老者擺手搖頭 The Old Man Waves His Hand and Shakes His Head
那獃子縱身跳起，口裡絮絮叨叨的，挑著擔子，只得死心塌地，跟著前來。早到了路傍人家門首。三藏下馬，行者接了韁繩，八戒歇了行李，都佇立綠蔭之下。三藏拄著九環錫杖，按按藤纏篾織斗篷，先奔門前。只見一老者，斜倚竹床之上口裡嚶嚶的念佛。三藏不敢高言，慢慢的叫一聲：「施主，問訊了。」那老者一骨魯跳將起來，忙斂衣襟，出門還禮道：「長老，失迎。你自那方來的？到我寒門何故？」三藏道：「貧僧是東土大唐和尚，奉聖旨，上雷音寺拜佛求經。適至寶方天晚，意投檀府告借一宵，萬祈方便方便。」那老兒擺手搖頭道：「去不得，西天難取經。要取經，往東天去罷。」三藏口中不語，意下沉吟：「菩薩指道西去，怎麼此老說往東行？東邊那得有經？」靦腆難言，半晌不答。那呆子纵身跳起，口里絮絮叨叨的，挑着担子，只得死心塌地，跟着前来。早到了路傍人家门首。三藏下马，行者接了缰绳，八戒歇了行李，都伫立绿荫之下。三藏拄着九环锡杖，按按藤缠篾织斗篷，先奔门前。只见一老者，斜倚竹床之上口里嘤嘤的念佛。三藏不敢高言，慢慢的叫一声：「施主，问讯了。」那老者一骨鲁跳将起来，忙敛衣襟，出门还礼道：「长老，失迎。你自那方来的？到我寒门何故？」三藏道：「贫僧是东土大唐和尚，奉圣旨，上雷音寺拜佛求经。适至宝方天晚，意投檀府告借一宵，万祈方便方便。」那老儿摆手摇头道：「去不得，西天难取经。要取经，往东天去罢。」三藏口中不语，意下沉吟：「菩萨指道西去，怎么此老说往东行？东边那得有经？」腼腆难言，半晌不答。
逐句解 Line by line
The Idiot sprang up with a bound and, muttering and mumbling to himself, shouldered the carrying-pole, hardened his heart to it, and came along after.
Three readings of 著 are possible here and only one is right in each place. 挑著擔子 and 跟著前來 both take zhe, the marker of a state carried on into a second action. 擔子 is the noun, dàn, a pole-load. 只得, "having no choice but to," takes dé. And 死心塌地 — heart dead, feet flat on the ground — is still in daily use for giving in completely and not going back on it; here it is a pig shouldering a load he has just finished complaining about.
Soon they were at the gate of the house beside the road. Sanzang dismounted; the Pilgrim took the bridle-rein and Bajie set down the luggage, and all of them stood beneath the green shade.
路傍 once more writes 旁. The three verbs of this sentence hand out the labour precisely as rank requires: the master dismounts, the Pilgrim takes the rein, and Bajie puts down the load.
Sanzang, leaning on his nine-ringed priestly staff, settled the rattan-bound, bamboo-plaited rain-hat upon his head, and went first to the door.
九環錫杖 is the nine-ringed khakkhara, one of Guanyin's two gifts in chapter 12. 拄著 takes 著 as zhe. 藤纏篾織斗篷 is a broad rain-hat of split bamboo bound round with rattan; 斗 is dǒu. 按按 is a doubled verb: he pats it into place.
There he saw an old man reclining aslant on a bamboo couch, murmuring the Buddha's name under his breath.
嚶嚶 is a soft twittering noise, used here of muttered prayer. The old man is a lay devotee — which sharpens the refusal he is about to give, and makes his later report on the local demon worth believing.
Sanzang durst not raise his voice. Softly he called, "Benefactor, I give you greeting."
問訊 is the technical term for a monk's greeting with palms joined, and 問訊了 takes the completive le. 不敢高言 is exactly observed. This is the Tang Monk at his best; he is at his worst a few passages on, sitting on a bamboo couch complaining that his disciples have embarrassed him.
The old man scrambled up all in a heap, hastily drew his robe together, came out and returned the salutation. "Elder, forgive me that I did not meet you.
一骨魯 (also written 一骨碌) imitates the sound of a sudden scramble; by the ruling of chapter 16 such sound-words keep their default readings, gǔ lǔ. 跳將起來 takes the direction-marking 將 as jiāng. 還禮, to return a courtesy, is huán.
From what quarter have you come? And what brings you to my poor door?"
你自那方來的 — this is question-word 那, read nǎ, "from what quarter," not the pointing "that." The character turns up five times in this passage and carries the question sense only twice.
Sanzang said, "This poor monk is a priest of the Great Tang in the Land of the East. By imperial command I go to the Temple of Thunderclap, to worship the Buddha and seek the scriptures.
The self-introduction the Tang Monk will deliver, with small variations, at door after door for the rest of the journey. 奉聖旨 names the imperial commission; 雷音寺, the Temple of Thunderclap, is Vulture Peak.
Coming to your honored district with the day far gone, I would throw myself upon your charitable house and beg one night's lodging. Of your kindness, oblige me."
寶方 and 檀府 are the polite forms — your precious district, your almsgiving house — 檀 being short for 檀越, dānapati, a donor. The doubled 方便方便 is plain vernacular pleading.
The old fellow waved his hand and shook his head. "You cannot go. There are no scriptures to be had in the Western Heaven. If scriptures you must have, go east for them."
Not the refusal anyone expects. Not "there is no room" but "there is nothing at the end of your road." 去不得 is the "cannot" pattern, dé. And 要取經，往東天去罷 is either a countryman's joke, or a warning about the ridge ahead, or — given the Chan poem sitting at the head of this chapter — the plainest doctrinal statement in the episode: what the monk is going to fetch he has already been given, and it lies behind him.
Sanzang said nothing aloud, but pondered within: "The Bodhisattva pointed me west. How comes this old man to tell me to go east?
口中不語，意下沉吟 is the novel's standard way of marking thought rather than speech. The monk's reasoning is completely literal. It does not cross his mind that 東 might mean anything other than a compass bearing.
Where in the east should there be scriptures?" Abashed, he could not bring himself to speak, and for a good while made no answer.
那得有經 — question-word again, nǎ dé, "how should there be." 靦腆難言, "embarrassed and unable to speak," takes 難 as nán. Into this awkward silence, in the next passage, steps the monkey.
A scene of almost documentary quietness: a bamboo couch, a rain-hat patted into shape, an old man telling his beads in the shade. The Tang Monk behaves impeccably — he drops his voice, uses the correct greeting, calls the house a 檀府 — and gets an answer that stops him dead. 去不得，西天難取經。要取經，往東天去罷。 You cannot go. There are no scriptures in the West. If you want scriptures, go east.
The line is doing more than one job. On the surface it is preparing the reader for Yellow Wind Ridge, whose reputation has evidently reached this farmyard. But set it beside 既然皆己心，何用別人說 from the poem a few pages back, and the old man's advice to go east becomes the chapter's second statement of the same doctrine — delivered this time by a man in a bamboo chair rather than by a narrator in verse. The monk hears only geography. He is 靦腆難言, embarrassed and wordless, and it never occurs to him that he has been answered.