請將不如激將 Better to Goad than to Beg
行者道：「你這個獃子，我臨別之時，曾叮嚀又叮嚀，說道：『若有妖魔捉住師父，你就說老孫是他大徒弟。』怎麼卻不說我？」八戒又思量道：「請將不如激將，等我激他一激。」道：「哥啊，不說你還好哩，只為說你，他一發無狀。」行者道：「怎麼說？」八戒道：「我說：『妖精，你不要無禮，莫害我師父。我還有個大師兄，叫做孫行者，他神通廣大，善能降妖，他來時教你死無葬身之地。』那怪聞言，越加忿怒，罵道：『是個甚麼孫行者，我可怕他？他若來，我剝了他皮，抽了他觔，啃了他骨，吃了他心。饒他猴子瘦，我也把他剁鮓著油烹。』」行者道：「你这个呆子，我临别之时，曾叮咛又叮咛，说道：『若有妖魔捉住师父，你就说老孙是他大徒弟。』怎么却不说我？」八戒又思量道：「请将不如激将，等我激他一激。」道：「哥啊，不说你还好哩，只为说你，他一发无状。」行者道：「怎么说？」八戒道：「我说：『妖精，你不要无礼，莫害我师父。我还有个大师兄，叫做孙行者，他神通广大，善能降妖，他来时教你死无葬身之地。』那怪闻言，越加忿怒，骂道：『是个甚么孙行者，我可怕他？他若来，我剥了他皮，抽了他觔，啃了他骨，吃了他心。饶他猴子瘦，我也把他剁鲊着油烹。』」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "You blockhead — when we parted I charged you again and yet again: should any fiend seize the master, you were to say that I, old Sun, am his chief disciple.
Wukong has spotted the hole in the story. 獃子, dāi zi, "blockhead," is his habitual name for Bajie; 叮嚀, dīng níng, to enjoin over and over — and the text doubles the word to show he really did say it twice.
Why then did you not speak of me?"
卻, què, "yet, after all." The whole reproach hangs on that one word: his name went unspoken.
Bajie thought again to himself: "To invite a general serves less well than to provoke one — let me stir him up a little."
This is the line the chapter title is built on. 請將不如激將, qǐng jiàng bù rú jī jiàng, is a proverb of stratagem: better to needle a champion into action than to ask him nicely. 將 is jiàng here, "general, champion." The chapter's own title calls it 義激猴王 — goading the Monkey King. Bajie announces the trick to us, and we watch it work.
Aloud he said, "Brother, had I not spoken of you it would have gone better; it was just because I named you that he grew the more outrageous."
還, hái, "still, the more"; 只為, zhǐ wèi, "only because," with 為 read wèi. 無狀, wú zhuàng, insolent, past all propriety.
Pilgrim said, "How so?"
怎麼說, zěn me shuō: "how so? what do you mean?"
Bajie said, "I told him: 'Fiend, be not insolent, and do no harm to my master.
Everything from here to the end of the passage is invented. 無禮, wú lǐ, insolent, without manners; 莫害, mò hài, do no harm to.
I have besides an elder brother, Sun the Pilgrim by name, of vast magic arts and mighty at subduing fiends; when he comes he will leave you no ground to be buried in.'
善能降妖, shàn néng xiáng yāo, skilled at subduing fiends (降 again xiáng). 死無葬身之地, sǐ wú zàng shēn zhī dì, "to die with no ground to be buried in" — total ruin, and still one of the most common curses in Chinese.
Hearing this, the fiend waxed the wrathfuller, and railed: 'And what manner of thing is this Sun the Pilgrim, that I should fear him?
忿怒, fèn nù, indignant fury. (甚麼 takes 甚 as shén.)
If he comes, I will flay off his hide, draw out his sinews, gnaw his bones, and eat his heart.
觔, jīn, is a variant way of writing 筋, sinew — the same word, a different printed shape. The character turns up twice more in this chapter, once in a mockery of Wukong's build and once in his somersault.
Lean though the monkey be, yet will I mince him to a paste and fry him in oil.'"
The last and worst of the invented threats, and the funniest. 剁鮓, duò zhǎ, is to chop something into a minced paste, as for pickling. 著油烹, zhuó yóu pēng, to fry with oil applied — 著 is the plain verb here, "to apply, to set to," read zhuó. Bajie has thought about this in some detail.
Wukong's opening rebuke exposes the gap in Bajie's account — the one instruction he had left, that his name be thrown at any captor, had gone unspoken — and Bajie's answering aside lets the reader in on the ruse before its target: better to provoke a champion than to beg him. Everything that follows is therefore double-voiced, a fabricated insult framed as reported speech, and the comedy turns on our knowing it is invented while Wukong does not.
The escalating catalogue of atrocities — the flaying, the drawing of sinews, the gnawing of bones, the mincing and frying — is calculated by Bajie precisely for its effect, each clause a further turn of the screw on the Great Sage's pride. The passage is a small study in manipulation: Bajie, so often the butt of Wukong's scorn, proves here the abler tactician, wielding his companion's vanity as surely as Wukong wields the iron staff.