魚籃收妖 The Fish Basket
頃刻間，到了通天河界。八戒與沙僧看見道：「師兄性急，不知在南海怎麼亂嚷亂叫，把一個未梳妝的菩薩逼將來也。」說不了，到於河岸。二人下拜道：「菩薩，我等擅干，有罪，有罪。」菩薩即解下一根束襖的絲絛，將籃兒拴定，提著絲絛，半踏雲彩，拋在河中，往上溜頭扯著，口念頌子道：「死的去，活的住。死的去，活的住！」念了七遍，提起籃兒，但見那籃裡亮灼灼一尾金魚，還斬眼動鱗。菩薩叫：「悟空，快下水救你師父耶。」行者道：「未曾拿住妖邪，如何救得師父？」菩薩道：「這籃兒裡不是？」八戒與沙僧拜問道：「這魚兒怎生有那等手段。」菩薩道：「他本是我蓮花池裡養大的金魚，每日浮頭聽經，修成手段。那一柄九瓣銅鎚，乃是一枝未開的菡萏，被他運鍊成兵。不知是那一日海潮泛漲，走到此間。我今早扶欄看花，卻不見這廝出拜。掐指巡紋，算著他在此成精，害你師父，故此未及梳妝，運神功，織個竹籃兒擒他。」顷刻间，到了通天河界。八戒与沙僧看见道：「师兄性急，不知在南海怎么乱嚷乱叫，把一个未梳妆的菩萨逼将来也。」说不了，到于河岸。二人下拜道：「菩萨，我等擅干，有罪，有罪。」菩萨即解下一根束袄的丝绦，将篮儿拴定，提着丝绦，半踏云彩，抛在河中，往上溜头扯着，口念颂子道：「死的去，活的住。死的去，活的住！」念了七遍，提起篮儿，但见那篮里亮灼灼一尾金鱼，还斩眼动鳞。菩萨叫：「悟空，快下水救你师父耶。」行者道：「未曾拿住妖邪，如何救得师父？」菩萨道：「这篮儿里不是？」八戒与沙僧拜问道：「这鱼儿怎生有那等手段。」菩萨道：「他本是我莲花池里养大的金鱼，每日浮头听经，修成手段。那一柄九瓣铜锤，乃是一枝未开的菡萏，被他运炼成兵。不知是那一日海潮泛涨，走到此间。我今早扶栏看花，却不见这厮出拜。掐指巡纹，算着他在此成精，害你师父，故此未及梳妆，运神功，织个竹篮儿擒他。」
逐句解 Line by line
In an instant they reached the bounds of the River That Reaches to Heaven.
頃刻間 keeps 間 as jiān; 到了 takes 了 as the tag le. The whole return flight goes by in one clause.
Eight Rules and Sha Monk, seeing them, said: "Our elder brother is a hasty one — no telling what shouting and bawling he did in the Southern Sea, to force an unadorned Bodhisattva to come like this."
看見 keeps 看 as kàn; 逼將來 keeps 將 as jiāng. The brothers read her undress as evidence that Wukong bullied her out of her cave before she could dress — funny, and not entirely unfair about his manner.
Before they had finished, she reached the riverbank. The two of them bowed low: "Bodhisattva, we acted presumptuously — our fault, our fault."
說不了 takes 了 as liǎo, "to finish." 擅干, to presume, to go over someone's head. They are apologising for having troubled her. They still have no idea what she has brought with her.
The Bodhisattva at once loosed the silk cord that sashed her jacket, made the basket fast to it, and holding the cord, half-astride her cloud, cast the basket into the river; then, drawing it upstream, she recited a verse-charm: "The dead, be gone; the living, remain. The dead, be gone; the living, remain!"
Two occurrences each of 絲絛 and 著, sorted by position. The 絲絛 (sī tāo) is the silk cord holding her jacket shut — the same undress the poem dwelt on, now turning out to be the tool. 拴定 and 扯著 take 著 as zhe; 籃兒 takes 兒 as er; 河中 keeps 中 as zhōng; 頌子 takes 子 as zi, and a 頌 is a short chanted verse. A 。 and a ！ divide the charm in the source and it is one utterance. What it says is a spell of sorting: dead things go, living things stay.
