誤拜假容 Bowing to a False Bodhisattva
那獃子正縱雲行處，忽然望見菩薩。他那裡識得真假？這才是見像作佛。獃子停雲下拜道：「菩薩，弟子豬悟能叩頭。」妖精道：「你不保唐僧去取經，卻見我有何事幹？」八戒道：「弟子因與師父行至中途，遇著號山枯松澗火雲洞有個紅孩兒妖精，他把我師父攝了去。是弟子與師兄等尋上他門，與他交戰。他原來會放火，頭一陣，不曾得贏。第二陣，請龍王助雨，也不能滅火。師兄被他燒壞了，不能行動，著弟子來請菩薩。萬望垂慈，救我師父一難。」那呆子正纵云行处，忽然望见菩萨。他那里识得真假？这才是见像作佛。呆子停云下拜道：「菩萨，弟子猪悟能叩头。」妖精道：「你不保唐僧去取经，却见我有何事干？」八戒道：「弟子因与师父行至中途，遇着号山枯松涧火云洞有个红孩儿妖精，他把我师父摄了去。是弟子与师兄等寻上他门，与他交战。他原来会放火，头一阵，不曾得赢。第二阵，请龙王助雨，也不能灭火。师兄被他烧坏了，不能行动，着弟子来请菩萨。万望垂慈，救我师父一难。」
逐句解 Line by line
The blockhead, flying along on his cloud, suddenly caught sight of a Bodhisattva.
Flying south, and suddenly there is a Bodhisattva sitting on a cliff. From Bajie's point of view this is a piece of extraordinary luck: he has been in the air ten minutes and the person he was sent to find has appeared in front of him.
How was he to tell the true from the false?
The narrator asks the question the reader is asking. 識得 takes 得 at the full dé -- telling true from false is something you would have to manage, and Bajie cannot. It is worth remembering who could: Wukong, whose smoke-cooked eyes see through every disguise in the book, is lying under a pine tree with a bad back.
This was indeed a case of seeing an image and taking it for the Buddha.
見像作佛, seeing an image and taking it for the Buddha. This is a real Buddhist criticism, not an invented phrase -- the error of mistaking the statue for the thing it represents, worshipping the form and missing the substance. Applied here it is savage: Bajie is doing exactly that, in front of an actual demon.
The blockhead stopped his cloud, bowed down, and said: ‘Bodhisattva, your disciple Zhu Wuneng kowtows.’
He stops his cloud, bows, and gives his full religious name. Zhu Wuneng is the name Guanyin gave him when she recruited him -- 悟能, Awakened to Power, matching Wukong's 悟空, Awakened to Emptiness. He is being scrupulously correct, and every scruple takes him further in.
The demon said: ‘Instead of guarding the Tang Monk on his scripture-quest, what business brings you to see me?’
The demon plays the part beautifully. Mildly reproving -- shouldn't you be guarding your master? -- which is exactly what a Bodhisattva would say and exactly the prompt needed to make Bajie explain everything.
Eight Rules said: ‘Your disciple, journeying with the master, came midway upon the Fire-Cloud Cave of the Withered-Pine Torrent on Roaring Mountain, where a Red Boy demon carried my master off.
And out it comes. The full address of the cave, the demon's name, the abduction. Bajie is briefing his enemy on his enemy. 遇著 takes 著 at zháo, marking that the encounter happened.
Your disciple and my elder brothers sought him out at his gate and did battle with him.
The battle, reported to the person who won it.
It turned out he could loose fire; in the first bout, we could not win.
頭一陣, the first bout -- and here 一 keeps its plain yī, because it is an ordinal, the first, rather than the number one running into the next word. That is one of only two places in the whole chapter where it does.
In the second bout, we called the Dragon Kings to help with rain, yet even that could not quench the fire.
The dragons, the rain, the failure. Bajie is now three sentences into a complete account of every countermeasure the pilgrims have tried and how each one failed.
My elder brother was scorched by him and cannot move about, and so has sent your disciple to ask the Bodhisattva.
And the last piece: my brother is too hurt to move, so he sent me to you. That is the entire strategic position of the pilgrims, handed over. The demon now knows Wukong is incapacitated and that this errand is the last hope.
I beg you, of your great mercy, to deliver my master from this ordeal.’
The plea, and it is where the irony peaks: deliver my master from this ordeal. He is asking the kidnapper to rescue the hostage. 難 is nàn again, the counted ordeal, and 一 shifts to yí in front of its falling tone.
This is dramatic irony at full strength. Bajie kneels to the demon he was sent to raise help against, and tells him everything: the location, the name, both failed battles, the dragons, and finally that Wukong is too injured to move. He ends by begging his captor-to-be to rescue his master from his captor.
The narrator names the mistake with a Buddhist phrase: 見像作佛, seeing an image and taking it for the Buddha. That is a genuine criticism in Buddhist thought -- the error of mistaking the representation for what it represents. Bajie is devout and his devotion is precisely what is being used against him.
And there is a hard irony underneath the obvious one. The disciple who could have seen through this instantly is Wukong, whose eyes were cooked in a furnace specifically so that he could. He is lying under a pine tree, unable to fly, because of this same demon. Red Boy did not merely defeat the Great Sage; he removed the only pair of eyes that could catch him at this.