既往不咎 Bygones Be Bygones
沙僧道：「哥哥，不必說了，君子人既往不咎。我等是個敗軍之將，不可語勇，救我救兒罷。」行者道：「你上來。」沙僧才縱身跳上石崖。沙僧道：「哥哥，不必说了，君子人既往不咎。我等是个败军之将，不可语勇，救我救儿罢。」行者道：「你上来。」沙僧才纵身跳上石崖。
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Seng said, "Brother, no need to speak of it; a gentleman does not reproach what is past and done.
Sha Seng turns the taunt aside with a copybook maxim. 既往不咎, jì wǎng bù jiù, "lay no blame on what is already past," is from the Analects and is still in daily use — the Chinese for "let bygones be bygones," with rather more authority behind it. 君子, jūn zǐ, a gentleman, a man of virtue.
We are, as it were, generals of a beaten army, in no case to talk of valour — save me, do save me, I pray."
And a second maxim on its heels. 敗軍之將, bài jūn zhī jiàng, "a general of a beaten army," is the set phrase for somebody in no position to boast — 將 here the rank, jiàng. Then the plea itself: 救我救兒 is the softened, doubled form of "save me" — the verb repeated with a light 兒, ér, hung on the end, the way one says "give me a bit of a hand" rather than "help me."
Pilgrim said, "Come up here."
上來, shàng lái: come up — onto the crag.
Only then did Sha Seng gather himself and leap up onto the stony crag.
縱身, zòng shēn, to launch the whole body in a leap. Only now, invited, does he move.
Sha Seng's reply parries Wukong's teasing with two Confucian commonplaces — the gentleman does not reproach the past, a beaten general may not talk of valour — and in doing so both absorbs the taunt and disarms it. The self-abasement is strategic as well as sincere: by declining the quarrel he secures the rescue, and by calling himself a routed general he flatters the champion who alone can mend the day.
The brief exchange completes the reunion of Wukong and Sha Seng and readies the reassembly of the band. That the concord is sealed with proverbs rather than sentiment is entirely in the novel's manner, where even the tenderest turns of loyalty are paid in the dry currency of the copybook maxim. The leap onto the crag sends the two off to rejoin Bajie and lay their plan.