責以不孝 Rebuked for Unfiliality
公主道：「我曉得。」行者道:「你女流家，曉得甚麼？」公主道：「我自幼在宮，曾受父母教訓。記得古書云：『五刑之屬三千，而罪莫大於不孝。』」行者道：「你正是個不孝之人。蓋『父兮生我，母兮鞠我。哀哀父母，生我劬勞。』故孝者，百行之原，萬善之本。卻怎麼將身陪伴妖精，更不思念父母？非得不孝之罪，如何？」公主道：「我晓得。」行者道:「你女流家，晓得甚么？」公主道：「我自幼在宫，曾受父母教训。记得古书云：『五刑之属三千，而罪莫大于不孝。』」行者道：「你正是个不孝之人。盖『父兮生我，母兮鞠我。哀哀父母，生我劬劳。』故孝者，百行之原，万善之本。却怎么将身陪伴妖精，更不思念父母？非得不孝之罪，如何？」
逐句解 Line by line
The princess said, “That I know.”
曉得 (xiǎo de), to know, to understand; 得 read de.
Pilgrim said, “You womenfolk — what should you know?”
女流家 (nǚliú jiā), womenfolk, women as a class — a dismissive idiom. 曉得 with 得 as de; 甚 read shén.
The princess said, “From my childhood in the palace I received the teaching of my father and mother.
自幼 (zì yòu), from childhood. 教訓 (jiàoxùn), instruction, moral teaching; 教 read jiào.
I recall the old books say: ‘Of the offences that fall under the Five Punishments there are three thousand, yet no crime is greater than unfiliality.’”
五刑之屬三千 (wǔ xíng zhī shǔ sān qiān), from the Classic of Filial Piety: the three thousand offences under the five punishments; 屬 read shǔ, “category.” 得 read de.
Pilgrim said, “Then you are precisely one who is unfilial.
不孝之人 (bù xiào zhī rén), an unfilial person — Wukong turns her own maxim against her.
For as it is said: ‘My father begot me, my mother nurtured me.
父兮生我，母兮鞠我 (fù xī shēng wǒ, mǔ xī jū wǒ), from the Book of Songs (蓼莪, “Lu’e”); 鞠, to rear, to nurture.
Alas, alas for my father and mother, who bore me in toil and pain.’
哀哀父母 (āi’āi fùmǔ), “alas for my parents.” 劬勞 (qúláo), toil and hardship, the labour of rearing a child.
Thus filial devotion is the fountainhead of the hundred conducts and the root of the myriad goods.
百行之原 (bǎi xíng zhī yuán), the source of all conduct; 行 read xíng. 萬善之本 (wàn shàn zhī běn), the root of every virtue.
How is it, then, that you give your person to keep company with a fiend, and think no more upon your father and mother?
將身 (jiāng shēn), to give over one’s person; 將 read jiāng. 陪伴 (péibàn), to keep company with.
If this be not the crime of unfiliality, what is it?”
非得 (fēi dé), if it be not, does it not amount to; 得 read dé.
The debate is a fine specimen of the novel’s learned comedy, in which the Monkey King, of all figures, turns preacher of Confucian ethics. The princess cites the Classic of Filial Piety to establish that unfiliality is the gravest of crimes; Wukong seizes the very maxim, reinforces it with the anguished lines of the 蓼莪 from the Book of Songs, and drives it home against her — that in dwelling with the demon she has forgotten the parents to whom filial duty is owed.
The incongruity of the argument’s source is the point of its wit, yet the reasoning is not merely a trick: it works upon the princess because it is true to the values she was reared in, and it opens the way to her release by reawakening the longing for home that her captivity had buried. Here the chapter’s method shifts from force to suasion, and the pilgrim’s command of the canonical texts proves as potent a weapon as the iron staff.