特來擒你 The Confrontation
急整束了披掛,綽了鋼刀,走出來問道:「那和尚,我既饒了你師父,你怎麼又敢來打上我門?」八戒道:「你這潑怪幹得好事兒。」老魔道:「甚麼事?」八戒道:「你把寶象國三公主騙來洞內,倚強霸占為妻,住了一十三載,也該還他了。我奉國王旨意,特來擒你。你快快進去,自家把繩子綁縛出來,還免得老豬動手。」急整束了披挂,绰了钢刀,走出来问道:「那和尚,我既饶了你师父,你怎么又敢来打上我门?」八戒道:「你这泼怪干得好事儿。」老魔道:「甚么事?」八戒道:「你把宝象国三公主骗来洞内,倚强霸占为妻,住了一十三载,也该还他了。我奉国王旨意,特来擒你。你快快进去,自家把绳子绑缚出来,还免得老猪动手。」
逐句解 Line by line
Hastily he made fast his armor, snatched up his steel sabre, and came out to ask, 'You monks — I spared your master; how do you dare come again and beat upon my door?'
整束了披掛 = "made fast [his] armor and gear"; 綽了鋼刀 (綽 = chāo, "to snatch up") = "seized the steel sabre." 那和尚 (那 = nà) = "you monk[s]." The demon repeats his grievance — that his mercy has been repaid with a fresh assault.
Said Eight Rules, 'A fine piece of work you've done, you vile fiend.' Said the old demon, 'What work?'
幹得 (得 = de) 好事兒 (兒 = er) = "done a 'fine' deed" — bitterly ironic; 潑怪 = "vile fiend." 甚麼 (甚 = shén) 事 = "what business." Eight Rules opens with sarcasm; the demon, genuinely puzzled, plays the straight man.
Said Eight Rules, 'You lured the Third Princess of Baoxiang into your cave, and, relying on force, usurped her as your wife, and have kept her these thirteen years — high time you gave her back! I bear the king's command and have come on purpose to seize you. Get inside, quickly, bind yourself with a rope and come out — and so spare Old Zhu the trouble of laying hands on you.'
倚強 (強 = qiáng) 霸占 (占 = zhàn) 為妻 (為 = wéi) = "relying on force, usurped [her] as wife"; 一十三載 (載 = zǎi) = "thirteen years." 也該還他了 (還 = huán, "to give back") = "high time [you] returned her"; 還 (hái, "moreover") 免得 (得 = de) = "and so spare." Eight Rules states the charge and demands surrender with characteristic bluster.
The confrontation is framed as a clash of grievances, and the novel lets each side feel wronged. The demon comes out armored and armed, aggrieved that the mercy he showed in releasing Tripitaka has been answered with a battered door; Eight Rules, for his part, opens with heavy sarcasm ("a fine piece of work you've done") and lays out the true charge — the abduction of the princess, the thirteen years of forced marriage, the king's command to seize the offender. The moral weight lies plainly with Eight Rules' cause, yet the demon's sense of injury is not merely hypocritical: within the strange courtesy of the episode, he did spare the monk, and he is genuinely puzzled to be repaid so.
Eight Rules' bluster is also perfectly in character — the demand that the demon truss himself up and come out quietly, to "spare Old Zhu the trouble," is the swagger of one who has just boasted himself the pilgrimage's foremost demon-queller. The reader, remembering both that boast and the guardian gods now absent at Baoxiang, can feel the irony gathering: the confidence with which Eight Rules issues his ultimatum is exactly what the coming fight will puncture.