原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
打了個噴嚏 Blown Out On A Sneeze
好大聖，理著繩兒，從他那上齶子往前爬，爬到他鼻孔裡。那老魔鼻子發癢，阿啛的一聲，打了個噴嚏，直迸出行者。好大圣，理着绳儿，从他那上腭子往前爬，爬到他鼻孔里。那老魔鼻子发痒，阿啛的一声，打了个喷嚏，直迸出行者。
逐句解 Line by line
好大聖，理著繩兒，從他那上齶子往前爬，爬到他鼻孔裡。
好大圣，理着绳儿，从他那上腭子往前爬，爬到他鼻孔里。
Good Great Sage: paying out the cord, he crawled forward along the roof of the monster's mouth and up into his nostril.
著 is zhe, the cord paid out and kept in hand. 上齶子 is the roof of the mouth.
那老魔鼻子發癢，阿啛的一聲，打了個噴嚏，直迸出行者。
那老魔鼻子发痒，阿啛的一声，打了个喷嚏，直迸出行者。
The old fiend's nose began to itch. With a sneeze he blew, and shot Wukong straight out.
阿啛 is the noise of the sneeze itself, ā cuì — the Ming equivalent of writing atishoo.
The escape route is the joke, but the execution is what makes it land. Wukong does not force his way out; he tickles. Four characters are given to the nose beginning to itch before the sneeze arrives, and that small delay is the timing of a comedian rather than of a chronicler.
There is also a neat piece of physics in it. A sneeze is the one thing a body does that can expel an object at speed without any decision being taken, which means the demon ejects his enemy against his own interest and cannot be blamed for it. Wukong has arranged to be thrown clear by a reflex.
The noise word for the sneeze is written to be read aloud, and it is a reminder of where this prose came from. Storytellers worked these episodes in front of audiences long before they were written down, and the sound effects are the fossil of that performance.