老僧含羞 The Elder Is Shamed
那唐僧那裡肯信，只說是個好人。行者道：「師父，我知道你了，你見他那等容貌，必然動了凡心。若果有此意，叫八戒伐幾棵樹來，沙僧尋些草來，我做木匠，就在這裡搭個窩鋪，你與他圓房成事，我們大家散了，卻不是件事業？何必又跋涉，取甚經去？」那長老原是個軟善的人，那裡吃得他這句言語，羞得光頭徹耳通紅。那唐僧那里肯信，只说是个好人。行者道：「师父，我知道你了，你见他那等容貌，必然动了凡心。若果有此意，叫八戒伐几棵树来，沙僧寻些草来，我做木匠，就在这里搭个窝铺，你与他圆房成事，我们大家散了，却不是件事业？何必又跋涉，取甚经去？」那长老原是个软善的人，那里吃得他这句言语，羞得光头彻耳通红。
逐句解 Line by line
But the Tang Monk would by no means believe it, insisting only that she was a good person.
One flat sentence, and it lands like a door closing: he would by no means believe it. Coming straight after a warning backed by the speaker's own criminal record, the refusal measures exactly how far appearance has overrun evidence in the elder's mind. Two instances of 那, two different jobs — 那唐僧 points, so nà; 那裡肯信 is rhetorical, how would he believe, so nǎ.
Said Pilgrim, "Master, I know you: seeing a face like hers, you're bound to have felt the stir of a carnal heart.
And here Wukong makes his mistake. 動了凡心 — a carnal heart stirred — is the exact phrase the narrator used of Bajie a few passages back, and Wukong now aims it at his master. Accusing a celibate monk of fancying a girl is not a small joke. It is close to the most wounding thing available to him, and he reaches for it because he is losing an argument he ought to be winning. (那等容貌 points: nà.)
"If that's really your mind, then have Eight Rules fell a few trees and Sha Monk gather some grass, and I'll play carpenter and knock together a hut right here, where you can consummate the match with her and be done — and we'll all go our separate ways. Wouldn't that be a tidy piece of business?
Then he escalates, and the escalation is spectacular. Bajie fells the timber, Sha Monk gathers thatch, Wukong does the carpentry, and the four of them run up a honeymoon shack on the spot. 圓房成事 (yuán fáng chéng shì) is the plain term for consummating a marriage; 窩鋪 is a rough lean-to. 事業 here means "a fine piece of work" and is entirely sarcastic; 散 is sàn, "to disband". It is very funny. It is also calculated to hurt.
"Why go to all the trouble of the journey — what scriptures would there be left to fetch?"
The finishing thrust: in that case, why bother walking to India at all? 跋涉 (bá shè) is to slog over land and water, the word for a long punishing journey. Wukong has followed his own joke to its end — if the master will yield to a face, the whole pilgrimage is void — and it is a cruel argument, and it lands. (甚 is shén.)
The elder, being by nature a soft and gentle soul, could not stomach words like these, and blushed a burning red from his shaven crown to the tips of his ears.
軟善 (ruǎn shàn), soft and good-natured, is the narrator's diagnosis, and it is affectionate rather than contemptuous. This is a gentle man, and gentle men cannot take being laughed at. The blush travels from the shaven crown all the way to the ears, which is the novel telling you exactly how deep the wound went. Shame in a man who is both humble and proud turns to anger quickly. Readings: 那長老 points, nà, with 長 as zhǎng; 那裡吃得 is rhetorical, nǎ; and both instances of 得, in 吃得 and in 羞得, are the toneless de.
Wukong shifts from warning to taunt, and the shift is a blunder as much as a provocation. Stung by the refusal, he throws back at his master the very charge the narrator laid on Bajie — a carnal heart stirred by a pretty face — and then compounds it with the proposal that they build the monk a honeymoon hut and abandon the journey. Wit turned weapon. It cuts.
The passage turns on temperament. Tripitaka is 軟善, soft and gentle, and it is that softness — not stupidity — that cannot stomach being mocked. The blush spreading from crown to ears is shame, and shame in a man who is both humble and proud curdles fast. You can feel the scene tipping here: the humiliation is the fuel the spell will light.
Underneath the comedy runs the chapter's deepest irony. Wukong is right about the demon and wrong about the man. His correct sight is delivered so woundingly that rejection becomes nearly certain. The disaster on White Tiger Ridge is authored as much by the disciple's tongue as by the master's blindness.