私雨難滅 The Private Rain Fails
那雨淙淙大小，莫能止息那妖精的火勢。原來龍王私雨，只好潑得凡火，妖精的三昧真火如何潑得？好一似火上澆油，越潑越灼。那雨淙淙大小，莫能止息那妖精的火势。原来龙王私雨，只好泼得凡火，妖精的三昧真火如何泼得？好一似火上浇油，越泼越灼。
逐句解 Line by line
For all its gurgling flood, the rain could not quell the fury of the demon's fire.
那雨…那妖精 nà ×2 (deictic). 淙淙 ‘gurgling’ (cóng-cóng). 莫能止息 ‘could not stop’. 火勢 ‘the force of the fire’. The plan's premise begins to fail.
The truth was, the Dragon King's private rain could only douse mortal fire; how could it douse the demon's samādhi true-fire?
原來龍王私雨 ‘the truth is, the Dragon King's private rain’ (私雨, rain not sanctioned by a Jade-Emperor decree). 只好潑得凡火 ‘could only douse mortal fire’: 得 de ×2 (potential complement, 潑得). 三昧真火如何潑得 ‘how could it douse the samādhi true-fire?’ The crux: the fire is not ordinary fire.
It was just like pouring oil on flames — the more it was doused, the fiercer it blazed.
好一似火上澆油 ‘just like pouring oil on fire’: 似 sì (GLOBAL); 一 before base 似 t4 → yí. 越潑越灼 ‘the more doused, the more it blazed’: 灼 zhuó. The image that seals the defeat.
This is the hinge of the whole episode, and it retroactively explains the 好火 賦. The samādhi true-fire (三昧真火) is not a natural fire but a self-refined power of the demon's own body and mind; ordinary water — and the Dragon King's rain is, the narrator notes pointedly, merely ‘private rain,’ unsanctioned mortal water — cannot touch it. Worse, it feeds it: ‘the more it was doused, the fiercer it blazed.’
The plan built on 相剋 (mutual conquest, water over fire) fails because its premise was wrong: this fire stands outside the ordinary Five-Phase cycle. Wukong's whole diplomatic errand to the sea comes to nothing, and the chapter's title — the Mind-Ape defeated by fire — is confirmed. The remedy, when it comes in the next chapter, will not be an element but a Bodhisattva.