師父搶白 The Master's Rebuke
行者沒及奈何，只得回見三藏道：「師父，這個怪被老孫罵將出來，他與我賭鬥多時，怯戰而走，只躲在水中間，再不出來了。」三藏道：「不知端的可是他吃了我馬？」行者道：「你看你說的話，不是他吃了，他還肯出來招聲，與老孫犯對？」三藏道：「你前日打虎時，曾說有降龍伏虎的手段，今日如何便不能降他？」原來那猴子吃不得人急他。見三藏搶白了他這一句，他就發起神威道：「不要說，不要說，等我與他再見個上下。」行者没及奈何，只得回见三藏道：「师父，这个怪被老孙骂将出来，他与我赌斗多时，怯战而走，只躲在水中间，再不出来了。」三藏道：「不知端的可是他吃了我马？」行者道：「你看你说的话，不是他吃了，他还肯出来招声，与老孙犯对？」三藏道：「你前日打虎时，曾说有降龙伏虎的手段，今日如何便不能降他？」原来那猴子吃不得人急他。见三藏抢白了他这一句，他就发起神威道：「不要说，不要说，等我与他再见个上下。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim was at his wits' end, and could only go back and face Sanzang, saying:
沒及奈何 is a variant of 沒奈何 (méi nàihé), "there is no help for it." 只得, "could only, had no choice but," takes 得 in its potential sense, read dé.
"Master, old Sun cursed that monster until it came out.
罵將出來, "to curse [him] out," where 將 is the directional particle (jiāng) before 出來. Wukong's report is, characteristically, a boast with the failure tucked inside it.
It contested with me a good while, then quailed at the fight and fled; now it hides in the middle of the water and will not come out again."
賭鬥 is "to fight it out"; 怯戰, "to quail at battle." 水中間 takes 中 as zhōng.
Said Sanzang: "I wonder — was it really he who ate my horse?"
端的 (duāndì) is a Song–Yuan colloquial adverb meaning "really, in fact"; the 的 is here read dì, not the everyday particle de. Sanzang, having been told plainly, still doubts.
Said the Pilgrim: "Just listen to what you say! If he had not eaten it, would he still be willing to come out and answer back, and set himself against old Sun?"
招聲 is "to answer, to make a sound in reply"; 犯對, "to take on, to set oneself against." Note that 還 here is hái, "still" — the very graph that in Wukong's battle-cry 還我馬來 is read huán, "give back." The same character carries two readings within a page.
Said Sanzang: "The other day, when you killed the tiger, you said you had the art of subduing dragons and taming tigers. How is it that today you cannot subdue this one?"
降龍伏虎 (xiáng lóng fú hǔ), "to subdue dragons and tame tigers," is a stock phrase for the powers of an adept; 降 is read xiáng, "to subdue," not jiàng, "to descend," and likewise in 不能降他. The taunt reaches back to the tiger Wukong killed in the previous chapter.
Now this monkey could not bear to be pressed by anybody.
吃不得 is the negative potential, "cannot take, cannot stand," with 得 read dé; 急 is used as a verb, "to press, to needle." The line is a rare narratorial aside, letting the reader watch the goad go in.
Seeing that Sanzang had flung this remark in his teeth, he roused his divine might and said:
搶白 (qiǎngbái) is "to rebuke to one's face, to retort scornfully"; 發起神威, "to rouse one's divine might." Sanzang has learned, perhaps without meaning to, exactly which string to pull.
"Say no more, say no more — let me have it out with him again and see which of us is uppermost."
見個上下, "to see which is above and which below," i.e. to settle the mastery between them. The doubled 不要說 is Wukong brushing his master aside as he goes.
The quarrel resumes, but its terms have changed. Where before Sanzang wept and forbade, he now doubts and needles: first the flat scepticism of 端的可是他吃了我馬 ("was it really he who ate my horse?"), then the barbed recollection that his disciple had boasted of the art of "subduing dragons and taming tigers." The monk is no strategist, yet he has found the one lever that moves this creature. That the novel pauses to tell us so — 原來那猴子吃不得人急他, "now this monkey could not bear to be pressed" — is unusual; the narrator rarely explains Wukong, preferring to let him act.
It is worth noticing how the chapter keeps turning on a single graph read two ways. Wukong's war-cry is 還我馬來, where 還 is huán, "give back"; here he says 他還肯出來招聲, where the same 還 is hái, "still." So too 降, which is jiàng when blessings "descend" and xiáng when dragons are "subdued." Classical Chinese narrative delights in such doubleness, and the taunt lands the harder for it: the man who claimed he could xiáng a dragon has just watched one sink out of reach.