倒拖鉤走 He Drags His Hook Away
那先生與大聖戰經十數合，敵不得大聖。這大聖越加猛烈，一條棒似滾滾流星，著頭亂打。先生敗了筋力，倒拖著如意鉤，往山上走了。那先生与大圣战经十数合，敌不得大圣。这大圣越加猛烈，一条棒似滚滚流星，着头乱打。先生败了筋力，倒拖着如意钩，往山上走了。
逐句解 Line by line
The gentleman fought the Great Sage through some ten bouts, and could not match him.
十數合 takes 數 as shù, an indefinite number — some ten bouts. 敵不得 asks whether it can be done, so 得 is the light de. The stalemate the verse described is broken in sixteen characters.
The Great Sage grew fiercer still; his single rod was like a rushing meteor, and he struck wildly at the head.
著頭 takes 著 as zhuó, the same construction as 著腳 in the verse. 似 is sì. 滾滾流星 — a rushing meteor — is one of the novel's stock similes for the rod in motion.
The gentleman's strength failed him; he dragged the as-you-will hook behind him and made off up the mountain.
倒拖 takes 倒 as dào, backwards: the hook trails behind him, no longer held to fight with. 拖著 has 著 as zhe, marking the dragging as continuous. 敗了筋力 is defeat by exhaustion rather than by wound, and the immortal leaves the field on his own feet.
The fight ends in fifty-two characters, after some three hundred spent getting into it. The novel's battles are habitually decided this way. The verse holds the combat in suspension, declaring that neither side can be seen to prevail, and then the prose settles it almost as an afterthought.
The manner of the defeat is worth noting, because it is not a killing. 敗了筋力 — his sinews failed — is exhaustion, not injury, and he withdraws on his own legs with his weapon still in his hand. The image of him trailing the as-you-will hook uphill behind him is precise and a little pathetic: the instrument named for getting what one wants, dragged along by a man who has not got it.
Structurally the rout solves nothing. Wukong has won the field and still has no water, because the spring is inside the convent and the immortal has gone up the mountain rather than away from it. The chapter has another reversal to run before the bowl is filled.