八戒懺悔 Bajie Repents
那八戒撮土焚香，望空禮拜。行者道：「你可認得那些菩薩麼？」八戒道：「我已此暈倒昏迷，眼花撩亂，那認得是誰？」行者把那簡帖兒遞與八戒。八戒見了是頌子，更加慚愧。沙僧笑道：「二哥有這般好處哩，感得四位菩薩來與你做親。」八戒道：「兄弟再莫題起，不當人子了。從今後，再也不敢妄為。就是累折骨頭，也只是摩肩壓擔，隨師父西域去也。」三藏道：「既如此說才是。」那八戒撮土焚香，望空礼拜。行者道：「你可认得那些菩萨么？」八戒道：「我已此晕倒昏迷，眼花撩乱，那认得是谁？」行者把那简帖儿递与八戒。八戒见了是颂子，更加惭愧。沙僧笑道：「二哥有这般好处哩，感得四位菩萨来与你做亲。」八戒道：「兄弟再莫题起，不当人子了。从今后，再也不敢妄为。就是累折骨头，也只是摩肩压担，随师父西域去也。」三藏道：「既如此说才是。」
逐句解 Line by line
That Bājiè scooped up earth for incense and bowed toward the empty sky.
撮土焚香 (cuō tǔ fén xiāng) = to pinch up dirt in lieu of incense and burn it — an improvised act of reverence toward the departed bodhisattvas.
Pilgrim said, “Do you know now who those Bodhisattvas were?”
認得 (rèn·de): the ‘recognize’ sense takes the light resultative 得 (de), not dé.
Bājiè said, “By then I had swooned away, dazed and reeling, my eyes all in a blur — how should I know who they were?”
那認得 (nǎ rèn·de): here 那 stands for 哪 (‘how / wherever would I…’), interrogative nǎ, not the demonstrative nà.
Pilgrim handed Bājiè that slip of paper.
簡帖兒 (jiǎntiěr) = the note left behind by the four saints, 兒 (er) suffix.
Bājiè saw it was a set of verses, and grew more ashamed still.
頌子 (sòngzi) = a gāthā / hymn-stanza, 子 the diminutive suffix; 更加 (gèngjiā) ‘all the more.’
Sha Monk said with a smile, “So Second Brother has this to his credit — he moved four Bodhisattvas to come and make a match with him!”
感得 (gǎn·de) = to move / prevail upon (someone to do something), 得 the resultative de.
Bājiè said, “Brothers, raise it no more — I am no fit son of man. From this day on I shall never again run wild.
不當人子 (bù dàng rén zǐ) is an oath of self-reproach — ‘not fit to be counted a human son.’ 當 (dàng) = ‘count / reckon as’; the following 不 (bú) takes the fourth-tone sandhi before it. 人子 read as the noun 子 (zǐ) (‘son of man’); flagged as a judgment call.
Even should I wear my bones to splinters, I will only shoulder the load and follow Master west.
妄為 (wàng wéi) = to act recklessly; 為 (wéi) here is ‘to act / do,’ not the wèi of ‘for the sake of.’
so I will only rub my shoulders raw beneath the carrying-pole and follow Master to the Western Realm.”
壓擔 (yā dàn): the load itself, noun 擔 (dàn) (not the verb dān ‘to carry’). 西域 (Xīyù) = the Western Regions.
Tripiṭaka said, “If you speak so, that is well.”
三藏 (Sānzàng) = Tripiṭaka, Xuánzàng’s title, always 藏 (zàng).
Freed and humiliated, Bājiè performs a makeshift rite of contrition and confesses that during the trial he was too far gone in his swoon to recognize the bodhisattvas at all. Pilgrim and Sha Monk press the joke — the note of verses is produced as evidence — until Bājiè swears the oath 不當人子, the vernacular self-curse of one who has behaved shamefully.
His vow to ‘shoulder the load and follow Master west, even should his bones wear to splinters’ marks a small turning: the glutton who was ready to abandon the quest for a bride now rededicates himself to the pilgrimage. Tripiṭaka’s curt approval closes the episode without sentiment, in keeping with the master’s habitual restraint.
The passage turns on a cluster of polyphone rulings — 認得／感得 with the light 得 (de), the interrogative 那 = 哪 in 那認得, 當 = dàng in the oath (with its knock-on 不 sandhi), 為 = wéi in 妄為, and the noun-load 擔 = dàn.