妖精已絕 The Fiends All Gone
那大聖按落祥光,徑轉碗子山波月洞,尋出公主,將那思凡下界收妖的言語正然陳訴。只聽得半空中八戒、沙僧厲聲高叫道:「師兄,有妖精,留幾個兒我們打耶。」行者道:「妖精已盡絕矣。」沙僧道:「既把妖精打絕,無甚罣礙,將公主引入朝中去罷。不要睜眼,兄弟們使個縮地法來。」那大圣按落祥光,径转碗子山波月洞,寻出公主,将那思凡下界收妖的言语正然陈诉。只听得半空中八戒、沙僧厉声高叫道:「师兄,有妖精,留几个儿我们打耶。」行者道:「妖精已尽绝矣。」沙僧道:「既把妖精打绝,无甚罣碍,将公主引入朝中去罢。不要睁眼,兄弟们使个缩地法来。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Great Sage brought down his auspicious cloud, went straight back to the Wave-Moon Cave on Bowl Mountain, sought out the princess, and was in the very act of setting forth the whole story — her yearning for the mortal world, her descent, and the subduing of the fiend—
碗子山波月洞, Wǎnzǐ Shān Bōyuè Dòng, the Wave-Moon Cave on Bowl Mountain — the demon's address, given in full at the moment it stops being his. 陳訴, chén sù, to lay out an account of something in order.
— when he heard Bajie and Sha Seng calling out shrilly from mid-air, "Elder brother, if there are fiends, leave us a few to fight!"
半空中, bàn kōng zhōng, in mid-air; 留幾個兒, liú jǐ ge'r, "leave us a few" — with the soft 兒 making it a request rather than a demand. They have arrived after the fighting, and are asking for some.
Pilgrim said, "The fiends are all utterly done away with."
盡絕, jìn jué, wholly wiped out; 矣, yǐ, a classical final particle. Wukong answers a request for demons in literary Chinese, which is its own small joke.
Sha Seng said, "Since the fiends are all destroyed and there is no further hindrance, let us bring the princess into the court.
無甚罣礙, wú shèn guà ài, no hindrance to speak of — here 甚 means "much" and is read shèn. The word 罣礙 is borrowed from the Heart Sutra, where it is the obstruction the mind is to be free of; Sha Seng uses it to mean there is nothing left to stop them leaving.
Do not open your eyes — brothers, let us work the earth-shrinking art."
縮地法, suō dì fǎ, the "earth-shrinking" art, which folds the ground so that a long road passes underfoot in a moment. Telling the passenger to keep her eyes shut is the practical part.
With the star recalled above, the action returns to earth for the winding-up. Wukong relates the whole celestial back-story to the princess, and the reappearance of Bajie and Sha Seng — clamouring, far too late, for demons to fight — restores the comic ensemble after the solemnities of Heaven. Their eagerness for a battle already finished is a small, affectionate joke at their expense.
The turn to practical business — conveying the princess to court by the earth-shrinking art — begins the chapter's homeward gathering of threads. Instantaneous travel is one of the pilgrims' stock conveniences, invoked here in passing, and its use sets up the reunion at court and the restoration of the tiger-transformed Tripitaka that the ending requires.