今經一載 A Year Now Since She Went
他私自偷開玉關金鎖，走出宮來，今經一載。我算他目下有傷命之災，特來救他性命。望大聖看老身饒他罷。」行者喏喏連聲，只道：「不敢，不敢。怪道他會使搗藥杵，原來是個玉兔兒。老太陰不知，他攝藏了天竺國王之公主，卻又假合真形，欲破我聖僧師父之元陽，其情其罪，其實何甘？怎麼便可輕恕饒他？」太陰道：「你亦不知，那國王之公主，也不是凡人，原是蟾宮中之素娥。他私自偷开玉关金锁，走出宫来，今经一载。我算他目下有伤命之灾，特来救他性命。望大圣看老身饶他罢。」行者喏喏连声，只道：「不敢，不敢。怪道他会使捣药杵，原来是个玉兔儿。老太阴不知，他摄藏了天竺国王之公主，却又假合真形，欲破我圣僧师父之元阳，其情其罪，其实何甘？怎么便可轻恕饶他？」太阴道：「你亦不知，那国王之公主，也不是凡人，原是蟾宫中之素娥。
逐句解 Line by line
"She picked the jade barrier and the golden lock on her own account and got out of the palace, and it is a year now since she went. I reckoned she was in danger of losing her life today, and came on purpose to save her."
The Grand Yin gives the facts flatly, like a supervisor reporting an absconded member of staff. 玉關金鎖 — the jade barrier and the golden lock — is the fastening on the gate of the Moon Palace. Naming both halves is a way of saying it was properly secured and she got past it anyway. ⚠ 一載 is a year, and the second character takes zǎi, the year measure, not the zài of carrying. The bare chain gets this wrong and the machinery's own tables only knew the phrase in one other form, 千載, which appears later in this chapter.
"I beg the Great Sage will look at this old body of mine and let her off." Pilgrim bobbed his assent again and again and could only say: "I would not dare, I would not dare. No wonder she knew how to use a medicine-pounding pestle — she is a jade hare!"
She asks a favour and he grants it before he has finished being surprised. ⚠ 罷 at the end of her request is the light sentence-final ba, the softening word that turns a demand into a request. It is not the bà of finishing something, which this chapter also uses. 喏喏連聲 — bobbing assent again and again — is the Song and Ming salute, made with a spoken syllable and a bow. ⚠ The character takes rě, and doubling it turns one polite noise into a stammer of them. 怪道 means no wonder. It is the sound of a penny dropping, and it drops about fifteen hundred characters late.
"But you do not know, Old Grand Yin — she carried off and hid away the princess of the kingdom of India, and then counterfeited a true form and meant to break my holy master's primal yang. Her case and her crime — how can that be borne? How can she be let off so lightly?"
He agrees and then immediately objects, which is entirely in character. ⚠ 假合真形 — counterfeiting a true form — puts the chapter's title on the page. 假合 in the heading is the Buddhist term for the provisional joining of parts that makes any body at all; here Wukong uses it as a plain verb for faking. The chapter means both senses and this is the second of its two uses. ⚠ 藏 in 攝藏 is cáng, to hide. Four of this chapter's eight are that reading and four are Tripitaka's name.
The Grand Yin said: "You do not know either. That king's princess is no ordinary mortal — she was Su E of the Toad Palace to begin with."
The counter-revelation, and it resets the whole chapter. The victim is not a victim; she is a colleague. 素娥 — Plain E, or White E — is another of the moon's names for its own women, built on the same second character as 姮娥. The book is telling us the princess of India was a lunar attendant before she was anybody's daughter. Wukong has just made an indignant speech about an innocent girl carried off by a monster. He is about to be told that the girl started it.
The Grand Yin explains her runaway the way an employer explains an absconded servant: she picked the lock, she has been gone a year, and I calculated she was about to be killed, so I came. There is no anger in it and not much surprise. Heaven in this book is a large organisation with staffing problems.
Wukong's response is the most human thing he does in the chapter. He agrees to spare her instantly — one does not argue with the moon — and then cannot stop himself listing the charges anyway. He is not trying to overturn the decision. He wants it on record that he was wronged.
And then the ground shifts under him. He has been talking about a stolen princess and a wicked hare, and the Grand Yin's answer begins you do not know either. The same words he used to her fifty characters earlier, handed back. Everything he thinks he has worked out is about to be reorganised.