守山大神 The Mountain-Guardian
那菩薩早已看見行者來到，即命守山大神去迎。那大神出林來，叫聲：「孫悟空，那裡去？」行者擡頭喝道：「你這個熊羆，悟空可是你叫的？當初不是老孫饒了你，你已是做了黑風山的屍鬼矣。今日跟了菩薩，受了善果，居此仙山，常聽法教，你叫不得我一聲『老爺』？」那黑熊真個得了正果，在菩薩處鎮守普陀，稱為大神，是也虧了行者。他只得陪笑道：「大聖，古人云：『君子不念舊惡。』只管題他怎的？菩薩著我來迎你哩。」這行者就端肅尊誠，與大神到了紫竹林裡，參拜菩薩。那菩萨早已看见行者来到，即命守山大神去迎。那大神出林来，叫声：「孙悟空，那里去？」行者擡头喝道：「你这个熊罴，悟空可是你叫的？当初不是老孙饶了你，你已是做了黑风山的尸鬼矣。今日跟了菩萨，受了善果，居此仙山，常听法教，你叫不得我一声『老爷』？」那黑熊真个得了正果，在菩萨处镇守普陀，称为大神，是也亏了行者。他只得陪笑道：「大圣，古人云：『君子不念旧恶。』只管题他怎的？菩萨著我来迎你哩。」这行者就端肃尊诚，与大神到了紫竹林里，参拜菩萨。
逐句解 Line by line
The Bodhisattva had already seen the pilgrim coming, and at once bade the Mountain-Guardian go to meet him.
守山大神 ("the Great Guardian of the Mountain"), Guanyin’s doorkeeper on Potalaka — as the next lines reveal, none other than the Black Bear spirit Wukong once subdued.
The Guardian came out of the grove and called, “Sun Wukong — where do you think you’re going?”
那裡去 — "where are you off to?", with 那 in its interrogative reading nǎ. The challenge, from a former foe, needles Wukong’s pride.
The pilgrim looked up and barked, “You bear-brute — is ‘Wukong’ a name for the likes of you to bandy?”
熊羆 ("bear," 羆 = pí, a brown bear) is a coarse jab at the Guardian’s ursine origin; Wukong will not be hailed familiarly by one he once defeated.
“Had old Monkey not spared you at the start, you’d be a corpse-ghost of Black Wind Mountain by now.”
當初 ("at the outset," 當 = dāng); 黑風山 ("Black Wind Mountain") recalls the episode (chapter 17) in which Guanyin and Wukong subdued the Black Bear spirit and set him to guard her mountain.
“And now, following the Bodhisattva, having gained a good reward, dwelling on this immortal mountain and hearing the Dharma daily — can’t you even call me ‘sir’?”
善果 ("good fruit," a favorable outcome of karma); 叫不得 ("cannot bring [yourself] to call," 得 the potential de). Wukong stands on his seniority even here.
The Black Bear had indeed attained the true fruit, guarding Potalaka in the Bodhisattva’s service and styled a Great Guardian — and for that, in truth, he had the pilgrim to thank.
得了正果 ("attained the true fruit," 得 = dé, to attain); 稱為大神 ("styled a Great Guardian," here 為 read wéi, the copula "to be [named] as"); 虧了行者 ("owing it to the pilgrim"). The narrator notes, with quiet irony, that the Bear’s good fortune sprang from his defeat.
He could only force a smile and say, “Great Sage, the ancients had it: ‘The gentleman bears no grudge for old wrongs.’”
只得 ("could only, had no choice but," 得 = dé); 君子不念舊惡 ("the noble man does not dwell on past injuries," 子 the noun zǐ), a maxim from the 論語. The Guardian defuses the taunt with a bit of Confucian tact.
“Why keep bringing it up?”
只管 ("keep on, persist in"); 題 (= 提), "to mention, bring up." The Guardian gently deflects Wukong’s harping on the past.
“The Bodhisattva sent me to welcome you.”
著我來迎 ("dispatched me to come and greet [you]"): here 著 is the verb "to arrange, to dispatch, to command," read zhuó (廣韻 張略切, the literary reading that also underlies the edict formula 著即施行) — distinct from the aspectual zhe/zháo and from zhāo, which is reserved for the game-move and method senses (一著棋, 高著兒). The Guardian recalls Wukong to the courtesy of the moment.
At this the pilgrim composed himself into grave respect, and went with the Guardian into the purple bamboo grove to pay homage to the Bodhisattva.
端肅尊誠 ("grave, respectful, and sincere"); 紫竹林 ("the purple bamboo grove"), Guanyin’s seat on Potalaka. Wukong, so lately truculent, turns instantly reverent before the Bodhisattva.
The turn to Guanyin’s realm brings a small, satisfying grace-note: the Mountain-Guardian who challenges Wukong at the grove is the Black Bear spirit of chapter 17, whom Wukong and the Bodhisattva had subdued and set to this very post. Their exchange is prickly — the Bear needling, Wukong lording his old victory — but the narrator’s aside makes the deeper point: the Bear’s present blessedness, "the true fruit" and his station on Potalaka, is owed precisely to the defeat Wukong throws in his face. Adversity, in the novel’s karmic economy, is often the seed of grace.
The scene also displays Wukong’s two faces in quick succession. To the Bear he is all bluster and wounded seniority, demanding to be called "sir"; but the moment the Bodhisattva is invoked, he "composes himself into grave respect" and goes to bow. The instant shift measures the one authority Wukong truly reveres — and prepares the register of humility in which he will, at last, make the plea the whole chapter has been building toward.