When she had recited it seven times, she lifted the basket — and behold, within it, gleaming bright, a single golden fish, its scales still stirring, its eyes still blinking.
念了七遍 takes 了 as le; 籃兒 takes 兒 as er; 那籃裡 points, nà. 還斬眼 keeps 還 as hái, "still," and 斬眼 is written for 眨眼, to blink. The demon of two chapters, lifted out of the water, is a fish in a basket with its scales still moving.
The Bodhisattva called: "Wukong, quick, go down into the water and save your master."
救你師父耶 — the 耶 at the end is the spoken nudge, "go on, then." With the demon in the basket the river has nothing left in it, and the rescue is now an errand.
Pilgrim said: "But the fiend is not yet caught — how are we to save our master?"
拿住, to catch and hold. 救得 keeps 得 as dé. Wukong has not understood that the fish in the basket is the demon. The miracle has gone past him and he is still asking about the fight.
The Bodhisattva said: "Is he not here in the basket?"
這籃兒裡不是 takes 兒 as er. The question is the reveal — isn't he here? — and it undoes the whole chapter with a basket dipped once in a river.
Eight Rules and Sha Monk bowed and asked: "How does this fish come to have such powers?"
魚兒 takes 兒 as er; 那等手段 points, 那 nà, "such." The brothers ask the question the reader is asking, and her answer supplies the demon's entire biography.
The Bodhisattva said: "He was originally a golden fish reared in my lotus pool. Each day he floated up to hear the scriptures, and so cultivated his powers.
蓮花池裡養大, reared in the lotus pool; 浮頭聽經, floating up to the surface to listen to the scriptures. This is where the demon came from — her own fish, who grew powerful by eavesdropping on sermons. Cultivation by overhearing.
That nine-petalled copper mallet was an unopened lotus-bud, which he wrought and tempered into a weapon.
那一柄 points, nà. 菡萏 (hàn dàn) is the classical word for a lotus flower still closed. So the mallet's lotus nature, boasted about at such length in its own poem, was literal all along: it is a bud out of Guanyin's pool.
I do not know on what day a sea-tide swelled and he made his way to this place.
那一日 points, nà. 泛漲 takes 漲 as zhǎng, water rising; 此間 keeps 間 as jiān. Even she does not know which day her fish got out — a rare admission of a limit, dropped in without comment.
This morning I leaned on my railing to look at the flowers and did not see this creature come to make his bow. I reckoned on my fingers, tracing the lines, and worked out that he had turned sprite here and was harming your master; and so, before I could dress my hair, I worked my divine power and wove a bamboo basket to catch him."
看花 keeps 看 as kàn. 掐指巡紋 is finger-reckoning: pressing the thumbnail along the joints of the fingers to work out a divination, a gesture any Chinese reader would picture instantly — 掐 is qiā, to press with the nail. 算著 keeps 著 as zhe; 竹籃兒 takes 兒 as er. And here at last is why she is undressed: she worked it out at her morning flowers and started weaving on the spot, without stopping to do her hair.
The miracle is performed with almost no ceremony at all, which is exactly what the long preparation was for. Guanyin unties the silk cord from her own jacket — the very undress the poem lingered over, now revealed as the working tool — knots the bamboo basket to it, casts it into the river, draws it upstream chanting 死的去，活的住, and lifts out one golden fish with its scales still stirring. The creature who withstood three armed pilgrims and then sealed himself behind a wall of stone is simply scooped out of the water. Wukong, a step behind to the very end, asks how they are going to catch the fiend and is told he is already in the basket.
Her explanation collapses the whole chapter into a domestic accident. The 靈感大王 is a golden fish from her own lotus pool who grew strong by floating up each day to listen in on the scriptures, and his terrifying nine-petalled mallet is an unopened lotus bud, 菡萏, from the same pool, hammered into a weapon. He got out on a chance sea-tide, on a day she cannot name, and she noticed only this morning, leaning on her railing over the flowers, when the fish did not come up to pay its respects.
And the undress that has puzzled Wukong, his brothers and her entire court for four passages is accounted for in a single clause: 故此未及梳妝, and so, before she could do her hair. The most powerful being in the chapter met the crisis not with thunder and regalia but by sitting down with a knife and some bamboo, and the novel has spent its centre making sure the reader feels the force of that.