怕煙敗走 Undone by the Smoke
大聖道：「等我捻著訣，鑽入火中。」掄鐵棒，尋妖要打。那妖見他來到，將一口煙劈臉噴來。行者急回頭，煼得眼花雀亂，忍不住淚落如雨。原來這大聖不怕火，只怕煙。當年因大鬧天宮時，被老君放在八卦爐中鍛過一番，他幸在那巽位安身，不曾燒壞。只是風攪得煙來，把他煼做火眼金睛，故至今只是怕煙。那妖又噴一口，行者當不得，縱雲頭走了。那妖王卻又收了火具，回歸洞府。大圣道：「等我捻着诀，钻入火中。」抡铁棒，寻妖要打。那妖见他来到，将一口烟劈脸喷来。行者急回头，煼得眼花雀乱，忍不住泪落如雨。原来这大圣不怕火，只怕烟。当年因大闹天宫时，被老君放在八卦炉中锻过一番，他幸在那巽位安身，不曾烧坏。只是风搅得烟来，把他煼做火眼金睛，故至今只是怕烟。那妖又喷一口，行者当不得，纵云头走了。那妖王却又收了火具，回归洞府。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Sage said: ‘Let me pinch the spell-sign and bore into the fire.’
The rain has failed and Wukong's response is to go in himself. It is brave and it is the third time in this chapter he has decided that the answer to a problem is to walk into it.
He swung his iron cudgel and went seeking the demon to strike.
Cudgel out, looking for the demon. Six characters, no ornament -- the prose goes flat and fast when Wukong is closing.
The demon, seeing him come, took a mouthful of smoke and blew it straight in his face.
And the demon does something new. Not fire this time: a mouthful of smoke, blown straight into his face. The reader does not yet know why this matters. The demon possibly does not either.
The Pilgrim hastily turned his head, so smoked that his eyes swam and dazzled, and could not help his tears falling like rain.
煼 chǎo is to smoke or scorch something -- a cooking word, related to stir-frying. Wukong's eyes swim, and he cannot stop the tears streaming. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, weeping helplessly in the middle of a battle, is not an image the novel offers often.
For the truth was, this Great Sage did not fear fire — only smoke.
The narrator stops the action to explain. 原來, "the truth was" -- and here is one of the best-known pieces of lore in the whole book. He does not fear fire. He fears smoke.
In the year he made his great havoc in Heaven, he had been placed by Lord Lao in the Eight-Trigram Furnace and refined a while; but he had luckily taken shelter in the Xun position, and so was not burnt.
The origin, from Chapter 7. After the havoc in heaven, Lord Lao put him in the Eight-Trigram Furnace to be refined down. He survived by sheltering in the 巽 position -- xùn, the trigram of wind, drawn as one broken line under two solid ones. The furnace was divided by the eight trigrams, and the wind quarter was the only one without flame. He picked the one safe corner and sat in it for forty-nine days.
It was only that the wind stirred the smoke to him, and smoked him into eyes of fire and golden pupils — and so to this day he fears only smoke.
But wind carries smoke, and that is the catch. The smoke got into his eyes and cooked them into the 火眼金睛, the fiery eyes with golden pupils that let him see through any disguise for the rest of the novel. It is his most famous attribute, it is the reason he can spot demons the others cannot, and it came from the same accident that left him unable to stand smoke. The gift and the weakness are one injury.
The demon blew another mouthful; the Pilgrim could not bear it, and rose on his cloud and fled.
Another mouthful, and he cannot take it. He goes up and away. That is twice this chapter that Wukong has left a fight he did not want to leave.
The demon king then put away his fire-gear once more and returned to his cave-mansion.
The demon packs up his fire-gear and goes home, apparently victorious for the second time. He has now beaten the Great Sage twice in one afternoon, and he still has no idea what is coming for him.
The narrator interrupts a battle to tell a story, and the story is one of the best-loved bits of lore in the novel. Wukong is not afraid of fire. He is afraid of smoke, and there is a specific reason.
When Lord Lao shut him in the Eight-Trigram Furnace back in Chapter 7, he survived by crawling into the 巽 position -- the trigram of wind, the one section of the furnace with no flame in it. He came out unburnt. But wind moves smoke, and the smoke sat in his eyes for forty-nine days and cooked them into the 火眼金睛, the fiery eyes with golden pupils.
That is the detail worth holding onto. Those eyes are his signature ability -- they let him see through every disguise in the book, and they are the reason he keeps identifying demons that Tripitaka insists are harmless villagers. They were made by the same accident that left him helpless against smoke. His greatest gift and his only weakness are the same scar, and a child with a smoky mouth has just found it.