屈認償命 A Mock Concession
行者道：「他說我昨日到城外打殺他兩個徒弟，是誰知證？我等且屈認了，著兩個和尚償命，還放兩個去取經。他又說我捽碎車輛，放了囚僧，此事亦無見證，料不該死，再著一個和尚領罪罷了。行者道：「他说我昨日到城外打杀他两个徒弟，是谁知证？我等且屈认了，着两个和尚偿命，还放两个去取经。他又说我捽碎车辆，放了囚僧，此事亦无见证，料不该死，再着一个和尚领罪罢了。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, “He says that yesterday I went outside the city and beat two of his disciples to death — who is the witness to it?
行者: 行 = xíng. 知證 "a witness" -- someone who knows and can attest. He is not denying the killing; he is asking who saw it.
Still, let us grant the charge under duress: have two of the monks pay with their lives, and let the other two go on to fetch the scriptures.
屈認 "to confess under duress," to admit a thing you say you did not do. 著兩個和尚償命: 著 = zhuó, the reading for making someone do something. 還放: 還 = hái, "and still."
He further says I smashed the carts and released the imprisoned monks — for this too there is no witness; I reckon it does not merit death, so let one more monk be made to bear the guilt, and there's an end of it.
再著一個: 著 = zhuó again. 料不該死: 不 = bù. 領罪罷了: 罷 = bà here, because 罷了 is bà le, "and there's an end of it" -- a different word from the light ba of 也罷 that turns up later in the chapter, though the two are written alike.
Wukong's concession is a demolition dressed as an apology. Very well, he says: no witness, but let us grant it anyway. Execute two of the monks for the two dead disciples, and let the other two carry on to India. As for the carts, no witness there either, and it hardly merits death -- so make it one more monk, and we are square.
He is haggling. Over the lives of his own brothers, in front of the throne, in the tone of a man settling a bill. The absurdity is the argument: by pretending to accept charges nobody can prove, he makes their unprovenness the loudest thing in the room.
It is also, characteristically, a rehearsal. He is testing how much this court will simply wave through, and the answer is a great deal -- which is why he then stops joking and attacks the reasoning directly.