須請觀音 Only Guanyin Can Help
沙僧道：「哥哥，且休煩惱。我們早安計策，去那裡請兵助力，搭救師父耶。」行者道：「那裡請救麼？」沙僧道：「當初菩薩吩咐，著我等保護唐僧，他曾許我們：叫天天應，叫地地應。那裡請救去？」行者道：「想老孫大鬧天宮時，那些神兵都禁不得我。這妖精神通不小，須是比老孫手段大些的才降得他哩。天神不濟，地煞不能，若要拿此妖魔，須是去請觀音菩薩才好。奈何我皮肉酸麻，腰膝疼痛，駕不起觔斗雲，怎生請得？」沙僧道：「哥哥，且休烦恼。我们早安计策，去那里请兵助力，搭救师父耶。」行者道：「那里请救么？」沙僧道：「当初菩萨吩咐，着我等保护唐僧，他曾许我们：叫天天应，叫地地应。那里请救去？」行者道：「想老孙大闹天宫时，那些神兵都禁不得我。这妖精神通不小，须是比老孙手段大些的才降得他哩。天神不济，地煞不能，若要拿此妖魔，须是去请观音菩萨才好。奈何我皮肉酸麻，腰膝疼痛，驾不起觔斗云，怎生请得？」
逐句解 Line by line
Sha the Monk said: ‘Brother, do not be distressed.
Sha Monk again, and again he is the one who turns grief into a plan. Stop fretting. It is the same steadying function he performed twenty passages ago when he laughed at the two of them panicking.
Let us make a plan quickly and go somewhere to ask for troops and aid, to rescue the master.’
那裡 here is nǎ lǐ, somewhere or where -- the word is doing double duty as both an indefinite and a question, and Wukong is about to pick up the question half of it.
The Pilgrim said: ‘Ask for help where?’
Exactly that. Where? Wukong wants a quarter, not a proposal. It is a fair demand: "go and get help" is not a plan until you know from whom.
Sha the Monk said: ‘In the beginning the Bodhisattva charged us to protect the Tang Monk, and promised us: call on Heaven, and Heaven will answer; call on Earth, and Earth will answer.
Sha reaches for the promise. When Guanyin set them to guard the Tang Monk she gave them a guarantee: 叫天天應, 叫地地應 -- call on Heaven and Heaven answers, call on Earth and Earth answers. It is a real undertaking made earlier in the novel and it sounds absolute.
Where, then, should we go to ask for help?’
And then Sha immediately runs into the problem with it. If everything answers, that still does not tell you what to call. The universal promise turns out to be useless for choosing. It is a nicely observed piece of exasperation.
The Pilgrim said: ‘Consider — when old Sun made his great havoc in Heaven, those celestial troops, every one, could not withstand me.
Wukong starts reasoning it through, and the way he does it is characteristic: from his own record. When I wrecked heaven, none of those celestial troops could stand against me. 禁 is jīn here, to withstand. He is not boasting -- he is establishing a baseline for the argument he is about to make.
This demon's powers are no small thing; it must take one of greater skill than old Sun to subdue him.
And here is the argument, and it costs him something to make. This demon is stronger than I am, so it will take someone stronger than I am. 比老孫手段大些的 -- one whose skill is somewhat greater than old Sun's. Wukong has spent a hundred chapters insisting on his own sufficiency. This is him doing arithmetic and not liking the answer.
The celestial gods will not do, the earthly fiends cannot; if this demon is to be taken, we had best go and ask Guanyin Bodhisattva.
The conclusion, by elimination. Gods above will not do; 地煞, the earthly fiends -- the seventy-two malign stars of the lower rank -- cannot. Only Guanyin. The chapter has now ruled out force, water, and both halves of the spirit world.
But alas, my flesh is sore and numb, my waist and knees ache, I cannot mount the somersault cloud — how am I to go and ask her?’
And then the practical difficulty, which is almost funny after the grandeur of the conclusion: he hurts too much to fly. 駕不起觔斗雲 -- cannot get the somersault cloud up. That cloud crosses a hundred and eight thousand miles in one leap, and today he cannot manage it because his back aches.
The pilgrims work through the logic to its only remaining conclusion, and the interest of the scene is in how much it costs Wukong to reach it.
Sha starts with Guanyin's standing promise -- call on Heaven and Heaven answers -- and immediately notices that a promise covering everything gives no guidance about anything. Wukong then reasons from his own record: the armies of heaven could not stop him, and this demon can, so the help has to come from someone above his own level. 比老孫手段大些的才降得他. For a character whose defining trait is confidence in his own sufficiency, that is a considerable admission.
And then the deflation. Having identified the only power that can help, he cannot go and ask, because his waist and knees hurt too much to mount the cloud. The Great Sage is reduced to sending someone else on an errand, and the someone else is Bajie.