揪耳還莊 跪拜師父 Hauled Back to the Farm by the Ear
頃刻間到了莊前。行者拑著他的鈀，揪著他的耳道：「你看那廳堂上端坐的是誰？乃吾師也。」那高氏諸親友與老高，忽見行者把那怪背綁揪耳而來，一個個忻然迎到天井中，道聲：「長老，長老，他正是我家的女婿。」那怪走上前，雙膝跪下，背著手，對三藏叩頭，高叫道：「師父，弟子失迎。早知是師父住在我丈人家，我就來拜接，怎麼又受到許多周折？」三藏道：「悟空，你怎麼降得他來拜我？」行者才放了手，拿釘鈀柄兒打著，喝道：「獃子，你說麼。」那怪把菩薩勸善事情，細陳了一遍。顷刻间到了庄前。行者拑着他的钯，揪着他的耳道：「你看那厅堂上端坐的是谁？乃吾师也。」那高氏诸亲友与老高，忽见行者把那怪背绑揪耳而来，一个个忻然迎到天井中，道声：「长老，长老，他正是我家的女婿。」那怪走上前，双膝跪下，背着手，对三藏叩头，高叫道：「师父，弟子失迎。早知是师父住在我丈人家，我就来拜接，怎么又受到许多周折？」三藏道：「悟空，你怎么降得他来拜我？」行者才放了手，拿钉钯柄儿打着，喝道：「呆子，你说么。」那怪把菩萨劝善事情，细陈了一遍。
逐句解 Line by line
In a moment they were before the farm.
Seven characters for a journey that took a whole night on foot. The novel measures distance by who is doing the travelling, and never apologises for it.
The Pilgrim, gripping the rake and holding the fiend by the ear, said: "Look who sits in state in that hall. That is my master."
拑 (qián) is to grip as a pair of pincers grips. Wukong has the rake in one hand and the ear in the other, and delivers a line of pure theatre: 乃吾師也, "that is my master" — in classical Chinese, as though presenting a visiting dignitary.
When the several kinsfolk of the Gao household, and old Gao himself, saw the Pilgrim come leading the fiend pinioned and by the ear,
背綁, arms bound behind the back. Note the order in which the family perceives what is coming towards them: they see the son-in-law before they see the demon.
they came out one and all in delight to meet him in the courtyard, crying: "Elder! Elder! That is indeed our family's son-in-law!"
忻然 is a variant of 欣然, delighted. Their cry is the sentence the whole chapter has been circling: 他正是我家的女婿, "that really is our family's son-in-law." Not "that is the monster." Not "that is the thing that took her."
The fiend went forward, dropped on both knees, and with his hands still tied behind him knocked his head before Sanzang, calling loudly: "Master, your disciple failed to meet you.
背著手 — he kneels with his hands still tied behind him, and knocks his head anyway. 弟子失迎, "your disciple failed to come out and meet you," is the formula a host uses when a guest reaches the hall before he does. He is calling Sanzang 師父, master, before anyone has accepted him.
Had I known my master was lodging in my father-in-law's house, I should have come to make my bow, and been spared all this trouble."
拜接 is to receive a guest with a bow; 周折 is roundabout trouble, the runaround. Read the apology closely. He is not sorry to have been beaten. He is sorry to have been inconvenienced.
Sanzang said: "Wukong, how did you subdue him, that he comes to bow to me?"
降得他來: 降 is xiáng, to subdue, and 得 is the complement de. Sanzang has been sitting in that hall the entire time and has no idea what has happened outside it, which is his position for most of the novel.
Only then did the Pilgrim let go. He tapped him with the handle of the muckrake and cried: "Idiot, speak!"
拿釘鈀柄兒打著 — he prods the convert with the handle of the convert's own rake, 著 ongoing, zhe. The first word Sanzang ever hears his second disciple called is 獃子, Idiot.
So the fiend set out at length the whole matter of the Bodhisattva's exhortation.
細陳了一遍, set it out in full, once through. The novel refuses to repeat what the reader already knows and pockets a paragraph, which is a trick worth stealing.
The scene is staged for a single line, and the line belongs to the Gao family: 他正是我家的女婿 — that really is our family's son-in-law. They have come running out into the courtyard to see a demon led in bound and by the ear, and what they recognise, and say aloud in delight, is a relative. The novel has been building this confusion for two chapters and here lets it stand without a word of comment.
Bajie kneels with his arms still pinioned and apologises, in the language of a householder, for having failed to come out and greet a guest. He calls Sanzang 師父, master, before any word of acceptance has been said, and he regrets only the 周折, the roundabout inconvenience, of a night's battle. Sanzang, who has been sitting indoors throughout, asks how it was managed. The answer is the muckrake handle, tapping the convert to make him talk.