風和尚 You Crazy Monk
樵子聞言，仰天大笑道：「你原來是個風和尚。」行者道：「我不風啊，這是老實話。」樵子道：「你說是老實，便怎敢說把他遞解起身？」行者道：「你這等長他那威風，胡言亂語的攔路報信，莫不是與他有親？不親必鄰，不鄰必友。」樵子笑道：「你這個風潑和尚，忒沒道理。我倒是好意，特來報與你們，教你們走路時，早晚間防備，你倒轉賴在我身上。且莫說我不曉得妖魔出處，就曉得啊，你敢把他怎麼的遞解？解往何處？」樵子闻言，仰天大笑道：「你原来是个风和尚。」行者道：「我不风啊，这是老实话。」樵子道：「你说是老实，便怎敢说把他递解起身？」行者道：「你这等长他那威风，胡言乱语的拦路报信，莫不是与他有亲？不亲必邻，不邻必友。」樵子笑道：「你这个风泼和尚，忒没道理。我倒是好意，特来报与你们，教你们走路时，早晚间防备，你倒转赖在我身上。且莫说我不晓得妖魔出处，就晓得啊，你敢把他怎么的递解？解往何处？」
逐句解 Line by line
Hearing this, the woodcutter laughed up at the sky and said: "So you are a crazy monk after all."
仰天大笑, yǎng tiān dà xiào, "threw his head back and roared." 風和尚 is "the mad monk" — 風 in Ming vernacular stands in for 瘋, crazy, the two being homophones. Calling someone a 風和尚 is calling him a crackpot in robes.
Said Pilgrim: "I am not crazy — this is honest talk."
老實話, lǎo shi huà, "honest talk, the plain truth" — still exactly what it means today.
Said the woodcutter: "You call it honest — then how dare you speak of having him escorted off under guard?"
遞解起身, dì jiè qǐ shēn, "to send off under escort," 解 again jiè. The woodcutter has fastened onto the one absurd word in Pilgrim's speech and will not let it go.
Said Pilgrim: "You, puffing up his prestige like this, talking wild nonsense as you block the road to bring word — could it be you are kin to him?
長他那威風, zhǎng tā nà wēi fēng, "to build up his prestige" — 長 read zhǎng, "to increase," the same character as in 長老 but a different job. Pilgrim's counterattack is pure schoolyard: you seem awfully keen to talk him up, are you related? 那 is nà.
If not kin, then surely a neighbor; if not a neighbor, then surely a friend."
不親必鄰，不鄰必友, bù qīn bì lín, bù lín bì yǒu — "if not family, then a neighbour; if not a neighbour, then a friend." A stock escalating figure, and a piece of rhetoric with no argument in it whatsoever. Pilgrim is needling, not reasoning.
The woodcutter laughed: "You crazy, brazen monk — you make no sense at all.
風潑和尚, fēng pō héshang, "mad, brazen monk" — 潑 adds insolence to the madness. 忒沒道理, "you make no sense at all."
I, on the contrary, meant well, coming specially to warn you, so that on your road you might be on guard morning and night; and you turn it round and lay the blame on me.
The woodcutter's protest, and the sting is in a single character used twice: 倒, dào, "on the contrary" — I meant well, and you go and turn it round on me. 倒轉 is "to flip a thing over." 間 in 早晚間 is jiān.
And say nothing of my not knowing where the fiends come from — even if I did know, how would you dare have him escorted off? Escorted off to where?"
He finishes with the practical objection. 曉得, xiǎo de, "to know" — 得 is the light de, twice over. 遞解 and 解往 both take 解 as jiè. Deport him where, exactly?
The woodcutter plays straight man, laughing at Pilgrim as a 風和尚, a crackpot monk, and pressing the obvious objection: deport him how, and to where, when you cannot even find him? Pilgrim declines the question entirely and switches to accusation — anyone this eager to talk up the monsters' reputation must be in with them.
The whole exchange is vernacular banter of a kind the novel does very well, its comedy resting on the collision between an official's earnest warning and a monkey who refuses to take anything at face value. His escalating triad — not family, then a neighbour; not a neighbour, then a friend — is a stock rhetorical shape that sounds like reasoning and is entirely insult.