own line, exactly as the source sets them.
Nezha said, "What great powers does this demon-ape have, that he dares style himself with such a title? Don't be afraid — take my sword!"
稱此名號 takes 稱 as chēng, "to style oneself." The presumption of the title, not the strength behind it, is once again what sets a general off. 不要 takes bú, 一劍 takes yí.
Wukong said, "I'll just stand here and not move; hack away with a few strokes if you like."
站下不動, "I will just stand here and not move" — the swagger of a man who has already worked out that a sword will not scratch him. 不動 takes bú before the falling tone of 動.
Nezha, roused to fury, gave a great shout and cried, "Change!"
大喝一聲: 喝 is hè, to shout, not hē, to drink — the same character, two unrelated words. 一聲 takes yì.
He changed at once into three heads and six arms, fierce and savage, his hands gripping six weapons — the demon-beheading sword, the demon-hacking saber, the demon-binding rope, the demon-quelling pestle, the embroidered ball, and the fire-wheel — jagged and bristling, and rushed straight at his face to strike.
Nezha turns into 三頭六臂, three heads and six arms — the form of an esoteric deity, and a phrase so alive in modern Chinese that the ordinary way to say "I have only one pair of hands" is 我又不是三頭六臂, "it is not as if I had three heads and six arms." Here somebody actually does. The six weapons are the 斬妖劍 demon-beheading sword, 砍妖刀 demon-hacking sabre, 縛妖索 demon-binding rope, 降妖杵 demon-quelling pestle (降 as xiáng), 繡毬兒 embroidered ball and 火輪兒 fire-wheel. 手持著 takes 著 as the running zhe.
Seeing this, Wukong was startled and said, "This little fellow does have some tricks after all. No insolence, now — watch my powers."
倒也會弄些手段, "he does have some tricks after all" — 倒 is dào, "rather, indeed," and the line is as close to a compliment as Wukong gets. 看我神通 takes 看 as kàn.
The fine Great Sage cried out, "Change!"
喝聲: 喝 is hè again.
He too changed into three heads and six arms; he gave the gold-banded cudgel a shake, and it too became three.
He copies the god exactly — 三頭六臂, three heads and six arms — and then gives the cudgel a shake, 幌一幌, and has three of those too. 一幌 takes yì before the dipping tone of 幌.
With six hands gripping three cudgels, he held the prince off.
六隻手拿著三條棒 — six hands, three cudgels, and the mirror is complete. 著 is the running zhe.
This bout — truly the earth shook and the mountains swayed; what a fight it was:
地動山搖, "the earth shook and the mountains swayed," is still the standard Chinese phrase for anything cataclysmic, and 好殺也 is the storyteller clearing his throat for a battle poem. 這場 takes 場 as cháng.
The Nezha duel raises the stakes from the Mighty-Spirit bout in both spectacle and meaning. The verbal sparring repeats the chapter's keynote — Wukong belittles the prince's milk-teeth and undried down, the prince recoils at the sheer nerve of the 齊天大聖 title — but Wukong's offer is now explicit and almost diplomatic: confer the rank and I submit, withhold it and I march on the throne. The rebellion still has a price, and the price is still a name.
The transformation is the set piece and the deepest image in the passage. Nezha manifests 三頭六臂, the three heads and six arms of an esoteric deity, brandishing six consecrated weapons — and Wukong answers not by countering but by copying, becoming three-headed and six-armed himself and splitting his one cudgel into three. The move is pure Monkey: he meets sanctioned divine power by reproducing its exact form, helping himself to the iconography of a god. What was supposed to make Nezha unique is duplicated on the spot, and duplicated well enough to fight him to a standstill.
For the inner-alchemical reading, that copying is the telling detail. The 心猿 is the faculty of endless adaptation itself; put any fixed form in front of it and it can take that form. This is its strength and its disorder at once — it cannot be overmatched, because it has no proper shape of its own to be overmatched in, only an endless capacity to become whatever it faces. Heaven's most legitimate young god finds himself fighting a beast wearing his own body. The poem that follows renders the chaos: weapons multiplying into the millions, and neither side possible to call the stronger.