原來是你 So It Was You
及至宮外，早有二十八宿星辰來接。天師道：「吾奉聖旨，教點四木禽星與孫大聖下界降妖。」傍即閃過角木蛟、斗木獬、奎木狼、井木犴應聲呼道：「孫大聖，點我等何處降妖？」行者笑道：「原來是你。這長庚老兒卻隱匿，我不解其意。早說是二十八宿中的四木，老孫徑來相請，又何必勞煩旨意？」四木道：「大聖說那裡話，我等不奉旨意，誰敢擅離？端的是那方？快早去來。」及至宫外，早有二十八宿星辰来接。天师道：「吾奉圣旨，教点四木禽星与孙大圣下界降妖。」傍即闪过角木蛟、斗木獬、奎木狼、井木犴应声呼道：「孙大圣，点我等何处降妖？」行者笑道：「原来是你。这长庚老儿却隐匿，我不解其意。早说是二十八宿中的四木，老孙径来相请，又何必劳烦旨意？」四木道：「大圣说那里话，我等不奉旨意，谁敢擅离？端的是那方？快早去来。」
逐句解 Line by line
When they reached the outside of the palace, the twenty-eight lodges of the zodiac were already there to meet them.
二十八宿 are the twenty-eight lodges — the belt of constellations the Chinese sky is divided into along the moon's path, the eastern counterpart of the zodiac. Every one is a named god with an animal and an element. Four of them are about to be sent to arrest three rhinoceroses.
The Heavenly Preceptor said, "I bear the sagely decree: the Four Wood Beast Stars are told off to go down to the world with the Great Sage Sun and subdue fiends."
The order read out. 降妖 — subdue fiends — is the phrase this chapter uses five times, and it is the one that gets carved on a temple at the end.
From the side there stepped out the Horn Wood Dragon, the Dipper Wood Xie, the Straddler Wood Wolf and the Well Wood Hound, who answered aloud, "Great Sage Sun, where are we told off to subdue fiends?"
The four, named at last, and every name is built the same way: a lodge, then wood, then a beast. 角木蛟 is the Horn lodge, wood, and a hornless dragon; 斗木獬 the Dipper lodge and the 獬, a one-horned beast said to know the guilty from the innocent; 奎木狼 the Straddler lodge and a wolf — that one has form, having come down as a demon himself in chapter 28; and 井木犴 the Well lodge and a 犴, a wild dog of the north. Two small readings to catch: 傍 is páng, the side, and 應 is yìng, to answer, not the yīng that means ought.
Pilgrim said with a laugh, "So it was you."
Four characters, and the reader has heard them before — they are exactly what the Tang Monk said when the firefly turned out to be his disciple. Same phrase, same delight at a recognition, at opposite ends of the chapter.
"That old Long-Bright kept it back, and I could not make out his meaning.
隱匿 — to hide, to withhold. Pilgrim has worked out that Venus knew the answer and made him go up two more levels to hear it. He is right, and mildly annoyed.
Had he said at once that it was the four woods among the twenty-eight lodges, old Monkey would have come straight and asked you himself — what need was there to go troubling a decree?"
The complaint of anybody who has ever been sent round three offices for a signature. 勞煩旨意 — troubling an imperial decree — makes the point precisely: a piece of paper had to be generated where a word would have done.
The four woods said, "Great Sage, what a thing to say! If we do not receive a decree, who would dare leave his post without permission?
And the answer is the bureaucracy defending itself, entirely reasonably. 說那裡話 is a set phrase of protest — literally "where are you saying that from", used exactly as English says "what a thing to say". 那 is nǎ here, and the phrase is one of the reasons that reading matters.
Which quarter is it, exactly?
端的 means exactly, really, in fact — and its second character takes the reading dì rather than the light one it has in almost every other position. It is an early vernacular word that has since dropped out of use. 那 is again the questioning nǎ: which quarter.
Let us be off quickly."
Four characters and they are already going. The whole exchange from the decree to the departure has taken nine lines.
The four arrive, and the novel spends its time on their names because the names are the point. Each is a lodge of the twenty-eight, plus the element wood, plus a beast. They are not warriors summoned for their strength. They are the particular officials whose jurisdiction covers this, and the demons will submit on sight because that is how jurisdiction works.
The Straddler Wood Wolf is the one to notice for anyone who has read the whole book. He came down to earth himself in chapter 28 and spent several chapters as a demon before being hauled back, which makes his presence on an arrest detail faintly awkward. The novel says nothing about it.
Then there is the small, sharp exchange about paperwork. Pilgrim complains that Venus made him go up two levels for a name he could have been given at the gate; the four stars reply that without a decree they cannot leave their posts. Both are right. It is one of the truest bits of office comedy in Chinese literature, conducted between a monkey and four constellations.