原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
下海淨身
The Washing in the Sea
那大聖才和八戒攜手駕雲，離了洞，過了東洋大海，至西岸，住雲光，叫道：「兄弟，你且在此慢行，等我下海去淨淨身子。」八戒道：「忙忙的走路，且淨甚麼身子？」行者道：「你那裡知道。我自從回來，這幾日弄得身上有些妖精氣了。師父是個愛乾淨的，恐怕嫌我。」八戒於此始識得行者是片真心，更無他意。那大圣才和八戒携手驾云，离了洞，过了东洋大海，至西岸，住云光，叫道：「兄弟，你且在此慢行，等我下海去净净身子。」八戒道：「忙忙的走路，且净甚么身子？」行者道：「你那里知道。我自从回来，这几日弄得身上有些妖精气了。师父是个爱干净的，恐怕嫌我。」八戒于此始识得行者是片真心，更无他意。
逐句解 Line by line
那大聖才和八戒攜手駕雲，離了洞，過了東洋大海，至西岸，住雲光，叫道：「兄弟，你且在此慢行，等我下海去淨淨身子。」
那大圣才和八戒携手驾云，离了洞，过了东洋大海，至西岸，住云光，叫道：「兄弟，你且在此慢行，等我下海去净净身子。」
The Great Sage then joined hands with Bajie and mounted the clouds; leaving the cave, they crossed the Eastern Ocean and reached the western shore, where he stayed the cloud-light and called, “Brother, walk on slowly here a while, and let me go down into the sea to cleanse my body.”
攜手 (xié shǒu), hand in hand. 住雲光 (zhù yúnguāng), to halt the cloud-glow, i.e. alight. 淨身子 (jìng shēnzi), to cleanse the body; 那 read nà.
八戒道：「忙忙的走路，且淨甚麼身子？」
八戒道：「忙忙的走路，且净甚么身子？」
Bajie said, “We are hurrying along the road — what need to cleanse your body now?”
甚麼 (shénme), what; 甚 read shén.
行者道：「你那裡知道。
行者道：「你那里知道。
Pilgrim said, “What should you know of it.
那裡知道 (nǎlǐ zhīdào), an idiom of dismissal — “how would you understand”; 那 read nǎ.
我自從回來，這幾日弄得身上有些妖精氣了。
我自从回来，这几日弄得身上有些妖精气了。
Since I came home, these few days have left a taint of fiend’s reek about me.
弄得 (nòng de), to have brought it about that… ; 得 read de. 妖精氣 (yāojing qì), the rank air of the fiend.
師父是個愛乾淨的，恐怕嫌我。」
师父是个爱干净的，恐怕嫌我。」
Our master is one who loves cleanliness, and I fear he would find me offensive.”
乾淨 (gānjìng), clean; 乾 read gān. 嫌 (xián), to hold in distaste, to find offensive.
八戒於此始識得行者是片真心，更無他意。
八戒于此始识得行者是片真心，更无他意。
It was at this that Bajie first perceived Pilgrim to be of a single true heart, with no other design whatever.
識得 (shí de), to perceive, to recognize; 得 read de. 真心 (zhēn xīn), a true and single heart.
總評 Commentary
The sea-washing is a quiet devotional stroke amid the comedy: Wukong pauses to purge the fiend’s reek from his person out of care for a master who loves cleanliness, and the gesture reveals a fastidious tenderness beneath his bluster. Bajie’s uncomprehending question, and Wukong’s brusque “what should you know of it,” preserve the pair’s habitual friction even in this softer moment.
The narrator’s comment that Bajie “first perceived” Wukong’s single true heart is the passage’s hinge, and no small concession from the novel’s chief mischief-maker: the ablution that cleanses the body becomes the sign of an undivided mind (真心), so that the outward purification figures the inward constancy on which the whole enterprise of rescue depends.