為人為徹 Do a Thing for a Man, Do It Through
那八戒見人散了，對行者道：「我們家去罷。」行者道：「你家在那裡？」八戒道：「往老陳家睡覺去。」行者道：「獃子又亂談了。既允了他，須與他了這願心才是哩。」八戒道：「你倒不是獃子，反說我是獃子。只哄他耍耍便罷，怎麼就與他祭賽，當起真來？」行者道：「為人為徹。一定等那大王來吃了，才是個全始全終；不然，又教他降災貽害，反為不美。」那八戒见人散了，对行者道：「我们家去罢。」行者道：「你家在那里？」八戒道：「往老陈家睡觉去。」行者道：「呆子又乱谈了。既允了他，须与他了这愿心才是哩。」八戒道：「你倒不是呆子，反说我是呆子。只哄他耍耍便罢，怎么就与他祭赛，当起真来？」行者道：「为人为彻。一定等那大王来吃了，才是个全始全终；不然，又教他降灾贻害，反为不美。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now Eight Rules, seeing that the people had scattered, said to Pilgrim: 「Let's be off home.」
Eight Rules has spent the evening lying on an altar pretending to be a little girl. The crowd goes home and his first thought is bed. 那 is nà, "that." 散了: 散 is sàn, the verb, "to break up and go." The 罷 at the end is ba, the soft "let's" of a suggestion.
Pilgrim said: 「And where is your home?」
那裡 here is nǎ, "where" — a question, not the pointing nà. The same two characters do both jobs all through this chapter and only the sense of the line separates them. Wukong is not asking for information. He is pointing out that a homeless monk has no home to go back to.
Eight Rules said: 「Back to old Chen's place, to sleep.」
睡覺: 覺 is jiào here, the sleeping sense — not jué, "to be aware of," which is the reading the same character takes later in this chapter at 不覺. Nothing in the surrounding words gives this away; the reading has to be checked at the word itself.
Pilgrim said: 「Idiot, you are talking nonsense again.
獃子, Idiot, is Wukong's standing name for Eight Rules; the 子 is the light zi that ends an everyday noun. 亂談 is to talk at random, without thinking first.
Since we have granted him his request, we must see this vow of his discharged for him — that is the right way of it.」
Two different readings of 了 in one short line. In 既允了他 it is the light le that marks a thing done. In 了這願心 it is liǎo, a full verb — "to settle, to see through to the end." You liǎo a vow the way you clear a debt. The final 哩 is li, a reading fixed across this edition.
Eight Rules said: 「It is you who are the idiot, not I, and yet you call me one.
倒 is dào, "on the contrary" — a different word from dǎo, "to topple over," which this chapter also uses. 子 is the light zi twice. And 不是 lifts 不 to bú, as it always does before a falling tone.
We had only to fool him a while for sport and let it go at that. Why go through with the sacrifice for him and take the whole thing in earnest?」
便罷: 罷 is bà, the full verb — "and leave it at that" — not the soft ba that ended Eight Rules' first line two segments back. 當起真來 takes 當 as dàng, "to take as, to treat as": to take a thing for real.
Pilgrim said: 「If you do a thing for a man, do it through.
為人為徹 — do a thing for someone, and do it all the way through. Both 為 are wèi, the "for" of acting on another's behalf. It is a proverb, and the novel keeps a twin for it elsewhere, 救人救到底, save a man and save him to the bottom. Wukong is not making a moral case here. He is quoting the trade.
Let that Great King come and eat first, and then it is a whole beginning and a whole end;
那 is nà, "that." 一定 lifts 一 to yí, as it does before any falling tone. 全始全終, whole at the start and whole at the finish — a job carried through without a gap in it.
otherwise we should only have him send down calamity and leave misery behind him, and it would turn out badly.」
教 is jiào, the word for having someone do something — what the demon would be made to do to the village. 降 in 降災 is jiàng, "to send down," and it has to be kept apart from xiáng, "to subdue," which this chapter also uses once, late. 反為不美 takes 為 as wéi, the verb "to turn out, to become."
The argument is a small portrait of both of them. Eight Rules, having played his part, counts the job finished the moment the audience goes home: the vow was a means, the villagers are satisfied, and there is a warm bed waiting at the Chen house. Wukong's objection is not squeamishness. It is a professional's irritation at an unfinished operation. The demon has not been drawn out. Until he is, the village stands exactly where it started.
為人為徹 — do a thing for a man and do it through — is the chapter's working motto, and Wukong states it as a proverb rather than as a decision, which is how he generally dresses his own stubbornness. The reasoning after it is pure practicality: a half-finished sacrifice leaves the god insulted and free to hit back, and then 反為不美, the thing turns out badly. That phrase is one of the book's flattest understatements for disaster.
Notice how the talk drops. Eight Rules throws 獃子 back at Wukong — normally Wukong's word for him — and the retort has the shape of a playground exchange: you're the idiot, not me. The novel keeps its two comic leads scuffling at low level even as the plot turns dark around them.