辭莊贈糧 Leave-taking and Dry Provisions
三藏聞言，十分歡喜，與眾同回陳家，只教收拾走路。那兩個老者苦留不住，只得安排些乾糧、烘炒，做些燒餅、饝饝相送。一家子磕頭禮拜，又捧出一盤子散碎金銀，跪在面前道：「多蒙老爺活子之恩，聊表途中一飯之敬。」三藏擺手搖頭，只是不受道：「貧僧出家人，財帛何用？就途中也不敢取出，只是以化齋度日為正事。收了乾糧足矣。」二老又再三央求，行者用指尖兒捻了一小塊，約有四五錢重，遞與唐僧道：「師父，也只當些襯錢，莫教空負二老之意。」三藏闻言，十分欢喜，与众同回陈家，只教收拾走路。那两个老者苦留不住，只得安排些干粮、烘炒，做些烧饼、饝饝相送。一家子磕头礼拜，又捧出一盘子散碎金银，跪在面前道：「多蒙老爷活子之恩，聊表途中一饭之敬。」三藏摆手摇头，只是不受道：「贫僧出家人，财帛何用？就途中也不敢取出，只是以化斋度日为正事。收了干粮足矣。」二老又再三央求，行者用指尖儿捻了一小块，约有四五钱重，递与唐僧道：「师父，也只当些衬钱，莫教空负二老之意。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka heard it with great delight, went back with the rest to the Chen house, and would have nothing but that they should pack for the road.
教 is jiào. 十分歡喜 — and the timing of that delight is the cruellest stroke in the chapter.
The two old men pressed him hard to stay and could not, and could only get ready some dry provisions, roasted and parched, and make up baked cakes and steamed buns to send along with them.
乾糧: 乾 is gān, "dry." This character has a second life as the first of the eight three-line figures of the Book of Changes, read qián, and that is the reading a machine reaches for; all four occurrences in this chapter are gān, and all four are about food. 只得: 得 is dé. 相送: 相 is xiāng. 不住 lifts to bú before a falling tone.
The whole household knocked their heads and made obeisance, and brought out besides a tray of loose silver and gold, and kneeling before him said: 「We owe your reverence the lives of our children; let this poor token stand for a single meal on the road.」
Three occurrences of 子 here with two readings, and position decides: 一家子 and 盤子 take the light zi that ends an everyday noun, while 活子之恩 takes the full zǐ, "child" — the kindness of keeping their children alive. 散碎: 散 is sǎn, the adjective "loose, in scraps," against the verb sàn used earlier at 散悶. 途中: 中 is zhōng.
Tripitaka waved his hand and shook his head and would by no means take it, saying: 「This poor monk has left the household. What use has he for money and silk?
財帛, coin and cloth — the two forms Ming wealth took, and both of them shut to a monk.
On the road I should not dare bring it out, and I hold it my proper business only to beg my food and get through the days.
以…為正事: 為 is wéi, the verb "to take as, to hold to be," in the old frame where 以 names the thing and 為 says what it counts as. Not the wèi of purpose.
The dry provisions I have taken are enough.」
乾糧: 乾 is gān, the second of four.
The two old men entreated him again and again, till Pilgrim pinched off a small piece between his fingertips, some four or five mace in weight, and handed it to the Tang Monk, saying: 「Master, count it only as a little alms-money, and do not send the two old gentlemen away empty of their kind intention.」
指尖兒 ends in the light er. 錢重: 重 is zhòng, weight — and 錢 is qián, the unit English calls the mace: a tenth of a tael, not quite four grams of silver. So the pinch Wukong takes off the tray is under half a tael, something short of twenty grams. English took "mace" from Malay through the Portuguese spice ports, which is why the word names the Chinese unit itself rather than standing some European measure in for it. 只當些襯錢: 當 is dàng, "to count as, to treat as." 襯錢 is alms given to a monk.
The leave-taking is warm, awkward and entirely in character. The Chens cannot keep them and will not let them go empty-handed; Tripitaka refuses the silver outright on correct monastic grounds, that a mendicant has no use for coin and could not safely carry it; and the deadlock breaks when Wukong pinches off four or five mace between his fingertips and puts it into his master's hand with the perfect formula — count it as alms, and don't send them away empty of their good intention.
It is a small diplomatic masterpiece. The token is too little to compromise the rule and enough to let the household discharge its debt, and Wukong frames it as a kindness to the givers rather than a benefit to the taker. The novel gives its trickster this sort of social tact fairly often, and always without comment.
Underneath, the provisioning is doing narrative work. Dry rations, parched grain, baked cakes and steamed buns: enough to cross eight hundred li of ice and no more. The Chens are equipping them for exactly the journey that is about to go wrong, and those same 乾糧 will be eaten twice over two passages from now, at nightfall and again at dawn, as the party pushes on across the river without sleeping.