揭破前情 Bajie's Past Exposed
沙僧道：「二哥原來是有嫂子的？」行者道：「你還不知他哩。他本是烏斯藏高老兒莊高太公的女婿，因被老孫降了。他也曾受菩薩戒行，沒及奈何，被我捉他來做個和尚，所以棄了前妻，投師父往西拜佛。他想是離別的久了，又想起那個勾當，卻才聽見這個勾當，斷然又有此心。獃子，你與這家子做了女婿罷，只是多拜老孫幾拜，我不檢舉你就罷了。」那獃子道：「胡說，胡說。大家都有此心，獨拿老豬出醜。常言道：『和尚是色中餓鬼。』那個不要如此？都這們扭扭捏捏的拿班兒，把好事都弄得裂了，致如今茶水不得見面，燈火也無人管。雖熬了這一夜，但那匹馬明日又要馱人，又要走路，再若餓上這一夜，只好剝皮罷了。你們坐著，等老豬去放放馬來。」沙僧道：「二哥原来是有嫂子的？」行者道：「你还不知他哩。他本是乌斯藏高老儿庄高太公的女婿，因被老孙降了。他也曾受菩萨戒行，没及奈何，被我捉他来做个和尚，所以弃了前妻，投师父往西拜佛。他想是离别的久了，又想起那个勾当，却才听见这个勾当，断然又有此心。呆子，你与这家子做了女婿罢，只是多拜老孙几拜，我不检举你就罢了。」那呆子道：「胡说，胡说。大家都有此心，独拿老猪出丑。常言道：『和尚是色中饿鬼。』那个不要如此？都这们扭扭捏捏的拿班儿，把好事都弄得裂了，致如今茶水不得见面，灯火也无人管。虽熬了这一夜，但那匹马明日又要驮人，又要走路，再若饿上这一夜，只好剥皮罢了。你们坐著，等老猪去放放马来。」
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk said, “So second brother has a sister-in-law after all?”
嫂子 “elder brother's wife, sister-in-law,” 子 the suffix zi. Sha Monk's startled question draws out the story of Bajie's former marriage.
Pilgrim said, “You still don't know about him.”
行者 xíng zhě. 你還不知他 — 還 here the adverb hái (“still”), distinct from the verb huán (還俗) above.
“He was originally the son-in-law of Squire Gao of the Gao Family Village, in Ulterior Tibet, until old Monkey subdued him.”
烏斯藏 (Wūsīzàng), Ulterior Tibet (dBus-gTsang) — a place-name, so 藏 reads zàng, not the verb cáng. 高老兒莊 the Gao Family Village (the episode of chapters 18–19). 降了 “subdued him,” 降 here xiáng (“to subjugate, make submit”), not jiàng (“descend”).
“He too had once received the Bodhisattva's precepts and discipline; there being no help for it, I seized him and made a monk of him, so that he forsook his former wife and joined the Master to go west and worship the Buddha.”
戒行 “the moral discipline of the precepts,” 行 xíng. 沒及奈何 “there being nothing to be done about it.” 棄了前妻 “abandoned his former wife”; 拜佛, 佛 fó.
“He must be that, parted so long, he has thought again of that old business; and hearing of this business just now, he has surely conceived the same intent afresh.”
勾當 (gòudàng) “affair, doings” — here with a lewd undertone, “that business”; 當 reads dàng. 那個…這個 “that one… this one,” 那 nà. 斷然 “assuredly, without a doubt.”
“Blockhead, go be this family's son-in-law then — only make old Monkey a few extra bows, and I won't report you, and there's an end of it.”
獃子 (獃子, 子 the suffix zi) “dolt.” 這家子 “this household” (家子, 子 again the suffix zi). 檢舉 “to inform on, expose.” Wukong needles Bajie, offering complicity for a price.
The blockhead said, “Nonsense, nonsense!”
那獃子 nà (獃子, 子 zi). 胡說 “rubbish, talking wildly.” Bajie protests — but the protest will collapse into self-betrayal.
“Everyone has the same mind — yet you single out old Pig to make a fool of.”
大家都有此心 “everyone harbors this thought,” 都 dōu. 出醜 “to be made a laughingstock.” Bajie's defense — that all four secretly want it — is itself an admission.
“As the common saying has it: ‘A monk is a hungry ghost amid lust.’”
色中餓鬼 “a hungry ghost in the midst of lust,” 中 here zhōng (“within, amid”); 餓鬼 (preta) a Buddhist realm of insatiable craving. The proverb impugns all monks — and excuses Bajie.
“Which of them doesn't want it so?”
那個 “which one,” 那 nà. The rhetorical question generalizes Bajie's own desire onto the whole company.
“You all put on such simpering, coy airs that you've torn the good thing clean apart — so that now not even tea-water is to be seen, and no one tends the lamps.”
扭扭捏捏 “bashful, mincing, coy”; 拿班兒 “to put on airs, strike a pose.” 弄得裂了 “handled it until it split,” 得 resultative de; 不得見面 “cannot be met with,” 得 again de. 都 dōu (×2).
“Even if we get through tonight, tomorrow that horse must carry a rider again and travel the road; and if it goes hungry another night, it will be fit only to be skinned.”
熬了這一夜 “to endure this night through.” 那匹馬 nà. 餓上這一夜 “to go hungry (for) this night,” 上 the complement. 剝皮 “to flay” — Bajie's excuse of the horse's welfare for going out.
“You sit here — old Pig will go and graze the horse a while.”
坐著 “stay seated,” 著 the durative zhe. 放放馬 “to let the horse graze (a bit),” the reduplicated verb. The pretext under which Bajie slips off after the widow.
Sha Monk's innocent question — a sister-in-law? — lets Wukong unfold Bajie's whole history: the son-in-law of Squire Gao of the Gao Family Village in Ulterior Tibet, subdued by Monkey, converted to the precepts, and taken west only by forsaking his wife. The recapitulation ties the present temptation directly to the episode of chapters eighteen and nineteen, and explains why, of the four, it is Bajie the offer of a bride so unsettles.
Wukong's diagnosis is shrewd and unsparing: parted so long from his wife, Bajie has brooded on “that old business,” and the widow's offer has rekindled it. The needling that follows — go be her son-in-law, only bow to me and I won't tell — is Monkey at his most mischievous, dressing exposure as indulgence and daring Bajie to admit what everyone can see.
Cornered, Bajie defends himself by the worst possible argument. The proverb he cites — that every monk is “a hungry ghost amid lust” — universalizes his craving rather than denying it, and his complaint that the others' prudish “airs” have cost them supper only confirms where his own heart lies. His parting excuse, that the horse must be grazed, is the flimsy cover under which he goes to seek the widow — and the trap, sprung on his appetite, begins to close.