騰那真本事 Ten Thousand Kinds Of Shifting
迎風捻個訣,口裡念個咒語,搖身一變,變的就像小鑽風模樣。拽回步,徑轉舊路,找尋洞府,去打探那三個老妖魔的虛實。這正是:迎风捻个诀,口里念个咒语,摇身一变,变的就像小钻风模样。拽回步,径转旧路,找寻洞府,去打探那三个老妖魔的虚实。这正是:
逐句解 Line by line
Facing the wind he pinched the sign, said a spell over to himself, shook himself and changed, and what he changed into was the very likeness of the Little Borer of the Wind.
模樣 is the pattern or likeness, with 模 as mú — the second of this chapter's three, and the frame that carries it is consulted by nothing during the work, so it has to be forced each time.
He turned on his heel, went straight back the way he had come and looked for the cave, to spy out the true state of the three old demons.
拽回步 has 拽 as yè, the corpus reading at all eight of its sealed sites. 虛實 is empty-and-solid, the paired word for the real state of an enemy — a term straight out of the military treatises, where knowing that about an opponent is the whole of intelligence.
And this is the very thing:
這正是 is the teller's cue that a couplet is coming. Three characters, and they are the last such cue in the chapter.
A thousand kinds of transformation, the Handsome Monkey King; ten thousand ways of shifting, and true ability in them all!
A parallel couplet, seven and seven — matched item for item, 千般 against 萬樣, transformation against shifting, and the two names at the ends. 騰那 is to vault and shift, with 那 as nuó. ⚠ The two line-endings do not rhyme and are not meant to: a couplet of this kind asks for matched grammar and contrasting tone, not a rhyme.
The couplet is the chapter's only verse after the opening poems, and it is praise rather than scenery — the teller stepping forward to applaud his own hero at the moment he puts on a dead man's clothes.
The two halves are exactly matched: a thousand kinds against ten thousand ways, transformation against shifting, the Handsome Monkey King against true ability. Nothing rhymes, and nothing is supposed to; this form is built on parallel and on the contrast of tones at the ends.
It is also placed with some nerve. The applause comes immediately after the one action in the chapter Pilgrim has regretted.