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。你们坐着，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, takes 子 as the light suffix zi. Sha Monk's startled question is the innocent one that opens the floor.
Pilgrim said, "You still don't know about him."
你還不知他 — 還 here is the adverb hái, still, as against the verb huán, to return, that ran through the last passage. Wukong has been waiting for this.
"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) is dBus-gTsang, the Ü-Tsang region of central Tibet — Ulterior Tibet in older European usage. Because it is a place-name, 藏 reads zàng and not the verb cáng, to hide. 高老兒莊 is the Gao Family Village of chapters eighteen and nineteen. 降了, subdued him, reads 降 as xiáng, to make submit — not jiàng, to descend, which the same character takes elsewhere in this chapter.
"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 discipline of the precepts, reads 行 as xíng. 沒及奈何 is there being nothing to be done about it; 棄了前妻, abandoned his former wife. 拜佛 takes 佛 as fó. Wukong is being scrupulously accurate, which is what makes it so damaging.
"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 (gòu dàng) means an affair or a piece of business, and it carries a leer — that business, with 當 as dàng. 那個 and 這個, that one and this one, take 那 as nà. 斷然 is assuredly, beyond doubt. The diagnosis is unkind and entirely correct.
"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 and 這家子 both take 子 as the light suffix zi. 檢舉 is to inform on somebody, to report them. Wukong is offering to keep quiet in exchange for a few extra bows — needling dressed up as a favour.
The blockhead said, "Nonsense, nonsense!"
胡說, talking nonsense, wildly. The protest is loud. What follows it is not a denial.
"Everyone has the same mind — yet you single out old Pig to make a fool of."
大家都有此心, everybody has the same thought, with 都 as dōu; 出醜, to be made a laughing-stock. Listen to the defence he has chosen: not that he does not want it, but that the others want it too.
"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, reads 中 as zhōng, within. A 餓鬼 is a preta, one of the Buddhist rebirths — a being with an enormous belly and a throat like a needle, forever eating and never fed. It is a savage image to reach for, and Bajie reaches for it to describe every monk alive, himself included.
"Which of them doesn't want it so?"
那個, which one, with 那 as nà. The rhetorical question spreads his own appetite over 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 is bashful and mincing; 拿班兒 is to put on airs, to strike a pose. 弄得裂了, handled it until it split, takes the light de; so does 不得見面, cannot even be met with. 都 is dōu, twice. Their prudery, he complains, has cost everybody supper.
"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, get through this night. 餓上這一夜, go hungry for this night, with 上 as the completing tail; 剝皮, to flay. He has found a reason to go outside, and the reason is the horse's welfare. Nobody believes him.
"You sit here — old Pig will go and graze the horse a while."
坐著 takes the running 著 (zhe). 放放馬, doubling the verb, is the ordinary way Chinese softens an action into just-a-quick-something — go graze the horse a bit. It is the flimsiest possible cover and he walks out under it.
Sha Monk's innocent question lets Wukong unfold the whole history: son-in-law of Squire Gao in Ü-Tsang, subdued by Monkey, brought under the precepts, and taken west only by leaving a wife behind. The recap ties this temptation directly back to chapters eighteen and nineteen, and explains why, of the four, it is Bajie whom the offer of a bride so thoroughly unsettles.
Wukong's diagnosis is shrewd and merciless: parted from her this long, Bajie has been brooding on the old business, and the widow's offer has lit it again. The needling that follows — go on, be her son-in-law, just bow to me a few extra times and I will not report you — is Monkey at his most enjoyable, dressing exposure as indulgence and daring his brother to admit what everyone can see.
Cornered, Bajie defends himself with the worst argument available. The proverb he cites, that every monk is a hungry ghost in the midst of lust, does not deny his craving; it universalises it. And his complaint that the others' prudish airs have cost them supper only confirms where his attention has been. His parting excuse about grazing the horse is the thin cover under which he goes looking for the widow — and the trap, built around his appetite, begins to close.