回院報信 The Pilgrim Brings Word Back
卻說行者攻門不開，也只得回觀音院。那本寺僧人已葬埋了那老和尚，都在方丈裡伏侍唐僧。早齋已畢，又擺上午齋。正那裡添湯換水，只見行者從空降下，眾僧禮拜，接入方丈，見了三藏。三藏道：「悟空，你來了？袈裟如何？」行者道：「已有了根由。早是不曾冤了這些和尚，原來是那黑風山妖怪偷了。老孫去暗暗的尋他，只見他與一個白衣秀士、一個老道人，坐在那芳草坡前講話。也是個不打自招的怪物，他忽然說出道：後日是他母難之日，邀請諸邪來做生日；夜來得了一件錦襴佛衣，要以此為壽，作一大宴，喚做慶賞佛衣會。是老孫搶到面前，打了一棍，那黑漢化風而走，道人也不見了，只把個白衣秀士打死，乃是一條白花蛇成精。我又急急趕到他洞口，叫他出來與他賭鬥。他已承認了，是他拿回。戰夠這半日，不分勝負。那怪回洞，卻要吃飯，關了石門，懼戰不出。老孫卻來回看師父，先報此信。已是有了袈裟的下落，不怕他不還我。」却说行者攻门不开，也只得回观音院。那本寺僧人已葬埋了那老和尚，都在方丈里伏侍唐僧。早斋已毕，又摆上午斋。正那里添汤换水，只见行者从空降下，众僧礼拜，接入方丈，见了三藏。三藏道：「悟空，你来了？袈裟如何？」行者道：「已有了根由。早是不曾冤了这些和尚，原来是那黑风山妖怪偷了。老孙去暗暗的寻他，只见他与一个白衣秀士、一个老道人，坐在那芳草坡前讲话。也是个不打自招的怪物，他忽然说出道：后日是他母难之日，邀请诸邪来做生日；夜来得了一件锦襕佛衣，要以此为寿，作一大宴，唤做庆赏佛衣会。是老孙抢到面前，打了一棍，那黑汉化风而走，道人也不见了，只把个白衣秀士打死，乃是一条白花蛇成精。我又急急赶到他洞口，叫他出来与他赌斗。他已承认了，是他拿回。战够这半日，不分胜负。那怪回洞，却要吃饭，关了石门，惧战不出。老孙却来回看师父，先报此信。已是有了袈裟的下落，不怕他不还我。」
逐句解 Line by line
But we tell how the Pilgrim, unable to beat the gate open, had no choice but to return to the Guanyin Temple.
只得 takes the full verb dé: he was reduced to it. 攻門不開 — he attacked the gate and it did not open — is the first thing in this chapter the Pilgrim has been unable to do.
The monks of that house had already buried the old abbot, and were all in the lodge waiting upon the Tang monk.
Two pointing 那, both nà: 那本寺 and 那老和尚. 都 reads dōu. The burial gets five characters, and the man being buried is the cause of everything that has happened.
The morning meal being done, they had set out the noon meal, and were just there adding broth and changing water,
正那裡 is pointing, nà — just there. 添湯換水 is the small domestic business of a refectory, and the narrator lingers over it because this is the last quiet moment for a chapter and a half.
when they saw the Pilgrim come down out of the air. The monks made their bows, received him into the lodge, and he came before Sanzang.
降下 takes jiàng, to come down — not the xiáng of subduing that ran all through the poem. 禮拜: the monks are still bowing.
Sanzang said, "Wukong, you are come back? And the cassock — how does it stand?"
Sanzang asks after the robe before he asks after his disciple. 三藏 reads zàng every time it appears.
The Pilgrim said, "There is a thread to follow now. It is well that we did not wrong these monks: it was a fiend of Black Wind Mountain who stole it.
根由 is a root and a cause — a thread to pull. 早是不曾冤了這些和尚, it is well we did not wrong these monks, is the nearest the Pilgrim comes to apologising for the last chapter, and he manages to make it about somebody else.
Old Sun went quietly to seek him out, and found him with a white-clad scholar and an old Taoist,
The report starts compressing. Three fiends on the grass slope have become two here, and the Pilgrim omits how long he lay behind that rock listening.
sitting and talking before that slope of fragrant grass. He is a monster who confesses without being beaten, for out it came of a sudden:
不打自招, to confess without being beaten, is a proverb out of the interrogation room — still the ordinary Chinese for giving yourself away. The Pilgrim applies it to a monster who was talking privately among friends.
the day after tomorrow is the day of his mother's travail, and he had bidden all the fiends to keep his birthday;
母難之日 again, with 難 as nàn. The Pilgrim repeats the fiend's own courteous phrase for a birthday without appearing to hear what it actually says.
last night he had come by a brocade-bordered Buddha-robe, and would make it the gift of the day, spread one great banquet, and call it the Feast in Praise of the Buddha-Robe.
得了 is acquisitive dé; 以此為壽 takes copular wéi. Now compare the names. The fiend called it the 佛衣會, the Buddha-Robe Feast. The Pilgrim reports it as the 慶賞佛衣會, adding a character of connoisseurship that makes the whole thing sound worse.
So old Sun rushed upon them and struck one blow of the rod. The black fellow turned to wind and was gone, the Taoist too was nowhere seen,
化風而走, turned to wind and went. In the retelling, the escape of the two is compressed and the killing of the third has been demoted to a subordinate clause.
and only the white-clad scholar was beaten dead — who proved to be a mottled white snake come to spirithood.
成精, ripened into a spirit — the very phrase the battle-rhapsody applied to the bear a page ago.
Then I hurried on to his cave mouth and called him out to contend with me.
賭鬥, to stake a contest. The Pilgrim has picked up the fiend's own duelling vocabulary.
He has owned to it: he carried it off. We fought this half day out, and neither had the better.
承認 is to acknowledge. 不分勝負 for the second time in a hundred characters; the Pilgrim reports the stalemate without comment.
The fiend went back into his cave to eat, shut the stone gate, and for fear of the fight would not come out.
懼戰不出, afraid of the fight and would not come out — a motive the Pilgrim supplies. The narrator had shown us a fiend going in to his dinner.
So old Sun has come back to see the master and bring this word first. We have the whereabouts of the cassock now, and I have no fear he will not give it up."
不還我: 還 is huán, and the tone of 不 is computed from that character's dictionary tone hái, giving bù. The passage ends on a confidence the next passage will not honour.
The chapter's first homecoming. The Pilgrim, who left the temple in a single somersault, comes back down through the air into a room where the noon meal is being served and the old abbot is already in the ground. Sanzang's first question is about the robe. Nobody asks about the monastery, or the fire, or the dead man; the burial took five characters, and the narrative has the manners of its characters.
What follows is one of the novel's quiet studies in how a story shifts in the telling. The Pilgrim was hidden behind a rock eavesdropping on a private conversation, and reports it as 不打自招, a confession that needed no beating. The fiend's 佛衣會 becomes, in his mouth, the 慶賞佛衣會. A dinner break becomes 懼戰不出, cowering indoors. Not a single statement is false, and the whole thing is a slander. He finishes by promising to get the robe back, and the chapter still has three battles and a Bodhisattva left to run.