陳到底 Chen Down-to-the-Bottom
卻說八戒、沙僧在水裡撈著行囊，放在白馬身上馱了，分開水路，湧浪翻波，負水而出。只見行者在半空中看見，問道：「師父何在？」八戒道：「師父姓陳，名到底了。如今沒處找尋，且上岸再作區處。」原來八戒本是天蓬元帥臨凡，他當年掌管天河八萬水兵大眾；沙和尚是流沙河內出身；白馬本是西海龍孫：故此能知水性。大聖在空中指引，須臾，回轉東崖，晒刷了馬匹，紾掠了衣裳。大聖雲頭按落，一同到於陳家莊上。早有人報與二老道：「四個取經的老爺，如今只剩了三個來也。」兄弟即忙接出門外，果見衣裳還濕，道：「老爺們，我等那般苦留，卻不肯住，只要這樣方休。怎麼不見三藏老爺？」八戒道：「不叫做三藏了，改名叫做陳到底也。」二老垂淚道：「可憐！可憐！我說等雪融備船相送，堅執不從，致令喪了性命。」行者道：「老兒，莫替古人耽憂。我師父管他不死長命。老孫知道，決然是那靈感大王弄法算計去了。你且放心，與我們漿漿衣服，晒晒關文，取草料喂著白馬。等我弟兄尋著那廝，救出師父，索性剪草除根，替你一莊人除了後患，庶幾永遠得安生也。」陳老聞言，滿心歡喜，即命安排齋供。却说八戒、沙僧在水里捞着行囊，放在白马身上驮了，分开水路，涌浪翻波，负水而出。只见行者在半空中看见，问道：「师父何在？」八戒道：「师父姓陈，名到底了。如今没处找寻，且上岸再作区处。」原来八戒本是天蓬元帅临凡，他当年掌管天河八万水兵大众；沙和尚是流沙河内出身；白马本是西海龙孙：故此能知水性。大圣在空中指引，须臾，回转东崖，晒刷了马匹，紾掠了衣裳。大圣云头按落，一同到于陈家庄上。早有人报与二老道：「四个取经的老爷，如今只剩了三个来也。」兄弟即忙接出门外，果见衣裳还湿，道：「老爷们，我等那般苦留，却不肯住，只要这样方休。怎么不见三藏老爷？」八戒道：「不叫做三藏了，改名叫做陈到底也。」二老垂泪道：「可怜！可怜！我说等雪融备船相送，坚执不从，致令丧了性命。」行者道：「老儿，莫替古人耽忧。我师父管他不死长命。老孙知道，决然是那灵感大王弄法算计去了。你且放心，与我们浆浆衣服，晒晒关文，取草料喂着白马。等我弟兄寻着那厮，救出师父，索性剪草除根，替你一庄人除了后患，庶几永远得安生也。」陈老闻言，满心欢喜，即命安排斋供。
逐句解 Line by line
Now Eight Rules and Sha Monk got hold of the baggage under the water and loaded it on the white horse's back, and parting a road through the water, surging up the waves and overturning them, they bore up and out.
撈著: 著 is zháo, fishing for a thing and getting it. 行囊: 行 is xíng; 分開: 分 is fēn.
Pilgrim, looking down from mid-air, caught sight of them and asked: 「Where is the master?」
半空中: 中 is zhōng; 看見: 看 is kàn.
Eight Rules said: 「The master's surname is Chen, and his given name is Down-to-the-Bottom.
The joke turns entirely on sound. 陳, the Chen family's surname, is chén — and so is 沉, "to sink." 到底 is "all the way to the bottom." So Eight Rules gives his master a complete Chinese name, surname and given name both, meaning Sunk-to-the-Bottom. English can only point at it.
There is nowhere to look for him now; let us get ashore and settle what is to be done.」
Two readings of 處 in one line, and position decides: 沒處 is the noun chù, "place"; 區處 is the verb chǔ, "to arrange, to settle a matter" — the same verbal reading Old Chen used at 處置 earlier.
For Eight Rules had been the Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds come down among men, and in that year had had command of the eighty thousand water-troops of the River of Heaven;
當年: 當 is dāng, "in that year." The narrator steps in to explain why two of the three can survive underwater at all.
Sha Monk came originally out of the River of Flowing Sand;
His demon career before conversion was as a river-spirit, and it is useful here.
and the white horse was a dragon's grandson of the Western Sea — and so all of them knew the ways of water.
知水性, to know the ways of water. 龍孫 is a loose word for dragon offspring rather than a precise degree of descent — this horse is the third son of the Dragon King of the Western Sea. Of the four pilgrims only Tripitaka is helpless in water, and that is the whole design of the trap.
