賭鬥一陣 A Bout With No Winner
我說不是好人，早被他侮暗燈光，連油並我師一風攝去。我隨風追襲，至天曉，到一山，幸四功曹報道：那山名青龍山，山有玄英洞。洞有三怪，名辟寒大王、辟暑大王、辟塵大王。老孫急上門尋討，與他賭鬥一陣，未勝。是我變化入裡，見師父鎖住未傷，隨解了欲出，又被他知覺，我遂走了。後又同八戒、沙僧苦戰，復被他將二人也捉去綑了。我说不是好人，早被他侮暗灯光，连油并我师一风摄去。我随风追袭，至天晓，到一山，幸四功曹报道：那山名青龙山，山有玄英洞。洞有三怪，名辟寒大王、辟暑大王、辟尘大王。老孙急上门寻讨，与他赌斗一阵，未胜。是我变化入里，见师父锁住未伤，随解了欲出，又被他知觉，我遂走了。后又同八戒、沙僧苦战，复被他将二人也捉去捆了。
逐句解 Line by line
"I said they were not good people, and at once they shamed the lamplight into darkness and carried off the oil and my master together on a gust of wind.
侮暗燈光 puts a word for insult where you expect a word for extinguish — they humiliated the lamplight into going out. And 一風攝去 snatched away on one wind: the master and the oil are the compound object of a single verb, which is the grammar telling you again that he was luggage.
I followed the wind in pursuit until daybreak, and came to a mountain; and by good fortune the Four Sentinels reported that the mountain was called Green Dragon Mountain, and had on it the Dark-Blossom Cave.
The Four Sentinels again, doing the job they always do. 四功曹 is the short form — the four Merit-Officers on duty for the year, month, day and hour. Whenever this novel needs a place named, they arrive and name it.
In the cave are three fiends, called the Cold-Averting Great King, the Heat-Averting Great King and the Dust-Averting Great King.
The three names in a row, and all three begin on the same character. 辟 is read bì here — the old word for keeping something off, the one behind the modern phrase for warding off evil. The automatic reading takes a different sound entirely, which would turn the kings' names into nonsense. Twenty-two of this chapter's twenty-three uses are this one.
Old Monkey went straight up to the door to demand him back, had a bout with them, and did not win.
賭鬥 — to gamble at fighting — is the novel's word for a duel whose outcome is open. 未勝, did not win, is as close as this character comes to saying he lost.
So I changed shape and went inside, and saw my master chained but unharmed, and had just loosed him and meant to get out when they came to notice, and I made off.
The whole of the first half of the chapter, compressed into one sentence with four verbs. Note what he leaves out of the report: that his master's legs gave way, and that he went on without him.
Afterwards I fought hard again along with Eight Rules and Sha Monk, and they took those two as well and tied them up."
苦戰 — bitter fighting. And 復被他將二人也捉去 uses 將 in the everyday way, to take hold of something and then do a thing to it; the character keeps its commonest sound there. Two passages further on it turns up meaning a general and changes sound accordingly.
The report finishes, and what makes it worth reading is the editing. Pilgrim is an accurate witness and a selective one. Everything he says happened, happened. But the abandonment does not appear — the master chained, the legs gone soft, the decision to fight forward rather than carry him out. In the official version there is a rescue that was interrupted.
The three kings get named here for the first time in full, and their names are the answer to the chapter. Cold-Averting, Heat-Averting, Dust-Averting: each is a property that rhinoceros horn was believed to have. These are not demons who happen to be rhinoceroses. They are three beliefs about a horn, given weapons and a cave.
It is also worth noticing who this speech is addressed to. Pilgrim is standing outside the gate of heaven describing a robbery to a planet. The novel treats the celestial bureaucracy as entirely continuous with the earthly one — you go up, you find the right official, you make your statement, and somebody assigns you troops.