打退九曜 Routing the Nine Luminaries
正嚷間，大聖到了，叫一聲：「開路！」掣開鐵棒，幌一幌，碗來粗細，丈二長短，丟開架子，打將出來。九曜星那個敢抵，一時打退。那九曜星立住陣勢道：「你這不知死活的弼馬溫，你犯了十惡之罪：先偷桃，後偷酒，攪亂了蟠桃大會，又竊了老君仙丹，又將御酒偷來此處享樂。你罪上加罪，豈不知之？」大聖笑道：「這幾樁事，實有，實有。但如今你怎麼？」九曜星道：「吾奉玉帝金旨，帥眾到此收降你。快早皈依，免教這些生靈納命，不然，就屣平了此山，掀翻了此洞也。」大聖大怒道：「量你這些毛神，有何法力，敢出浪言。不要走，請吃老孫一棒。」這九曜星一齊踴躍；那美猴王不懼分毫，掄起金箍棒，左遮右擋。把那九曜星戰得筋疲力軟，一個個倒拖器械，敗陣而走，急入中軍帳下，對托塔天王道：「那猴王果十分驍勇，我等戰他不過，敗陣來了。」正嚷间，大圣到了，叫一声：「开路！」掣开铁棒，幌一幌，碗来粗细，丈二长短，丢开架子，打将出来。九曜星那个敢抵，一时打退。那九曜星立住阵势道：「你这不知死活的弼马温，你犯了十恶之罪：先偷桃，后偷酒，搅乱了蟠桃大会，又窃了老君仙丹，又将御酒偷来此处享乐。你罪上加罪，岂不知之？」大圣笑道：「这几桩事，实有，实有。但如今你怎么？」九曜星道：「吾奉玉帝金旨，帅众到此收降你。快早皈依，免教这些生灵纳命，不然，就屣平了此山，掀翻了此洞也。」大圣大怒道：「量你这些毛神，有何法力，敢出浪言。不要走，请吃老孙一棒。」这九曜星一齐踊跃；那美猴王不惧分毫，抡起金箍棒，左遮右挡。把那九曜星战得筋疲力软，一个个倒拖器械，败阵而走，急入中军帐下，对托塔天王道：「那猴王果十分骁勇，我等战他不过，败阵来了。」
逐句解 Line by line
Amid the uproar the Great Sage arrived and called out: 'Make way!'
正嚷間: in the thick of the uproar. He arrives, says two characters, and the direction of the whole battle reverses inside a single sentence.
He drew out the iron cudgel, gave it a shake until it was thick as a bowl and a zhàng and two in length, set his stance, and came striking out.
丈 is zhàng, a Chinese fathom of ten 尺 — call it three metres or so; 丈二 is a zhàng and two chǐ, near enough four metres of iron.
Which of the Nine Luminaries dared withstand him? In a moment they were beaten back.
那個敢抵 takes 那 at nǎ, the question word: which of them dared stand up to him? It is asked rhetorically, and the answer is none of them.
The Nine Bright Stars steadied their ranks and said: 'You death-defying Pi-ma-wen, you have committed the Ten Evil Crimes: first you stole peaches, then you stole wine, you threw the Grand Peach Feast into confusion, you filched Lord Lao's immortal elixir, and you stole the royal wine and brought it here to make merry. Crime heaped upon crime — do you not know it?'
十惡, the Ten Evil Crimes, is a real legal and Buddhist category — the ten unpardonable offences of the imperial code. Here it is turned to comedy, with the star-officers solemnly reciting Monkey's drunken spree back at him as a formal charge-sheet.
The Great Sage said with a laugh: 'These several matters — true, all true. But what of it now?'
這幾樁事，實有，實有: he concedes the entire indictment without a word of argument, and says so twice for good measure. 樁 is the measure word for an affair or a piece of business.
The Nine Bright Stars said: 'We bear the Jade Emperor's golden command, and have led our host here to subdue you. Submit at once and spare these living creatures from yielding up their lives; if not, we will trample this mountain flat and overturn this cave.'
金旨 is the golden command, the Jade Emperor's own. 皈依 is the Buddhist term for taking refuge — going over to the Three Jewels — and it is used here to mean plain surrender, which is a small joke in itself. 屣平 (xǐ píng) is to trample flat, 屣 being a sandal: they will walk this mountain into the ground. 收降 takes 降 at xiáng once more.
The Great Sage said in great wrath: 'I daresay you churlish hair-gods, what magic powers have you, that you dare spout such wild words? Don't run off — taste a blow of old Sun's cudgel!'
量你這些毛神: 量 is liàng, to size up or reckon, and it is thoroughly dismissive — the tone of who do you think you are. 浪言 is loose, extravagant talk.
The Nine Bright Stars all leapt forward together; but the Handsome Monkey King, not flinching a hair's breadth, swung up his gold-banded cudgel and warded left and right.
不懼分毫: not frightened by so much as a hair's breadth. 掄起 takes 掄 at lūn, to swing a thing by its haft — the same reading the marching rhapsody gave it.
He battled the Nine Bright Stars until their sinews failed and their strength went slack, and one by one they dragged their weapons backwards and fled in defeat, hurrying into the central command-tent, where they said to the Pagoda-bearing Heavenly King: 'That Monkey King is truly valiant in the extreme; we could not prevail against him, and have come back beaten.'
戰得筋疲力軟 is a verb with its complement, so 得 takes the light linking de: fought them until sinew and strength gave out. 倒拖器械 takes 倒 at dào, backwards — they trail their weapons behind them as they run, which is the whole picture the line is for.
The fighting itself is dealt with in a couple of strokes — 九曜星那個敢抵，一時打退, which of the Nine Luminaries dared withstand him? in a moment they were beaten back — because the chapter is not interested in the combat. It is interested in the indictment. The Nine Stars break off mid-battle to read Monkey his charge-sheet, the 十惡 or Ten Evil Crimes: peaches, wine, feast, elixir, royal wine. And his reply is the most disarming line in the chapter: 實有，實有。但如今你怎麼？ — true, all true, but what of it now? He grants every count and disputes only their ability to do anything about it.
This is the mind-monkey's defiance in its purest form: not denial, but indifference to judgment. Guilt is admitted and made irrelevant in the same breath, and the only question he recognises as real is a question of force. In the inner-alchemical reading, the routed Nine Luminaries mark the limit of what pressure from outside can achieve — a disordered mind cannot be argued or shamed into order, and heaven's first wave cannot beat it into order either. The escalation to the Four Heavenly Kings and the Twenty-Eight Mansions follows automatically: force meeting a will that answers to nothing but more force.