三藏求祭 A Plea to Mourn
慌得三藏高叫：「陛下，赦貧僧一時。我那個徒弟自從歸教，歷歷有功。今日衝撞國師，死在油鍋之內，奈何先死者為神。我貧僧怎敢貪生？正是天下官員也管著天下百姓。陛下若教臣死，臣豈敢不死？只望寬恩，賜我半盞涼漿水飯、三張紙馬，容到油鍋前，燒此一陌紙，也表我師徒一念，那時再領罪也。」國王聞言道：「也是，那中華人多有義氣。」命取些漿飯、黃錢與他。果然取了，遞與唐僧。慌得三藏高叫：「陛下，赦贫僧一时。我那个徒弟自从归教，历历有功。今日冲撞国师，死在油锅之内，奈何先死者为神。我贫僧怎敢贪生？正是天下官员也管着天下百姓。陛下若教臣死，臣岂敢不死？只望宽恩，赐我半盏凉浆水饭、三张纸马，容到油锅前，烧此一陌纸，也表我师徒一念，那时再领罪也。」国王闻言道：「也是，那中华人多有义气。」命取些浆饭、黄钱与他。果然取了，递与唐僧。
逐句解 Line by line
In a fluster the Tang Monk cried aloud: "Your Majesty, spare this poor monk a moment.
慌得三藏高叫 — flustered into shouting. 得 = de; 藏 = zàng. 赦貧僧一時, spare this poor monk a moment: the same phrase that saved his life over the first chest, tried once more.
That disciple of mine, since he joined the faith, has had merit upon merit.
自從歸教 — since he joined the faith, 教 = jiào, the teaching. 歷歷有功 is merit plain and countable, one item after another. Tripitaka is writing a reference for a dead man.
Today, having crossed the National Preceptor, he has died in the oil-cauldron; but alas, the first to die becomes a spirit.
先死者為神 — the one who dies first becomes a spirit. 為 is wéi here, "becomes, is made," not the wèi that means "for the sake of" — and the lament in the next passage will use that other reading, near enough to compare. The sentiment is folk belief rather than doctrine: the earlier ghost has seniority in the world below.
How should this poor monk dare cling to life?
怎敢貪生 — how should I dare cling to life? 貪生 is literally to be greedy for living, and it is a real accusation in this moral vocabulary, not a figure of speech.
Truly, the realm's officials govern the realm's people.
天下官員也管著天下百姓 — the realm's officials govern the realm's people, with 著 = zhe holding the governing open. Another saying quoted inside the sentence rather than set off as verse. He is arguing that a subject cannot refuse the state, which is a strange thing to volunteer while asking for a favour, and quite deliberate.
If Your Majesty orders me to die, how should I, your servant, dare not to die?
若教臣死: 教 = jiào, if you order me to die. And 臣 — your servant, the word an official uses of himself to the throne. Tripitaka, a foreign monk, has cast himself as this king's subject in order to get one small thing.
I ask only for clemency: grant me half a cup of cold gruel and three paper-horses, and leave to go before the oil-cauldron to burn a string of spirit-money — to mark our master-and-disciple bond — and then I'll take my punishment."
The one small thing is a funeral. 半盞涼漿水飯 is half a cup of cold gruel — the simplest food-offering there is. 紙馬 are paper horses, burnt so the dead have transport; 一陌紙 is a bundle of spirit-money, 陌 being an old way of counting a hundred sheets. It is a modest Ming funeral rite, requested at the edge of a cauldron. 那 = nà.
The king, hearing his words, said: "Just so — those men of China are mostly men of honour."
中華人多有義氣 — men of China are mostly men of honour. 義氣 is loyalty between comrades, the virtue of sworn brothers and outlaws rather than of courts, and it is what finally moves him. 那 = nà; 中 = zhōng.
He ordered some gruel and yellow spirit-money fetched and given to him.
黃錢, yellow money, is the coarse yellow paper burnt as currency for the dead. The king supplies the funeral goods himself, which is the closest thing to decency he manages in this chapter.
It was duly fetched and handed to the Tang Monk.
果然取了，遞與唐僧 — duly fetched, and handed over. The offering that is about to be wasted on an empty cauldron.
Believing his disciple truly dead, Tripitaka does not ask for rescue or for mercy. He asks for permission to hold a funeral: half a cup of cold gruel, three paper horses, a bundle of spirit-money to burn at the cauldron's edge. It is a modest and entirely conventional Ming offering, and the modesty is the point — this is the emotional counterweight to a chapter otherwise built out of gags, and it is exactly this display of feeling that Wukong, lying at the bottom of the pot as a date-pit, will answer.
The way he frames the request is worth watching. He argues in the language of loyal subjection — the realm's officials govern the realm's people; if Your Majesty orders me to die, how should I, your servant, dare not? — casting himself as this foreign king's subject in order to buy one small favour. It works, and the king's reason for granting it is a nice piece of characterisation on both sides: 中華人多有義氣, men of China are mostly men of honour. 義氣 is loyalty between comrades rather than the obedience Tripitaka has just been professing, and it is that, not the argument, that moves him.