原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
偃干戈 The Weapons Are Laid Down
三個妖縱身而起，謝道：「大聖請回，上覆唐僧，收拾下行李，我們就擡轎來送。」眾怪偃干戈，盡皆歸洞。三个妖纵身而起，谢道：「大圣请回，上覆唐僧，收拾下行李，我们就抬轿来送。」众怪偃干戈，尽皆归洞。
逐句解 Line by line
三個妖縱身而起，謝道：「大聖請回，上覆唐僧，收拾下行李，我們就擡轎來送。」
三个妖纵身而起，谢道：「大圣请回，上覆唐僧，收拾下行李，我们就抬轿来送。」
The three monsters sprang to their feet and gave thanks: "Let the Great Sage return, report to Tripitaka, and have the baggage made ready. We will bring the chair at once and see him across."
上覆 — to report upward to someone of higher standing. The demons are speaking as though they were subordinates.
眾怪偃干戈，盡皆歸洞。
众怪偃干戈，尽皆归洞。
The monsters laid down their spears and shields, and all went back into the cave.
偃 reads yǎn, to lay flat. 干戈 is shield and dagger-axe, the old paired word for warfare itself.
The chapter's first movement closes exactly where it began: with a promise of a sedan chair. Nothing has been gained by anyone. Wukong has spent a chapter inside a stomach, broken a set of teeth, dropped a demon king into a pit, and arrived back at the offer he accepted at the opening.
The phrase for laying down weapons is deliberately grand. Shield and dagger-axe is an ancient pairing that means war in the abstract, the sort of language used when a dynasty makes peace, and here it is applied to a few thousand goblins trooping back indoors. The novel enjoys putting classical weight on undignified occasions.
The reader should not relax. Every promise in this chapter has been broken within a page of being made, and this one is delivered by three brothers who have just been beaten, humiliated and heckled by their own troops. The sedan chair will arrive. What arrives with it is another matter.