鱖婆識俊 The Mandarin-Fish Dame's Warning
卻說那妖邪敗陣逃生，回歸本宅，眾妖接到宮中，鱖婆上前問道：「大王趕那兩個和尚到那方來？」妖邪道：「那和尚原來還有一個幫手。他兩個跳上岸去，那幫手掄一條鐵棒打我，我閃過與他相持。也不知他那棍子有多少斤重，我的銅鎚莫想架得他住，戰未三合，我卻敗回來也。」鱖婆道：「大王，可記得那幫手是甚相貌？」妖邪道：「是一個毛臉雷公嘴、查耳朵、折鼻梁、火眼金睛和尚。」鱖婆聞說，打了一個寒噤道：「大王啊，虧了你識俊，逃了性命；若再三合，決然不得全生。那和尚我認得他。」妖邪道：「你認得他是誰？」鱖婆道：「我當年在東洋海內，曾聞得老龍王說他的名譽，乃是五百年前大鬧天宮混元一氣上方太乙金仙美猴王齊天大聖。如今歸依佛教，保唐僧往西天取經，改名喚做孫悟空行者。他的神通廣大，變化多端，大王你怎麼惹他？今後再莫與他戰了。」却说那妖邪败阵逃生，回归本宅，众妖接到宫中，鳜婆上前问道：「大王赶那两个和尚到那方来？」妖邪道：「那和尚原来还有一个帮手。他两个跳上岸去，那帮手抡一条铁棒打我，我闪过与他相持。也不知他那棍子有多少斤重，我的铜锤莫想架得他住，战未三合，我却败回来也。」鳜婆道：「大王，可记得那帮手是甚相貌？」妖邪道：「是一个毛脸雷公嘴、查耳朵、折鼻梁、火眼金睛和尚。」鳜婆闻说，打了一个寒噤道：「大王啊，亏了你识俊，逃了性命；若再三合，决然不得全生。那和尚我认得他。」妖邪道：「你认得他是谁？」鳜婆道：「我当年在东洋海内，曾闻得老龙王说他的名誉，乃是五百年前大闹天宫混元一气上方太乙金仙美猴王齐天大圣。如今归依佛教，保唐僧往西天取经，改名唤做孙悟空行者。他的神通广大，变化多端，大王你怎么惹他？今后再莫与他战了。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now we tell how the fiend, beaten in the fight and fleeing for his life, came back to his own mansion, where the demons received him into the hall. The mandarin-fish dame came forward and asked: "To what quarter did the Great King chase those two monks?"
Three occurrences of 那 in one sentence, and the reader has to sort them by position: 那妖邪 points, nà; 那兩個 points, nà; 到那方 asks, nǎ — "to which quarter." 宮中 keeps 中 as zhōng.
The fiend said: "Those monks had a helper after all.
還有: 還 hái, "after all, on top of that." 那和尚 points, nà. He reports the newcomer as a fact about the fight; he has no idea yet whom he has met.
The two of them leapt ashore, and that helper swung an iron rod at me; I dodged and closed with him.
相持: 相 xiāng, mutual — they grappled. 那幫手 points, nà.
I could not tell how many catties that cudgel of his weighed, but my copper mallet had no hope of warding it off. We had not fought three bouts before I came away beaten."
斤重: 重 is zhòng, "heavy." The 斤 is the catty, a Chinese weight of roughly six hundred grams, and English borrowed the word from the Malay traders who met it in the China trade. 架得他住 keeps 得 as dé; 那棍子 points, nà; 多少 keeps 少 as shǎo. And there is the three-bout count again, turned against the man who invented it.
The mandarin-fish dame said: "Great King, do you recall what the helper looked like?"
記得 keeps 得 as dé. 甚相貌: 甚 is the asking shén, "what," and 相 is xiàng, "looks, appearance" — the very same character that was xiāng, "mutually," one line above.
The fiend said: "He was a monk with a hairy face and a thunder-god's beak, splayed ears, a flattened nose-bridge, and fiery eyes with golden pupils."
折鼻梁: 折 zhé, "snapped, flattened." 雷公嘴, a thunder-god's beak, and 火眼金睛, fiery eyes with golden pupils, are Wukong's fixed descriptions throughout the novel — the equivalent of a wanted poster. The dame will need nothing else to identify him.
Hearing this, the mandarin-fish dame gave a shiver and said: "Great King! It was well you knew when to be shrewd and got away with your life;
寒噤 is a shudder; 噤 is jìn, the clamping shut of the mouth that cold produces. 識俊, to know the smart move — which here means knowing when to run.
another three bouts and you would surely not have come off with your life whole.
不得全生 keeps 得 as dé. Three bouts, for the third time in the chapter, and now in his adviser's mouth as a measure of how close he came.
That monk — I know who he is."
認得 keeps 得 as dé; 那和尚 points, nà. This is the hinge of the whole passage: what days of fighting could not tell the demon, one sentence from his adviser can.
The fiend said: "You know who he is?"
認得 keeps 得 as dé. His question sets up the roll of titles that follows.
The mandarin-fish dame said: "In years past, within the Eastern Ocean, I once heard the old Dragon King tell of his fame. He is the Handsome Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who five hundred years ago made great havoc in the Palaces of Heaven — the Primal-Unity, Single-Breath, Supreme Ultimate Golden Immortal of the Upper Realm.
當年: 當 dāng, "back then." 聞得 keeps 得 as dé. The string of styles — 混元一氣, the undivided primal breath; 上方太乙, the Great One of the realm above; 金仙, Golden Immortal — is Daoist through and through, the honorifics of a perfected adept rather than anything Buddhist, and the novel piles them into one long unpunctuated name the way a herald would.
Now he has taken refuge in the Buddha's teaching and guards the Tang Monk on his way west to fetch the scriptures, and has changed his name to Pilgrim Sun Wukong.
佛教: 教 jiào, "teaching," not jiāo, "to teach." 行者 keeps 行 as xíng. She gives the Daoist career first and the Buddhist post second, which is exactly the double nature Wukong carries.
His divine powers are vast, his transformations past number — Great King, how could you provoke him?
變化: 化 huà. 惹 is rě, to provoke or stir up — a character that looks easily mistakable and is worth checking every time. Her rhetorical question is the whole point of the recognition: not what is he, but what were you thinking.
From now on, never fight him again."
莫與他戰了. Her advice is flat and practical — not a plan, a prohibition — and it is the only sound counsel anyone gives in the chapter. It is also what puts the demon behind his own gate.
The recognition scene turns the chapter. The demon has been fighting the pilgrims since he first came out of his own gate, and he met their formidable third only two passages ago, on the riverbank, without ever learning who it was. Here his adviser tells him, and the telling is done as a roll of titles. The 鱖婆 recites the Daoist honorifics first — 混元一氣上方太乙金仙, the styles of a perfected adept — and only then the Buddhist post, 保唐僧, 孫悟空行者. The order matters. She knows him as Heaven knew him, five hundred years before his conversion, from the old Dragon King's account of what he did to the celestial palaces.
What the scene establishes is that the demon is out of his depth and only finds out when he is told. His own report already carried every sign — a cudgel of unguessable weight, no hope of parrying it, beaten inside three bouts — but he read it as a hard fight rather than a lost one. She reads it correctly and gives the only sound advice in the chapter: 今後再莫與他戰了, never fight him again.
He takes her conclusion and throws away her method. Instead of avoiding Wukong he will shut his gate against him — which is the subject of the next three passages, and, in the end, no protection whatever.