長老哀君 The Elder Laments the King
那唐僧與沙僧開門看處，那皇帝容顏未改，似活的一般。長老忽然慘悽道：「陛下，你不知那世裡冤家，今生遇著他，暗喪其身，拋妻別子，致令文武不知，多官不曉。可憐你妻子昏蒙，誰曾見焚香獻茶？」忽失聲淚如雨下。八戒笑道：「師父，他死了可干你事？又不是你家父祖，哭他怎的？」三藏道：「徒弟啊，出家人慈悲為本，方便為門。你怎的這等心硬？」八戒道：「不是心硬，師兄和我說來，他會醫得活；若醫不活，我也不馱他來了。」那唐僧与沙僧开门看处，那皇帝容颜未改，似活的一般。长老忽然惨凄道：「陛下，你不知那世里冤家，今生遇着他，暗丧其身，抛妻别子，致令文武不知，多官不晓。可怜你妻子昏蒙，谁曾见焚香献茶？」忽失声泪如雨下。八戒笑道：「师父，他死了可干你事？又不是你家父祖，哭他怎的？」三藏道：「徒弟啊，出家人慈悲为本，方便为门。你怎的这等心硬？」八戒道：「不是心硬，师兄和我说来，他会医得活；若医不活，我也不驮他来了。」
逐句解 Line by line
When the Tang Monk and Sha Monk opened the door to look, the emperor's face was unchanged, as though he were alive.
容顏未改，似活: the face unaltered, as though he were alive (似 = sì). Whatever else the pearl has done, it has made this body impossible to look at as a stranger's. 那, twice, = nà; 處 = chù.
The elder said in sudden grief: 'Your Majesty — you knew not what foe from a former life you met in this one, who secretly took your life, so that you were parted from wife and child, and your civil and military officers left all unknowing.'
He speaks to the corpse, and calls it 陛下, Your Majesty. 那世裡冤家 is an enemy from a former life — 冤家 means someone bound to you by a debt of wrong across lifetimes, so this is not merely a murderer but a karmic creditor come to collect. (那 = nà, 'that other [life].') 遇著: met (著 = zháo). 拋妻別子: torn from wife and child (子 = zǐ). 長老: 長 = zhǎng.
'Pitiable that your wife and children are kept in the dark — who has ever been seen to burn incense or offer you tea?'
妻子昏蒙: his wife and children left in the dark (子 = zǐ). 焚香獻茶, burning incense and offering tea, are the ordinary observances a family owes its dead — the point being that nobody has performed them, because nobody knows he is dead. A ghost with no rites is, in this system, genuinely destitute.
And suddenly he broke down, his tears falling like rain.
失聲淚如雨下: his voice breaks and the tears come down like rain. Tripitaka weeping for a man he never met is entirely characteristic, and the chapter has been saving him up for it.
Bajie laughed: 'Master, what business is his dying of yours?'
可干你事: 'what's it to you?' Bajie's timing is deliberate and his callousness is a performance.
'He's no father or forebear of your house — what are you weeping over him for?'
不是你家父祖: no father or forebear of your house (不 = bú). He is pressing on precisely the point that would sting most — the monk who left his family weeping over somebody else's.
Tripitaka said: 'Disciple — for one who has left the household life, compassion is the root, and expedient kindness the gate.'
And Tripitaka gives him the doctrine straight. 慈悲為本，方便為門: compassion is the root, skillful kindness the gate (為 twice = wéi). 方便 translates the Buddhist idea of upāya, the adaptable means a teacher uses to meet people where they are — so 'the gate' is how compassion actually gets into the world. It is also the standing answer to Bajie's whole way of thinking. 三藏 = zàng.
'How can you be so hard of heart?'
心硬: hard-hearted. Which is exactly the accusation Bajie was angling for.
Bajie said: 'It's not that I'm hard of heart — my elder brother told me he could cure him back to life;'
And here is the hook, dropped so lightly it looks like self-defense. 醫得活: could cure him back to life (得 = de). He is not confessing a motive; he is planting one in his master's mind.
'if he couldn't cure him, I'd never have hauled him here at all.'
醫不活: if he can't cure him (不 = bù). The trap is now fully set, and it was set by looking heartless on purpose.
The final movement opens on Tripitaka's grief. The preserved face, unchanged as though the man were sleeping, moves the tender-hearted monk to a full lament — murdered by an enemy carried over from another life, torn from wife and children, and not one stick of incense burned for him because his family does not know he is dead. It is the monk's characteristic note: an overflowing compassion, spent on a stranger three years gone.
Bajie's callousness is the deliberate foil. His jeer — what business is his dying of yours? — provokes Tripitaka into stating the monastic ideal, compassion as the root and skillful kindness as the gate, and that is exactly what the pig was fishing for. The mockery is strategic. It is the opening move of the revenge he devised on the road, designed to steer a soft-hearted master toward demanding something Wukong cannot deliver.
The trap springs obliquely. Bajie lets slip that he only hauled the corpse because Wukong said he could cure the man back to life — planting in a grieving mind both the possibility of resurrection and the expectation that his brother can produce it. A genuine compassion is being turned into the instrument of a petty vengeance, and it works.