舉薦二郎 Summoning Erlang the True Lord
卻說玉帝拆開表章，見有求助之言，笑道：「叵耐這個猴精，能有多大手段，就敢敵過十萬天兵！李天王又來求助，卻將那路神兵助之？」言未畢，觀音合掌啟奏：「陛下寬心，貧僧舉一神，可擒這猴。」玉帝道：「所舉者何神？」菩薩道：「乃陛下令甥顯聖二郎真君，見居灌洲灌江口，享受下方香火。他昔日曾力誅六怪，又有梅山兄弟與帳前一千二百草頭神，神通廣大。奈他只是聽調不聽宣，陛下可降一道調兵旨意，著他助力，便可擒也。」玉帝聞言，即傳調兵的旨意，就差大力鬼王賫調。却说玉帝拆开表章，见有求助之言，笑道：「叵耐这个猴精，能有多大手段，就敢敌过十万天兵！李天王又来求助，却将那路神兵助之？」言未毕，观音合掌启奏：「陛下宽心，贫僧举一神，可擒这猴。」玉帝道：「所举者何神？」菩萨道：「乃陛下令甥显圣二郎真君，见居灌洲灌江口，享受下方香火。他昔日曾力诛六怪，又有梅山兄弟与帐前一千二百草头神，神通广大。奈他只是听调不听宣，陛下可降一道调兵旨意，着他助力，便可擒也。」玉帝闻言，即传调兵的旨意，就差大力鬼王赍调。
逐句解 Line by line
Now the Jade Emperor opened the memorial, and seeing in it a plea for aid, smiled and said, "What an insufferable monkey-spirit! How great can his powers be, that he dares hold off a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers!
叵耐 (pǒ nài) is insufferable, unbearable — exasperation with a thread of amusement running through it, since the Emperor is laughing as he says it. 拆開表章, broke open the memorial: the same document Huiyan and the Demon King have just carried up.
And now Heavenly King Li comes asking for help again — but which troops am I to send to his aid?"
卻將那路神兵助之, but which body of troops am I to send him? — with 那 read nǎ, which. The question is not rhetorical. His forces are already committed, and already beaten.
Before he had finished speaking, Guanyin pressed her palms together and submitted: "Set Your Majesty's mind at ease — this humble cleric recommends a certain divinity who can capture the monkey."
合掌 is the palms pressed together, the Buddhist gesture of reverence — an añjali. Guanyin observes courtly form even in the act of taking charge, and this is the chapter's pivot: the Bodhisattva of Mercy supplies the strategy the war council could not.
Said the Jade Emperor, "And what divinity do you recommend?"
The Emperor's question sets up the formal entrance of the chapter's title figure — the 小聖, the Lesser Sage, who will at last be a match for the Great one.
Said the Bodhisattva, "It is Your Majesty's own nephew, the Sage-Manifesting True Lord Erlang, who now dwells at the mouth of the Guan River in Guanzhou and enjoys the incense-offerings of the world below.
令甥, your nephew — the honorific 令 dignifies another person's relative, the way English once said your good lady. Erlang is the Jade Emperor's sister's son. 二郎真君, the True Lord Erlang, is a major god of Chinese popular religion, worshipped at 灌江口 (Guanjiangkou), the mouth of the Guan River beside the great Dujiangyan waterworks in Sichuan; 見居 (jiàn jū) means presently dwells. Note what he is doing there: taking incense from mortals, running a going concern of his own.
In days past he slew six fiends by main force, and he has besides the Brothers of Mei Mountain and the twelve hundred plant-headed gods of his command — vast indeed are his powers.
力誅六怪, by main strength slew six monsters, points to Erlang's legendary exploits. The 梅山兄弟, the Brothers of Mei Mountain, and the 草頭神, grass-headed gods — rustic minor deities of the sort a village might keep — make up his retinue. He does not come alone; he comes with a private army.
Only, he answers a command but not a summons; so Your Majesty should send down an order mobilizing his troops, bidding him lend his aid — and the monkey may then be taken."
聽調不聽宣, he answers a mustering-order but not a court summons. One phrase, and you have the whole character. The distinction is exact: 調 (diào) is an order mobilising troops, while 宣 is a summons to appear at court. Erlang will fight for Heaven; he will not be sent for. Hence the Emperor must issue a 調兵旨意, a troop-mobilising decree, and not a mere proclamation.
Hearing this, the Jade Emperor at once issued the troop-mobilizing order, and dispatched the Mighty-Strength Demon King to carry it.
賫調 is to bear the mobilisation order (賫 is jī, to convey or present). The same Demon King who carried the plea for help up is sent straight back down with the answer — Heaven does not waste a courier. The stage is set for Erlang's entrance, and the chapter's second half.
This short passage is the chapter's hinge, and Wú Chéng'ēn gives the decisive move not to the Jade Emperor but to Guanyin. The Emperor, reading the plea for help, can only laugh in exasperation and ask helplessly which troops he is supposed to send — his bureaucracy has run out of answers. It is the Bodhisattva, palms pressed together, who supplies the name the whole war council could not: 二郎真君, the True Lord Erlang. The chapter's title pairs 觀音…問原因 with 小聖…降大聖, and here the two halves join: Guanyin's questioning at last produces the champion who will subdue the Great Sage.
The figure she names is one of the best-loved gods of Chinese popular religion, and the passage sketches him deftly. Erlang is the Jade Emperor's own nephew (令甥), yet he holds himself proudly apart, living among mortals at 灌江口 — the mouth of the Guan River beside the great Dujiangyan waterworks — and enjoying the incense of the world below as a living object of cult. His defining trait is caught in one memorable phrase: 聽調不聽宣, he answers a command but not a summons. Erlang is no celestial functionary to be called to court; he is a semi-autonomous power who joins a campaign on his own terms. That independence is precisely why he, and not the docile host of Heaven, can stand against the equally untrammelled monkey. It takes a free spirit to catch one.
There is a structural elegance, too, in the detail that the 大力鬼王 who carried the plea for help up to Heaven is sent straight back down bearing the order that answers it — the same courier closing the loop. With Erlang summoned, the chapter turns from its first movement, the catalogue of Heaven's failures, to its second, the contest of two matched adversaries. In the allegorical reading the point sharpens: the 心猿, the wild mind, has overmatched every instrument of ordered power, and can be met only by a force as singular and self-possessed as itself. (Erlang's cult, and his six fiends and Mei-Mountain brethren, come out of a rich body of folk legend; for the deity's background, see the notes in Anthony C. Yu's translation.)