太乙散仙 A Scattered Immortal of Great Unity
眾仙道：「那和尚打你來？」明月道：「不曾打，只是把我們人參樹打倒了。」大仙聞言，更不惱怒，道：「莫哭，莫哭。你不知那姓孫的也是個太乙散仙，也曾大鬧天宮，神通廣大。既然打倒了寶樹，你可認得那些和尚？」清風道：「都認得。」大仙道：「既認得，都跟我來。──眾徒弟們，都收拾下刑具，等我回來打他。」眾仙領命。众仙道：「那和尚打你来？」明月道：「不曾打，只是把我们人参树打倒了。」大仙闻言，更不恼怒，道：「莫哭，莫哭。你不知那姓孙的也是个太乙散仙，也曾大闹天宫，神通广大。既然打倒了宝树，你可认得那些和尚？」清风道：「都认得。」大仙道：「既认得，都跟我来。──众徒弟们，都收拾下刑具，等我回来打他。」众仙领命。
逐句解 Line by line
The immortals asked, "Did the monk beat you?"
The company still imagines an ordinary assault. 那和尚打你來, "did that monk hit you?" — they have not begun to guess.
Bright Moon said, "There was no beating—only, he knocked our ginseng-fruit tree down."
And the answer redirects everything. Not us, the tree. 人參樹 takes 參 as shēn; 打倒了 takes 倒 as dǎo, "toppled."
The Great Immortal, hearing it, grew no angrier, but said, "Do not weep, do not weep.
更不惱怒, gèng bù nǎo nù — "grew no angrier" — is the most surprising phrase in the chapter, and it is placed with care: the news arrives, and the temperature drops. 莫哭, don't cry.
"You do not know that this fellow surnamed Sun is himself a Scattered Immortal of the Great Unity—he once made great havoc in the Palace of Heaven, and his powers are vast and far-reaching.
The master identifies his adversary the way a specialist identifies a rare bird. 太乙散仙, tài yǐ sǎn xiān, is a "Scattered Immortal of the Great Unity": an immortal with real power and no post in the celestial civil service, unranked and unattached — freelance, in effect. 散 here is sǎn, "loose, scattered," not the verb sàn, "to disperse." 大鬧天宮, dà nào tiān gōng, "the great uproar in the Palace of Heaven," is the name of Wukong's rebellion and the most famous episode in the novel. 神通廣大, shén tōng guǎng dà, vast and far-reaching powers, is still the phrase for somebody with impossible connections and the ability to get anything done.
"Since he has felled the treasure-tree, can you recognise those monks?"
Only now, having placed his opponent, does he ask the practical question. 既然打倒了寶樹 takes 倒 as dǎo; 認得 takes the toneless 得, de.
Clear Wind said, "We know them all."
Three words. They are the only witnesses, and they are enough.
The Great Immortal said, "Since you know them, come with me, all of you.
既認得, "since you know them," and the pursuit is settled.
"—And you disciples, all of you make ready the instruments of punishment, and wait for me to come back and beat him."
The chilling part is the housekeeping. 刑具, xíng jù, are instruments of punishment — ordered up before he has left, so that they will be waiting when he comes back with the prisoners. He has not raised his voice once.
The immortals received the command.
領命, lǐng mìng, to receive an order — the house closes ranks behind him.
This is the chapter's pivot, and it turns on a single phrase: 更不惱怒, "he grew no angrier." The boys have shrieked, wept and called the pilgrims robbers; the master hears that his irreplaceable tree is down and becomes calmer. Everyone who has met a genuinely dangerous person will recognise the effect.
What he does instead of raging is identify the opponent. A 太乙散仙 — an unranked immortal of the Great Unity, with no post and no supervisor — who once turned Heaven upside down and could not be caught. It is spoken with something close to professional interest, and it tells the boys, and the reader, that the abbey is not dealing with a thief.
Then the orders, in the flattest possible sequence: recognise them, come with me, get the instruments of punishment ready for when I return. The sentence is passed before the accused have been found. Against Sanzang's worried talk of lawsuits a few passages ago, this is what real authority sounds like — and there is no court in it at all.