化胡之器 The Implement of the Conversion
即查可曾偷甚寶貝。行者道：「無甚寶貝，只見他有一個圈子，甚是利害。」老君急查看時，諸般俱在，止不見了金剛琢。老君道：「這孽畜偷了我金剛琢去了！」行者道：「原來是這件寶貝。當時打著老孫的是他。如今在下界張狂，不知套了我等多少物件。」老君道：「這孽畜在甚地方？」行者道：「現住金兜山金兜洞。他捉了我唐僧進去，搶了我金箍棒。請天兵相助，又搶了太子的神兵。及請火德星君，又搶了他的火具。惟水伯雖不能渰死他，倒還不曾搶他物件。至請如來著羅漢下砂，又將金丹砂搶去。似你這老官縱放怪物，搶奪傷人，該當何罪？」老君道：「我那金剛琢，乃是我過函關化胡之器，自幼煉成之寶。憑你甚麼兵器、水火，俱莫能近他。若偷去我的芭蕉扇兒，連我也不能奈他何矣。」即查可曾偷甚宝贝。行者道：「无甚宝贝，只见他有一个圈子，甚是利害。」老君急查看时，诸般俱在，止不见了金刚琢。老君道：「这孽畜偷了我金刚琢去了！」行者道：「原来是这件宝贝。当时打着老孙的是他。如今在下界张狂，不知套了我等多少物件。」老君道：「这孽畜在甚地方？」行者道：「现住金兜山金兜洞。他捉了我唐僧进去，抢了我金箍棒。请天兵相助，又抢了太子的神兵。及请火德星君，又抢了他的火具。惟水伯虽不能渰死他，倒还不曾抢他物件。至请如来着罗汉下砂，又将金丹砂抢去。似你这老官纵放怪物，抢夺伤人，该当何罪？」老君道：「我那金刚琢，乃是我过函关化胡之器，自幼炼成之宝。凭你甚么兵器、水火，俱莫能近他。若偷去我的芭蕉扇儿，连我也不能奈他何矣。」
逐句解 Line by line
He checked at once whether anything of value had been stolen.
即查: 查 is chá; 偷甚寶貝: 甚 is shén, "any." Eight characters of narrative, and the stocktaking begins.
Pilgrim said: "No treasures — I only saw that he had a ring, and a very formidable thing it is."
The same character twice in one sentence, with opposite readings: 無甚寶貝 takes shén, "any", and 甚是利害 takes shèn, the intensifier, "very." 圈子 takes the bare ending zi. He describes the ring without knowing he is describing its owner's property.
Lord Lao made a hurried inspection: everything was in its place — only the diamond snare was not to be seen.
查看: 查 is chá, 看 is kàn; 不見了: 了 is le. 金剛琢 is the diamond snare: 琢 is zhuó, the verb for working jade, hence a worked ring or bracelet. The automatic tool returns zuó, which belongs only to 琢磨 in the sense of turning something over in the mind; all five occurrences in this chapter are the object.
Lord Lao said: "The accursed beast has stolen my diamond snare and gone!"
孽畜: 畜 is chù; both 了 are le. He works it out one sentence after Pilgrim describes the ring, and the recognition is instant.
Pilgrim said: "So that is what the treasure is. It was this that struck Old Monkey in the old days.
The circle closes. 當時: 當 is dāng; 打著: 著 is zháo, marking the blow as landing. The reader has been holding this since the autobiography — 老君又使金剛套, twenty couplets into Wukong's own boasting.
"Now he is running riot in the world below, and there is no telling how much of our property he has snared away."
套了: 了 is le; 多少: 少 is shǎo. 我等 means "we" — and it now quietly includes Lord Lao, whose ring did all the taking.
Lord Lao said: "And where is the accursed beast?"
孽畜: 畜 is chù; 甚地方: 甚 is shén.
Pilgrim said: "He is living now in the Golden Helm Cave on the Golden Helm Mountain. He has taken my Tang priest in there, and snatched away my gold-banded cudgel.
Both 了 are le. The indictment that follows runs the whole arc past its author in five clauses, one for each party that has gone against the demon — and the fourth of them is in the list precisely because it lost nothing.
"I asked for celestial troops to help, and he snatched away the Prince's divine weapons.
相助: 相 is xiāng; 搶了: 了 is le; 太子: 子 is zǐ.
"Then I asked the Fire Virtue Star Lord, and he snatched away his fire-gear.
搶了: 了 is le. The matched clauses are doing the work of a ledger, one line per creditor.
"Only the Earl of Waters — though he could not drown him — at least had nothing of his taken.
The Water Earl's consolation prize. 倒還: 倒 is dào, marking the contrast, and 還 is hái. He is the only member of the whole company who is not out of pocket, having failed at no cost.
"And when I asked the Tathāgata, who set the arhats to loosing sand, he snared away the golden cinnabar sand too.
著羅漢: 著 is zhuó, setting someone to a task; 將金丹砂: 將 is jiāng.
"Seeing that you, old fellow, let a monster loose to rob and injure people — what punishment does that deserve?"
And here is the charge, in courtroom language. 似你這老官: 似 is sì, the reading used throughout this edition; 該當: 當 is dāng. 該當何罪, "what punishment does that deserve", is the exact phrase that stood in Pilgrim's own autobiography — 曹官拷較罪該當 — where he was the one in the dock.
Lord Lao said: "That diamond snare of mine is the implement with which I passed the Han Pass and converted the barbarians — a treasure refined from my youth.
我那金剛琢 points, so 那 is nà; 化胡: 化 is huà. The reference is to the 老子化胡經 tradition, in which Laozi travels west through the Hangu Pass and converts the western peoples — a Daoist claim to priority over Buddhism that was condemned and its texts burned more than once under the Yuan. See the passage note.
"Whatever weapons you may bring against it, or water or fire, none of them can come near it.
甚麼: 甚 is shén. Lord Lao states plainly, in one sentence, what four assaults and three chapters have established the hard way.
"If he had stolen my plantain-leaf fan as well, not even I could have done anything with him."
芭蕉扇兒: 扇 is shàn, and 兒 is er. This is not the iron fan of the Rakshasi in Chapters 59 to 61 but Lord Lao's own plantain-leaf fan, and it is the thing he will use in the passages ahead.
Lord Lao's account of the ring is the answer the chapter has been withholding since Chapter 50, and it lands with a double irony. First: the object that has beaten the Jade Emperor's army, the Fire and Water Departments and eighteen arhats of Vulture Peak is not a demon's treasure at all but a Daoist relic — 過函關化胡之器, the implement Laozi carried west through the Hangu Pass when, in the 老子化胡經 tradition, he converted the barbarians and became the Buddha. So the thing that defeated the Buddha's arhats is a prop from the legend that the Buddha was Laozi's convert. The novel makes no comment. It says 化胡之器 and moves straight on.
Second: Pilgrim's indictment. He runs the whole arc past Lord Lao as a ledger of losses — my master, my cudgel, the Prince's weapons, the fire-gear, the golden sand, and the Water Earl who at least kept his property — and finishes with 該當何罪, what punishment does that deserve? It is courtroom language, and it is the exact phrase from his own autobiography, where the celestial clerks used it of him. The monkey once arraigned before the Jade Emperor for stealing Lord Lao's elixir is now arraigning Lord Lao for negligent custody of Lord Lao's ring. And the old man's reply is not a defence but a specification: nothing can come near it, and if the beast had taken my fan as well I could not have managed him either.