原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
方天戟 A Halberd From Behind
那大聖正當悚懼，只聽得耳後風響。急回頭觀看，原來是三魔雙手舉一柄畫桿方天戟，往大聖頭上打來；大聖急翻身爬起，使金箍棒劈面相迎。那大圣正当悚惧，只听得耳后风响。急回头观看，原来是三魔双手举一柄画杆方天戟，往大圣头上打来；大圣急翻身爬起，使金箍棒劈面相迎。
逐句解 Line by line
那大聖正當悚懼，只聽得耳後風響。
那大圣正当悚惧，只听得耳后风响。
The Great Sage was in the very midst of his dread when he heard a wind behind his ear.
得 keeps dé in 聽得, after a verb of perceiving. 正當 takes dāng — right at the moment of.
急回頭觀看，原來是三魔雙手舉一柄畫桿方天戟，往大聖頭上打來；
急回头观看，原来是三魔双手举一柄画杆方天戟，往大圣头上打来；
He turned his head in haste to look, and it was the third fiend, bringing down a painted-shaft square-heaven halberd on the Great Sage's head with both hands.
方天戟 — the halberd with a crescent blade at the side, the weapon of a great captain in these stories.
大聖急翻身爬起，使金箍棒劈面相迎。
大圣急翻身爬起，使金箍棒劈面相迎。
The Great Sage rolled over, scrambled up and met it face on with the gold-banded cudgel.
相 reads xiāng in 相迎, to meet head-on.
The attack comes at the exact moment Wukong is on the ground and cannot rise. The third fiend has been walking beside the chair the whole way, waiting, and he strikes the instant his opponent is off his feet. This is the same creature who worked out in one conversation how to talk Wukong out of a stomach.
And the plan named four hundred li ago has now closed. Get the tiger off its mountain; walk it two hundred kilometres to your own walls; wait until the sight of the place knocks it down; then strike. Every part of the stratagem has done what it was designed to do.
A square-heaven halberd is a shafted weapon with a crescent blade at the side, and in these stories it belongs to commanders rather than to foot soldiers. The third fiend has not fought once in this chapter. He has been carrying that all along.