御賜難放 The King's Gift Cannot Be Freed
道士云：「你想有些風病，一時間就胡說了。那些和尚乃國王御賜，若放一二名，還要在師父處遞了病狀，然後補個死狀，才了得哩，怎麼說都放了？此理不通，不通。且不要說我家沒人使喚，就是朝廷也要怪他。那里長要差官查勘，或時御駕也親來點劄，怎麼敢放？」行者道：「不放麼？」道士說：「不放！」道士云：「你想有些风病，一时间就胡说了。那些和尚乃国王御赐，若放一二名，还要在师父处递了病状，然后补个死状，才了得哩，怎么说都放了？此理不通，不通。且不要说我家没人使唤，就是朝廷也要怪他。那里长要差官查勘，或时御驾也亲来点札，怎么敢放？」行者道：「不放么？」道士说：「不放！」
逐句解 Line by line
The Daoist said: "You must have a touch of the mad-wind sickness, that you talk such nonsense all at once.
風病 is the "wind sickness" — wind getting into a man and disordering his mind, the standard old explanation for madness. 一 is yì before 時; 間 is jiān.
Those monks are the king's own bestowal; were we to release even one or two, we should have to file an illness-report with the masters, then make out a death-report before it could be settled — how then can you say to release them all?
The refusal is pure paperwork, and the paperwork is the horror. To release even one man you would file a sickness report, then follow it with a death report, and only then would the file close — which is to say the only way out of this register is to be recorded as dead. 御賜, royal grant, is the phrase that makes them property. 了 in 才了得 is liǎo, to settle or finish, and 得 after it is the light de; 那 is nà; 還 is hái; 都 is dōu; 一 is yí before 二.
The thing makes no sense, no sense at all.
不 is bù before 通, both times.
Never mind that our household would have none to wait on it — the court itself would take us to task.
The order of his objections is the joke: first that the household would have nobody to wait on it, and only then that the court might object. 不 is bú before 要; 沒 is méi; 朝 is cháo.
The village headmen here require officials to be dispatched to inspect, and at times the royal carriage comes in person to check the count — how should we dare release them?"
A ladder of scrutiny, climbing as it goes: the 里長 — 長 is zhǎng, the headman of a 里, the hundred-and-ten-household unit the Ming used for tax and labor — then dispatched officials, then the royal carriage arriving in person to count heads. 點劄 is to check names against the muster-roll. 那 is nà; 差 in 差官 is chāi, to dispatch.
Pilgrim said: "You won't release them?"
He asks once more, and the flatness of the question is a warning nobody hears. 不 is bú before 放.
The Daoist said: "We won't!"
And again. 不 is bú before 放.
The refusal is played as bureaucratic farce, and the farce has teeth. The monks are royal property; freeing even one or two would mean filing a sickness report and then following it with a death report before the file would close. The only exit from this register is to be written down as dead.
Then the ladder of inspection — headmen, dispatched officials, the king's own carriage arriving to count heads. The chapter mocks the machinery even as it confirms how complete it is, and the flat, thrice-repeated "we won't" is the trigger that Wukong's patience finally trips over.