埋怨番禍 Sanzang Rebukes the Pilgrim
唐僧埋怨行者道：「你這個猴頭，番番撞禍。你偷吃了他的果子，就受他些氣兒，讓他罵幾句便也罷了，怎麼又推倒他的樹？若論這般情由，告起狀來，就是你老子做官，也說不通。」唐僧埋怨行者道：「你这个猴头，番番撞祸。你偷吃了他的果子，就受他些气儿，让他骂几句便也罢了，怎么又推倒他的树？若论这般情由，告起状来，就是你老子做官，也说不通。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Tang Monk reproached the Pilgrim: "You monkey-head, time and again you stir up disaster!
埋怨 (mányuàn) "to reproach, blame." 猴頭 (hóu tóu) "monkey-head," a scolding epithet. 番番撞禍 (fānfān zhuàng huò) "again and again to blunder into calamity."
"You stole and ate his fruit, and took some abuse for it—had you let him curse a few times, that would have been the end of it; but why must you go and topple his tree besides?
氣兒 (qìr) "a spell of abuse," with the suffix 兒 (er). 推倒 (tuī dǎo) "to push over, topple," 倒 (dǎo)—the master singles out the graver offence.
"If one weighed up the whole affair, and a suit were brought against us, then even were your own father the presiding official, there would be no talking it away."
情由 (qíngyóu) "the circumstances, the whole affair." 告起狀來 (gào qǐ zhuàng lái) "to lodge a lawsuit." 你老子做官 (nǐ lǎozi zuò guān) "were your father the magistrate"—老子 (lǎozi) "father," 子 (zi) the suffix.
The escape sequence opens with Tang Sanzang's rebuke, which draws the moral distinction the whole chapter turns on: eating the fruit and enduring the boys' abuse was a bounded, forgivable trespass, but felling the tree is an act no plea could excuse. The master frames it in legal terms—a "lawsuit" that not even a father-magistrate could argue away.