原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
含詞賦 With rhapsody
二猴相敵
Two Staves Two Apes
二行者在一處，果是不分真假，好打呀：二行者在一处，果是不分真假，好打呀：
兩條棒，二猴精，這場相敵實非輕。两条棒，二猴精，这场相敌实非轻。
都要護持唐御弟，各施功績立英名。都要护持唐御弟，各施功绩立英名。
真猴實受沙門教，假怪虛稱佛子情。真猴实受沙门教，假怪虚称佛子情。
蓋為神通多變化，無真無假兩相平。盖为神通多变化，无真无假两相平。
一個是混元一氣齊天聖，一個是久煉千靈縮地精。一个是混元一气齐天圣，一个是久炼千灵缩地精。
這個是如意金箍棒，那個是隨心鐵桿兵。这个是如意金箍棒，那个是随心铁杆兵。
隔架遮攔無勝敗，撐持抵敵沒輸贏。隔架遮拦无胜败，撑持抵敌没输赢。
先前交手在洞外，少頃爭持起半空。先前交手在洞外，少顷争持起半空。
逐句解 Line by line
二行者在一處，果是不分真假，好打呀：
二行者在一处，果是不分真假，好打呀：
The two Pilgrims closed in one place, and truly there was no telling true from false. A fine fight it was:
The tag 好打呀 is fused into this unit by the source typography, so the tag-bearing unit opens the rhapsody rather than standing apart from it.
兩條棒，二猴精，這場相敵實非輕。
两条棒，二猴精，这场相敌实非轻。
Two rods of iron, two ape-sprites, / this bout of matched foes was no light thing.
相敵 xiāng, mutually matched — the reciprocal adverb, not the xiàng of 相貌.
都要護持唐御弟，各施功績立英名。
都要护持唐御弟，各施功绩立英名。
Both would guard and uphold the Tang Imperial Brother, / each plied his merits to set up a hero's name.
唐御弟 'the Tang Imperial Brother' is Tripitaka, sworn younger brother to the Tang emperor. 都 dōu, both.
真猴實受沙門教，假怪虛稱佛子情。
真猴实受沙门教，假怪虚称佛子情。
The true ape in truth received the teaching of the Śramaṇa gate; / the false monster falsely laid claim to the Buddha-son's feeling.
佛子 zǐ, a son of the Buddha — the dignified noun takes the full tone, as 弟子 and 童子 do in the sealed corpus, not the neutral zi of 猴子.
蓋為神通多變化，無真無假兩相平。
盖为神通多变化，无真无假两相平。
Because their spirit-powers were many in transformation, / with no true and no false the two stood level.
無真無假兩相平 — the couplet states the chapter's problem as an equation rather than a mystery. 為 wèi, causal.
一個是混元一氣齊天聖，一個是久煉千靈縮地精。
一个是混元一气齐天圣，一个是久炼千灵缩地精。
The one was the Primal-Unity Breath, Sage Equal to Heaven; / the one was a long-refined thousand-spirit earth-shrinking sprite.
一個…一個 'the one … the one', declining to say 'the other'. The verse refuses even the grammar of distinction.
這個是如意金箍棒，那個是隨心鐵桿兵。
这个是如意金箍棒，那个是随心铁杆兵。
This one had the As-You-Will gold-hooped rod; / that one had a follow-the-heart iron-shafted arm.
如意金箍棒, the As-You-Will Gold-Hooped Rod, against 隨心鐵桿兵 — the impostor's weapon is named by a synonym of Wukong's, 隨心 answering 如意.
隔架遮攔無勝敗，撐持抵敵沒輸贏。
隔架遮拦无胜败，撑持抵敌没输赢。
Parrying and blocking, there was no victory or defeat; / propping and withstanding, there was no losing or winning.
沒 méi, there is not. The line pairs 無 and 沒 across the caesura, the literary negative against the vernacular one.
先前交手在洞外，少頃爭持起半空。
先前交手在洞外，少顷争持起半空。
At first they crossed hands outside the cave; / in a little while the contest rose into mid-air.
少頃 shǎo, a short while. The couplet closes the rhapsody by moving the fight upward, which the following prose then takes up.
總評 Commentary
The rhapsody is built almost entirely out of paired constructions — 兩條, 二猴, 都要, 各施, 一個…一個, 這個…那個 — and every pair is symmetrical. Where such verse would ordinarily use its parallelism to set two things against each other, here the parallelism has nothing to separate. The form itself becomes the argument.
The third couplet is the only one that asserts a difference: 真猴實受沙門教，假怪虛稱佛子情. The narrator knows which is which and says so, using 實 against 虛 and 受 against 稱 — one received the teaching, the other merely claims the feeling. This is knowledge available to the poem and to the reader and to nobody inside the story. Two lines later the verse concedes 無真無假兩相平, and the concession governs everything that follows.
The distinction the couplet does draw is worth holding onto, because it is not a distinction of power or of appearance. It is a distinction between having undergone something and asserting that one has. 受 is passive and historical; 稱 is active and present. Nothing in a fight can test the difference, which is precisely why the fight cannot end.