斬妖臺 The Demon-Beheading Terrace
那老君收了金鋼琢，請玉帝同觀音、王母、眾仙等，俱回靈霄殿。這下面四大天王與李天王諸神，俱收兵拔寨，近前向小聖賀喜，都道：「此小聖之功也。」小聖道：「此乃天尊洪福，眾神威權，我何功之有？」康、張、姚、李道：「兄長不必多敘，且押這廝去上界見玉帝，請旨發落去也。」真君道：「賢弟，汝等未受天籙，不得面見玉帝。教天甲神兵押著，我同天王等上界回旨。你們帥眾在此搜山，搜淨之後，仍回灌口。待我請了賞，討了功，回來同樂。」四太尉、二將軍依言領諾。這真君與眾即駕雲頭，唱凱歌，得勝朝天。不多時，到通明殿外。天師啟奏道：「四大天王等眾已捉了妖猴齊天大聖了，來此聽宣。」玉帝傳旨，即命大力鬼王與天丁等眾，押至斬妖臺，將這廝碎剁其屍。咦！正是：那老君收了金钢琢，请玉帝同观音、王母、众仙等，俱回灵霄殿。这下面四大天王与李天王诸神，俱收兵拔寨，近前向小圣贺喜，都道：「此小圣之功也。」小圣道：「此乃天尊洪福，众神威权，我何功之有？」康、张、姚、李道：「兄长不必多叙，且押这厮去上界见玉帝，请旨发落去也。」真君道：「贤弟，汝等未受天箓，不得面见玉帝。教天甲神兵押着，我同天王等上界回旨。你们帅众在此搜山，搜净之后，仍回灌口。待我请了赏，讨了功，回来同乐。」四太尉、二将军依言领诺。这真君与众即驾云头，唱凯歌，得胜朝天。不多时，到通明殿外。天师启奏道：「四大天王等众已捉了妖猴齐天大圣了，来此听宣。」玉帝传旨，即命大力鬼王与天丁等众，押至斩妖台，将这厮碎剁其尸。咦！正是：
畢竟不知那猴王性命何如，且聽下回分解。毕竟不知那猴王性命何如，且听下回分解。
逐句解 Line by line
Lord Lao retrieved his Diamond Bangle and invited the Jade Emperor, Guanyin, the Queen Mother, and the assembled immortals all to return to the Hall of Divine Mists.
The bangle has done its work and gone back on its owner's arm. The high gods withdraw; the spectacle is over and the paperwork begins.
Down below, the Four Heavenly Kings and Heavenly King Li and the other gods all gathered in their troops and struck camp, then came forward to congratulate the young sage, all saying, "This is the young sage's achievement!"
拔寨 is to break camp; 小聖, the young or lesser sage, is Erlang's own modest epithet, now used by everyone else as a compliment. The host credits him with the victory, which is not quite what happened.
The young sage said, "This was the Celestial Honored One's great fortune and the gods' authority — what achievement is mine?"
天尊, the Celestial Honoured One, is the Jade Emperor; 洪福 is vast good fortune. Erlang deflects every scrap of credit upward, exactly as protocol requires — and, given that a ring fell out of the sky and a dog did the tackling, with more accuracy than he intends.
Kang, Zhang, Yao, and Li said, "Elder brother, no need for more talk — let's haul this wretch up to the Jade Emperor and ask for a ruling on what's to be done with him."
押這廝, escort this rascal (廝 is sī, a contemptuous fellow); 發落 is to dispose of, to hand down a sentence. Four of the seven brothers want the prisoner taken upstairs for judgment.
The True Lord said, "Good brothers, you have not yet received the celestial register, and so may not appear before the Jade Emperor in person.
天籙 (tiān lù) is the register of Heaven, the document conferring celestial rank and ordination. Without it his brothers have no standing to enter the Jade Emperor's presence — they are not on the list. Even at the moment of triumph, the celestial order runs on credentials.
Have the armored celestial soldiers keep him under guard, while I go up with the Heavenly King and the others to report back.
天甲神兵 are the armoured divine troops; 押著 is to keep under escort (著 is zhe); 回旨 is to report back on an imperial order — the closing of a commission, and the last item on any official's checklist.
You lead the men in searching the mountain here, and once it's swept clean, return to Guankou.
帥眾 is to lead the troops (帥 is shuài); 搜淨 is to search clean, to mop up. Erlang splits the work: the capture reported above, the mountain cleared below.
Wait till I've claimed the reward and secured the credit, and I'll come back and we'll celebrate together."
請賞 and 討功 are to claim reward and to secure credit; 同樂 is to rejoice together. He promises to share out the spoils, and the sworn-brother bond is honoured — the one relationship in this chapter that runs on loyalty rather than rank.
The four Marshals and two Generals agreed and assented as told.
依言領諾, assented according to his words. 將 in 二將軍 is jiàng, general.
The True Lord and his company then mounted the clouds, sang songs of triumph, and ascended victorious to Heaven.
