築破鱗甲 The Rake Breaks the Scales
那怪不容分說，放開手，就捉八戒。獃子撲的跳下來，現了本相，掣釘鈀，劈手一築，那怪物縮了手，往前就走，只聽得噹的一聲響。八戒道：「築破甲了。」行者也現本相看處，原來是冰盤大小兩個魚鱗。喝聲：「趕上。」二人跳到空中。那怪物因來赴會，不曾帶得兵器，空手在雲端裡問道：「你是那方和尚，到此欺人，破了我的香火，壞了我的名聲？」行者道：「這潑物原來不知。我等乃東土大唐聖僧三藏奉欽差西天取經之徒弟。昨因夜寓陳家，聞有邪魔，假號靈感，年年要童男女祭賽。是我等慈悲，拯救生靈，捉你這潑物。趁早實實供來：一年吃兩個童男女，你在這裡稱了幾年大王？吃了多少男女？一個個算還我，饒你死罪。」那怪聞言就走，被八戒又一釘鈀，未曾打著，他化一陣狂風，鑽入通天河內。那怪不容分说，放开手，就捉八戒。呆子扑的跳下来，现了本相，掣钉钯，劈手一筑，那怪物缩了手，往前就走，只听得当的一声响。八戒道：「筑破甲了。」行者也现本相看处，原来是冰盘大小两个鱼鳞。喝声：「赶上。」二人跳到空中。那怪物因来赴会，不曾带得兵器，空手在云端里问道：「你是那方和尚，到此欺人，破了我的香火，坏了我的名声？」行者道：「这泼物原来不知。我等乃东土大唐圣僧三藏奉钦差西天取经之徒弟。昨因夜寓陈家，闻有邪魔，假号灵感，年年要童男女祭赛。是我等慈悲，拯救生灵，捉你这泼物。趁早实实供来：一年吃两个童男女，你在这里称了几年大王？吃了多少男女？一个个算还我，饶你死罪。」那怪闻言就走，被八戒又一钉钯，未曾打着，他化一阵狂风，钻入通天河内。
逐句解 Line by line
The monster would hear no more argument, but loosed his hold and reached out to seize Eight Rules.
那怪 is nà. 分說 takes 分 as fēn, "to explain, to argue a case." The demon has run out of argument and reaches for the girl.
The Idiot came down off the table with a bound, showed his true form, whipped out his muckrake, and struck him a blow full-armed; the monster snatched back his hand, made off forward, and there was only a clang.
本相: 相 is xiàng, "form, appearance." 聽得: 得 is dé. 劈手 is a blow brought straight down; 噹 is the sound of metal on metal. As for 一, it lifts to yí in 一築, where a falling tone follows, and stays yì in 一聲, where a level one does.
Eight Rules said: 「I've broken his armour open!」
The Idiot celebrates early. What he has actually done is knock two scales loose.
Pilgrim too showed his true form and looked, and there were two fish-scales the size of ice platters.
本相: 相 is xiàng. 看處: 看 is kàn, 處 is chù. And note 冰盤, a platter of ice — the chapter's first touch of ice, arriving inside a simile long before any weather does.
He shouted: 「After him!」
喝聲, to give a shout: 喝 is hè, calling out, and not hē, to drink.
The two of them sprang up into the air.
空中: 中 is zhōng.
The monster, having come only to a feast, had brought no weapon with him, and empty-handed at the edge of the clouds he demanded: 「What quarter do you monks come from, that you bully folk here, break up my incense-fire and ruin my good name?」
那 twice in one line with two readings, and position decides: 那怪物 is nà, "that monster"; 那方 is nǎ, "which quarter." 帶得: 得 is dé. 香火 means both the incense burned to a god and the cult that burns it — much as an English "living" once meant both the parish and the income off it. He is complaining about his business.
Pilgrim said: 「This foul creature does not know, then.
潑物 is abuse — "rascally thing."
We are disciples of the holy monk Tripitaka of the Great Tang in the Land of the East, sent by imperial commission to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven.
三藏: 藏 is zàng, the Tripitaka sense. 欽差: 差 is chāi, "to send on commission," not chà, "to fall short" — a reading this chapter will use later, in the monk's own mouth.
Yesterday, lodging the night at the Chen house, we heard of an evil demon here who takes the false style of Divine Response and demands a boy and a girl in sacrifice year upon year.
假號: 號 is hào, "title, style." The charge is exact, and worth reading slowly. Wukong does not accuse him of being a demon. He accuses him of having stolen a name.
It is our compassion that has moved us to save these living souls and to take you, foul creature.
生靈, living beings — and the echo is deliberate, because 靈 is the same character standing in 靈感, the title the demon has helped himself to.
Confess now, and confess truly: at two children a year, how many years have you styled yourself Great King in this place?
Here is the pun the passage turns on. 供 has been the offering four times already in this chapter — the altar table, the presentation of the children, the food set before the god. Now it is gòng in its courtroom sense: to give testimony, to confess. The demon's dinners have become his deposition. 稱 is chēng, "to call oneself." 一年 keeps 一 at yì before the rising tone of 年.
How many boys and girls have you eaten?
多少: 少 is shǎo.
Reckon them up and pay me back one by one, and I will spare you the death penalty.」
算還: 還 is huán, "to pay back" — not hái, "still." The demand is put as an accounting, which is why the reading matters. He is being asked to settle a ledger of children.
At these words the monster made off at once; Eight Rules struck at him with the muckrake again but did not land it, and he turned into a blast of wild wind and dived into the River That Reaches to Heaven.
打著: 著 is zháo, the reading for a blow that lands — and it is negated here, so this one does not. 鈀 is pá, a reading fixed across this edition. 一 stays yì in 一釘鈀, where a level tone follows, and lifts to yí in 一陣, where a falling one does.
The fight lasts three sentences and settles nothing, which is the point. Eight Rules strikes, the demon flinches, there is a clang, and what falls to the floor is two fish-scales the size of ice platters. The novel has told us the shape of the enemy without a word of exposition: not armour but scales, not a celestial officer but a fish. And in the word 冰盤 it has put ice on the page for the first time, more than six hundred characters before anyone so much as mentions snow and a good thousand before any falls.
Wukong's interrogation in the air reads as a legal proceeding, because that is how it is phrased. He states the plaintiffs' standing, names the offence as theft of a title — 假號靈感 — demands testimony with 趁早實實供來, and proposes a sentence with a remission attached. The pun is doing the work. 供 has appeared four times already as the offering laid before a god. Here it turns without warning into the gòng of a confession in court, and the demon's meals become the evidence against him.
The demand itself — count them up and pay me back one by one — is impossible, and Wukong knows it. It works as a formal indictment rather than as a real offer, and the demon answers in the only way left to him, by diving into water none of the pilgrims can follow him into. That flight sets up everything after it: the demon's problem for the rest of the chapter is how to get his dinner out onto the river, and his answer will be the snow.