囑護行李 Keep the Luggage Dry
行者卻按雲頭，入松林裡，見了八戒、沙僧，叫聲：「兄弟。」八戒道：「哥哥來得快啞。可曾請得龍王來？」行者道：「俱來了。你兩個切須仔細，只怕雨大，莫濕了行李。待老孫與他打去。」沙僧道：「師兄放心前去，我等俱理會得了。」行者却按云头，入松林里，见了八戒、沙僧，叫声：「兄弟。」八戒道：「哥哥来得快哑。可曾请得龙王来？」行者道：「俱来了。你两个切须仔细，只怕雨大，莫湿了行李。待老孙与他打去。」沙僧道：「师兄放心前去，我等俱理会得了。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Pilgrim then brought down his cloud, entered the pine-wood, saw Eight Rules and Sha the Monk, and called: ‘Brothers.’
He drops out of the sky into the pine-wood and calls to his brothers. After the ceremony of the dragon palace and the deployment of a sea-host, the scene comes back down to three travellers under some trees.
Eight Rules said: ‘You've come back quick, brother.
啞 is a sentence-final exclamation, the same sound and job as the modern 呀 -- so this is "you're back quick, eh." Bajie is cheerful and slightly surprised.
Did you manage to invite the Dragon King to come?’
Two different sounds of 得 inside two consecutive lines, which is a neat accident of the dialogue. Bajie's 來得快 has the light de, joining the coming to how fast it was. His 請得龍王來 has the full dé, meaning managed to -- did you actually succeed in getting him to come? One character, two jobs, one line apart.
The Pilgrim said: ‘They have all come.
Three characters, and they contain an ocean: they have all come. Not the Dragon King that Bajie asked about, but all four of them.
You two must be very careful: I only fear the rain will be heavy, so don't let it wet the luggage.
And here is the note that makes the scene. Having summoned the sovereigns of every sea on earth, Wukong's parting instruction to his brothers is: mind the bags do not get wet. 行李 takes 行 at xíng -- it is the ordinary word for luggage. The novel is very good at this sort of deflation, and it is funnier for being said seriously.
Wait while old Sun goes off to fight him.’
And off he goes to fight. The whole exchange has taken six short lines.
Sha the Monk said: ‘Set your mind at ease, elder brother, and go; we all understand.’
Sha Monk, steady as ever, sends him off. 理會得 -- we understand -- with the light de. He is the one who worked out the plan in the first place, and he does not mention it.
A domestic pause before the storm, and one of the small pleasures of the chapter. Wukong has just deployed four dragon kings and the entire population of the ocean in the sky above the mountain. His last word to his brothers before going into battle is a warning to keep the luggage dry.
The novel does this deliberately and often. The pilgrims are cosmic figures with cosmic problems, and they also have bags to carry and a horse to mind, and the comedy lives in the gap. It is also, in its way, a mark of competence: Wukong has thought about what a very large quantity of rain will do to everything underneath it.