那個是你賢姪 Which of Us Is Your Nephew?
那怪聞言，心中大怒，咄的一聲喝道：「那潑猴頭！我與你有甚親情？你在這裡滿口胡柴，綽甚聲經兒？那個是你賢姪？」行者道：「哥哥，是你也不曉得。當年我與你令尊做弟兄時，你還不知在那裡哩。」那怪道：「這猴子一發胡說！你是那裡人，我是那裡人，怎麼得與我父親做弟兄？」那怪闻言，心中大怒，咄的一声喝道：「那泼猴头！我与你有甚亲情？你在这里满口胡柴，绰甚声经儿？那个是你贤姪？」行者道：「哥哥，是你也不晓得。当年我与你令尊做弟兄时，你还不知在那里哩。」那怪道：「这猴子一发胡说！你是那里人，我是那里人，怎么得与我父亲做弟兄？」
逐句解 Line by line
The demon, hearing this, was greatly enraged, and with a snort bellowed: ‘You insolent ape-head!
咄的一聲 is a bark of contempt, the noise you make to drive off a dog. 潑猴頭, insolent ape-head, is the standard abuse aimed at Wukong throughout the novel; he is called it so often it functions almost as a nickname. Both uses of 那 here are nà, plain pointing -- which is worth holding onto, because the demon is about to use the same character the other way.
What kinship is there between you and me?
有甚親情, "what kinship is there?" 甚 is shén, the "what" of a question, not the shèn that means extremely. The question is not really a question -- it is a flat denial with a question mark on it.
Here you stand spouting nonsense by the mouthful — what is all this jabber you take up?
胡柴 (a form of 胡扯) is talking rot, and the demon says Wukong is doing it by the mouthful. Then 綽甚聲經兒, roughly "what is all this racket you are picking up?" The interesting word is 綽, read chāo: the vernacular verb for snatching something up. Two lines earlier the same verb had Red Boy grabbing his spear. Here it is aimed not at an object but at a person's tone of voice -- you can snatch up a weapon, and you can snatch up an attitude. That second use is not a stray oddity; the novel does it five separate times across the hundred chapters, and this is one of them.
And which of us is this worthy nephew of yours?’
And now the reversal. Wukong has been using this character to point -- that demon, that ape-head. The demon uses it to ask: 那個 here is nǎ, "which one," the older way of writing what modern Chinese spells with a different character. Which of us, exactly, is this nephew of yours? Same character on the page, opposite job, and the scorn lives in the switch.
The Pilgrim said: ‘Brother, it is only that you do not know.
Wukong drops from 賢姪 to 哥哥, brother -- climbing down a generation to keep the family line alive. 曉得 is to know, with the light de. 不曉得 keeps bù, since the tone only shifts before a falling tone and 曉 is not one.
In the year I became sworn brother to your honoured father, you did not yet know where you were.’
當年 is "back in that year," 當 sounded dāng. Then the same trick as before, in reverse: 你還不知在那裡哩 -- 那裡 read nǎ lǐ, "where," asking rather than pointing. The idiom means you were not anywhere yet, which is to say you had not been born. It is a devastating thing to say to a child and Wukong clearly enjoys it.
The demon said: ‘This monkey talks utter nonsense!
一發胡說, talking wilder than ever. The tone on 一 shifts to yì before the level tone of 發. 猴子 takes an unstressed second syllable, hóu zi.
Where are you from, and where am I from, that you should ever have been my father's brother?’
那 twice more, both nǎ, both asking: a person from where, and a person from where? 怎麼得 is "how could you ever manage to," with 得 at its full dé. The demon is making a geographic argument and he thinks it is unanswerable. Wukong is about to answer it with a list.
The demon refuses the kinship flatly, and the scene has a small piece of wordplay holding it together. The character 那 does two entirely different jobs in this passage. In Wukong's mouth it points -- that demon, that ape-head. In the demon's mouth it asks -- which one, from where. Read aloud the difference is audible, nà against nǎ; on the page it is the same character, and the reader watches it flip.
那個是你賢姪 and 你是那裡人 are not requests for information. They are denials shaped like questions, and the second one sets a trap: prove the connection, then, since we come from opposite ends of the earth. Wukong takes the bait immediately, and the next passage is him reciting his own legend at a child who did not ask.