獨投齋戶 Going Alone to Beg Shelter
三藏下馬,只見那路頭上有一家兒,門外豎一首幢幡,內裡有燈燭熒煌,香煙馥郁。三藏道:「悟空,此處比那山凹河邊卻是不同。在人間屋簷下,可以遮得冷露,放心穩睡。你都莫來,讓我先到那齋公門首告求。若肯留我,我就招呼汝等;假若不留,你卻休要撒潑。汝等臉嘴醜陋,只恐諕了人,闖出禍來,卻倒無住處矣。」行者道:「說得有理。請師父先去,我們在此守待。」三藏下马,只见那路头上有一家儿,门外竖一首幢幡,内里有灯烛荧煌,香烟馥郁。三藏道:「悟空,此处比那山凹河边却是不同。在人间屋簷下,可以遮得冷露,放心稳睡。你都莫来,让我先到那斋公门首告求。若肯留我,我就招呼汝等;假若不留,你却休要撒泼。汝等脸嘴丑陋,只恐諕了人,闯出祸来,却倒无住处矣。」行者道:「说得有理。请师父先去,我们在此守待。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka dismounted, and saw at the head of the road a certain household: before its gate stood a banner-streamer, and within, lamps and candles blazed and incense-smoke hung rich and fragrant.
幢幡 are the tall ritual banners set up outside a house holding a service — the Ming equivalent of a sign on the gate saying a funeral is in progress. Lamps inside, incense heavy in the air: everything says a rite. 那 points — nà; in 一家兒 the 兒 is the little -r ending, er; 藏 in 三藏 is zàng.
Tripitaka said: "Wukong, this place is quite unlike that mountain-hollow by the river.
那 points back at the riverbank they have just left — nà. 藏 in 三藏 is zàng. Anywhere with a roof beats a mountain hollow.
Under the eaves of a human dwelling we may shelter from the cold dew and sleep soundly at ease.
遮得冷露 takes 得 as dé, managing it — the eaves can actually keep the cold dew off. 穩睡: sleep sound.
None of you come along; let me go first to that alms-master's gate and make the request.
齋公 is the layman who puts on the merit-feast, the host of the whole occasion. 都 is dōu; 那 points — nà.
If he is willing to take me in, I shall call for you;
招呼汝等: I'll call you in.
but if he will not, you must not make a rumpus.
撒潑 is making a scene — throwing your weight about, refusing to behave. Tripitaka has met his disciples before.
Your faces are so ugly that I fear you would frighten folk and blunder us into trouble, and then we should have nowhere at all to stay."
諕 is xià, to frighten. 倒 in 卻倒 is dào, the "on the contrary" reading, not the dǎo of toppling. And the reasoning is exact: your faces will scare somebody, the scare will make trouble, and the trouble will cost us the bed. He is right on every count, in order.
Pilgrim said: "That is well said.
說得有理 takes 得 as de, the link between the verb and how it came out — spoken, and with reason in it. Wukong agrees. Hold that thought.
Let the Master go on ahead; we shall wait here."
守待: keep watch and wait. They manage it right up until they are called.
The passage runs on Tripitaka's courtesy and his hard-won caution. Rather than let the whole party descend on a stranger's gate at night, he goes alone to ask for a bed — and his reasoning is comically precise: his disciples' faces will frighten somebody, the fright will cause trouble, and the trouble will lose them the lodging. Each step follows from the last, and every one of them is about to be proved right.
It is also stagecraft. The instruction not to 撒潑, not to make a scene if he is turned away, sets a rule that exists to be broken, and Wukong's ready 說得有理 — well said — only sharpens the joke, since the reader knows precisely who is being asked to wait quietly outside. The book is arranging its pieces: a mild monk at the door, three demon-quellers in the dark behind him, and a household that has never seen anything like them.