動了慾心 His Lust Got the Better of Him
正此觀看處，豬八戒動了慾心，忍不住，跳在空中，把霓裳仙子抱住道：「姐姐，我與你是舊相識，我和你耍子兒去也。」行者上前，揪著八戒，打了兩掌，罵道：「你這個村潑獃子！此是甚麼去處，敢動淫心？」八戒道：「拉閑散悶耍子而已。」那太陰君令轉仙幢，與眾嫦娥收回玉兔，徑上月宮而去。行者把八戒揪落塵埃。正此观看处，猪八戒动了欲心，忍不住，跳在空中，把霓裳仙子抱住道：「姐姐，我与你是旧相识，我和你耍子儿去也。」行者上前，揪着八戒，打了两掌，骂道：「你这个村泼呆子！此是甚么去处，敢动淫心？」八戒道：「拉闲散闷耍子而已。」那太阴君令转仙幢，与众嫦娥收回玉兔，径上月宫而去。行者把八戒揪落尘埃。
逐句解 Line by line
Just as they were all looking on, Zhu Eight Rules' lust got the better of him. Unable to hold himself in, he sprang up into the air, threw his arms round the Rainbow-Skirt fairy and said: "Sister! You and I are old acquaintances — come along and let us have some fun together."
The most solemn moment in the chapter, and the pig ruins it. 霓裳 — rainbow skirt — comes from the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe melody, which the Tang emperor Xuanzong was supposed to have heard while visiting the moon in a dream and to have written down on waking. Naming a moon fairy after it is a good joke on its own. 舊相識 — old acquaintances — takes xiāng, the mutual reading. And he is telling the truth. Eight Rules was Marshal Tianpeng of the Heavenly River before he was a pig, and he was thrown out of Heaven for exactly this behaviour towards exactly these women. 耍子兒 and 姐姐 both take light second syllables, which is what makes the line sound like a man in a tavern rather than a marshal of Heaven.
Pilgrim went up, seized Eight Rules by the scruff, gave him two slaps and cursed him: "You coarse, uncouth idiot! What sort of place is this for you to be stirring up lewd thoughts in?"
Wukong hits him twice and asks the only question that matters, which is about venue rather than morals. 甚麼 takes shèn me, and 去處 is a place — one of this chapter's fourteen uses of that character, and every one of them is a place or a moment rather than a verb. 村潑 is a fine double insult: rustic and rough. Wukong is calling him a peasant in front of the moon.
Eight Rules said: "I was only passing the time and shaking off the boredom." The Grand Yin then ordered the fairy standard turned about, and with all the Chang E gathered the Jade Hare back and went straight up to the Moon Palace.
His excuse is feeble and the moon leaves without comment, which is its own verdict. 拉閑散悶 — pulling at idleness and scattering boredom — is four characters of pure vernacular, the sort of thing a man says when he has been caught and knows it. 散 here is sàn, to disperse. The Grand Yin does not react at all. She turns her standard, collects her hare and goes. A goddess who does not look at him costs Eight Rules more than Wukong's two slaps do, and the storyteller knows it.
Pilgrim dragged Eight Rules down by the scruff into the dust.
Nine characters to close the scene, and the picture in them is complete: the moon going up, the pig coming down. 落 is luò, to fall — the reading this project fixes at every site. And 塵埃, dust, is the ordinary Buddhist word for the mortal world, so he is being pulled out of Heaven and back into it for the second time in his career.
The book will not let a solemn moment stand, and it has never been more pointed about it. A whole city is on its knees; a goddess is in the sky; the chapter's mystery has just been resolved in front of everybody. And a pig jumps up and grabs one of the attendants.
The joke has a long fuse. Eight Rules was Marshal Tianpeng, commander of the Heavenly River, and he was expelled from Heaven and given a pig's body for molesting Chang E — these women, in this palace. When he says they are old acquaintances he is not boasting. He is stating the case history, and he has learned nothing at all.
The staging of his punishment is the best part. Wukong slaps him and asks what sort of place he thinks this is. The Grand Yin does not so much as look; she turns her banner and takes her runaway home. And the last image the chapter gives the scene is a monkey hauling a pig down out of the sky by the neck while the moon goes up without him.