計議招贅 The Disciples Scheme
悟淨道：「二哥，你在他家做個女婿罷。」八戒道：「兄弟，不要栽人，從長計較。」行者道：「計較甚的？你要肯，便就教師父與那婦人做個親家，你就做個倒踏門的女婿。他家這等有財有寶，一定倒陪妝奩，整治個會親的筵席，我們也落些受用，你在此間還俗，卻不是兩全其美？」八戒道：「話便也是這等說，卻只是我脫俗又還俗，停妻再娶妻了。」悟净道：「二哥，你在他家做个女婿罢。」八戒道：「兄弟，不要栽人，从长计较。」行者道：「计较甚的？你要肯，便就教师父与那妇人做个亲家，你就做个倒踏门的女婿。他家这等有财有宝，一定倒陪妆奁，整治个会亲的筵席，我们也落些受用，你在此间还俗，却不是两全其美？」八戒道：「话便也是这等说，却只是我脱俗又还俗，停妻再娶妻了。」
逐句解 Line by line
Wujing said, "Second brother — you be the son-in-law in her house."
二哥, second elder brother, is what Sha Monk calls Bajie by seniority. 女婿 is son-in-law. And so the disciples begin quietly arranging their brother's marriage for him.
Bajie said, "Brother, don't go foisting it on me — let's weigh it at leisure."
栽人 again, to pin it on somebody, and 從長計較 again, weigh it at leisure, with 長 as cháng, long — not the zhǎng of 家長, head of household. He has now used the identical stalling formula twice in two scenes. A man who meant no would have said no.
Pilgrim said, "Weigh what?"
計較甚的, reckon what? — with 甚 as shén, standing for 什, what.
"If you're willing, we'll just have the Master and the woman become in-laws, and you become a married-in son-in-law."
親家 is the relationship between two families joined by a marriage, a word English has no equivalent for. 倒踏門的女婿, a son-in-law who steps in backwards, is the everyday term for a man who marries into his wife's house — the arrangement the widow proposed. 教 is the causative jiào.
"A house so rich in wealth and treasure will surely furnish a dowry besides, and lay on a wedding-feast; we too would come in for some good cheer, and you would return to lay life here — would that not be a thing perfect on both sides?"
倒陪妝奩 is to supply a dowry in return, 妝奩 being the bride's trousseau; 會親 is the two families meeting as in-laws, and the 筵席 is the banquet at which they do it. 還俗 reads 還 as the verb huán, to return. And 兩全其美, perfect on both sides, is still in daily use — usually, as here, by somebody talking you into something.
Bajie said, "That's all very well to say — only, having left the world and then returned to it, I'd be keeping one wife and taking another."
And out it comes. 脫俗又還俗, quit the world and re-enter it, with 還 again huán. 停妻再娶妻 is to keep one wife while marrying another, which is to say bigamy. Bajie's objection is not that the marriage would break his vows. It is that it would be his second. He has just told his brothers something they did not know.
With the household shut against them, the scene turns to the disciples' own scheming, and the target is Bajie. Wujing floats the idea, Wukong seizes it, and between them they sketch a whole arrangement: Tripitaka and the widow as in-laws, Bajie as the son-in-law who moves in, a dowry, a wedding feast, and a share of the good cheer for everybody else.
The mischief is characteristic of Wukong, who has read Bajie exactly and now dangles the thing in front of him under cover of brotherly helpfulness. The proposal is only half a joke. It offers Bajie precisely what his fretting has already shown he wants, and it lets the others stand back and watch whether he takes it.
He half takes it. His objection is not that the marriage would break his vows but that it would be bigamy — keeping one wife and taking another — which is an admission, blurted almost against his will, that there is a wife waiting at Gao Village. The slip hands Wukong his cue, and the passage ends poised for the exposure that follows.