二郎奉旨 Erlang Receives the Charge
那鬼王領了旨，即駕起雲，徑至灌江口，不消半個時辰，直至真君之廟。早有把門的鬼判傳報至裡道：「外有天使，捧旨而至。」二郎即與眾弟兄出門迎接旨意，焚香開讀。旨意上云：花果山妖猴齊天大聖作亂：因在宮偷桃、偷酒、偷丹，攪亂蟠桃大會，見著十萬天兵、一十八架天羅地網，圍山收伏，未曾得勝。今特調賢甥同義兄弟即赴花果山助力剿除。成功之後，高陞重賞。真君大喜道：「天使請回，吾當就去拔刀相助也。」鬼王回奏不題。這真君即喚梅山六兄弟乃康、張、姚、李四太尉，郭申、直健二將軍，聚集殿前道：「適才玉帝調遣我等往花果山收降妖猴，同去去來。」眾兄弟俱忻然願往。即點本部神兵，駕鷹牽犬，搭弩張弓，縱狂風，霎時過了東洋大海，徑至花果山。見那天羅地網密密層層，不能前進，因叫道：「把天羅地網的神將聽著：吾乃二郎顯聖真君，蒙玉帝調來，擒拿妖猴者，快開營門放行。」一時，各神一層層傳入。四大天王與李天王俱出轅門迎接。相見畢，問及勝敗之事，天王將上項事備陳一遍。那鬼王领了旨，即驾起云，径至灌江口，不消半个时辰，直至真君之庙。早有把门的鬼判传报至里道：「外有天使，捧旨而至。」二郎即与众弟兄出门迎接旨意，焚香开读。旨意上云：花果山妖猴齐天大圣作乱：因在宫偷桃、偷酒、偷丹，搅乱蟠桃大会，见著十万天兵、一十八架天罗地网，围山收伏，未曾得胜。今特调贤甥同义兄弟即赴花果山助力剿除。成功之后，高升重赏。真君大喜道：「天使请回，吾当就去拔刀相助也。」鬼王回奏不题。这真君即唤梅山六兄弟乃康、张、姚、李四太尉，郭申、直健二将军，聚集殿前道：「适才玉帝调遣我等往花果山收降妖猴，同去去来。」众兄弟俱忻然愿往。即点本部神兵，驾鹰牵犬，搭弩张弓，纵狂风，霎时过了东洋大海，径至花果山。见那天罗地网密密层层，不能前进，因叫道：「把天罗地网的神将听著：吾乃二郎显圣真君，蒙玉帝调来，擒拿妖猴者，快开营门放行。」一时，各神一层层传入。四大天王与李天王俱出辕门迎接。相见毕，问及胜败之事，天王将上项事备陈一遍。
逐句解 Line by line
The Demon King received the order, mounted his cloud at once, and went straight to Guanjiangkou — in less than half an hour he arrived at the True Lord's temple.
不消半個時辰 ("in less than half a double-hour") — a 時辰 is one of the twelve two-hour divisions of the day; the courier's speed marks his celestial swiftness. 真君之廟 — Erlang is worshipped at a temple of his own, a god among mortals.
The gate-keeping demon-warden relayed word within: "A heavenly envoy is outside, come bearing an edict."
鬼判 ("demon-warden, infernal clerk") — Erlang's temple is staffed by spirit-functionaries, like any divine office. 天使 here means "heavenly messenger," the Demon King in his role as imperial courier.
Erlang at once went out with his brothers to receive the edict, burned incense, and opened it to read. The edict ran:
焚香開讀 ("burned incense and read it out") is the proper ceremony for receiving an imperial decree — the same reverence a mortal official would show.
"The fiendish monkey of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, has risen in revolt: for in the palace he stole peaches, stole wine, and stole elixir, and threw the Festival of Immortal Peaches into chaos;
The edict opens by reciting the monkey's crimes — the formal charge that justifies the campaign. The triple 偷…偷…偷 ("stole… stole… stole") has the cadence of a legal indictment.
he has been met with a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and eighteen frames of Heaven-and-Earth nets, the mountain ringed and put under siege, yet without victory.
見著 (jiàn-zháo, "has been confronted with"). 一十八架天羅地網 ("eighteen frames of the celestial nets") — the cordon of earlier passages, now given a precise count in the edict's bureaucratic style.
We now specially mobilize Our worthy nephew, together with his sworn brothers, to proceed at once to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and lend aid in exterminating him. Upon success, high promotion and rich reward shall follow."
調 (diào, "to mobilize by command-order") is the very word Guanyin specified — a mustering-order, not a summons. 高陞重賞 ("lofty promotion, heavy reward") is the standard inducement closing an imperial commission.
