鐵棒重歸 The Iron Cudgel Regained
話說孫大聖得了金箍棒，打出門前，跳上高峰，對眾神滿心歡喜。李天王道：「你這場如何？」行者道：「老孫變化進他洞去，那怪物越發唱唱舞舞的吃得勝酒哩。更不曾打聽得他的寶貝在那裡。我轉他後面，忽聽得馬叫龍吟，知是火部之物。東壁廂靠著我的金箍棒，是老孫拿在手中，一路打將出來也。」眾神道：「你的寶貝得了，我們的寶貝何時到手？」行者道：「不難，不難。我有了這根鐵棒，不管怎的，也要打倒他，取寶貝還你。」话说孙大圣得了金箍棒，打出门前，跳上高峰，对众神满心欢喜。李天王道：「你这场如何？」行者道：「老孙变化进他洞去，那怪物越发唱唱舞舞的吃得胜酒哩。更不曾打听得他的宝贝在那里。我转他后面，忽听得马叫龙吟，知是火部之物。东壁厢靠着我的金箍棒，是老孙拿在手中，一路打将出来也。」众神道：「你的宝贝得了，我们的宝贝何时到手？」行者道：「不难，不难。我有了这根铁棒，不管怎的，也要打倒他，取宝贝还你。」
逐句解 Line by line
The story goes that the Great Sage, having got back his gold-banded cudgel, fought his way out before the gate, sprang up to the high peak, and faced the assembled spirits with a heart wholly delighted.
The chapter picks the thread up without a pause. 話說 ("the story goes") is the formula for resuming exactly where the last chapter stopped, which here means inside the cave, cudgel just recovered. 得了: 得 is dé, getting a thing back, and 了 is le, marking the deed as done. The 眾神 waiting on the peak are the celestial levy: Devarāja Li and his sons, the Thunder Squire, the Fire Star, the Water Earl.
Devarāja Li said: "And how did this bout of yours go?"
李天王 is Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Devarāja (托塔李天王), commanding the troops the Jade Emperor lent Pilgrim. His question uses 這場, "this round, this bout" — the everyday counting word for a fight, the way English says a set of tennis.
Pilgrim said: "Old Monkey changed shape and got inside his cave. The monster was carrying on worse than ever — singing and capering and drinking his victory wine.
Wukong reports back with obvious enjoyment. 變化: 化 is huà. 那怪物 is a pointing "that", so 那 is nà. 吃得勝酒: 得 is dé, since 得勝 means to win the victory — the demon is drinking to it. The 哩 that ends the sentence is li, the everyday tag of hearsay and report, and its reading is fixed everywhere in this edition.
"What I never did make out was where he keeps that treasure of his.
And here is what he could not find out. 更不曾: 更 is gèng, "not at all", not the gēng of the night-watches. 打聽得: 得 is dé, on the pattern of 聽得 and 聞得. 在那裡 is an indirect question here — "where" — so 那 is nǎ, the older undifferentiated spelling of 哪, not the pointing nà of the line before.
"I slipped round to the back of the place, and all at once heard horses neighing and a dragon's cry, and knew them for the gear of the Fire Department.
What he heard through the wall was the Fire Department's livestock. 忽聽得: 得 is dé. 火部之物 covers the fire-dragons, fire-horses, fire-crows and fire-rats belonging to the Fire-Virtue Star Lord (火德星君), every one of them swallowed by the ring in Chapter 51.
"Leaning against the eastern wall was my own gold-banded cudgel. Old Monkey took it in hand, and beat his way out along the whole road."
靠著: 著 is zhe, the reading for a state that simply goes on — the cudgel was leaning there. 手中: 中 is zhōng. 打將出來: 將 is jiāng, the little directional word of vernacular storytelling ("beat his way out"), not the jiàng that means a general.
The spirits said: "Your treasure you have got; when do ours come to hand?"
One question from the gods, and it is the engine of the whole chapter. 得了: 得 is dé, 了 is le. Still inside the ring: the Third Prince's six weapons, the entire fire-armoury, and — before long — the golden sand of the arhats.
Pilgrim said: "No hard matter, no hard matter. Now that I have this iron rod, come what may I mean to knock him down, take the treasures, and hand them back to you."
不難，不難: 難 is nán both times, "difficult", not the nàn that means a calamity; doubling it is pure swagger. 打倒: 倒 is dǎo, to knock something over, and worth holding against the dào of "on the contrary" in the very next passage. 還你: 還 is huán, to give back, not hái.
Chapter 52 opens without letting go of the reader's sleeve. The formula is 話說, "the story goes", rather than the 卻說 that signals a change of scene, and it resumes on the same peak in the same hour with the same company. This is the third and last chapter of the Golden Helm arc, and the narrator does not want the pressure off. Wukong has just done the thing that looked impossible — walked into the cave disguised as an insect and walked out with his cudgel — and the gods on the ridge greet him as a conqueror.
The comedy is all in the gods' one question. They are not admiring him; they want their own weapons back. Everything the ring has eaten is still inside it, and Wukong's answer, 不難，不難 — no hard matter, no hard matter — is the boast this chapter exists to take apart. He will steal the weapons out and lose them again; he will fetch the golden sand of eighteen arhats from the Buddha himself and lose that too. Getting the cudgel back is a real gain and a useless one, because the problem was never that he was unarmed. The problem is that the ring takes anything at all. Nothing he owns can answer that, and the solution, when it arrives, will not be a victory. It will be a piece of information.