二郎現貌 Erlang in His Glory
那猴王即掣金箍棒，整黃金甲，登步雲履，按一按紫金冠，騰出營門，急睜睛觀看，那真君的相貌果是清奇，打扮得又秀氣。真個是：那猴王即掣金箍棒，整黄金甲，登步云履，按一按紫金冠，腾出营门，急睁睛观看，那真君的相貌果是清奇，打扮得又秀气。真个是：
逐句解 Line by line
The Monkey King at once drew his gold-banded cudgel, straightened his golden armor, stepped into his cloud-walking shoes, set his purple-gold coronet firm, and sprang out the camp gate;
The monkey arms himself in the regalia of Chapter 4 — the 黃金甲 (golden cuirass), 步雲履 (cloud-treading shoes), and 紫金冠 (purple-gold coronet) — the finery of his self-styled sovereignty.
and opening his eyes wide to look, he saw that the True Lord's features were indeed striking, his array elegant withal. Truly it was so:
清奇 ("striking, of rare distinction") and 秀氣 ("refined, elegant") — the narrator pauses on Erlang's looks, the cue (真個是, "truly it was thus") for the descriptive rhapsody that follows.
His bearing pure and comely, his face nobly broad;
堂堂 ("imposing, dignified") opens a head-to-foot portrait. Erlang is the handsomest of the gods, and the rhapsody dwells first on his face.
his two ears hung to his shoulders, and his eyes shone with light.
兩耳垂肩 ("ears drooping to the shoulders") is a classic mark of nobility and sanctity in Chinese physiognomy, borrowed from Buddhist iconography.
On his head a three-peaked flying-phoenix cap,
The 三山飛鳳帽 ("three-mountain flying-phoenix cap") is Erlang's distinctive headgear in iconography and opera.
on his body a robe of pale goose-yellow.
淡鵝黃 ("pale goose-yellow") — the soft hue marks his elegance; 一領 ("one robe," 領 being the measure-word for garments).
Gold-threaded boots over coiling-dragon hose,
縷金靴 ("gold-filigreed boots") and 盤龍襪 ("coiling-dragon socks") continue the catalogue of finery downward.
a jade belt of medallion-flowers, adorned with the Eight Treasures.
The 八寶 ("Eight Treasures") are an auspicious decorative set; 團花 ("roundel flowers") is a woven medallion pattern. 粧 here is a variant of 妝, "adornment."
At his waist a pellet-bow curved like the new moon,
彈弓 (dàn-gōng, "pellet-bow") — Erlang's signature ranged weapon; with it, as the next couplet recalls, he shot down the phoenixes. 新月樣 ("shaped like the crescent moon").
in his hand the three-pointed, double-edged spear.
The 三尖兩刃槍 ("three-pointed double-edged lance") is Erlang's iconic weapon — the 神鋒 ("divine blade") that will cross the monkey's cudgel through the duel.
With his axe he once cleft Peach Mountain to save his mother,
This alludes to the legend that Erlang split 桃山 (Peach Mountain) to rescue his mother, a goddess imprisoned beneath it for marrying a mortal — the tale glanced at again in the monkey's taunt to come.
with his pellets he downed the paired phoenixes of Chanluo.
彈打…雙鳳凰 ("shot down the twin phoenixes") is another of Erlang's famed exploits. 鋋羅 is a place-name; the 世德堂 graph 鋋 (read chán) stands where other editions print variants.
By main strength he slew the Eight Monsters, his fame spreading far,
力誅八怪 ("slew eight fiends by force") — Erlang's monster-quelling renown. (The edict earlier spoke of "six fiends"; the figure varies across the legend.)
and in sworn brotherhood bound the company of the Seven Sages of Mei Mountain.
梅山七聖 (the Seven Sages of Mei Mountain) are Erlang and his six sworn brothers; 行 here (háng) means "company, band."
High-hearted, he would not own his kinship to the heavenly house,
心高不認天家眷 ("so proud he disclaims his heavenly relations") names Erlang's defining trait — though the Jade Emperor's nephew, he holds aloof from Heaven; the next line tells where he lives instead.
proud by nature, he took godhood and dwelt by the Guan River.
性傲 ("proud-natured"). Erlang's choice to live among mortals at 灌江 (Guanjiang) is of a piece with his independence — the god "who answers a command but not a summons."
The Resplendent-Kindness Sage of Chicheng, numinous and efficacious,
赤城 (Chicheng) and 昭惠 ("Resplendent Kindness") belong to Erlang's cult-titles; 英靈聖 ("heroic, numinous, holy") heaps up the honorifics of a worshipped god.
boundless in his manifestations — he is styled Erlang.
顯化無邊 ("manifesting without limit," i.e. working miracles everywhere). The portrait closes on his name, 二郎 ("the Second Son") — the title under which all China knew him.
The chapter pauses, at the brink of its central duel, to give us Erlang in a formal portrait-rhapsody — the descriptive counterpart to the battle-rhapsodies, and one of the chapter's most famous set-pieces. Wú Chéng'ēn frames it with care: it is the monkey who, springing out in his own regalia, "opens his eyes wide" and beholds his adversary, so that the gorgeous catalogue reaches us as the Great Sage's own first sight of the Lesser. The 賦 itself runs head to foot in the manner of the genre — face, ears, eyes; cap, robe, boots, belt; the weapons at waist and hand — before turning from appearance to legend.
That turn, in the second half of the rhapsody, is where the portrait does its real work, sketching the whole myth of Erlang in four swift couplets. He is the god who cleft Peach Mountain with his axe to free his imprisoned mother (斧劈桃山曾救母); who shot down phoenixes with his pellet-bow; who slew the monsters and bound the Seven Sages of Mei Mountain in brotherhood. And he is, above all, proud and apart: 心高不認天家眷，性傲歸神住灌江 — "high-hearted, he disowns his heavenly kin; proud by nature, he dwells by the Guan River." These two lines are the key to the chapter's design. Erlang is the Jade Emperor's own nephew, yet he refuses the role of celestial functionary; like the monkey, he is a free and self-willed power who serves Heaven only on his own terms.
It is precisely this kinship of temper that makes the coming match a true contest rather than another of Heaven's lopsided failures. The monkey, the wild 心猿, has run rings around the docile, ranked host of the sky; he can be met only by an equal in pride and independence. The portrait sets the two side by side — the Great Sage in his purple-gold coronet, the Lesser Sage in his phoenix cap — as matched antagonists, and the placement of the rhapsody at this exact hinge, just before they speak and strike, is itself a piece of compositional art. (On Erlang/Yang Jian, the Peach-Mountain legend, and his cult at Guanjiangkou, see the notes in Anthony C. Yu's translation and the rich folk tradition surrounding the deity.)