扛擡到洞口 Hauled to the Cave-Mouth
卻說那獃子被一窩猴子捉住了，扛擡扯拉，把一件直裰子揪破。口裡勞勞叨叨的，自家念誦道：「罷了，罷了，這一去有個打殺的情了。」不一時，到洞口。那大聖坐在石崖之上，罵道：「你這囊糠的夯貨！你去便罷了，怎麼罵我？」八戒跪在地下道：「哥啊，我不曾罵你；若罵你，就嚼了舌頭根。我只說哥哥不去，我自去報師父便了。怎敢罵你？」却说那呆子被一窝猴子捉住了，扛抬扯拉，把一件直裰子揪破。口里劳劳叨叨的，自家念诵道：「罢了，罢了，这一去有个打杀的情了。」不一时，到洞口。那大圣坐在石崖之上，骂道：「你这囊糠的夯货！你去便罢了，怎么骂我？」八戒跪在地下道：「哥啊，我不曾骂你；若骂你，就嚼了舌头根。我只说哥哥不去，我自去报师父便了。怎敢骂你？」
逐句解 Line by line
Now the Blockhead, seized by a whole swarm of monkeys, was hoisted and hauled and dragged this way and that, until his cassock was torn clean through.
We open mid-scuffle, with Bajie carried bodily up the mountain by a mob of monkeys and his robe torn in the process. 獃子, dāi zi, "the Blockhead," is the narrator's own standing nickname for Zhu Bajie — not a jibe from another character but the book's habitual way of naming him. A 直裰, zhí duō, is the long, straight-seamed robe a monk wears.
Muttering and grumbling to himself, he recited under his breath: "Done for, done for — this time there's surely a beating-to-death in it."
Bajie supplies a running commentary on his own funeral. 勞勞叨叨, láo láo dāo dāo, is a sound-word for peevish, non-stop muttering — the grumble is audible in the four syllables. 罷了, bà le: "enough, it is finished."
In no time at all they reached the cave-mouth.
不一時, bù yì shí: in less than a moment.
The Great Sage, seated atop the stone bluff, railed at him: "You chaff-stuffed lout!
Wukong has been sitting on the crag rehearsing this. 囊糠, náng kāng, is literally "a bag of chaff" — all husk, no grain. 夯貨, hāng huò, is flat abuse: oaf, blockish lump. Both barbs are aimed squarely at the pig's bulk.
You might simply have gone on your way — why curse me?"
便罷了, biàn bà le: "and that would have been the end of it." Note where the grievance actually lies — not that Bajie left, but that he talked.
Bajie, kneeling on the ground, said: "Brother, I never cursed you; had I cursed you, may I chew the very root of my tongue.
Bajie goes straight for the oath. 舌頭根, shé tóu gēn, is "the root of the tongue," and offering to chew it off is the folk self-curse a man swears by when he wants to be believed — the Ming version of "may my tongue fall out if I lie."
I only said that if my brother would not go, I would go myself to report to our master, and there would be an end of it.
便了, biàn liǎo, carries the settling sense "and that is that." Worth noticing that 了 is read liǎo in this pairing, not the toneless le it is almost everywhere else on this page.
How would I ever dare curse you?"
怎敢, zěn gǎn: "how would I dare." He denies it twice and swears an oath in between, which is generally a sign.
The chapter opens on pure farce. Wukong, still nursing the wound of his banishment, has set his monkeys to seize Bajie and haul him to the cave-mouth, and the comedy runs on a misunderstanding: convinced the pig cursed him behind his back on the road, the Great Sage stands on his dignity while the terrified Bajie scrambles to deny it.
The scene is built from the low vocabulary the novel keeps for Bajie — 獃子, 夯貨, the peevish clatter of his muttering — and from his instant, self-abasing oaths. Beneath the joking, though, the machinery of the chapter's title is already turning: Bajie has come to goad the Monkey King (義激猴王), and the very touchiness Wukong is displaying is the lever the pig will shortly learn to pull.