叮囑大仙 Parting Instructions
你看他急整虎皮裙,出門來對大仙道:「先生放心,我就去就來。你卻要好生伏侍我師父,逐日家三茶六飯,不可欠缺;若少了些兒,老孫回來和你算帳,先搗塌你的鍋底。衣服禳了,與他漿洗漿洗。臉兒黃了些兒,我不要;若瘦了些兒,不出門。」那大仙道:「你去,你去,定不教他忍餓。」你看他急整虎皮裙,出门来对大仙道:「先生放心,我就去就来。你却要好生伏侍我师父,逐日家三茶六饭,不可欠缺;若少了些儿,老孙回来和你算帐,先捣塌你的锅底。衣服禳了,与他浆洗浆洗。脸儿黄了些儿,我不要;若瘦了些儿,不出门。」那大仙道:「你去,你去,定不教他忍饿。」
逐句解 Line by line
Watch him now: he hastily straightened his tiger-skin kilt, came out at the gate, and said to the Great Immortal, "Set your mind at rest, sir — I go, and I return.
你看他, watch him now, is the storyteller talking over the action to his listeners -- a reminder that this novel began life as something performed aloud. 虎皮裙 is the tiger-skin kilt Wukong has worn since his mountain days. 就去就來 is I'll go and be straight back.
But you must serve my master well — three teas and six meals a day, every day, with nothing wanting; and if the least bit is short, old Monkey will settle accounts with you when he returns, and stave in the bottom of your cauldron first of all.
好生伏侍 is to wait on somebody properly. 三茶六飯, three teas and six meals, is a set phrase for hospitality laid on without stint -- full board with extras. 算帳, settle the account, is still exactly what a Chinese speaker says when threatening to get even. Wukong uses it in mock menace and then ruins the effect by adding a threat about the cooking pot.
When his clothes are soiled, starch and wash them for him.
禳 (ráng) normally belongs to exorcism, but here it is doing colloquial duty for grimy or soiled, standing in for 穰. 漿洗 is to starch and wash; doubling it conveys doing the job thoroughly.
Let his face grow the least bit sallow, and I'll not have it; let him lose the least bit of flesh, and you shall not stir from your gate."
The line is built out of 些兒 (xiē er), the least little bit, repeated until the fussing itself becomes the joke -- not an ounce off him, not a shade of colour. 不出門, you shall not leave the house, is Wukong sentencing an immortal patriarch to be grounded. The 兒 is the toneless er.
The Great Immortal said, "Go, go — I will surely not let him go hungry."
定不教他忍餓, I certainly will not let him go hungry. 教 is jiào here, the reading that means to let or make someone do a thing. Zhenyuan is humouring him, in the tone of a host who has worked out that the shortest road to peace is agreement.
This short scene is pure comedy of character. Wukong, having just got the pilgrims released, cannot resist a parting torrent of household instructions -- three teas and six meals, the laundry starched, his master's face on no account to be allowed to go sallow -- punctuated by threats to settle accounts and stave in the cooking pot. The bluster is affectionate as much as fierce. For all his combativeness, Monkey's care for Tripitaka is real, and here it comes out as nagging.
The storyteller's aside, watch him now, breaks the frame in the manner of the marketplace reciters the novel descends from, inviting the audience to enjoy the spectacle. The Immortal's weary, doubled Go, go is the perfect answer -- a host resigned to an impossible guest, and a small sign that the enmity between them is already softening into something like domestic comedy.