八戒推託 Eight Rules Makes Excuses
那八戒聽得此言，心中大驚道：「哥哥，你要弄精神，不管我死活，就要攀扯我。」行者道：「賢弟，常言道：『雞兒不吃無工之食。』你我進門，感承盛齋，你還嚷吃不飽哩，怎麼就不與人家救些患難？」八戒道：「哥啊，變化的事情，我卻不會哩。」行者道：「你也有三十六般變化，怎麼不會？」三藏叫：「悟能，你師兄說得最是，處得甚當。常言：『救人一命，勝造七級浮屠。』一則感謝厚情；二來當積陰德；況涼夜無事，你兄弟耍耍去來。」八戒道：「你看師父說的話，我只會變山，變樹，變石頭，變癩象，變水牛，變大胖漢還可；若變小女兒，有幾分難哩。」那八戒听得此言，心中大惊道：「哥哥，你要弄精神，不管我死活，就要攀扯我。」行者道：「贤弟，常言道：『鸡儿不吃无工之食。』你我进门，感承盛斋，你还嚷吃不饱哩，怎么就不与人家救些患难？」八戒道：「哥啊，变化的事情，我却不会哩。」行者道：「你也有三十六般变化，怎么不会？」三藏叫：「悟能，你师兄说得最是，处得甚当。常言：『救人一命，胜造七级浮屠。』一则感谢厚情；二来当积阴德；况凉夜无事，你兄弟耍耍去来。」八戒道：「你看师父说的话，我只会变山，变树，变石头，变癞象，变水牛，变大胖汉还可；若变小女儿，有几分难哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
When Eight Rules heard this, he was greatly dismayed at heart: "Brother, you want to show off your powers, and never mind whether I live or die — you must drag me into it."
弄精神 is showing off what you can do; 攀扯 is dragging somebody in with you, the way a falling man grabs a sleeve. Bajie has been listening from the side of the room and has heard exactly one thing in that speech: 我兄弟. 那 points — nà; 聽得 takes 得 as dé; 中 in 心中 is zhōng.
Pilgrim said: "Worthy brother, as the saying goes: 'A chicken does not eat the food it has not worked for.'
Wukong produces a proverb: 雞兒不吃無工之食, a chicken does not eat food it has not worked for. The 兒 is the little -r ending, er, not the ér that means child. It is a piece of homely peasant morality, and aimed at Bajie it is also a pointed reminder of what he has just spent the evening doing at that table.
We came in at their door and were treated to a handsome meal — you were still bawling that you had not eaten your fill — so why not save these people from a little trouble?"
And there is the barb: 你還嚷吃不飽哩 — you were still bawling that you hadn't had enough. 感承盛齋 is a set phrase for having been generously fed. 患難 is distress, real trouble. The argument is unanswerable and entirely unfair, which is Wukong's usual standard. 還 is hái.
Eight Rules said: "Brother, this business of transformations — I am not equal to it."
變化的事情: this transformation business. 我卻不會哩 — I can't do it — ends on 哩, li. He is lying, and everybody knows it.
Pilgrim said: "You too have your thirty-six transformations — how can you not be equal to it?"
三十六般變化, the thirty-six transformations, is Bajie's allotment against Wukong's seventy-two. The book keeps score, and Wukong is not above bringing it up.
Tripitaka called: "Wuneng, your elder brother has spoken most rightly and judged the matter most aptly.
Tripitaka comes in on Wukong's side, which settles it. 處得甚當 — handled most fitly — takes 得 as de, 甚 as shèn, "most," and 當 as dàng, apt, not the dāng of "ought." 藏 in 三藏 is zàng.
As the saying is: 'To save one life is better than to raise a seven-storied pagoda.'
救人一命，勝造七級浮屠 — to save one life is better than building a seven-storey pagoda. 浮屠 (fú tú) is a transcription of stūpa, and building one was the most conspicuous act of merit a rich man could perform. The proverb sets a life above the grandest thing money can buy, and it is still in daily use in Chinese. Coming from Tripitaka to Bajie, it also quietly answers the Chens' whole ledger of bridges and temples.
For one thing, it repays their kindness;
感謝厚情: it repays their kindness. Reason one, and the one Bajie ate.
for another, it lays up hidden merit;
陰德, hidden virtue, is the same idea Wukong called 陰騭 — merit banked where men cannot see it. 當 is dāng, "ought to." Reason two.
and besides, the cool night is idle — go and have your sport, brothers."
And reason three, from the master of the party: 涼夜無事，it is a cool night with nothing to do, so go and enjoy yourselves. 耍耍去來 is "off you go and play." Tripitaka has just described a child-sacrifice as an evening out.
Eight Rules said: "Listen to what the Master says! I can only turn into a mountain, a tree, a stone, a mangy elephant, a water-buffalo, or a great fat fellow — those I can manage;
The list is the joke, and it is a very precise one. Mountain, tree, stone, mangy elephant, water buffalo, great fat man — every single item is big, heavy or lumpy. 癩象 is a scabby elephant; 大胖漢 a large stout fellow. Bajie can turn into anything he likes so long as it is roughly his own shape. 還可 takes 還 as hái, "well enough."
but to turn into a little girl — there I find some difficulty."
小女兒, a little girl — and that is beyond him. 有幾分難哩, "there's some difficulty in it," is the understatement of a creature who has just listed a water buffalo among his easy options. 兒 is ér; 哩 is li.
Bajie's reluctance is played for laughs and argued in dead earnest, and the passage is a small anthology of proverbs. Wukong opens with the plainest reciprocity there is — 雞兒不吃無工之食, a chicken does not eat food it has not worked for — and follows it with the barb: you were bawling at that table that you hadn't had enough. Tripitaka weighs in with the Buddhist reckoning, that saving one life beats raising a seven-storey pagoda, and frames the job as repaying kindness and laying up 陰德, hidden virtue. Then he adds a third reason that is pure Tripitaka: it is a cool night with nothing on, so off you go and enjoy yourselves. He has just described a child-sacrifice as an evening out.
Against all of which Bajie can only plead incapacity, and his excuse is the funniest thing in the passage because it is so exactly calibrated to who he is. He has thirty-six transformations to Wukong's seventy-two, and when he lists what they are good for the pattern is unmistakable: a mountain, a tree, a stone, a mangy elephant, a water buffalo, a great fat man. Every single one is bulky, heavy or coarse. He can become anything at all provided it is roughly his own shape. A little girl is simply out of range — and the reveal of the next passage, where the child is carried out and dressed head to foot in kingfisher blue and shot silk, is arranged to make the gap as wide as possible.