原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
只會分身 You Cannot Put Them Back
老魔道：「你這猴兒，你只會分身，不會收身。你若有本事收做一個，打我一棍去罷。」老魔道：「你这猴儿，你只会分身，不会收身。你若有本事收做一个，打我一棍去罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
老魔道：「你這猴兒，你只會分身，不會收身。
老魔道：「你这猴儿，你只会分身，不会收身。
The old fiend said, "You monkey — you can only divide the body. You cannot gather it back."
猴兒 keeps 兒 at full weight as ér. And it is a shrewd guess dressed as an accusation: he does not know whether Wukong can reassemble himself, so he says he cannot and waits.
你若有本事收做一個，打我一棍去罷。」
你若有本事收做一个，打我一棍去罢。」
"If you have the skill to gather back into one, then take a swing at me with that cudgel."
And there is the trap, which is not a trap at all — it is an offer of the thing Wukong wants most in the world, which is a free swing. The demon has talked himself out of a duel he was winning on points.
The demon's reasoning is sound and his conclusion is catastrophic. He suspects a limit in his opponent's magic, and he tests for it by offering the opponent a free blow with an iron cudgel. It is the logic of somebody who has forgotten what the fight was about.
It is also the same structure as the three-cut wager, run in reverse. Wukong stood still and let a sabre fall three times; now the demon is proposing to stand still and let a cudgel fall once. Both of them are certain their own equipment is the better one.