伽藍傳信 The Guardians' Message
眾僧道：「不是鬼，乃是六丁六甲、護教伽藍。但至夜，就來保護。但有要死的，就保著，不教他死。」行者道：「這些神卻也沒理。只該教你們早死早生天，卻來保護怎的？」眾僧道：「他在夢寐中勸解我們，教不要尋死，且苦捱著，等那東土大唐聖僧往西天取經的羅漢。他手下有個徒弟，乃齊天大聖，神通廣大，專秉忠良之心，與人間報不平之事，濟困扶危，恤孤念寡。只等他來顯神通，滅了道士，還敬你們沙門禪教哩。」众僧道：「不是鬼，乃是六丁六甲、护教伽蓝。但至夜，就来保护。但有要死的，就保着，不教他死。」行者道：「这些神却也没理。只该教你们早死早生天，却来保护怎的？」众僧道：「他在梦寐中劝解我们，教不要寻死，且苦挨着，等那东土大唐圣僧往西天取经的罗汉。他手下有个徒弟，乃齐天大圣，神通广大，专秉忠良之心，与人间报不平之事，济困扶危，恤孤念寡。只等他来显神通，灭了道士，还敬你们沙门禅教哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
The monks said: "They are not ghosts — they are the Six Ding and Six Jia, and the Dharma-guarding Sangharama spirits.
Not ghosts but the establishment. The 六丁六甲 are twelve calendar-spirits, named for pairs in the sixty-day cycle, whom a Daoist adept commands as an escort — and they are protecting Buddhists here. The 護教伽藍 are the Dharma-guarding Sanghārāma spirits, the guardians attached to a monastery. 伽 is qié in 伽藍; 教 is jiào; 不 is bú before 是.
As soon as night falls, they come to protect us.
By day nothing; at nightfall, guardians.
Whenever one of us would die, they shield him and do not let him die."
著 in 保著 is the durative zhe, the shielding held in place. 教 is jiào, "let, cause to"; 不 is bú before it.
Pilgrim said: "These spirits have no sense at all.
A properly Buddhist objection, phrased as a complaint about incompetence. 沒 is méi: the spirits are being unreasonable.
They ought just to let you die early and be reborn early in Heaven — why come to protect you instead?"
早死早生天 — die early, be reborn in Heaven early. If this life is a wheel, the sooner you are off it the better, so keeping a wretched man alive looks like an odd kind of mercy. The answer is coming. 教 is jiào.
The monks said: "In our dreams they console us, telling us not to seek death but to endure our bitterness and await the sage-monk of the Great Tang in the Eastern Land, the arhat who journeys to the Western Heaven to fetch the scriptures.
The answer is a prophecy, and it is being told to the man it names. 苦捱著, keep grinding it out — 著 is the durative zhe. 中 is zhōng; 那 is nà; 教 is jiào and 不 is bú before 要.
Under his hand is a disciple, none other than the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, whose divine powers are vast, who holds singly to a loyal and upright heart, who rights the wrongs of the human world, succors the distressed and props up the imperiled, pities the orphaned and thinks on the widowed.
They describe him to his face. 齊天大聖, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is Wukong's own title — the one he extorted from Heaven in his rebel days — and what follows is the novel's account of what he has become since: a power that 報不平, rights what is unjust, and 恤孤念寡, pities orphans and thinks of widows. That last is the vocabulary of a good magistrate, not a demon-queller. 間 is jiān; 不 is bù before 平.
We need only wait for him to come and show his power, destroy the Daoists, and restore the honor of your Buddhist order."
還 is huán here, to give back — to restore the honor owed to the Buddhist order, not the hái that means "still" or "moreover." 沙門禪教, the Buddhist and Chan clergy; 哩 is li.
The mystery resolves into the chapter's pivot. The nightly protectors are not ghosts but the 六丁六甲 and the 護教伽藍, and in dreams they explain themselves: endure, do not seek death, and wait for the 東土大唐聖僧 from the Great Tang — and above all for his disciple.
That disciple is the 齊天大聖, and the men reciting the title do not know they are reciting it to its owner. The description that follows is the novel's own summary of what the Great Sage has become since his conversion — vast power, a loyal heart, a champion who rights the wrongs of the human world and thinks of orphans and widows. The prophesied rescuer has been standing in front of them in a false beard for six passages. The long exposition ends here and the chapter turns to action.