The Great Sage guided them from the air, and in a little while they came round to the eastern shore, dried and brushed down the horse and wrung out and smoothed their clothes.
空中: 中 is zhōng. 紾掠, to wring out and comb through — the domestic detail arriving immediately after the disaster.
The Great Sage brought his cloud down, and together they came to Chen Village.
按落: 落 is luò. 一同 keeps 一 at yì before a rising tone.
Someone had already run to tell the two old men: 「Of the four reverences who go to fetch the scriptures, only three have come back!」
The news reaches the village the way the news of the freezing did — ahead of the principals, by a runner.
The brothers hurried out of the gate to meet them, and seeing their clothes still wet said: 「My lords, we begged you so hard to stay and you would not, and now it has come to this.
還濕: 還 is hái, "still." 那般 is nà. 只要這樣方休, "nothing would do but it must end like this" — the reproach of people who turned out to be right.
How is it we do not see the reverend Tripitaka?」
The question they have to ask and already know the answer to.
Eight Rules said: 「He is not called Tripitaka any more; he has changed his name to Chen Down-to-the-Bottom.」
The pig repeats his joke to the bereaved hosts, which is either heartlessness or the only way he can get the words out.
The two old men shed tears and said: 「Alas!
可憐, "pitiable." The exclamation gets a segment of its own because the source gives it a sentence of its own.
Alas!
Repeated, and repeated alone. Two characters.
I said to wait for the snow to melt and I would get a boat ready and see you over, and you held out against it, and it has cost him his life.」
相送: 相 is xiāng. 堅執不從 — Old Chen names the fault exactly, and it is the fault the chapter has been documenting since the snow began.
Pilgrim said: 「Old fellow, don't grieve on other people's account.
老兒: 兒 is ér, the full syllable. 替古人耽憂, to worry on behalf of the ancients — still the phrase Chinese reaches for when someone spends grief on what cannot be helped.
My master is not one to die — he is for long life.
長命: 長 is cháng, "long." Wukong states it as fact rather than as comfort, and he is right.
Old Monkey knows: it is certainly that Great King of Divine Response who has worked a trick and carried him off.
那靈感大王 is nà. He has the answer at once, and he has had it since the two scales fell at the temple.
Set your mind at rest, and get our clothes washed for us and our travel-papers dried, and fetch fodder and feed the white horse.
喂著: 著 is zhe. 漿 is to stiffen cloth with rice-water, the last stage of a proper wash. 關文 is the travel permit carrying the seal of every kingdom they have passed — the most irreplaceable thing they own, and it has just been in the river.
Wait while we brothers hunt that creature out and get our master back, and cut the grass and take out the root while we are about it, and rid your whole village of the plague for good, so that you may live at peace hereafter.」
尋著: 著 is zháo, searching and finding. 那廝 is nà; 得安生: 得 is dé. 剪草除根, cut the grass and dig out the root — a proverb, and a promise the next chapter will have to keep.
Old Chen heard him with a full heart of joy, and gave orders at once for a vegetarian meal to be laid.
齋供: 供 is gòng, the offering sense, back where it started. The chapter has run this one character through three senses — food set before a god (gòng), testimony given in court (gòng), and provisions laid in for a guest (gōng) — and it closes on a meal set before the men who will go and fetch the monk back.
Eight Rules' joke is the strangest thing in the chapter and one of the strangest in the novel. Asked where his master is, he answers that the master's surname is Chen and his given name is Down-to-the-Bottom — 陳 and 沉 sound exactly the same — and then he repeats it to the man's grieving hosts. It is grotesque, and it is also how this novel handles grief: the pig cannot say what has happened, so he turns it into a name.
The narrator's aside about who can swim is doing quiet structural work. Eight Rules commanded the eighty thousand water-troops of the River of Heaven; Sha Monk came out of the River of Flowing Sand; the horse is a dragon of the Western Sea. Three of the four are creatures of water and one is not, and the demon's plan required nothing more subtle than getting all four into the river at once. Wukong, who can do almost anything, cannot do this.
Old Chen's reproach is the plainest sentence of judgement in the chapter: I said wait for the thaw and I would find you a boat, and you held out against it, and it has cost him his life. Wukong does not argue the point. He tells the old man not to grieve, states flatly that his master will not die, names the culprit without hesitation, and turns to logistics — wash the clothes, dry the papers, feed the horse. The papers are worth a thought. The document carrying every kingdom's seal has just been eight hundred li under the ice.