八戒浸池 Pig Bajie Steeped in the Pool
卻說那怪將八戒拿進洞去，道：「哥哥啊，拿將一個來了。」老魔喜道：「拿來我看。」二魔道：「這不是？」老魔道：「兄弟，錯拿了，這個和尚沒用。」八戒就綽經說道：「大王，沒用的和尚，放他出去罷。不當人子。」二魔道：「哥哥，不要放他。雖然沒用，也是唐僧一起的，叫做豬八戒。把他且浸在後邊淨水池中，浸退了毛衣，使鹽醃著，晒乾了，等天陰下酒。」八戒聽言道：「蹭蹬啊，撞著個販醃臘的妖怪了。」那小妖把八戒擡進去，拋在水裡不題。却说那怪将八戒拿进洞去，道：「哥哥啊，拿将一个来了。」老魔喜道：「拿来我看。」二魔道：「这不是？」老魔道：「兄弟，错拿了，这个和尚没用。」八戒就绰经说道：「大王，没用的和尚，放他出去罢。不当人子。」二魔道：「哥哥，不要放他。虽然没用，也是唐僧一起的，叫做猪八戒。把他且浸在后边净水池中，浸退了毛衣，使盐腌著，晒干了，等天阴下酒。」八戒听言道：「蹭蹬啊，撞著个贩腌腊的妖怪了。」那小妖把八戒擡进去，抛在水里不题。
逐句解 Line by line
Now that fiend hauled Bajie off into the cave and announced: “Elder brother, I've fetched one back!”
卻說 (què shuō) is the storyteller's turn-marker, “now it happened that…,” picking up the thread from the previous chapter. The first 將 (jiāng) is the disposal coverb (= 把), “took Bajie and…”; the second, in 拿將, is a verbal particle of completed motion, “fetched back.” The fiend is the Silver-Horned second demon, 二魔.
The old fiend said with delight: “Bring it here and let me look.”
老魔 (lǎo mó) is the elder of the two demon-brothers, Gold-Horn (金角大王); the pair rule the Lotus-Flower Cave of Level-Top Mountain.
The second fiend said: “Is this not the one?”
這不是 (zhè bù shì) is a curt rhetorical, “isn't this him?” The younger brother expects praise for his catch; the joke of the scene is that he has bagged the wrong pilgrim.
The old fiend said: “Brother, you've caught the wrong one — this monk is of no use.”
錯拿了 (cuò ná le), “caught in error”; the completive 了 (le) seals the mistake. 沒用 (méi yòng), “useless” — comic, since it is Tripitaka's flesh the demons crave, not the pig's.
At this Bajie, snatching up speech, spoke out: “Great King, a useless monk — best let him out the door. This is no way to treat a man!”
綽經 (chāo jīng) — 綽 is read chāo (= 抄), “to snatch up, to seize hold of”; the idiom has Bajie, bound though he is, snatching at speech to blurt out his protest. 不當人子 (bù dāng rén zǐ) is a Ming colloquial oath, “this is outrageous, no way to use a person”; here 子 is the full noun zǐ, “a person,” not the toneless suffix.
The second fiend said: “Brother, don't let him go. Useless though he is, he still belongs to Tripitaka's party — he's the one called Zhu Bajie.
一起的 (yì qǐ de), “of the same company”; any member of the pilgrim band is worth keeping as leverage. 豬八戒 — “Zhu (Pig) of the Eight Prohibitions,” Bajie's dharma-name.
“Let's steep him for now in the clear-water pool out back, soak the bristles off his hide, cure him with salt and dry him in the sun — and when the sky turns overcast, he'll do to go with the wine.”
A run of brisk verbs turns Bajie into preserved meat: 浸 (jìn) soak, 退 strip, 醃 (yān) salt-cure, 晒乾 (shài gān) sun-dry — where 乾 is the “dry” graph gān, not the qián of the trigram. 醃著 (yān zhe) takes the durative 著 (zhe), “keep it curing”; 下酒 (xià jiǔ), “to eat with wine.”
Hearing this, Bajie cried: “What rotten luck — I've run smack into a fiend that trades in salt-pork and bacon!”
蹭蹬 (cèng dèng) is “hard luck, a run of misfortune.” 撞著 (zhuàng zháo) takes the resultative 著 (zháo), “collided with, ran into”; 醃臘 (yān là) are cured and winter-dried meats — Bajie's rueful joke on his own coming fate.
The little imps carried Bajie in and flung him into the water — of which no more for now.
不題 (bù tí), “let it be told no further,” is the storyteller's device for laying one thread aside to take up another — here, cutting from the cave back to Tripitaka on the road.
The chapter opens on comic reprieve before its true peril. Bajie, hauled in at the close of the preceding chapter, is inspected and pronounced worthless; the demons' plan to pickle and sun-dry him as a wine-relish plays his gross corporeality for laughs even as it marks the stakes. The joke turns on a point the fiends only half-grasp — it is the flesh of Tripitaka, the ten-times-reborn Elder, that confers longevity, not the pig's — so Bajie is at once “useless” and worth keeping as a hostage.
The prose is built almost wholly of dialogue and rapid verbs, the storyteller's staple for pace. Two textual features reward attention. The oath 不當人子 is authentic Ming vernacular, its bite lost if 子 is read as a mere suffix rather than the full noun “person.” And 綽經 takes 綽 as chāo (= 抄), “to snatch”: Bajie seizes hold of speech and blurts out his protest even as he is hauled to the pool.