原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
九頭八尾
Nine Heads And Eight Tails
卻說三個魔頭帥群精回洞，二怪道：「哥哥，我只道是個九頭八尾的孫行者，原來是恁的個小小猴兒。你不該吞他，只與他鬥時，他那裡鬥得過你我？洞裡這幾萬妖精，吐唾沫也可渰殺他。却说三个魔头帅群精回洞，二怪道：「哥哥，我只道是个九头八尾的孙行者，原来是恁的个小小猴儿。你不该吞他，只与他斗时，他那里斗得过你我？洞里这几万妖精，吐唾沫也可渰杀他。
逐句解 Line by line
卻說三個魔頭帥群精回洞，二怪道：「哥哥，我只道是個九頭八尾的孫行者，原來是恁的個小小猴兒。
却说三个魔头帅群精回洞，二怪道：「哥哥，我只道是个九头八尾的孙行者，原来是恁的个小小猴儿。
Now the three fiends led their host back into the cave, and the second said: "Elder brother, I took this Sun Wukong for something with nine heads and eight tails. He turns out to be a little bit of a monkey like that.
恁的 — like that, of that sort. A spoken word, common in Ming fiction and rare in literary prose.
你不該吞他，只與他鬥時，他那裡鬥得過你我？
你不该吞他，只与他斗时，他那里斗得过你我？
You should not have swallowed him. Had you merely fought him, how could he have got the better of you and me?
那 reads nǎ and 得 the light de: a rhetorical question with a potential complement inside it.
洞裡這幾萬妖精，吐唾沫也可渰殺他。
洞里这几万妖精，吐唾沫也可渰杀他。
The tens of thousands of demons in this cave could drown him by spitting.
吐 reads tǔ, to spit out. 渰 is a form of the character meaning to submerge.
總評 Commentary
The second demon's complaint is a lesson in how reputation works from the other side. He had built Wukong up in his head into something with nine heads and eight tails, and finding an ordinary-sized monkey instead has made him contemptuous rather than relieved. He has confused size with danger, which is the standing mistake of every opponent in this book.
His tactical point is nevertheless sound. Swallowing an enemy who cannot be digested was a catastrophic move, and fighting him in the open with thirty thousand at your back was always the better option. The demons of this chapter are not stupid; they keep arriving at the right analysis one move after it would have been useful.
Drowning him by spitting is a good boast and it quietly restates the only real threat the pilgrims face here, which is numbers. Nothing in the cave can beat Wukong. Everything in the cave, acting together, might bury him.