那裡走 Where Do You Think You Are Going
卻抽身,騰雲就起,被行者翻觔斗,跳在空中喝道:「那裡走?吃吾一棒。」那國丈即使蟠龍拐杖來迎。却抽身,腾云就起,被行者翻觔斗,跳在空中喝道:「那里走?吃吾一棒。」那国丈即使蟠龙拐杖来迎。
逐句解 Line by line
He made to slip away and rose on a cloud, but Pilgrim turned a somersault, sprang up into the air and shouted, "Where do you think you are going?
那裡走 is the whole rule in one phrase. Here 那 is nǎ, the questioning "where" — not the nà of "that one over there," which is how the same character reads a dozen times elsewhere in this chapter. The distinction is one this edition marks everywhere, and it is the commonest polyphone trap in the book. 觔斗 takes dǒu; the 觔斗雲, cloud-somersault, is Wukong's hundred-and-eight-thousand-lǐ jump. 喝道 is hè, to shout — never the hē of drinking.
Take a taste of my rod!"
吃吾一棒 is Wukong's catchphrase and it never varies. The verb is literally "eat" — the English "take a taste of" keeps the joke that he is offering the rod as though it were a dish.
The Royal Father-in-Law at once brought his coiled-dragon staff up to meet him.
The 蟠龍拐, coiled-dragon crutch-staff, has been carried by this figure since he first appeared at court, disguised as an old man's walking stick. It is about to turn out to belong to somebody else — hold that thought.
The transition from courtroom to sky takes half a sentence. This is one of the novel's real pleasures: the moment an argument is over, physics stops applying and everyone goes up.
Wukong's opening line is worth noticing for what it is not. He does not denounce the demon, explain himself to the court, or claim credit. He asks where the man thinks he is going, and offers him the rod. The whole elaborate performance with the hearts is dropped the instant it has served its purpose.