太白金星之恩 The Debt to the Planet Venus
行者執了帖兒，轉身下路。八戒道：「哥啊，我們連日造化低了，這兩日白日裡見鬼。那個化風去的老兒是誰？」行者把帖兒遞與八戒，念了一遍道：「李長庚是那個？」行者道：「是西方太白金星的名號。」八戒慌得望空下拜道：「恩人，恩人，老豬若不虧金星奏准玉帝啊，性命也不知化作甚的了。」行者道：「兄弟，你卻也知感恩。但莫要出頭，只藏在這樹林深處，仔細看守行李、馬匹。等老孫尋須彌山，請菩薩去耶。」八戒道：「曉得，曉得，你只管快快前去。老豬學得個烏龜法，得縮頭時且縮頭。」行者执了帖儿，转身下路。八戒道：「哥啊，我们连日造化低了，这两日白日里见鬼。那个化风去的老儿是谁？」行者把帖儿递与八戒，念了一遍道：「李长庚是那个？」行者道：「是西方太白金星的名号。」八戒慌得望空下拜道：「恩人，恩人，老猪若不亏金星奏准玉帝啊，性命也不知化作甚的了。」行者道：「兄弟，你却也知感恩。但莫要出头，只藏在这树林深处，仔细看守行李、马匹。等老孙寻须弥山，请菩萨去耶。」八戒道：「晓得，晓得，你只管快快前去。老猪学得个乌龟法，得缩头时且缩头。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim took up the slip and turned back down the road. Said Bajie, "Brother, our luck has been low these several days running. Twice now in broad daylight we have seen ghosts.
帖兒 ends in the small er. 造化低, "our luck is low." 白日裡見鬼 — seeing ghosts in broad daylight: the farmstead that vanished and now the old man who vanished, and Bajie is filing them both under hauntings.
Who was that old man who went off as the wind?" The Pilgrim handed him the slip, and when he had read it through once, Bajie said, "And who is Li Changgeng?"
Two readings of 那, positionally fixed: 那個化風去的老兒 is the pointing nà, 李長庚是那個 the questioning nǎ. Note what this tells us — Bajie can read the verse perfectly well. He simply does not recognise the name.
Said the Pilgrim, "That is the style and title of the Planet Venus, the Great White Star of the West."
太白金星 is the Great White Star of Gold, which is Venus; 名號 is a person's style and title. The Pilgrim supplies the identification without a word of comment, having recognised his old advocate on sight.
Bajie was so alarmed that he bowed down toward the empty sky. "Benefactor! Benefactor!
慌得 hangs its result on de. Bajie bows to an empty sky, which — for a planet — is the correct address.
Had old Hog not been beholden to the Star of Gold for pleading his case before the Jade Emperor, he does not know what he would have been turned into, life and all."
奏准玉帝, to submit a memorial and have it approved by the Jade Emperor. It was the Planet Venus who twice proposed that heaven pardon Sun Wukong and give him a post rather than fight him; and now Bajie lets slip that the same official interceded for Marshal Tianpeng as well. 化作甚的了: 甚 is shén, "what."
Said the Pilgrim, "Little brother, it seems you know a debt when you owe one. But do not show yourself. Hide in the deep of this wood, and keep close watch over the baggage and the horse.
你卻也知感恩, "so you do know gratitude after all" — the Pilgrim's compliments always arrive with a barb in them. 藏 is cáng again, and this is the second time in the passage that somebody is told to make himself scarce.
Let old Monkey go and find Mount Sumeru, and ask the Bodhisattva to come."
請菩薩去耶 — the sentence-final 耶 is literary and faintly grand, and the Pilgrim reaches for it because he is about to go and call on a bodhisattva.
Said Bajie, "I understand, I understand. Only go, and go quickly. Old Hog has learnt the tortoise's art: when it is time to pull the head in, he pulls it in."
Four 得 in a single line, in two readings, so the site needs a positional fixspec: 曉得 twice is the result-hanging de, while 學得 and 得縮頭 are the attainment and ability dé. 得縮頭時且縮頭 is a proverb — when it is time to pull your head in, pull it in — and Bajie is quoting it about himself with complete satisfaction.
Bajie bows to the empty air, and in doing so gives away a piece of his own history the novel has never told us. When Marshal Tianpeng was hauled up before the Jade Emperor for his drunken assault on Chang'e, it was the Planet Venus who spoke for him — as he had already spoken twice for Sun Wukong. Two of the three pilgrims on this road owe their lives to the same civil servant, and neither of them has ever mentioned it.
The Pilgrim's reply is entirely characteristic: 你卻也知感恩, so you do know gratitude after all — followed immediately by an order to go and hide in the trees. And Bajie, who takes no offence at either, agrees with a proverb about tortoises. He is the only character in this book who can be insulted and be right in the same breath.