法天象地 Heaven-and-Earth Transformations
真君與大聖鬥經三百餘合，不知勝負。那真君抖擻神威，搖身一變，變得身高萬丈，兩隻手舉著三尖兩刃神鋒，好便似華山頂上之峰，青臉獠牙，朱紅頭髮，惡狠狠，望大聖著頭就砍。這大聖也使神通，變得與二郎身軀一樣，嘴臉一般，舉一條如意金箍棒，卻就是崑崙頂上擎天之柱，抵住二郎神。諕得那馬、流元帥戰兢兢，搖不得旌旗；崩、芭二將虛怯怯，使不得刀劍。這陣上，康、張、姚、李、郭申、直健傳號令，撒放草頭神，向他那水簾洞外縱著鷹犬，搭弩張弓，一齊掩殺。可憐沖散妖猴四健將，捉拿靈怪二三千。那些猴拋戈棄甲，撇劍丟槍，跑的跑，喊的喊，上山的上山，歸洞的歸洞。好似夜貓驚宿鳥，飛灑滿天星。眾兄弟得勝不題。真君与大圣斗经三百余合，不知胜负。那真君抖擞神威，摇身一变，变得身高万丈，两只手举著三尖两刃神锋，好便似华山顶上之峰，青脸獠牙，朱红头发，恶狠狠，望大圣著头就砍。这大圣也使神通，变得与二郎身躯一样，嘴脸一般，举一条如意金箍棒，却就是昆仑顶上擎天之柱，抵住二郎神。諕得那马、流元帅战兢兢，摇不得旌旗；崩、芭二将虚怯怯，使不得刀剑。这阵上，康、张、姚、李、郭申、直健传号令，撒放草头神，向他那水帘洞外纵著鹰犬，搭弩张弓，一齐掩杀。可怜冲散妖猴四健将，捉拿灵怪二三千。那些猴抛戈弃甲，撇剑丢枪，跑的跑，喊的喊，上山的上山，归洞的归洞。好似夜猫惊宿鸟，飞洒满天星。众兄弟得胜不题。
逐句解 Line by line
The True Lord and the Great Sage fought more than three hundred rounds, with no telling who would win.
三百餘合 ("over three hundred bouts"; 合 = hé) — a hyperbolic count marking a deadlock no number of blows can break. This is the narrative resolution of the battle-rhapsody just past.
Then the True Lord roused his divine might, shook himself, and transformed — growing ten thousand fathoms tall, his two hands hoisting the three-pointed, double-edged blade,
法天象地 ("modeling Heaven, imaging Earth") is the giant-transformation by which an adept swells to cosmic size. 身高萬丈 ("a myriad zhàng tall") — Erlang escalates from a contest of skill to a contest of sheer magnitude.
just like the topmost crag of Mount Hua — green-faced, fanged, with hair of vermilion red, ferocious — and aimed a chop straight at the Great Sage's head.
青臉獠牙 ("blue face, jutting tusks") is the iconography of a wrathful guardian-deity. 著頭就砍 ("chopped right at the head"; 著 = zhuó, "right at, upon"). 華山 (Mount Hua) is one of the Five Sacred Peaks.
The Great Sage too worked his magic, transforming to a body just like Erlang's, his face and features the same, and hoisting his As-You-Will gold-banded cudgel,
The monkey answers giant with giant, matching Erlang form for form — the duel of magnitude becomes a mirror-match, each a colossus.
which became the very Sky-Propping Pillar atop the Kunlun range, and with it held off the god Erlang.
崑崙 (Kunlun) is the cosmic mountain at the world's center; 擎天之柱 ("the pillar that props the sky") makes the monkey's cudgel the axis of the world — an image of his swollen power.
So terrified were the Marshals Ma and Liu that they trembled and could not wave their banners; the Generals Beng and Ba quailed so that they could not wield their blades.
諕 (xià, a variant of 嚇, "to frighten"). The monkey's four marshals — 馬、流、崩、芭 (Ma, Liu, Beng, Ba) — are paralyzed at the clash of titans; the giants' duel overawes their own side.
On this side, Kang, Zhang, Yao, Li, Guo Shen, and Zhi Jian passed the order, set loose the plant-headed gods, and outside his Water-Curtain Cave loosed the hawks and hounds, set their crossbows and drew their bows, and fell on all together.
While the two giants are locked, Erlang's six brothers seize the moment to attack the leaderless monkey troop — the hunting animals (鷹犬) unleashed at last.
Pitiably, the fiendish monkeys' four stalwart commanders were scattered, and two or three thousand of the magic creatures were taken.
四健將 ("the four stalwart generals") are the monkey's own captains. With the Great Sage occupied, his army is routed and his lieutenants captured — the cost of his single combat.
Those monkeys flung down halberds and cast off armor, dropped swords and threw away spears — some running, some screaming, some scrambling up the mountain, some bolting back into the cave.
The comic rout of the monkey rabble is rendered in a tumble of parallel clauses (跑的跑，喊的喊…), the prose itself scattering like the routed troops.
They were like roosting birds startled by a night-owl, scattered across the sky like a spray of stars. The brothers had won the day — of which no more need be said.
夜貓驚宿鳥 ("a night-owl startling the perched birds") — a vivid simile for the panicked dispersal; 飛灑滿天星 ("scattered like stars filling the sky"). 不題 closes the thread, turning us back to the two giants.
The stalemate of the battle-rhapsody — three hundred rounds with no victor — forces the duel onto a new plane, and the chapter delivers its first great spectacle of magic: the 法天象地 transformation, by which both combatants swell to cosmic size. Erlang becomes a green-faced, fanged colossus "like the topmost crag of Mount Hua"; the monkey matches him form for form, his cudgel grown into the "Sky-Propping Pillar atop Kunlun." It is a mirror-match of titans, and the imagery is deliberately cosmic — Mount Hua and Mount Kunlun, the sacred peak and the world-axis — raising the private duel to the scale of myth.
But Wú Chéng'ēn undercuts the grandeur even as he stages it, and this is the passage's real craft. While the two giants stand locked and immovable, the actual fighting is decided far below, among the small fry: the monkey's marshals, 馬、流、崩、芭, are too terrified to lift their banners, and Erlang's six brothers — seizing the moment the colossus cannot — loose the hawks and hounds and fall on the leaderless monkey troop. The rout that follows is pure comedy, the rabble flinging down its weapons and scattering "like roosting birds startled by a night-owl." The mock-heroic contrast is the point: the cosmic duel above is sublime and useless, while the war is settled by a sneak attack on the rank and file.
There is a hard lesson in this for the monkey, and the allegory presses it. By committing wholly to single combat — by his pride in facing Erlang alone — the Great Sage has left his kingdom undefended; his magnitude wins him nothing and costs him his army. In the inner-alchemical reading, the 心猿 that overreaches, swelling to fill Heaven and Earth, neglects the very ground it stands on; grandiosity is its undoing. The moment the monkey notices his scattered troops — in the next passage — his nerve will break, and the long flight will begin. The giant-transformation is thus the hinge between the duel of strength and the duel of cunning that follows. (On 法天象地 and the cosmography of Kunlun, see the notes in Anthony C. Yu's translation; for the monkey's four marshals, Chapter 3.)