大仙饒放 The Great Immortal Relents
大仙大怒道：「這個潑猴，著然無禮，教他當面做了手腳。你走了便罷，怎麼又搗了我的灶？這潑猴枉自也拿他不住；就拿住他，也似摶砂弄汞，捉影捕風。罷，罷，罷，饒他去罷。且將唐三藏解下，另換新鍋，把他扎一扎，與人參樹報報仇罷。」那小仙真個動手，拆解布漆。大仙大怒道：「这个泼猴，着然无礼，教他当面做了手脚。你走了便罢，怎么又捣了我的灶？这泼猴枉自也拿他不住；就拿住他，也似抟砂弄汞，捉影捕风。罢，罢，罢，饶他去罢。且将唐三藏解下，另换新锅，把他扎一扎，与人参树报报仇罢。」那小仙真个动手，拆解布漆。
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Immortal flew into a great rage: "This brazen monkey—truly without manners, playing a trick right to my face.
And now, finally, he loses his temper. 著然無禮, zhuó rán wú lǐ, "downright ill-mannered," where 著然 means "really, truly" — compare 著實, which survives in modern Chinese in the same sense. 當面做了手腳, played a trick to my face, with 當 as dāng. The complaint is about manners, which is very much this character.
"You had run off, and that would have been that—but why did you go and wreck my stove besides?
搗了我的灶, wrecked my stove. Escaping he could have lived with; the kitchen is another matter.
"This brazen monkey—one cannot hold him for nothing; and even if one seized him, it would be like moulding sand or working quicksilver, catching a shadow or seizing the wind.
Four images for the same impossibility, and they are worth taking one at a time. 摶砂, tuán shā, is trying to knead dry sand into a ball; 弄汞, nòng gǒng, is handling quicksilver, which scatters the moment you touch it — and both are terms from alchemy, so the master is reaching for his own trade. 捉影捕風, catching shadows and seizing wind, is the pair that has survived into modern Chinese, usually in the order 捕風捉影, where it means basing an accusation on nothing at all. 枉自, wǎng zì, is "all for nothing."
"Enough, enough, enough—let him go.
罷，罷，罷 — enough, enough, enough. Three times, like Wukong's triple 好, and meaning the opposite: a man giving something up.
"Just unbind Tang Sanzang, change to a new cauldron, and give him a scalding, to avenge my ginseng tree."
Except that he is not giving up, he is switching targets. 扎, zhā, is to plunge something into liquid; with a cauldron in the frame it means to put the master in the oil. 另換新鍋, fetch a new pot — the practicality is the horrible part. 與人參樹報報仇 doubles the verb to make it sound almost casual, with 參 as shēn.
That little immortal set to it in earnest and began to strip off the cloth and lacquer.
真個動手, actually set to work. 拆解布漆, breaking the cloth and lacquer open — which means they will have to be cut off Sanzang's body.
The rage, when it finally arrives, is not about the tree or the escape. It is about the stove. 你走了便罷，怎麼又搗了我的灶 — you had got away, and that would have been that, but why wreck my kitchen as well? A Patriarch of the Earthly Immortals, sounding like a man who has come home to a flooded bathroom.
His four images for Wukong's slipperiness make a small anthology of the impossible: kneading sand, handling quicksilver, catching shadows, seizing wind. Two of them are alchemist's terms, which is his own trade, and the last pair is still in daily use in the form 捕風捉影, for an accusation with nothing behind it. It is an admiring lament, and it concedes that he cannot win.
And then he does the one thing that guarantees the monkey comes back. If he cannot boil the disciple, he will boil the master — new cauldron, cut the lacquer off, start again. The small immortals set to work, and up in the clouds someone is listening.