盜兵縱火 Stealing the Weapons, Loosing the Fire
行者見他關防得緊，寶貝又隨身，不肯除下，料偷他的不得。跳下床來，還變做促織兒，出了房門，徑至後面，又聽得龍吟馬嘶。原來那層門緊鎖，火龍、火馬都吊在裡面。行者現了原身，走近門前，使個解鎖法，念動咒語，用手一抹，扢扠一聲，那鎖雙鐄俱就脫落。推開門，闖將進去觀看，原來那裡面被火器照得明晃晃的，如白日一般。忽見東西兩邊斜靠著幾件兵器，都是太子的砍妖刀等物，並那火德的火弓、火箭等物。行者映火光，週圍看了一遍，又見那門背後一張石桌子上有一個篾絲盤兒，放著一把毫毛。大聖滿心歡喜，將毫毛拿起來，啊了兩口熱氣，叫聲：「變！」即變作三五十個小猴。教他都拿了刀、劍、杵、索、裘輪及弓、箭、槍、車、葫蘆、火鴉、火鼠、火馬，一應套去之物，𩣔了火龍，縱起火勢，從裡邊往外燒來。只聽得烘烘𤊨𤊨，撲撲乒乒，好便似咋雷連炮之聲。慌得那些大小妖精夢夢查查的，披著被，朦著頭，喊的喊，哭的哭，一個個走頭無路，被這火燒死大半。美猴王得勝回來，只好有三更時候。行者见他关防得紧，宝贝又随身，不肯除下，料偷他的不得。跳下床来，还变做促织儿，出了房门，径至后面，又听得龙吟马嘶。原来那层门紧锁，火龙、火马都吊在里面。行者现了原身，走近门前，使个解锁法，念动咒语，用手一抹，扢扠一声，那锁双鐄俱就脱落。推开门，闯将进去观看，原来那里面被火器照得明晃晃的，如白日一般。忽见东西两边斜靠着几件兵器，都是太子的砍妖刀等物，并那火德的火弓、火箭等物。行者映火光，周围看了一遍，又见那门背后一张石桌子上有一个篾丝盘儿，放着一把毫毛。大圣满心欢喜，将毫毛拿起来，啊了两口热气，叫声：「变！」即变作三五十个小猴。教他都拿了刀、剑、杵、索、裘轮及弓、箭、枪、车、葫芦、火鸦、火鼠、火马，一应套去之物，𩣔了火龙，纵起火势，从里边往外烧来。只听得烘烘𤊨𤊨，扑扑乒乒，好便似咋雷连炮之声。慌得那些大小妖精梦梦查查的，披着被，朦着头，喊的喊，哭的哭，一个个走头无路，被这火烧死大半。美猴王得胜回来，只好有三更时候。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim saw how close a guard he kept, that the treasure went about with his person and that he would not take it off, and reckoned it could not be stolen from him.
The theft is called off before it is attempted, and this sentence is the hinge of the chapter. 關防得緊 and 偷他的不得: both 得 are de, marking degree and possibility. Everything that happens from here on is second-best.
He jumped down from the bed, turned back into a cricket, went out at the chamber door, made straight for the rear, and heard again the dragon's cry and the neighing of horses.
還變做: 還 is hái, "back, again", not huán. 促織兒 takes the ending er; 出了: 了 is le; 聽得: 得 is dé.
It turned out that the inner door was fast locked, and the fire-dragons and fire-horses were all tethered inside.
那層門 points, so 那 is nà; 都 is dōu. 層 here means "the next door in", one of a series — the cave has depth.
Pilgrim resumed his own form, went up to the door, worked a lock-loosing spell, recited the words, passed his hand across it — and with a snap the double bolt of that lock fell away.
現了: 了 is le; 解鎖法: 解 is jiě; 那鎖 points, so nà. 扢扠 imitates the sound of the bolt giving way. 鐄 (huáng) is the bolt or catch of a lock, and the edition deliberately holds it in its traditional form: its simplified counterpart is a far rarer character, and converting it would leave the simplified page harder to read than the traditional one.
He pushed the door open, charged in and looked about: the place within was lit by the fire-weapons to a dazzling brightness, like broad day.
闖將進去: 將 is jiāng, marking direction. 觀看: 觀 is guān, 看 is kàn. 那裡面 points, so nà; 照得: 得 is de. The stolen fire-weapons are lighting the room they are stored in.
