龍王推辭 The Dragon King Demurs
那龍王道：「大聖差了，若要求取雨水，不該來問我。」行者道：「你是四海龍王，主司雨澤，不來問你，卻去問誰？」龍王道：「我雖司雨，不敢擅專。須得玉帝旨意，吩咐在那地方，要幾尺幾寸，甚麼時辰起住，還要三官舉筆，太乙移文，會令了雷公、電母、風伯、雲童。俗語云：『龍無雲而不行』哩。」那龙王道：「大圣差了，若要求取雨水，不该来问我。」行者道：「你是四海龙王，主司雨泽，不来问你，却去问谁？」龙王道：「我虽司雨，不敢擅专。须得玉帝旨意，吩咐在那地方，要几尺几寸，甚么时辰起住，还要三官举笔，太乙移文，会令了雷公、电母、风伯、云童。俗语云：『龙无云而不行』哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Dragon King said: ‘The Great Sage is mistaken; if it is rain-water you would obtain, you ought not to come asking me.’
大聖差了, the Great Sage is mistaken -- 差 sounded chà, meaning off, in error. The dragon is not refusing exactly. He is claiming he is the wrong department.
The Pilgrim said: ‘You are the Dragon King of the Four Seas, master of the rain and its bounty; if I do not come to you, then to whom should I go?’
Wukong's counter is unanswerable on its face: you are the Dragon King of the Four Seas, 主司雨澤, the officer in charge of rain and moisture. If not you, then who? Anyone who has ever been told to take a request elsewhere will recognise the exchange.
The Dragon King said: ‘Though I have charge of the rain, I dare not act on my own authority.
不敢擅專, I dare not act on my own authority. 擅專 means to arrogate a decision to yourself -- to do something without the paperwork. This is the sentence the whole scene rests on.
There must be a decree from the Jade Emperor, specifying at what place, how many chǐ and cùn are wanted, at what hour it begins and ends; and further the Three Officials must lift the brush, Taiyi must send the writ, and the Duke of Thunder, the Mother of Lightning, the Earl of Wind, and the Cloud-Boys must be convened by command.
And here is the paperwork, in glorious full. A decree from the Jade Emperor specifying where; how much, down to the 尺 and the 寸 -- ten 寸 to a 尺, so we are talking about rainfall measured to the inch; what hour it starts and stops. Then countersignature by the Three Officials of heaven, earth and water, a writ from Taiyi, and the formal convening of four separate weather deities: the Duke of Thunder, the Mother of Lightning, the Earl of Wind and the Cloud-Boys. 那 is nǎ here, "which place," matching the other question-words in the list. It is a requisition form, and it is very funny.
As the common saying has it: “Without clouds, a dragon does not travel.”’
龍無雲而不行, without clouds a dragon does not travel. The proverb is literally true of dragons in Chinese art, which are always drawn among clouds, and the dragon king is using it to mean: I cannot move without the rest of the machinery. It is the sort of thing a middle manager says.
This is one of the novel's sharpest jokes at the expense of heaven, and the joke is simply accuracy. Rain is not the dragon king's to give. It requires an imperial decree specifying place, quantity down to the inch, and start and stop times; the countersignature of three officials; a writ from a fourth; and the formal summoning of the thunder, lightning, wind and cloud departments. Every one of those is a real post in the celestial hierarchy the novel has built.
Readers in the Ming would have recognised the shape of it immediately, because it is the shape of their own government. Heaven in this book is not a mystery. It is a ministry, with forms.
The proverb caps it neatly: even a dragon king cannot move without his clouds. He is a sovereign of the ocean and he is also a functionary, and Wukong -- who once wrecked this bureaucracy from the inside -- has no patience left for any of it.