Greatly pleased, the True Lord said, "Let the heavenly envoy return; I shall go straightway to draw my blade in aid." The Demon King went back to make his report, of which no more need be said.
拔刀相助 ("draw one's blade to help") is a set phrase for coming to another's aid in a fight. 不題 ("of this no more is told") is the storyteller's formula for closing off a thread.
The True Lord then summoned his six brothers of Mei Mountain — the four Marshals Kang, Zhang, Yao, and Li, and the two Generals Guo Shen and Zhi Jian — and gathering them before his hall, said:
The 梅山六兄弟 (Six Brothers of Mei Mountain) are Erlang's sworn band: four 太尉 (Marshals) and two 將軍 (Generals; 將 = jiàng). With Erlang himself they make the "Seven Sages of Mei Mountain" (梅山七聖) named in his portrait.
"Just now the Jade Emperor has commanded us to go to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit to subdue the fiendish monkey. Come, let us be off together!"
收降 (shōu-xiáng, "to subdue, to force submission"). 同去去來 ("let's go, come along") is colloquial, comradely speech — Erlang treats his brothers as equals, not subordinates.
The brothers were all glad to go.
忻然 (xīn-rán, "gladly, with pleasure"; 忻 a variant of 欣) — the band sets out willingly, an eager fellowship.
At once they mustered their own divine troops, loosed the hawks and led the hounds, set their crossbows and drew their bows, and riding a wild wind, in an instant crossed the Eastern Ocean and reached the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.
駕鷹牽犬 ("bearing hawks, leading hounds") — Erlang is a hunting god, and his retinue marches like a great hunt; the hawk and the famous hound will both play a part in the chase to come.
Seeing the Heaven-and-Earth nets dense and layer upon layer, so that they could not press forward, he called out:
Erlang meets the same airtight cordon that hemmed in the monkey — the besiegers must let their own ally through.
"You divine generals of the Heaven-and-Earth nets, hear me: I am the Sage-Manifesting True Lord Erlang, sent by command of the Jade Emperor to capture the fiendish monkey. Open your camp gate quickly and let us pass."
神將 ("divine generals"; 將 = jiàng). Erlang announces his name and commission at the gate, as Huiyan did before him — the ritual of a herald gaining entry to a guarded line.
In a moment the gods passed the word inward, layer by layer.
The message relays through the encircling ranks — the same chain of report that admitted Huiyan.
The Four Heavenly Kings and Heavenly King Li all came out of the headquarters gate to receive him. When the greetings were done and he asked how the fighting had gone, the Heavenly King laid out the foregoing matters in full.
上項事 ("the above-mentioned matters"; 項 = xiàng) — a documentary turn of phrase, as if the narrative kept a file. Yet another compressed retelling brings Erlang current with the campaign's failures.
The chapter's second movement opens, and with it a change of register: from the celestial court and its anxious councils we move to Erlang, a god of action, and the brisk machinery of a military commission. Wú Chéng'ēn lingers on protocol — the courier received with burning incense, the edict read aloud, the formal recital of the monkey's crimes — because the comedy and the meaning of Journey to the West's heaven lie precisely in its bureaucratic solemnity. The edict (旨意) is a small specimen of officialese: it indicts the monkey in a triple cadence (偷桃、偷酒、偷丹), tallies the forces already committed with a clerk's precision (十萬天兵、一十八架天羅地網), and dangles the standard inducement of promotion and reward.
Against this officialdom Erlang himself is drawn as something freer and more vivid. He receives the commission gladly and answers in the idiom of a knight-errant — 拔刀相助, "to draw my blade in aid" — and treats his sworn brothers as comrades, not subordinates, hailing them with a colloquial 同去去來, "come, let's be off." His band, the Six Brothers of Mei Mountain, marches out like a great hunt, with hawks on the fist and hounds on the leash; the detail is not idle, for the hawk and the celebrated hound will decide the transformation-chase that forms the chapter's centrepiece. Erlang is, in short, a hunting god, and the monkey is about to become his quarry.
Structurally the passage rhymes Erlang's arrival with Huiyan's earlier one: the same nets, the same call at the gate, the same admittance "layer by layer," the same compressed recap of the campaign's failures. The repetition is a kind of narrative rhythm, but it also throws the difference into relief — where Huiyan came as a scout and a doomed champion, Erlang comes as the answer. In the allegorical key the point is that the wild 心猿 can be met only by a power sharing something of its own untrammelled nature: Erlang the half-mortal nephew, proud and independent, "who answers a command but not a summons," is that power. The stage is set, and the next passages will bring the two singular adversaries face to face. (On Erlang as a hunting deity and the cult of the "Seven Sages of Mei Mountain," see the notes in Anthony C. Yu's translation.)