把那醜收拾起些 Put Some of That Ugliness Away
三藏卻坐在他門樓裡竹床之上，埋怨道：「徒弟呀，你兩個相貌既醜，言語又粗，把這一家兒嚇得七損八傷，都替我身造罪哩。」八戒道：「不瞞師父說，老豬自從跟了你，這些時俊了許多哩。若像往常在高老莊時，把嘴朝前一掬，把耳兩頭一擺，常嚇殺二三十人哩。」行者笑道：「獃子不要亂說，把那醜也收拾起些。」三藏道：「你看悟空說的話，相貌是生成的，你教他怎麼收拾？」行者道：「把那個耙子嘴揣在懷裡，莫拿出來；把那蒲扇耳貼在後面，不要搖動：這就是收拾了。」那八戒真個把嘴揣了，把耳貼了，拱著頭，立於左右。行者將行李拿入門裡，將白馬拴在樁上。三藏却坐在他门楼里竹床之上，埋怨道：「徒弟呀，你两个相貌既丑，言语又粗，把这一家儿吓得七损八伤，都替我身造罪哩。」八戒道：「不瞒师父说，老猪自从跟了你，这些时俊了许多哩。若像往常在高老庄时，把嘴朝前一掬，把耳两头一摆，常吓杀二三十人哩。」行者笑道：「呆子不要乱说，把那丑也收拾起些。」三藏道：「你看悟空说的话，相貌是生成的，你教他怎么收拾？」行者道：「把那个耙子嘴揣在怀里，莫拿出来；把那蒲扇耳贴在后面，不要摇动：这就是收拾了。」那八戒真个把嘴揣了，把耳贴了，拱著头，立于左右。行者将行李拿入门里，将白马拴在桩上。
逐句解 Line by line
Sanzang, seated meanwhile on the bamboo couch within the gate-tower, fell to complaining. "Disciples, the two of you are ugly of face and coarse of speech besides.
埋怨, to grumble at. The Tang Monk's grievance is that he has been embarrassed, and it is voiced as a moral charge. 相貌 takes xiàng.
You have frightened this whole household out of seven wits and eight, and every one of you is heaping up sin on my account."
七損八傷, "seven damaged and eight injured," is the vernacular hyperbole for a general rout. 替我身造罪 — the sin is incurred on the master's account and reckoned to his ledger, which is Buddhist bookkeeping of an exactness the monk never applies to himself.
Bajie said, "I'll not deceive you, Master: since Old Hog fell in behind you, he has grown a great deal handsomer this while.
俊了許多 — "grown a good deal handsomer" — is Bajie's only reply to being called ugly, and it is delivered as a boast. The two 了 are perfective and take le; the sentence-final 哩 is lī.
In the old days at Gao Village, I had only to scoop my snout forward and waggle my ears on either side, and twenty or thirty people would be frightened to death."
把嘴朝前一掬: 掬, jū, is to scoop with both hands, used here of the snout thrust forward. 朝 is the preposition, cháo. 嚇殺二三十人 reaches back to ch. 18 and the terrors of Gao Village, of which Bajie is plainly proud.
The Pilgrim laughed. "Idiot, don't talk nonsense. Put some of that ugliness away."
收拾起些 — "pack a little of it away" — treats a face as luggage. The Pilgrim, who can change his own shape at will, sees no difficulty.
Sanzang said, "Do you hear what Wukong says? A face is what a man is born with. How would you have him put it away?"
相貌是生成的: appearance is given at birth. The Tang Monk here defends Bajie against Wukong in almost the terms Bajie used against Squire Wang, and appears not to notice.
The Pilgrim said, "Let him tuck that rake of a snout into his bosom and not bring it out;
耙子嘴, the snout like a rake — the graph is 耙, pá, cognate with the 釘鈀 he carries. 揣在懷裡: 揣 is chuāi, to tuck inside the breast of a garment.
let him lay those rush-fan ears flat behind and not stir them. That is what putting it away means."
蒲扇耳, ears like rush fans. The Pilgrim's prescription is entirely literal and, as the next sentence shows, entirely practicable.
And Bajie did in fact tuck in his snout and flatten his ears, and stood hunch-headed to one side.
真個, "sure enough" — the narrator's dry endorsement. 拱著頭 takes zhe: the head is hunched and held so. Bajie can, it turns out, put his ugliness away, and does, at once, without protest.
The Pilgrim carried the luggage in at the door, and tied the white horse to a post.
Two occurrences of the disposal marker 將, both jiāng. The Pilgrim, having settled his brother's face, settles the luggage and the horse: the chapter's domestic business is done in sixteen graphs.
Three positions on the same question, held simultaneously. Bajie: ugliness is real, and useful, and anyway I am improving. The Pilgrim: ugliness is a posture, and can be stowed like a rake in a bosom. The Tang Monk: 相貌是生成的, a face is given at birth and cannot be helped. The joke is that all three are proved right within twenty graphs, since Bajie does put his face away, and does so instantly, and it remains exactly the face it was.
Observe also who is scolded and for what. The monk's complaint is not that his disciples have terrified a family of rice-planters but that they have made him look bad and burdened his account with the resulting sin. Chapter nineteen closed with the Heart Sutra and the doctrine that form is emptiness; twenty opens with a gāthā on the forgetting of mind and dharma both; and here, four paragraphs later, the man who received both is worrying about appearances.