回心轉意 The Elder Relents
原來這唐僧是個慈憫的聖僧，他見行者哀告，卻也回心轉意道：「既如此說，且饒你這一次，再休無禮。如若仍前作惡，這咒語顛倒就念二十遍。」行者道：「三十遍也由你，只是我不打人了。」卻才伏侍唐僧上馬，又將摘來桃子奉上。唐僧在馬上也吃了幾個，權且充饑。原来这唐僧是个慈悯的圣僧，他见行者哀告，却也回心转意道：「既如此说，且饶你这一次，再休无礼。如若仍前作恶，这咒语颠倒就念二十遍。」行者道：「三十遍也由你，只是我不打人了。」却才伏侍唐僧上马，又将摘来桃子奉上。唐僧在马上也吃了几个，权且充饥。
逐句解 Line by line
Now this Tang Monk was a holy man of a compassionate nature, and seeing Pilgrim plead so piteously, he came round and changed his mind: "Since you put it so, I will pardon you this once — but no more of your insolence.
慈憫 (cí mǐn) "compassionate, merciful." 哀告 (āi gào) "to plead piteously." 回心轉意 (huí xīn zhuǎn yì) "to change one's heart and mind, relent." The same tender-heartedness that made the elder credit the demon now makes him forgive Wukong — his mercy swinging both ways.
"But if ever again you do evil, I will recite this spell twenty times over, in full."
仍前作惡 (réng qián zuò è) "do evil as before." 顛倒就念二十遍 (diān dǎo jiù niàn èr shí biàn) — 顛倒 (diān dào) here "over and over, the whole thing through" (倒 (dào) "to reverse, invert"), i.e. reciting the spell repeatedly. The threat of twenty recitations keeps the fillet — and the master's power — hanging over the reconciliation.
Said Pilgrim, "Thirty times, if you like — only I'll strike no one again."
也由你 (yě yóu nǐ) "as you please, up to you." 不打人了 (bù dǎ rén le) "I'll hit no one any more." Wukong's cheerful over-bidding ("thirty times, if you like") restores the note of comedy — and his promise not to strike will, cruelly, be tested at once by the demon's return.
And with that he waited on the Tang Monk to mount, and offered up besides the peaches he had picked.
伏侍 (fú shì) "to wait upon, attend." 又將摘來桃子奉上 "and offered up the peaches he had picked," 將 (jiāng), 子 (zi). The homely gesture — the disciple boosting the master onto his horse and presenting the fruit — quietly restores their bond, the peaches that began the episode now a peace-offering.
The Tang Monk, up on his horse, ate a few of them as well, to stay his hunger for the while.
權且充饑 (quán qiě chōng jī) "to stave off hunger for the moment." The small, ordinary act of the elder eating the peaches seals the reconciliation — the pilgrims restored, briefly, to peace, just before the demon reappears in her second guise.
The reconciliation turns on the same trait that caused the trouble: Tripitaka's 慈憫, his compassionate softness. Moved by Wukong's kneeling plea, he relents as readily as he had condemned — his mercy swinging both ways, forgiving the disciple as easily as it had pitied the demon. It is an amiable weakness, and a dangerous one, for it is governed by feeling rather than discernment.
The truce is real but provisional, shadowed by the fillet. The elder's parting warning — twenty recitations for any further "evil" — keeps his coercive power poised over the restored bond, and Wukong's blithe promise never to strike again is set up, with cruel timing, to be broken within pages by the demon's return. The peaches that opened the episode close it as a peace-offering, briefly sweetening a reconciliation the plot is already preparing to shatter.
With this passage the first movement of the three-fold assault closes: strike, spell, plea, pardon. The pattern will repeat twice more, each cycle wearing down the elder's trust and Wukong's standing, until — in the chapter's final movement — no plea will avail and the Great Sage is sent away in earnest.