有勇無謀 Brave but Without a Plan
我要現本相，趕上前，一棍子打殺，顯得我有勇無謀。且再變化進去，尋那老怪，看是何如。」跳出溝，搖身一變，變做個有翅的螞蟻兒。我要现本相，赶上前，一棍子打杀，显得我有勇无谋。且再变化进去，寻那老怪，看是何如。」跳出沟，摇身一变，变做个有翅的蚂蚁儿。
逐句解 Line by line
"I want to show my true form, run up and kill him with one blow of the rod — but that would show me brave and short of a plan.
有勇無謀, courage without strategy, is a set phrase old enough to be a standard verdict on a bad general, and it is still what Chinese reaches for to describe somebody who charges in. Wukong applying it to himself, in advance, is the whole distance he has travelled since the front gate. In 顯得, to make oneself appear, 得 is de.
Let me change again and go further in, find the old fiend, and see how things stand."
看是何如 is see how matters are — reconnaissance language, not fighting language. He has been in the cave for two lines and has already talked himself out of the first fight.
He hopped out of the drain, gave his body a shake and changed, and became a winged ant.
The second transformation, chosen with none of the fuss the first one caused. 螞蟻兒 ends with the small-thing suffix, and the character 兒 is ér throughout this chapter, all forty-three of them — the novel's practice keeps the full syllable rather than the light modern one.
Wukong talking himself out of a kill is genuinely new behaviour for him. Earlier chapters would have had the little fiend dead before the sentence finished. Here he runs the calculation and decides that killing one guard would cost him the cave.
The self-criticism is precise, too. He does not say it would be wrong to kill the fiend; he says it would look unstrategic. His restraint comes from vanity about his own competence, which is entirely in character and works out well for everyone.