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, to what quarter, where (那 read nǎ, interrogative). Erlang arrives to find his brothers milling about, and takes charge of a search that is not going well.
The gods said, "We had him surrounded right here, and then he vanished."
The brothers' bafflement is there to set off what Erlang does next. Where they see an empty branch, he will see through the disguise at a glance.
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 — in the legend, a third eye in his forehead — cuts through the transformation immediately. This is the asymmetry the whole chase runs on: the monkey can become anything, and Erlang always knows which anything it is.
At once he withdrew his magic form, set aside his divine blade, and unslung his pellet-bow.
To chase a sparrow he has to become a bird, so down go the giant form, the divine blade and the pellet-bow. The contest of strength is over; the contest of shapes has begun, and it has different equipment.
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) is a sparrowhawk — which is to say, precisely the thing that eats sparrows. This is the rule the chase will follow from here: whatever the monkey becomes, Erlang becomes its natural predator. A duel conducted entirely through the food chain.
Seeing this, the Great Sage went up with a whir of wings and turned into a great cormorant, soaring into the sky.
鶿老 is a cormorant (鶿 is cí, as in 鸕鶿), and it escapes a hawk by climbing into open air where a hawk cannot easily strike. A textual note while we are here: this edition writes the measure word as 一只 with 只 in this sentence, but 一隻 with 隻 in the very next one. The inconsistency is the block-print's own, and it is preserved rather than tidied away.
Seeing this, Erlang quickly shook his feathers, transformed into a great sea-crane, and bored up into the clouds to snap at him.
A 海鶴, sea-crane, climbs above the cormorant to take it from overhead; 嗛 (qiǎn) is to grip in the beak. Each transformation buys height or reach on the last one. The hunt is going upward.
The Great Sage then dropped his body down, into a mountain stream, turned into a fish, and plunged into the water.
So the monkey changes element instead of shape. 澗 (jiàn) is a mountain torrent; 淬入水內, plunged into the water — 淬 (cuì) is the word for quenching a hot blade, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Erlang pursued to the stream's edge, but found no trace of him.
For the first time Erlang loses him. Changing shape was never enough; changing element, briefly, is.
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."
And here Erlang shows he is more than a good pair of eyes. Deprived of sight, he reasons: the ape went into the water, therefore he is now a fish or a shrimp, therefore I need to become something that eats those. Deduction where perception failed.
Sure enough he transformed — into an osprey — and drifted on the water's surface downstream, waiting a while.
魚鷹 is a fish-hawk, an osprey — the water's own predator. 下溜頭 is the downstream reach (溜 is liù, a stretch of swift current). Note the change of tactic: instead of chasing, he takes up station where the current must eventually deliver his quarry to him.
Here is the heart of the transformation-contest, and it runs on one simple rule, applied without a single exception: whatever the monkey becomes, Erlang becomes the thing that eats it. Sparrow, and the answer is a sparrowhawk. Cormorant climbing for open air, and the answer is a sea-crane climbing higher to strike from above. Fish diving into a stream, and the answer is an osprey riding the surface downstream. It is a duel conducted entirely through the food chain, and what makes it a contest of mastery rather than of power is that Erlang never hesitates over which predator the situation calls for. He knows the natural world the way a hunter knows it, and the monkey keeps handing him quarry.
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 finds 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 to suit. 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 this 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 characters for the same word, a stride apart. It is almost certainly a copyist's slip, and a later editor would tidy it away; this edition preserves it, on the principle that a 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.