唱凱歌 is to sing a victory song; 得勝朝天 is to ascend triumphant to the heavenly court — and note that 朝 here is cháo, to attend court, not zhāo, morning. Same character, entirely different word.
Before long they arrived outside the Hall of Communicating Brightness.
通明殿 is the audience hall of the celestial court — the same building outside which Guanyin stood waiting to be announced in the chapter's opening scene. The wheel has come full circle, and this time the petitioner arrives in ropes.
The Celestial Masters announced, "The Four Heavenly Kings and the rest have captured the demon ape, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and have come here to await your command."
The 天師, the Celestial Masters, are Heaven's announcing officials. 聽宣 is to await the summons or decree. The capture is now formally announced before the throne, in the proper words, by the proper officer.
The Jade Emperor issued his decree, ordering the Mighty-Strength Ghost King and the celestial troops to take him to the Demon-Beheading Terrace and hack his corpse to pieces. Ah! Truly it was:
The 斬妖臺, the Demon-Beheading Terrace, is Heaven's execution ground; 碎剁其屍 is to mince his corpse to bits (將 here is jiāng, marking what is to be disposed of). Then 咦！正是：, ah! truly it was — the storyteller's cue for a closing couplet.
For his deceits he now meets the bitterness of law and punishment;
欺誑 (qī kuáng) is deception, fraud; 刑憲 is penal law, judicial punishment. The couplet delivers the official verdict on the whole rampage — and delivers it, note, in the vocabulary of a law court rather than a battlefield.
his hero's high spirit must, for the time, come to an end.
英雄氣概 is a hero's bold spirit; 等時休 is for now must cease (休 is xiū, to stop). Everything turns on 等時, for the time being. The spirit is checked, not extinguished — and the story is not over.
After all this, there is no telling what would become of the Monkey King's life — so listen to the next chapter for the telling.
The fixed closing formula of the vernacular novel: 畢竟不知…且聽下回分解, in the end there is no knowing… so hear it explained in the next instalment. It is a relic of the storyteller's trade, the line that sent an audience home and brought them back tomorrow, and the printed novel kept it long after the teahouse was left behind.
The chapter ends as the great vernacular novels characteristically do — not with the climax itself but with its bureaucratic aftermath, and then a cliffhanger. The capture accomplished, the tone shifts at once into the punctilious protocol of Heaven: troops gathered and camp struck, congratulations exchanged, credit modestly deflected, and — in a wonderfully characteristic touch — Erlang having to remind his sworn brothers that, lacking the 天籙, the celestial register of rank, they have no standing to appear before the Jade Emperor in person. Even in the flush of victory the celestial order runs on documents and precedence. The prisoner is escorted up, the capture formally announced in the audience hall, and the Jade Emperor pronounces sentence: to the Demon-Beheading Terrace, to be hacked to pieces. It is a sentence the reader knows cannot be the end — and the closing couplet quietly says as much.
The couplet delivers the formal moral verdict — for his deceits he now meets the bitterness of law; his hero's spirit must, for the time, come to an end — but the operative phrase is 等時, for the time being. The monkey's high spirit is checked, not extinguished; the verdict is provisional, and the storyteller's closing formula (畢竟不知…且聽下回分解) keeps the outcome suspended. Any reader of the novel knows what the suspension conceals: the next chapter will show every attempt to execute the monkey failing — sword, fire and lightning cannot harm him — until Laozi, exasperated, seals him in the Brazier of Eight Trigrams, from which he emerges with diamond-hard eyes and a harder skull, more unkillable than ever, to wreck Heaven a second time. The end pronounced here is the false ending before the true climb to the Buddha, and the couplet's careful for the time is the seam where the larger arc shows through.
Looking back over the whole of the sixth chapter, its design is now visible as a single sustained meditation on the ungovernable mind. It opened with Guanyin and the assembled court watching helplessly as ordinary force failed; it moved through the matched duel of Erlang and the monkey, a draw between equals; through the dazzling transformation-chase, the mind slipping every form; and through the all-seeing mirror, clear sight that can locate but not hold. It closed with the descent of Laozi's snare from above and the sealing of the shape-shifter's bones. The consistent lesson, in the inner-alchemical reading that the 心猿 epithet invites, is that the restless consciousness cannot be conquered by strength, outrun by speed, or even pinned by perception alone — it can only be contained by a power higher than the struggle itself, and held to a single form. Yet the chapter is far too alive to be a mere allegory: it is also, and more memorably, the great comic set-piece of the early novel — the temple with its tell-tale tail, the two indistinguishable Erlangs, the monkey cursing the dog as the ropes go round him. That doubleness is the book's genius. The capture binds the mind-monkey for now; but its irrepressible cheek, running on even in defeat, is precisely what guarantees the binding cannot hold — and that the long road to a truer subduing, and a truer freedom, still lies ahead. (The execution's failure, the Brazier of Eight Trigrams and the second havoc in Heaven follow in the next chapter; the monkey's final binding under the Mountain of Five Phases comes in the chapter after.)