盡知回報 Wukong Flies Back
八戒也不放馬,將馬拉向前來。怎知孫大聖已一一盡知,他轉翅飛來,現了本相,先見唐僧道:「師父,悟能牽馬來了。」長老道:「馬若不牽,恐怕撒歡走了。」行者笑將起來,把那婦人與八戒說的勾當,從頭說了一遍,三藏也似信不信的。八戒也不放马,将马拉向前来。怎知孙大圣已一一尽知,他转翅飞来,现了本相,先见唐僧道:「师父,悟能牵马来了。」长老道:「马若不牵,恐怕撒欢走了。」行者笑将起来,把那妇人与八戒说的勾当,从头说了一遍,三藏也似信不信的。
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie, not grazing the horse at all, took the horse and led it back to the front.
將馬拉, took the horse and led it, with the handling-word jiāng. Not one mouthful of grass has been eaten.
Little did he know the Great Sage had learned it all, point by point; wheeling on his wings, Monkey flew back, resumed his true form, and going first to the Tang Monk said, "Master, Wuneng is bringing the horse."
一一盡知, knew it all, item by item. The second 一 reads yí: 盡 is fixed at jìn across this project, and a falling tone in front lifts the tone of 一, while the first 一 of the doubled pair stays yì. 現了本相, resumed his true form, takes 相 as xiàng, shape or appearance. 悟能, Awakened to Power, is Bajie's religious name — the one Guanyin gave him, and the one Wukong uses when being formally, unbearably polite.
The elder said, "If the horse weren't led, I feared it might frisk off."
撒歡 is to frisk, to kick up the heels. Tripitaka has no idea what he has just set up.
Pilgrim burst out laughing, and told over from the beginning the whole business between the woman and Bajie; Tripitaka listened as if half believing, half not.
笑將起來, broke into laughter, with 將 as the verb-tail jiāng. 勾當 (gòu dàng) is the doings, the affair. 似信不信, as if believing and not believing, takes 似 as sì. The master would rather not credit it. The reader, who watched the whole thing, knows the report is exact.
The dragonfly comes home. Having watched the entire back-gate courtship, Wukong resumes his shape and gets to Tripitaka first — with an innocent announcement, that Wuneng is bringing the horse, and then, laughing, with the whole account of what passed at the gate. Bajie meanwhile comes trudging back with a horse that has not eaten, unaware that every word he said has already been delivered.
The line 一一盡知, knew it all point by point, is the pivot of the covert test. The widow's public offer was refused to her face; Bajie's private appetite has now been witnessed in secret. The disciple who thought himself unobserved is about to be handed his own words back.
Tripitaka's reaction is beautifully understated: he listens 似信不信, half believing and half not. The master's reluctance to think the worst of his disciple is charitable and faintly comic at once — the reader has seen everything and knows Monkey's account is exact — and it lets the exposure unfold a little more slowly, at its own pace.