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.
既往不咎 (jì wǎng bù jiù), “to lay no blame on what is already past” — an Analects maxim. 君子 (jūnzǐ), a gentleman, a man of virtue; 子 read zǐ.
We are, as it were, generals of a beaten army, in no case to talk of valour — save me, save this poor creature, I pray.”
敗軍之將 (bài jūn zhī jiàng), “a general of a defeated army,” a set phrase for one in no position to boast; 將 read jiàng. 救兒 (jiù ér), “save this child” — a humble self-reference; 兒 read ér.
Pilgrim said, “Come up here.”
上來 (shàng lái), to come up — onto the crag where Pilgrim stands.
Only then did Sha Seng gather himself and leap up onto the stony crag.
縱身 (zòng shēn), to spring, to launch the body in a leap.
Sha Seng’s reply turns the banter aside with two Confucian commonplaces — that the gentleman does not reproach the past, that a beaten general may not talk of valour — and in so doing both absorbs Wukong’s taunt and gently disarms it. His self-abasement is strategic as well as sincere: by declining the quarrel he secures the rescue, and by naming himself a routed general he flatters the champion who alone can restore 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 not with sentiment but with proverbs is wholly in the novel’s manner, where even the tenderest turns of loyalty are carried in the dry currency of the copybook maxim; the leap onto the crag that ends the passage sends the two to rejoin Bajie and lay their plan.