誇獎生禍 Praise Breeds Disaster
唐僧在馬上見了，心中大喜道：「阿彌陀佛！西方真是福地，那公公路也走不上來，逼法的還念經哩。」八戒道：「師父，你且莫要誇獎，那個是禍的根哩。」唐僧道：「怎麼是禍根？」八戒道：「師兄打殺他的女兒，又打殺他的婆子，這個正是他的老兒尋將來了。我們若撞在他的懷裡啊，師父，你便償命，該個死罪；把老豬為從，問個充軍；沙僧喝令，問個擺站。那師兄使個遁法走了，卻不苦了我們三個頂缸？」唐僧在马上见了，心中大喜道：「阿弥陀佛！西方真是福地，那公公路也走不上来，逼法的还念经哩。」八戒道：「师父，你且莫要夸奖，那个是祸的根哩。」唐僧道：「怎么是祸根？」八戒道：「师兄打杀他的女儿，又打杀他的婆子，这个正是他的老儿寻将来了。我们若撞在他的怀里啊，师父，你便偿命，该个死罪；把老猪为从，问个充军；沙僧喝令，问个摆站。那师兄使个遁法走了，却不苦了我们三个顶缸？」
逐句解 Line by line
The Tang Monk, seeing him from his horse, was overjoyed at heart: "Amitābha Buddha!
心中大喜 (xīn zhōng dà xǐ) "greatly delighted at heart," 中 (zhōng). 阿彌陀佛 (Ā mí tuó Fó) "Amitābha Buddha," 佛 (Fó) — the invocation of the Buddha of the Western Paradise, uttered here in pious wonder. The elder's joy at the sight of the disguised fiend is the chapter's irony at its sharpest.
"The Western land is truly a place of blessing! That old grandfather can't even walk the road, yet still he presses on reciting his sutras."
那公公 (nà gōng gong) "that old man," 那 (nà). 逼法的還念經 (bī fǎ de hái niàn jīng) "even so, still recites the sutras," 還 (hái). Tripitaka takes the demon's feigned devotion as proof that the West is a holy land — praising the very thing that means to devour him.
Said Eight Rules, "Master, don't be so quick with your praise — that one is the very root of disaster."
莫要誇獎 (mò yào kuā jiǎng) "do not praise [him]." 那個是禍的根 (nà ge shì huò de gēn) "that one is the root of calamity," 那 (nà). Bajie — who first championed the maiden — now, in fear, reads the disguise correctly, though for the wrong reasons.
The Tang Monk said, "How is he a root of disaster?"
怎麼是禍根 (zěn me shì huò gēn) "how is [he] a root of disaster?" The elder's puzzled question draws out Bajie's grimly comic reckoning of the legal consequences he foresees.
Said Eight Rules, "Elder Brother killed his daughter, and killed his old wife, and this must be their old man come looking for them.
女兒 (nǚ ér) "daughter," the noun 兒 (ér); 婆子 (pó zi) "old wife," 子 (zi); 老兒 (lǎo ér) "old fellow" — here too 兒 (ér) is the full noun-morpheme "person," not an erhua suffix (老 and 兒 do not merge into "lǎor"). 尋將來 (xún jiāng lái) "come seeking," 將 (jiāng). Bajie, terrified, spins out the demon's own family-drama and imagines its aftermath in the human courts.
"If we blunder into his clutches, then Master, you'll pay with your life — a capital charge;
撞在他的懷裡 (zhuàng zài tā de huái lǐ) "blunder into his embrace," i.e. fall into his hands. 償命 (cháng mìng) "to pay with one's life"; 死罪 (sǐ zuì) "a capital crime." Bajie's mock-legal tallying of penalties — as if the demon were a bereaved father with a lawsuit — is grotesque comedy layered over real dread.
"old Hog, as accessory, will be sentenced to the frontier garrisons;
把老豬為從 (bǎ lǎo zhū wéi cóng) "[they'll] make old Hog the accomplice," 為 (wéi) "to be, act as." 充軍 (chōng jūn) "penal exile to a military garrison," a standard Ming punishment. Bajie assigns himself the accessory's sentence in his imagined trial.
"Sha Monk, for shouting the orders, will be put to hard labour at the relay-stations.
喝令 (hè lìng) "to shout commands." 擺站 (bǎi zhàn) "penal service at the postal relay-stations," another graded Ming penalty. Bajie doles out a lesser sentence to Sha Monk, completing his fantastical apportioning of guilt.
"And that Elder Brother of ours will work some escape-trick and be gone — leaving the three of us to hold the bag!"
那師兄 (nà shī xiōng) "that Elder Brother," 那 (nà). 遁法 (dùn fǎ) "a technique of escape/vanishing." 頂缸 (dǐng gāng) "to hold the bag, take the blame" (literally "to carry the vat"). Bajie's punchline — Wukong will escape by magic and leave the rest to face the music — caps the comic complaint.
This passage is the chapter's irony distilled into comedy. Tripitaka, gazing on the disguised fiend at its prayer-beads, is moved to cry "Amitābha Buddha!" and to praise the West as "truly a place of blessing" — lavishing devotion on the very creature that means to eat him. The gap between what the elder sees and what the reader knows has never been wider, or played more for laughs.
Bajie's role inverts once more. Having championed the maiden and dreaded the old woman, he now correctly names the old man "the root of disaster" — but for entirely self-interested reasons, and with a grimly funny catalogue of the legal penalties he foresees: Tripitaka executed, himself exiled to the garrisons, Sha Monk to the relay-stations, and Wukong vanishing by magic to leave them "holding the bag." His fear reads the disguise rightly where his lust and pity read it wrongly, but he is never once right about anything that matters.
Beneath the comedy the passage tightens the trap. The pilgrims are now three disguises deep, the master's credulity absolute, and Wukong — who overhears this whole exchange — is about to confront the fiend a third time. The laughter is the lull before the chapter's gravest turn.