分身法 One Body Becomes Many
孫大聖見那些小妖勇猛,連打不退,即使個分身法,把毫毛拔下一把,嚼在口中,噴出去,叫聲:「變!」都變做本身模樣,一個使一條金箍棒,從前邊往裡打進。孙大圣见那些小妖勇猛,连打不退,即使个分身法,把毫毛拔下一把,嚼在口中,喷出去,叫声:「变!」都变做本身模样,一个使一条金箍棒,从前边往里打进。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Sage, seeing how bold the little fiends were and that beating them would not drive them back, at once worked a body-dividing spell: he pulled out a handful of his hairs, chewed them up in his mouth, spat them out and called, "Change!"
分身法, the art of dividing the body, is Wukong's signature trick and the mechanics never vary — pull, chew, spit, command. 口中 keeps 中 at the ordinary reading for inside, against the four places in this chapter where the same character means struck by something.
They all changed into copies of himself, each wielding a gold-hooped rod, beating their way in from the front.
模樣 again takes 模 as mú. The detail that makes the trick work in this novel is that every copy gets a rod as well — the weapon multiplies with the man, and nobody ever asks how.
The hair trick is the closest thing Wukong has to a mass-battle answer, and he reaches for it only when ordinary force is not shifting the enemy. The novel is careful to say so: beating them was not driving them back.
Chewing the hairs before spitting them out is a small, physical, slightly disgusting detail that the book never leaves out. The magic is not a gesture and a flash of light; it goes through his mouth.