樹上孩童 The Child in the Tree
還未曾坐得穩，只聽又叫：「師父救人啊！」長老擡頭看時，原來是個小孩童，赤條條的吊在樹上。兜住韁，便罵行者道：「這潑猴多大憊懶，全無有一些兒善良之意，心心只是要撒潑行兇哩！我那般說叫喚的是個人聲，他就千言萬語，只嚷是妖怪。你看那樹上吊的不是個人麼？」大聖見師父怪下來了，卻又覿面看見模樣，一則做不得手腳，二來又怕念緊箍兒咒，低著頭，再也不敢回言，讓唐僧到了樹下。那長老將鞭梢指著問道：「你是那家孩兒？因有甚事，吊在此間？說與我，好救你。」噫！分明他是個精靈，變化得這等，那師父卻是個肉眼凡胎，不能相識。还未曾坐得稳，只听又叫：「师父救人啊！」长老抬头看时，原来是个小孩童，赤条条的吊在树上。兜住缰，便骂行者道：「这泼猴多大惫懒，全无有一些儿善良之意，心心只是要撒泼行凶哩！我那般说叫唤的是个人声，他就千言万语，只嚷是妖怪。你看那树上吊的不是个人么？」大圣见师父怪下来了，却又觌面看见模样，一则做不得手脚，二来又怕念紧箍儿咒，低着头，再也不敢回言，让唐僧到了树下。那长老将鞭梢指着问道：「你是那家孩儿？因有甚事，吊在此间？说与我，好救你。」噫！分明他是个精灵，变化得这等，那师父却是个肉眼凡胎，不能相识。
逐句解 Line by line
He had not yet settled firmly in the saddle when again he heard the cry: "Master, save me!"
He is barely back in the saddle. 還未曾坐得穩 takes 還 as hái, "not yet," and the light hinge 得, de. Note the cry has changed: it is no longer 救人 but 師父救人 — the demon has started addressing him directly.
The elder, lifting his head to look, saw that it was a small child, stark naked, hung up in a tree.
And now he sees it. 長 is zhǎng; 赤條條 is "stark naked," the same doubled word used when the disguise was assembled.
Reining in his horse, he at once cursed Pilgrim: "This wretched ape, what a heartless rogue — with not the least particle of goodness in him, his mind set on nothing but running riot and playing the ruffian!
The rebuke is savage, and its terms matter: not merely wrong but heartless, with 全無有一些兒善良之意, not one particle of goodness in him. The 兒 on 一些 is the weightless curl, er; 行 in 撒潑行兇 is xíng. 憊懶 is a Ming word for a shameless rogue.
When I told you the crying was a human voice, you went on with a thousand words and ten thousand, bawling only that it was a demon.
The complaint is that Wukong drowned a plain fact in a thousand words, which is precisely what he did. 我那般說 takes the pointing 那, nà, "in that way."
Look there — isn't that a person hung up in the tree?"
The question that ends the argument. 那樹上 takes the pointing nà; 不 lifts to bú before the falling tone of 是.
The Great Sage, seeing the Master had turned his blame on him, and moreover coming face to face with the thing's appearance — on the one hand unable to make a move, on the other afraid of the Tight-Fillet Spell — lowered his head and, not daring to answer again, let the Tang Priest ride up to the foot of the tree.
Three impossibilities at once, and the line lists them in order: he cannot strike the child under the Master's eye, he cannot explain in the time available, and he dares not provoke the headband. So he lowers his head. 怪下來了 and 到了樹下 take the completed 了, le; 做不得手腳 has the full-weight 得, dé, "cannot manage anything"; 緊箍兒咒 has the weightless 兒, er; 低著頭 the ongoing 著, zhe. 覿面 means face to face.
That elder, pointing with the tip of his whip, asked: "Whose child are you?
He questions the child gently, with a whip-tip for a pointer. 那長老 takes the pointing nà and 長 is zhǎng; 將鞭梢 the object-marking 將, jiāng; 指著 the ongoing 著, zhe; 那家孩兒 the pointing nà again. In 孩兒, "child," the 兒 is a word in its own right and keeps its full ér — quite unlike the weightless er on 一些兒 four lines above.
For what reason are you hung up here?
A bare 甚 meaning "what," read shèn — the reading this project gives the character when it stands alone as a question word, as against the shén of the paired 甚麼.
Tell me, that I may save you."
Six characters, and the trap is sprung. 好救你 is "so that I may save you" — the Master's compassion now fully committed.
Ah!
噫 (yī) — the narrator wincing on the reader's behalf.
Plainly he was a sprite, transformed to this likeness; but that Master, being of fleshly eyes and mortal frame, could not recognize him.
The narrator states the chapter's governing condition outright, and it is worth pausing on. 肉眼凡胎, "fleshly eyes and a mortal womb-born frame," is the standard phrase for ordinary human perception in this book — the condition of not being able to see what is actually there. Everything the demon does depends on the gap between that and Wukong's 火眼金睛. 分明 has 分 as fēn, "clearly"; 變化得 the light hinge 得, de; 那師父 the pointing nà; 相識 the mutual 相, xiāng.
The trap closes. The child, now hanging less than half a 里 off, is finally near enough for the Master to see plainly, and the sight overturns five passages of argument in an instant. What Wukong's warnings, tricks and evasions had held off, the mere appearance of a bound, naked, crying child accomplishes at once: Tripitaka's compassion, identified by the demon at his first look as the one exploitable weakness, is now fully and helplessly engaged.
Wukong's silence is the pivot. Caught between three impossibilities — he cannot strike the child under the Master's eye, he cannot explain what he knows in the time he has, and he dares not provoke the headband spell still hanging over him from the previous passage — he simply lowers his head and lets the Master ride up to the tree. The narrator's aside states the condition of the whole sequence without ornament: plainly a sprite, but that Master, of fleshly eyes and mortal frame, could not recognise him. The distance between Wukong's fire-eyes and Tripitaka's ordinary sight is the entire space in which the demon operates. The Master, seeing only a child in trouble, begins to question him kindly — and the child, given his opening, begins to lie.