討工錢 辭丈人 Bajie Settles His Accounts
八戒在傍邊道：「師父、師兄，你們不要便罷，我與他家做了這幾年女婿，就是掛腳糧也該三石哩。──丈人啊，我的直裰，昨晚被師兄扯破了，與我一件青錦袈裟；鞋子綻了，與我一雙好新鞋子。」高老聞言，不敢不與，隨買一雙新鞋，將一領褊衫，換下舊時衣物。那八戒搖搖擺擺，對高老唱個喏道：「上覆丈母、大姨、二姨並姨夫、姑舅諸親：我今日去做和尚了，不及面辭，休怪。丈人啊，你還好生看待我渾家，只怕我們取不成經時，好來還俗，照舊與你做女婿過活。」行者喝道：「夯貨，卻莫胡說。」八戒道：「不是胡說，只恐一時間有些兒差池，卻不是和尚誤了做，老婆誤了娶，兩下裡都耽擱了？」八戒在傍边道：「师父、师兄，你们不要便罢，我与他家做了这几年女婿，就是挂脚粮也该三石哩。──丈人啊，我的直裰，昨晚被师兄扯破了，与我一件青锦袈裟；鞋子绽了，与我一双好新鞋子。」高老闻言，不敢不与，随买一双新鞋，将一领褊衫，换下旧时衣物。那八戒摇摇摆摆，对高老唱个喏道：「上覆丈母、大姨、二姨并姨夫、姑舅诸亲：我今日去做和尚了，不及面辞，休怪。丈人啊，你还好生看待我浑家，只怕我们取不成经时，好来还俗，照旧与你做女婿过活。」行者喝道：「夯货，却莫胡说。」八戒道：「不是胡说，只恐一时间有些儿差池，却不是和尚误了做，老婆误了娶，两下里都耽搁了？」
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie said from the side: "Master, elder brother — it is all very well for you to refuse,
傍邊 writes 旁邊, so 傍 is páng, at the side. Note the timing: he waits until all the refusing is finished and everybody has agreed to take nothing, and then submits a claim.
but I have been a son-in-law in this house these several years, and the wages of my keep alone should come to three dàn.
掛腳糧 is "hanging-foot grain," the board and keep owed to a live-in hand — paid in grain, because that is how a farm paid. The unit is 石, and it is a measure of bulk, not of weight: ten 斗 to the 石, a hundred 升, and something over a hundred litres by Ming reckoning, so three of them come to roughly three hundred litres of grain. You may meet this unit elsewhere as a "picul," and it is worth knowing why we do not use the word: a picul is the English name of a different Chinese unit, 擔 — a shoulder-pole load of a hundred catties, about sixty kilos — so it would understate what he is claiming by about a third. Note also that 石 is read dàn here and shí everywhere else in the chapter, where it means stone; the measure borrowed its reading from 擔, the carrying pole, because one pole-load of grain came to about one 石 of it. The claim is not extortion. It is a farmhand's reckoning of unpaid wages, and it is roughly right.
— Father-in-law! My cassock was torn by my brother last night; give me a robe of blue brocade.
The dash marks a swerve in mid-speech. He has been arguing with his master and turns, without drawing breath, to his father-in-law with a shopping list. 直裰 is a monk's straight-seamed gown.
My shoes are burst; give me a good new pair."
綻 is to split open along a seam — the word for a shoe that has burst rather than worn through. Having renounced the world about an hour ago, he is asking for new footwear. The two demands are one gesture, and Squire Gao, who has just been told his money would cost a thousand ages to expiate, pays up on the spot.
Old Gao, hearing him, did not dare refuse. He bought a pair of new shoes and an over-robe, and Bajie changed out of his old clothes.
不敢不與, "did not dare not to give." The double negative is exact and worth keeping in English: Old Gao has finally understood that he is dealing with people who cannot be refused.
Then Bajie went swaggering up to old Gao and made him a bow. "Convey my respects to my mother-in-law, to my elder and younger aunts, to my uncles by marriage, and to all my kin on either side.
搖搖擺擺, swaggering — the walk of a man who has just been paid. 唱個喏 takes 喏 as rě, and 上覆 is to convey one's respects. Then the list, which is the whole point: he names his wife's entire family, one relative at a time, on his way out of the family.
Today I go to be a monk. Forgive me that I cannot take my leave in person.
不及面辭, no time to take leave face to face. He is speaking exactly like a son-in-law called away on business, and he is leaving to become a monk.
Father-in-law, mind you take good care of my woman,
渾家, "my woman," is the plain vernacular for a wife. Two paragraphs after being forbidden the word 拙荊, he has found another one.
for if we fail to fetch the scriptures I may well come back and return to the world, and be your son-in-law again as before."
And the sting. 還俗 is to leave the order and go back to lay life, with 還 read huán, to return; the word is still in use for anyone who quits a monastery. He has taken the precepts, been given two names, and is already negotiating his exit terms.
The Pilgrim shouted at him: "Lout! Do not talk nonsense."
夯貨, lout. Wukong reaches for the same insult he was shouting through the cave door a few passages ago, and it has softened, in that time, into something close to a nickname.
Bajie said: "It is not nonsense. I only fear that if something should go amiss along the way,
差池 takes 差 as chā: a slip, a discrepancy, something not lining up. 一時間, at some point along the way.
would it not be that the monk was botched and the wife was lost, and both sides left hanging?"
The clinching argument, and it is a good one: 和尚誤了做，老婆誤了娶 — the monk botched, the wife forgone — and 兩下裡都耽擱了, both sides left hanging, with 都 read dōu. Bajie is the only person in this chapter who has sat down and worked out what the pilgrimage might cost if it fails.
Where Sanzang refused two hundred taels and Wukong pocketed a handful, Bajie submits an invoice. He has worked the farm for years; the board and keep of a hired hand come to three dàn of grain, some three hundred litres of it; his gown is torn and his shoes have burst along the seam. The reckoning is a farmhand's — exact, itemised, entirely unembarrassed — and Squire Gao, who has just been told that a thread's worth of gift would cost a thousand ages of cultivation to work off, does not dare refuse a line of it.
Then the farewell, which is the finest thing in the chapter. He salutes his wife's whole family by name, asks his father-in-law to look after her, and observes that if the scripture-fetching does not come off he may well 還俗, leave the order and resume his place as son-in-law. Wukong calls it nonsense. It is not nonsense: 和尚誤了做，老婆誤了娶，兩下裡都耽擱了 — the monk botched, the wife forgone, both sides left hanging. He has been a monk for one afternoon, and he is the only member of the party who has counted the cost of the journey before setting out on it.