All at once he saw, propped at a slant on the east and west sides, several weapons — all of them the Prince's, the fiend-cleaving sabre and the rest, and with them the Fire Virtue's fire-bow and fire-arrows and the rest.
靠著: 著 is zhe, a position held; 都 is dōu. 太子: 子 is zǐ, the full word for son. 那火德 points, so nà. The six weapons are Nezha's, swallowed in Chapter 51.
Pilgrim, in the glare of the firelight, looked once round the whole circuit, and saw besides that on a stone table behind the door there stood a woven bamboo tray, and in it a handful of hairs.
The detail that pays off in the next sentence. 看了一遍: 看 is kàn, 了 is le. 門背後: 背 is bèi; 石桌子: 石 is shí, and 子 is the bare ending zi; 篾絲盤兒: 篾 is miè, split bamboo, and 兒 is er; 放著: 著 is zhe.
The Great Sage's heart filled with delight. He took up the hairs, breathed two mouthfuls of warm breath on them, and cried: "Change!" — whereupon they became thirty or fifty little monkeys.
The hairs in the tray are the ones the ring took off him, kept as spoils — the one piece of plunder in this cave that is still his to use. 將毫毛: 將 is jiāng. 啊了: 啊 is ā, here a verb, to breathe out (the automatic tool reads it as the toneless syllable); 了 is le.
He set them all to taking up the sabre, the sword, the mace, the rope, the fur-wheel, and the bow, arrows, spear, cart, gourd, fire-crows, fire-rats and fire-horses — the whole stock of things the ring had carried off; then he mounted the fire-dragon, roused the fire, and came burning outward from within.
The full inventory, carried out by a workforce made of his own stolen hair. 教 is jiào, "have them"; 都 is dōu; both 了 are le. 一應: 應 is yìng, "the whole set of" — and because that lifts the character from a first tone to a fourth, the 一 in front moves from yì to yí. The verb before 了火龍 is 𩣔, a character so rare that no standard dictionary records a pronunciation for it and many fonts will not display it at all. It is built from the horse radical beside 夸, which supplies the sound, and the sense is "to mount, to bestride"; it is read here as kuà, on the model of 跨, which the chapter itself uses for the same action at the very end. 裘輪 is transcribed exactly as the Sìdétáng text has it; no such weapon is attested anywhere else.
There was nothing to be heard but a roaring and a crackling, a popping and a clattering, for all the world like the noise of splitting thunder and strings of crackers.
Four syllables of pure noise. 聽得: 得 is dé. The pairing sets 烘烘 against a doubled 𤊨, another character so rare that no standard reference records a Mandarin reading for it; it is read huò from its sound-component 或, and that reading is provisional. Modern editions of the novel simply substitute 烈 at this point. 連炮: 炮 is pào, cannon or firecracker, not the páo of roasting herbs.
It threw the imps, great and small, into such a fright that they went about dazed and muddled, one with the quilt still round him, another with his head still covered, some shouting, some weeping, every one of them with nowhere to run — and the fire burned the greater part of them to death.
慌得: 得 is de. 那些 points, so 那 is nà. Both 著 (披著, 朦著) are zhe. 夢夢查查 is a vernacular pairing for the dazed, half-woken state — still half in the dream.
The Handsome Monkey King came back victorious at just about the hour of the third watch.
得勝: 得 is dé. 三更: 更 is gēng, the third night-watch of five, roughly midnight — so two watches have passed since he went in.
The burglary is abandoned in the very first sentence, and everything after it is what Wukong does instead. The reasoning is set out plainly — the guard is close, the treasure goes about on his person, he will not take it off, therefore it cannot be stolen — and it is the only piece of clean deduction anyone performs in this chapter. What follows is a raid on the storeroom: a lock spell, an inner door, and an arsenal lit up like noon by the fire-weapons stored inside it.
The detail that repays attention is the tray of hairs. The ring has taken Wukong's cudgel, Nezha's six weapons and an entire fire-armoury, and the demon has stored the plunder tidily; the hairs plucked from Wukong's own body sit in a woven bamboo tray on a stone table behind the door. He breathes on them, turns them into thirty or fifty little monkeys, and uses his own stolen property as the labour force to carry the rest of the stolen property out. It is the one moment in the arc where the ring's indiscriminate appetite works against its owner. Everything it swallows is kept, and what is kept can be found again.