逃遁之法 Not Yet He Slips Away
既拿倒了孫行者,唐僧坐定是我們口裡食也。」三怪道:「且不要吃酒。孫行者溜撒,他會逃遁之法,只怕走了。教小的們擡出瓶來,把孫行者裝在瓶裡,我們才好吃酒。」既拿倒了孙行者,唐僧坐定是我们口里食也。」三怪道:「且不要吃酒。孙行者溜撒,他会逃遁之法,只怕走了。教小的们抬出瓶来,把孙行者装在瓶里,我们才好吃酒。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now that Sun Wukong is brought down, the Tang monk is as good as food in our mouths."
倒 is dǎo, to fall or bring down — not the dào of pouring or of on-the-contrary. Two sites in this scene take it: 扳翻倒 gets there unaided and this one does not, which is a fair warning about trusting one site to speak for its neighbour.
The third monster said, "Don't drink yet.
Third time he has interrupted the celebration, and third time he is right.
Sun Wukong is quick and slippery. He knows the arts of escape. I am afraid he will get away.
溜撒 is vernacular for nimble, quick off the mark — an admiring word, and the roc uses it without any apparent difficulty. He is the only one of the three who has correctly estimated what they have caught.
Have the little ones carry out the bottle, put Sun Wukong inside it, and then we can drink."
And there is the chapter's second half arriving. The whole title — 心猿鑽透陰陽體, the Mind-Monkey bores through the body of yin and yang — is about what happens inside that bottle.
Three warnings, three corrections, and every one of them accurate. The roc has now identified Wukong, ordered him tied, refused the celebration and specified the containment. He is doing the work of the entire cave.
What he says about escape is also a piece of straight literary criticism. The novel has a hundred chapters and Wukong has been captured in a great many of them; the reason he is never held is precisely the arts of escape. The roc has read the book. His brothers have not.