替師受責 Taking the Master's Blame
大仙又吩咐道：「還該打三藏訓教不嚴，縱放頑徒撒潑。」那仙又掄鞭來打。行者道：「先生又差了。偷果子時，我師父不知，他在殿上與你二童講話，是我兄弟們做的勾當。縱是有教訓不嚴之罪，我為弟子的也當替打，再打我罷。」大仙道：「這潑猴，雖是狡猾奸頑，卻倒也有些孝意。大仙又吩咐道：「还该打三藏训教不严，纵放顽徒撒泼。」那仙又抡鞭来打。行者道：「先生又差了。偷果子时，我师父不知，他在殿上与你二童讲话，是我兄弟们做的勾当。纵是有教训不严之罪，我为弟子的也当替打，再打我罢。」大仙道：「这泼猴，虽是狡猾奸顽，却倒也有些孝意。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Immortal further directed: "Sanzang should also be beaten, for teaching his charges so laxly and letting his wild pupil run riot."
The second charge, and a real one: he is being beaten as a teacher, not as a thief. 訓教不嚴, xùn jiào bù yán, "lax in instruction," with 教 as jiào. 縱放頑徒撒潑, zòng fàng wán tú sā pō, letting an unruly pupil run wild — 撒潑 is throwing your weight about, making a scene.
That immortal again raised the whip to strike.
And the whip comes up again, this time over the master.
The Pilgrim said, "Sir, you are wrong again.
先生又差了, "sir, wrong again" — the same opening as before, and by now almost a routine between them.
"When the fruit was stolen, my master did not know of it—he was on the hall talking with your two lads; it was we brothers' doing.
The alibi is precise and it is true. Sanzang was in the hall making conversation with the two attendants while the theft was going on next door; he learned of it only when he was accused. 果子 takes the toneless suffix 子, zi; 勾當 takes 當 as dàng.
"Even were there a fault of lax instruction, I, being the disciple, ought to take the beating in his stead—beat me again."
And then the real argument, which is not about the facts at all. Even granting the charge of lax teaching, says Wukong, a pupil should take a pupil's punishment. 我為弟子的 takes 為 as wéi, "being, acting as," and 弟子 the full noun 子, zǐ. 也當替打 has 當 as dāng, "ought to." 再打我罷 — beat me again.
The Great Immortal said, "This brazen monkey—cunning and stubborn as he is, he has, after all, some filial feeling.
The verdict, and it is a good one. 狡猾奸頑, jiǎo huá jiān wán, crafty and stubborn — four characters of well-earned insult. Then 卻倒也有些孝意, "and yet, if anything, some filial feeling in him," with 倒 as dào, "actually, contrary to expectation." 孝 is the great Confucian virtue of duty to a parent, and applying it to a monkey and his teacher is exactly the transposition the pilgrimage keeps making.
Wukong intervenes twice and the second time is the better one, because the charge is harder to answer. The first accusation — theft — was simply misdirected. This one, that Sanzang taught his disciples badly and let them run wild, is not obviously wrong, and Wukong does not pretend it is. He argues instead that if a pupil's conduct is the charge, the pupil should take the punishment.
The Great Immortal's response is the turn the whole confrontation has been waiting for. 狡猾奸頑，卻倒也有些孝意 — crafty and stubborn, and yet with some filial feeling in him after all. It is grudging, accurate and almost warm, and it changes what he is: not an enemy any more, but something closer to an examiner who has spotted an unexpected mark in a bad paper.
The word he chooses matters. 孝, filial duty, belongs to sons and fathers, not to disciples and teachers; using it here quietly promotes the pilgrimage from a working arrangement into a family. The rest of the novel takes that promotion seriously.