認親變虎 Kinship Feigned, the Master Made a Tiger
那怪變做個俊俏文人入朝，與國王認親，把師父變作老虎。又虧了白龍馬夜現龍身，去尋師父，師父倒不曾尋見，卻遇著那怪在銀安殿飲酒。他變一宮娥，與他巡酒、舞刀，欲乘機而砍，反被他用滿堂紅打傷馬腿。就是他教我來請師兄的，說道：『師兄是個有仁有義的君子，君子不念舊惡，一定肯來救師父一難。』萬望哥哥念『一日為師，終身為父』之情，千萬救他一救。」那怪变做个俊俏文人入朝，与国王认亲，把师父变作老虎。又亏了白龙马夜现龙身，去寻师父，师父倒不曾寻见，却遇着那怪在银安殿饮酒。他变一宫娥，与他巡酒、舞刀，欲乘机而砍，反被他用满堂红打伤马腿。就是他教我来请师兄的，说道：『师兄是个有仁有义的君子，君子不念旧恶，一定肯来救师父一难。』万望哥哥念『一日为师，终身为父』之情，千万救他一救。」
逐句解 Line by line
The fiend changed himself into a comely young scholar and entered the court, claimed kinship with the king, and turned our master into a tiger.
The demon's boldest stroke. 俊俏, jùn qiào, handsome, well-favoured; 認親, rèn qīn, to claim kinship — he walks into court and presents himself as the missing princess's husband, which makes him the king's son-in-law and Tripitaka an impostor. 入朝, rù cháo, to enter the court, with 朝 read cháo.
Then it fell to the White Dragon Horse, who by night resumed his dragon-shape and went to seek the master — the master he did not find, but he came instead upon the fiend, drinking in the Hall of Silver Peace.
白龍馬, Báilóngmǎ, the White Dragon Horse — third prince of the Western Sea, serving out a sentence as a pack animal. 倒, dào, here means "on the contrary": he went to find the master and found the demon instead. 遇著, yù zháo, came upon. 銀安殿, Yín'āndiàn, the Hall of Silver Peace.
He changed into a palace maid, poured the wine in turn and danced with the blade, meaning to seize his moment and strike; but the fiend, with a great lamp-stand, wounded him instead in the leg.
The horse's assassination attempt, and its failure. 宮娥, gōng é, a palace waiting-maid; 巡酒, xún jiǔ, to go round the table pouring wine — the disguise gets him close enough to dance with a blade in his hand. What fells him is a 滿堂紅, mǎn táng hóng, a "Hall-Filling Red": a tall, many-branched lampstand, swung as a club.
It was he who bade me come and entreat you, elder brother, saying: 'The elder brother is a gentleman of benevolence and honour, and a gentleman does not brood on old wrongs; surely he will come to save the master from this one calamity.'
Bajie is quoting the horse, and the horse is quoting Confucius. 君子不念舊惡, jūn zǐ bù niàn jiù è, "the gentleman does not brood on old wrongs," echoes the Analects on magnanimity. 一難, yí nàn, one tribulation — 難 the noun nàn, which pulls 一 up to yí.
I beg you a thousand times, brother, to honour the bond that 'a teacher for a single day is a father for a lifetime,' and by all means to save him — do but save him.
And here is the proverb that will come back at the chapter's crisis: 一日為師，終身為父, yí rì wéi shī, zhōng shēn wéi fù — "a teacher for a single day is a father for a lifetime." 為 here is wéi, "to be, to serve as." Wukong will throw this same line at the demon much later, having been moved by it here.
The passage recounts the demon's cleverest move — walking into the court as a handsome scholar, claiming kinship, and turning Tripitaka into a beast so that nobody would believe a word from him — and then the loyal night-sortie of the Dragon Horse, whose failed assassination leaves him lamed. That the horse alone dares to act, and is wounded for it, sharpens the sense that nobody left in the company can prevail.
Bajie's peroration is a small masterpiece of persuasion. He puts the request in the Dragon Horse's mouth rather than his own, dresses it in Confucian commonplaces about the magnanimous gentleman and the father-like teacher, and so appeals at once to Wukong's pride, his honour and the master-disciple bond. The rhetoric is sincere in substance and canny in delivery — and it sets up the reversal of the next passage, where wounded vanity, not these noble sentiments, proves the truer lever.