許醫仙樹 A Bargain to Heal the Tree
卻說那鎮元大仙用手攙著行者道：「我也知道你的本事，我也聞得你的英名，只是你今番越理欺心，縱有騰那，脫不得我手。我就和你講到西天，見了你那佛祖，也少不得還我人參果樹。你莫弄神通。」行者笑道：「你這先生，好小家子樣。若要樹活，有甚疑難？早說這話，可不省了一場爭競？」大仙道：「不爭競，我肯善自饒你！」行者道：「你解了我師父，我還你一棵活樹如何？」大仙道：「你若有此神通，醫得樹活，我與你八拜為交，結為兄弟。」行者道：「不打緊，放了他們，老孫管教還你活樹。」却说那镇元大仙用手搀着行者道：「我也知道你的本事，我也闻得你的英名，只是你今番越理欺心，纵有腾那，脱不得我手。我就和你讲到西天，见了你那佛祖，也少不得还我人参果树。你莫弄神通。」行者笑道：「你这先生，好小家子样。若要树活，有甚疑难？早说这话，可不省了一场争竞？」大仙道：「不争竞，我肯善自饶你！」行者道：「你解了我师父，我还你一棵活树如何？」大仙道：「你若有此神通，医得树活，我与你八拜为交，结为兄弟。」行者道：「不打紧，放了他们，老孙管教还你活树。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now the Great Immortal Zhenyuan took the pilgrim by the arm and said: "I know your powers well enough, and I have heard your famous name; but this time you have flouted all reason and cheated your own conscience. For all your shifting tricks, you shall not slip out of my hand.
The Immortal has Wukong by the arm, and the gesture is doing two jobs at once. 攙著 (chān zhe) is what you do to help an elder across a room, and also what you do to make sure a prisoner does not bolt. 越理欺心, to overstep reason and cheat your own heart, is the charge: not that Wukong broke a rule, but that he knew better. 騰那 is a way of writing 騰挪, the art of dodging and shifting shape; the 那 here stands in for 挪 and is read nuó, not the everyday nà.
Even were I to argue the case with you all the way to the Western Heaven, before your own Buddha-patriarch you would still have to give me back my ginseng-fruit tree.
佛祖 is the Buddha in his character as founder of the faith -- the court of final appeal. Zhenyuan is saying: take it all the way to the top and you will still lose. 還 is huán here, to give back, not the common hái, still or yet. The tree is the one debt Wukong cannot argue away.
Do not think to work your magic on me."
神通 (shén tōng) is the whole toolkit of magical power. Zhenyuan is telling him to put it away, because here it will not work.
The pilgrim laughed. "What a small-minded fellow you are, sir!
小家子樣, the manner of a small household, is a live insult still -- petty, penny-pinching, mean about money. Wukong under pressure always tries to turn the fight into banter, and here he does it by calling a cosmic patriarch cheap. The 子 is the toneless zi.
If you want the tree brought back to life, where is the difficulty?
有甚疑難 -- what's the difficulty? Bare 甚 is read shèn and simply means what. The breeziness is the point: he is about to wager the whole party's freedom on it.
Had you said so at the outset, would it not have spared us a whole bout of wrangling?"
省 (shěng) is to save or spare; 爭競 is a quarrel. Wukong is needling him -- we could have skipped the entire brawl if you had only asked.
Said the Great Immortal, "No quarrel — and would I be so ready to let you off?"
善自饒你, let you off so readily. Zhenyuan concedes something here without quite meaning to: the fight was the price of admission, and now that it has been paid they can talk terms.
The pilgrim said, "Release my master, and I will restore you a living tree — how is that?"
解 is to untie or set loose; 還 is huán again, give back. The haggling is now open and the terms are plain: four prisoners for one tree.
Said the Great Immortal, "If you have the power to heal the tree back to life, I will make you my sworn friend with eight bows, and we shall be as brothers."
八拜為交, sworn friendship made with eight bows, is an actual ceremony rather than a figure of speech -- a fixed count of prostrations that turned two unrelated men into brothers, with all the obligations that carried. 結為兄弟 completes it. 為 is wéi, to become, in both. Remember this offer: the chapter keeps it.
The pilgrim said, "That is no hard matter. Let them go, and old Monkey will see to it that you get your living tree."
不打緊, no trouble at all. 管教 is Wukong's favourite verbal tic, roughly I guarantee it -- a phrase he reaches for far more often than his record warrants. 還 is huán once more.
The chapter opens on a comic reversal. A few pages ago Zhenyuan and the Great Sage were throwing magic at one another; now the Immortal has him gripped by the arm and discovers that his prisoner is perfectly willing to help -- for a price. The stand-off collapses into haggling, and Wukong seizes the upper hand the way he always does, by treating the whole business as an absurdity: you could have said so at the start and spared us the fight.
One point is not up for negotiation. The tree must be restored. Zhenyuan brushes aside any thought of appeal -- even before your own Buddha the debt would stand -- and Wukong, for all his bluster, never once denies owing it. The bargain they strike, freedom for a cure, is the engine of everything that follows.
The offer of brotherhood is the seed of the ending. What began in theft and a brawl will finish, on the chapter's last page, in sworn kinship, and the reader can already see it coming in the Immortal's promise.