鷹鶴相逐 Hawk and Crane in Pursuit
正嚷處，真君到了，問：「兄弟們，趕到那廂不見了？」眾神道：「才在這裡圍住，就不見了。」二郎圓睜鳳目觀看，見大聖變了麻雀兒，釘在樹上。就收了法象，撇了神鋒，卸下彈弓。搖身一變，變作個鷂鷹兒，抖開翅，飛將去撲打。大聖見了，颼的一翅飛起去，變作一只大鶿老，沖天而去。二郎見了，急抖翎毛，搖身一變，變作一隻大海鶴，鑽上雲霄來嗛。大聖又將身按下，入澗中，變作一個魚兒，淬入水內。二郎趕至澗邊，不見蹤跡。心中暗想道：「這猢猻必然下水去也，定變作魚蝦之類。等我再變變拿他。」果一變，變作個魚鷹兒，飄蕩在下溜頭波面上，等待片時。正嚷处，真君到了，问：「兄弟们，赶到那厢不见了？」众神道：「才在这里围住，就不见了。」二郎圆睁凤目观看，见大圣变了麻雀儿，钉在树上。就收了法象，撇了神锋，卸下弹弓。摇身一变，变作个鹞鹰儿，抖开翅，飞将去扑打。大圣见了，飕的一翅飞起去，变作一只大鹚老，冲天而去。二郎见了，急抖翎毛，摇身一变，变作一只大海鹤，钻上云霄来嗛。大圣又将身按下，入涧中，变作一个鱼儿，淬入水内。二郎赶至涧边，不见踪迹。心中暗想道：「这猢狲必然下水去也，定变作鱼虾之类。等我再变变拿他。」果一变，变作个鱼鹰儿，飘荡在下溜头波面上，等待片时。
逐句解 Line by line
Just as they were clamoring, the True Lord arrived and asked, "Brothers, where did you chase him to, that you lost him?"
那廂 ("where, to what quarter?"; 那 = nǎ, interrogative) — Erlang, arriving to find his brothers in confusion, takes charge of the search.
The gods said, "We had him surrounded right here, and then he vanished."
The brothers' bafflement sets up Erlang's superior discernment — where they see only an empty branch, he will see through the disguise.
Erlang opened wide his phoenix eyes and looked, and saw that the Great Sage had turned into a sparrow, perched on the tree.
圓睜鳳目 ("opened wide his phoenix eyes") — Erlang's piercing sight, the third eye of legend, sees through the transformation at once. This is the chase's central asymmetry: the monkey changes, but Erlang always knows him.
At once he withdrew his magic form, set aside his divine blade, and unslung his pellet-bow.
To chase a sparrow Erlang must become a bird himself; he lays down his giant size and his weapons for the contest of shapes.
With a shake of his body he transformed into a sparrowhawk, spread his wings, and flew at the sparrow to strike.
鷂鷹 (yào-yīng, "sparrowhawk") is the natural predator of the sparrow — Erlang's transformations will always answer the monkey's with a hunter fit to take it. The contest is a chain of predator-and-prey.
Seeing this, the Great Sage went up with a whir of wings and turned into a great cormorant, soaring into the sky.
鶿老 ("cormorant"; 鶿 = cí, as in 鸕鶿) flees the hawk by taking to open air. A textual note: here the 世德堂 writes the measure-word 一只 with 只, but 一隻 with 隻 in the very next sentence — an inconsistency in the source, preserved as it stands rather than silently regularized.
Seeing this, Erlang quickly shook his feathers, transformed into a great sea-crane, and bored up into the clouds to snap at him.
海鶴 ("sea-crane") climbs above the cormorant to seize it from above; 嗛 (qiǎn, "to grip in the beak"). Each transformation seeks the higher or deadlier position — the hunt escalates by air.
The Great Sage then dropped his body down, into a mountain stream, turned into a fish, and plunged into the water.
澗 (jiàn, "mountain torrent"); 淬入水內 ("plunged into the water," 淬 = cuì, as a hot blade is quenched). Foiled in the air, the monkey changes element, fleeing from sky to water.
Erlang pursued to the stream's edge, but found no trace of him.
For the first time Erlang loses sight of his quarry — the change of element, not of mere shape, briefly defeats his eye.
He thought to himself, "This ape must have gone into the water — surely he's turned into some fish or shrimp. Let me change again and catch him."
Erlang reasons his way to the answer rather than simply seeing it — a nice touch: deprived of sight, he deduces the monkey's form from the logic of the chase.
Sure enough he transformed — into an osprey — and drifted on the water's surface downstream, waiting a while.
魚鷹 ("fish-hawk, osprey") is the water's own predator; 下溜頭 ("the downstream reach"; 溜 = liū). Erlang positions himself where the current must bring the fish — patience replacing pursuit.
This is the heart of the transformation-contest, and it unfolds as a chain of predator and prey. The pattern is exact and delightful: each time the monkey becomes a creature, Erlang becomes the thing that hunts it. The monkey is a sparrow; Erlang a sparrowhawk. The monkey flees upward as a cormorant; Erlang climbs higher as a sea-crane to take it from above. The monkey dives, changing element, into a stream as a fish; Erlang becomes an osprey and waits on the water. The contest is not of brute power but of natural mastery — Erlang always knows the one form that can seize the form the monkey has just taken.
The decisive asymmetry is sight. Erlang's "phoenix eyes" (鳳目) see through every disguise on land and in the air: where his baffled brothers find only an empty branch, he spots the sparrow at once. The one moment his sight fails is telling — when the monkey changes not merely shape but element, plunging into the water, Erlang "found no trace of him." And here Wú Chéng'ēn gives a fine small stroke of character: deprived of his eye, Erlang reasons instead, deducing from the logic of the chase that the monkey "must have turned into some fish," and changing accordingly. He is not only the keener hunter but the better thinker, and that doubled superiority is what slowly closes the net.
A note on the text itself. This passage contains a celebrated small inconsistency in the 世德堂 edition: the measure-word for the cormorant is written 一只 (with 只), while the sea-crane in the next breath takes 一隻 (with 隻) — two graphs for the same word, a stride apart. It is almost certainly a copyist's slip, and a later editor would tidy it; this edition preserves it, on the principle that the reader of an old text is better served by seeing what the block-print actually says than by a silent correction. Such small irregularities are part of the texture of a Ming vernacular novel, and noting rather than erasing them keeps faith with the source. The chase, meanwhile, is far from over: in the next passage the fish will spot the osprey, and the contest will turn underwater.