四健將迎 The Four Marshals
大聖聞此言，更十分惱怒道：「洞中有甚麼人執事？」群妖道：「還有馬、流二元帥，崩、芭二將軍管著哩。」大聖道：「你們去報他知道，說我來了。」那些小妖，撞入門內報道：「大聖爺爺來家了。」那馬、流、奔、芭聞報，忙出門叩頭，迎接進洞。大聖坐在中間，群怪羅拜於前，啟道：「大聖爺爺，近聞得你得了性命，保唐僧往西天取經，如何不走西方，卻回本山？」大聖道：「小的們，你不知道，那唐三藏不識賢愚：我為他一路上捉怪擒魔，使盡了平生的手段，幾番家打殺妖精；他說我行兇作惡，不要我做徒弟，把我逐趕回來，寫立貶書為照，永不聽用了。」大圣闻此言，更十分恼怒道：「洞中有甚么人执事？」群妖道：「还有马、流二元帅，崩、芭二将军管着哩。」大圣道：「你们去报他知道，说我来了。」那些小妖，撞入门内报道：「大圣爷爷来家了。」那马、流、奔、芭闻报，忙出门叩头，迎接进洞。大圣坐在中间，群怪罗拜于前，启道：「大圣爷爷，近闻得你得了性命，保唐僧往西天取经，如何不走西方，却回本山？」大圣道：「小的们，你不知道，那唐三藏不识贤愚：我为他一路上捉怪擒魔，使尽了平生的手段，几番家打杀妖精；他说我行凶作恶，不要我做徒弟，把我逐赶回来，写立贬书为照，永不听用了。」
逐句解 Line by line
When the Great Sage heard this, his anger flared the more, and he said, “Who is in charge within the cave?”
His first question after hearing all that is administrative: who is running the place? Grief has become command. 更 is gèng, still more; 十分 takes fēn, ten parts out of ten; 洞中 takes zhōng; 甚麼 takes shén.
The fiends said, “Marshals Ma and Liu are still here, and Generals Beng and Ba are in charge.”
The four commanders of the old kingdom, back from the novel's early chapters: the marshals 馬 and 流, the generals 崩 and 芭. 還 is hái, still — still here, when almost nothing else is. 將軍 takes jiāng. 管著 ends in the unstressed zhe, marking a state that is still going on: in charge, and have been.
Said the Great Sage, “Go and let them know I have come.”
He sends word ahead rather than walking in. The court protocol is back before the court is.
The little fiends rushed in through the gate to report, “Grandfather Great Sage has come home!”
那些 is nà, those.
Hearing the news, Ma, Liu, Ben, and Ba hurried out through the gate to kowtow and usher him into the cave.
那 is nà. One name has shifted: the general written 崩 a few lines back is written 奔 here, and the edition is left as it stands.
The Great Sage took his seat in the midst of them, and the throng of monsters bowed in ranks before him and said, “Grandfather Great Sage, of late we heard that you had won back your life and were guarding the Tang Monk on his way to fetch the scriptures from the Western Heaven. Why do you not press on westward, but have come back instead to your own mountain?”
Two 得 in one sentence, read two different ways: 聞得 takes the unstressed de, tacking a result onto the verb, while 得了 takes dé, obtained. 坐在中間 takes zhōng and jiān. The monsters ask the obvious question, and it is the one the whole chapter turns on: if you were guarding the monk to the Western Heaven, why are you here?
Said the Great Sage, “My children, you do not know it — that Tang Sanzang cannot tell the worthy from the worthless. Along the whole road I caught the demons and seized the fiends for him, spending the utmost skill of my life, and time and again I struck the goblins dead;
So he tells his side, and it is a grievance with a shape: I did the work, I used everything I had, I killed what needed killing, and he could not tell good from bad. Mark the phrase 不識賢愚, cannot tell the worthy from the worthless — because the battle-poem a few passages back said the killing wind 不辨賢愚, made no such distinction either. Wukong's complaint against his master is the same charge the novel has just quietly filed against Wukong. 我為他 takes wèi, for his sake — the reading for doing something on someone's behalf. 那 is nà; 三藏 takes zàng; 盡 is jìn, used up entirely.
yet he said I did violence and worked evil, would have me no longer for his disciple, drove me back here, and set down a writ of banishment as proof, never to employ me again.”
貶書 is the writ of dismissal Tripitaka wrote out at the end of the previous chapter — a document, not a scolding, which is why it stings. 行兇 takes xíng, to commit; 為照 takes wéi, to serve as proof.
Grief hardens into grievance. Received back into his cave by the four surviving commanders and the throng of monsters, Wukong takes his old seat, and their first question — why have you left the westward road? — gives him the chance to tell his version of the rupture. It is aggrieved and one-sided: he served, he killed on duty, and he was thrown out for it by a master who cannot tell the worthy from the wicked.
This is the hinge the chapter's two threads turn on. Wukong's account — righteous demon-killing mistaken for murder — is exactly what the monkeys' suffering has just prepared the reader to accept. But the novel keeps its distance. The writ of banishment is real, and so is the fact that Wukong has chosen his wounded pride and his old crown over the discipline of the road. The marshals' welcome puts him back where he was before the pilgrimage began, and that regression is precisely what the chapter is about to price.