原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
照妖現形
The Demon-Mirror Reveals the Lion
這大聖縱祥光，起在九霄，正欲下個切手，只見那東北上，一朵彩雲裡面，厲聲叫道：「孫悟空，且休下手。」行者回頭看處，原來是文殊菩薩。急收棒，上前施禮道：「菩薩，那裡去？」文殊道：「我來替你收這個妖怪的。」行者謝道：「累煩了。」那菩薩袖中取出照妖鏡，照住了那怪的原身。行者才招呼八戒、沙僧齊來見了菩薩。卻將鏡子裡看處，那魔王生得好不兇惡：这大圣纵祥光，起在九霄，正欲下个切手，只见那东北上，一朵彩云里面，厉声叫道：「孙悟空，且休下手。」行者回头看处，原来是文殊菩萨。急收棒，上前施礼道：「菩萨，那里去？」文殊道：「我来替你收这个妖怪的。」行者谢道：「累烦了。」那菩萨袖中取出照妖镜，照住了那怪的原身。行者才招呼八戒、沙僧齐来见了菩萨。却将镜子里看处，那魔王生得好不凶恶：
眼似琉璃盞，頭若煉炒缸。眼似琉璃盏，头若炼炒缸。
渾身三伏靛，四爪九秋霜。浑身三伏靛，四爪九秋霜。
搭拉兩個耳，一尾掃帚長。搭拉两个耳，一尾扫帚长。
青毛生銳氣，紅眼放金光。青毛生锐气，红眼放金光。
匾牙排玉板，圓鬚挺硬槍。匾牙排玉板，圆须挺硬枪。
鏡裡觀真像，原是文殊一個獅猁王。镜里观真像，原是文殊一个狮猁王。
逐句解 Line by line
這大聖縱祥光，起在九霄，正欲下個切手，只見那東北上，一朵彩雲裡面，厲聲叫道：「孫悟空，且休下手。」
这大圣纵祥光，起在九霄，正欲下个切手，只见那东北上，一朵彩云里面，厉声叫道：「孙悟空，且休下手。」
This Great Sage sprang up on his auspicious light, rose into the ninth heaven, and was just about to bring down a chopping stroke, when he saw, off to the northeast, from within a bank of coloured cloud, a stern voice cry out: "Sun Wukong, stay your hand a moment."
Deictic 那東北上: 那 = nà. 下個切手 = "deliver a cutting blow." 厲聲 = "in a stern voice."
行者回頭看處，原來是文殊菩薩。
行者回头看处，原来是文殊菩萨。
Pilgrim turned his head to look, and there was the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.
回頭看處: 看 = kàn. 文殊菩薩 = the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Wénshū).
急收棒，上前施禮道：「菩薩，那裡去？」
急收棒，上前施礼道：「菩萨，那里去？」
He hastily withdrew his cudgel, stepped up and made a bow: "Bodhisattva, where are you bound?"
那裡去: interrogative 那 = nǎ ("where"). 施禮 = "to make obeisance."
文殊道：「我來替你收這個妖怪的。」
文殊道：「我来替你收这个妖怪的。」
Mañjuśrī said: "I've come to collect this monster for you."
替你收這個妖怪 = "take this monster off your hands."
行者謝道：「累煩了。」
行者谢道：「累烦了。」
Pilgrim gave thanks: "Sorry to trouble you."
累煩了 = "I've put you to trouble."
那菩薩袖中取出照妖鏡，照住了那怪的原身。
那菩萨袖中取出照妖镜，照住了那怪的原身。
That Bodhisattva took from his sleeve a demon-revealing mirror, and held the monster's original form fixed in it.
Deictic 那菩薩 / 那怪: 那 = nà. 袖中: 中 = zhōng. 照妖鏡 = the mirror that shows a fiend's true shape.
行者才招呼八戒、沙僧齊來見了菩薩。
行者才招呼八戒、沙僧齐来见了菩萨。
Pilgrim then called Eight Rules and Sha Monk to come together and see the Bodhisattva.
招呼 = "to call over." 齊來見了菩薩 = "came together to greet the Bodhisattva."
卻將鏡子裡看處，那魔王生得好不兇惡：
却将镜子里看处，那魔王生得好不凶恶：
And looking into the mirror, that demon-king was of a hideousness past telling:
Prose lead into the descriptive 賦, spliced at the colon (：). 卻將鏡子裡看: coverb 將 = jiāng; suffix 子 = zi. Deictic 那魔王 = nà; 生得 complement 得 = de.
眼似琉璃盞，頭若煉炒缸。
眼似琉璃盏，头若炼炒缸。
Eyes like bowls of coloured glaze, / a head like a smelting-crucible.
First couplet of the lion-rhapsody. 似 = sì ("like"). 琉璃盞 = a glazed cup; 煉炒缸 = a crucible for smelting.
渾身三伏靛，四爪九秋霜。
浑身三伏靛，四爪九秋霜。
Its whole body indigo as the dog-days' dye, / its four claws frost of the ninth-month autumn.
三伏靛 = "indigo of the three fu (the hottest days)." 九秋霜 = "frost of deep autumn" — the white of the claws.
搭拉兩個耳，一尾掃帚長。
搭拉两个耳，一尾扫帚长。
Two ears hanging drooping down, / a single tail as long as a broom.
搭拉 = "drooping." 掃帚長: 長 = cháng ("long").
青毛生銳氣，紅眼放金光。
青毛生锐气，红眼放金光。
Green fur bristling with a keen force, / red eyes shooting a golden light.
青毛 = green (blue-black) fur; 銳氣 = "a sharp energy." These name the 青毛獅子, the green-furred lion, revealed next.
匾牙排玉板，圓鬚挺硬槍。
匾牙排玉板，圆须挺硬枪。
Flat teeth ranked like tablets of jade, / round whiskers stiff as hard spears.
匾牙排玉板 = "flat teeth set out like jade slats." 圓鬚挺硬槍 = "round whiskers thrust out like rigid spears."
鏡裡觀真像，原是文殊一個獅猁王。
镜里观真像，原是文殊一个狮猁王。
In the mirror behold the true form: / none other than Mañjuśrī's own Lion King.
鏡裡觀真像: 觀 = guān ("to behold"). 獅猁王 = the Lion King, Mañjuśrī's mount. The rhapsody ends by naming the beast outright.
總評 Commentary
The chapter's supernatural resolution arrives just as Wukong's cudgel is about to fall: Mañjuśrī (文殊菩薩) appears from a bank of cloud and stays the killing stroke, drawing from his sleeve the demon-revealing mirror (照妖鏡) that fixes the fiend in its true shape. The staying of the blow is the novel's settled rule for mount-demons — the pilgrims may subdue but not slay a creature that belongs to a Buddha or Bodhisattva — and the mirror is the instrument of 真假, the true-and-false, finally made to yield: what wore a king's face, and then a monk's, is forced to show what it is.
What it is, the rhapsody (賦) then paints in the set style of the vernacular novel's descriptive set-pieces — eyes like glazed bowls, body indigo as the dog-days, claws white as autumn frost, a broom-long tail — a portrait built entirely of similes, closing on the reveal: "none other than Mañjuśrī's own Lion King" (獅猁王). The four-chip, "with rhapsody" presentation marks the passage as one of the chapter's formal verse showcases. The green-furred lion named here is the mount whose story the next passage will tell, and with it the whole logic of the usurpation.