水府煩惱 Vexation in the Water Mansion
卻說那怪得命，回歸水內，坐在宮中，默默無言。水中大小眷族問道：「大王每年享祭，回來歡喜，怎麼今日煩惱？」那怪道：「常年享畢，還帶些餘物與汝等受用，今日連我也不曾吃得。造化低，撞著一個對頭，幾乎傷了性命。」眾水族問：「大王，是那個？」那怪道：「是一個東土大唐聖僧的徒弟，往西天拜佛求經者，假變男女，坐在廟裡。我被他現出本相，險些兒傷了性命。一向聞得人講：唐三藏乃十世修行好人，但得吃他一塊肉，延壽長生。不期他手下有這般徒弟。我被他壞了名聲，破了香火，有心要捉唐僧，只怕不得能夠。」却说那怪得命，回归水内，坐在宫中，默默无言。水中大小眷族问道：「大王每年享祭，回来欢喜，怎么今日烦恼？」那怪道：「常年享毕，还带些余物与汝等受用，今日连我也不曾吃得。造化低，撞着一个对头，几乎伤了性命。」众水族问：「大王，是那个？」那怪道：「是一个东土大唐圣僧的徒弟，往西天拜佛求经者，假变男女，坐在庙里。我被他现出本相，险些儿伤了性命。一向闻得人讲：唐三藏乃十世修行好人，但得吃他一块肉，延寿长生。不期他手下有这般徒弟。我被他坏了名声，破了香火，有心要捉唐僧，只怕不得能够。」
逐句解 Line by line
Now the monster, having got off with his life, went back into the water, sat in his palace and said not a word.
得命: 得 is dé, a thing achieved — he came away with his life. 宮中: 中 is zhōng.
His kindred in the water, great and small, asked him: 「Great King, every year you take your sacrifice and come home content. Why so vexed today?」
水中: 中 is zhōng. 眷族 is household kin, and the word matters: this demon keeps a court, not a lair.
The monster said: 「In ordinary years, the feast once over, I would still bring back something of what was left for you all to enjoy. Today even I got nothing to eat.
還帶: 還 is hái, "besides, on top of that." 吃得: 得 is dé, the achieved sense — he did not get to eat.
My luck was low; I blundered into an adversary and came near to losing my life.」
撞著: 著 is zháo, the reading for running into a thing and connecting with it. 造化低, "fortune low" — an everyday phrase, roughly our "my luck was out."
The water-folk asked: 「Great King, who was it?」
那個 is nǎ, "which one, who." Set it beside the 那怪 that opens the next segment, which is nà: one character does both jobs, asking here and pointing there, and the two stand a single character apart across the break.
The monster said: 「It was a disciple of a holy monk of the Great Tang in the Land of the East, of those bound for the Western Heaven to worship the Buddha and seek scriptures. They had turned themselves falsely into the boy and the girl and were sitting in the temple.
那怪 is nà; 佛 is fó, a reading fixed across this edition. 假變男女 — he has worked the trick out only after the event, which is the first sign that this is not a clever demon.
He showed me his true form, and I was within a hair of losing my life.
本相: 相 is xiàng. 險些兒 ends in a light er.
All along I have heard men say that Tripitaka of the Tang is a good man of ten lifetimes' cultivation, and that whoever gets one piece of his flesh to eat will lengthen his years and live long.
聞得 and 但得: 得 is dé in both, the achieved sense. 長生: 長 is cháng, "long" — not zhǎng, "to grow," the reading it takes in 唐長老. 一向 and 一塊 both lift 一 to yí before a falling tone.
I never looked for such disciples under his hand.
不期, "never expecting" — a literary turn, and a shade grand coming from a fish.
He has ruined my name and broken up my incense-fire. I have a mind to take the Tang Monk, but I fear it cannot be managed.」
不得能夠: 得 is dé. Two negatives stacked for emphasis in the everyday way — "there is just no managing it."
The scene shifts under the water, and the novel does something it does often and never carelessly: it gives the demon a household. There are kindred great and small, an annual share-out of leftovers, an expectation that the Great King will come home pleased. The arrangement that looks from the village side like plain extortion looks from this side like a family business having a bad year.
The monster's account of his defeat is also the moment he learns what he is up against. He did not know the children were transformed disciples; he finds out by being hurt. And in telling it he arrives, by the usual route of hearsay — 一向聞得人講, all along I have heard men say — at the one fact every demon on this road knows: a mouthful of the Tang Monk's flesh buys long life. An insult to his cult has turned into an opportunity.
He ends in despair, and the despair is what makes room for the Mandarin-Fish Dame. 只怕不得能夠 — I fear it cannot be managed — is a cue for a counsellor, and the novel produces one on the very next line.