羑里之憂 The Fear of a Youli
太子跪地叩拜道：「師父，我只在此，伺候到明日，同師父一路去罷。」行者道：「不好，不好。若是與你一同入城，那怪物生疑，不說是我撞著你，卻說是你請老孫，卻不惹他反怪你也？」太子道：「我如今進城，他也怪我。」行者道：「怪你怎麼？」太子道：「我自早朝蒙差，帶領若干人馬鷹犬出城，今一日更無一件野物，怎麼見駕？若問我個不才之罪，監陷羑里，你明日進城，卻將何倚？況那班部中，更沒個相知人也。」行者道：「這甚打緊？你肯早說時，卻不尋下些等你？」太子跪地叩拜道：「师父，我只在此，伺候到明日，同师父一路去罢。」行者道：「不好，不好。若是与你一同入城，那怪物生疑，不说是我撞着你，却说是你请老孙，却不惹他反怪你也？」太子道：「我如今进城，他也怪我。」行者道：「怪你怎么？」太子道：「我自早朝蒙差，带领若干人马鹰犬出城，今一日更无一件野物，怎么见驾？若问我个不才之罪，监陷羑里，你明日进城，却将何倚？况那班部中，更没个相知人也。」行者道：「这甚打紧？你肯早说时，却不寻下些等你？」
逐句解 Line by line
The prince knelt to the ground and bowed, saying: 'Master, let me only stay here and wait upon you until tomorrow, and go along with you by the same road.'
伺候到明日, to wait upon him until tomorrow; 一路去, to travel together. The boy does not want to go home. 太子: 子 = zǐ; 去罷 takes 罷 as the soft sentence-ending ba.
The Pilgrim said: 'That won't do, that won't do.'
不好 twice over — no, and no. 行 = xíng.
'If I enter the city together with you, the fiend will grow suspicious; he will not say that I ran into you, but rather that you invited old Sun — would that not stir him to turn his blame on you?'
Wukong thinks two moves ahead, and the reasoning is political rather than magical: arrive together and the demon will say the prince fetched him, which turns a monkey's raid into a prince's conspiracy. 撞著你, ran into you, with 著 as zháo, the reading that marks a thing achieved. 那 = nà.
The prince said: 'Even if I go into the city now, he will blame me all the same.'
He will be blamed either way, says the prince. 太子: 子 = zǐ.
The Pilgrim said: 'Blame you for what?'
Wukong plays innocent and makes him say it. 行 = xíng.
The prince said: 'Since the dawn court I was commissioned to lead out so many men and horses, hawks and hounds, from the city, and this whole day there is not a single head of game — how am I to present myself before the throne?'
The problem is a courtier's problem. He was sent out at dawn with men, horses, hawks and hounds, and he is coming back with nothing. 蒙差: commissioned (差 = chāi). 更無一件野物, not so much as one head of game, with 更 as gèng sharpening the negative. 見駕 is to present oneself before the throne. 太子: 子 = zǐ.
'Should he charge me with the crime of incompetence and shut me up in a Youli, then when you enter the city tomorrow, on what will you rely?'
監陷羑里: to be shut up in a Youli. 羑里 is the place where King Wen of Zhou was imprisoned by the tyrant Zhòu, and its name became the byword for a good man jailed on a bad charge — the way 'Bastille' or 'Robben Island' can stand in for the whole idea of unjust confinement. Quite a flourish of learning from a young man worried about coming home without a rabbit. 卻將何倚: what would you have left to rely on? (將 = jiāng).
'Besides, among the ranks of officials there is not a single soul who knows me for a friend.'
班部 is the ranked files of officials at court. 更沒個相知人: not one friendly face among them (更 = gèng; 中 = zhōng; 相 = xiāng, 'mutual'). The demon has had three years to make the court his own.
The Pilgrim said: 'What does this matter?'
這甚打緊, 'and what does that matter?' — 甚 read shén, 'what.' Wukong waving away a crisis is one of the novel's steadiest pleasures. 行 = xíng.
'Had you been willing to say so earlier, would I not have found some [game] laid by to wait for you?'
尋下些等你: to have found some game and left it lying in wait for you. He is not offering to help hunt; he is offering to arrange for the hunt to have already succeeded.
The negotiation is pure Wukong. He turns down the prince's earnest offer to wait and travel together, and his reason is tactical rather than magical: arriving side by side would let the demon accuse the boy of collusion. The pleasure of the scene is watching a creature of pure force think carefully about optics.
The prince's objection grounds it all in real jeopardy. He has led out a hunting party and is coming back with nothing, which means disgrace at court — and, in a flourish of classical learning, he likens his likely imprisonment to King Wen's confinement at Youli, the standard emblem of the virtuous man unjustly jailed. The allusion lends him gravity even as the situation slides toward farce.
Wukong's airy reply — what does it matter, he could simply have arranged for game to be waiting — restores the balance the chapter keeps striking: serious stakes dissolved by casual omnipotence. The temple scene closes, and the way is clear for the real business at the palace well.