佛知不言 The Buddha Knows and Will Not Say
如來聽說，將慧眼遙觀，早已知識。對行者道：「那怪物我雖知之，但不可與你說。你這猴兒口敞，一傳道是我說他，他就不與你鬥，定要嚷上靈山，反遺禍於我也。我這裡著法力助你擒他去罷。」行者再拜稱謝道：「如來助我甚麼法力？」如來即令十八尊羅漢開寶庫，取十八粒金丹砂，與悟空助力。行者道：「金丹砂卻如何？」如來道：「你去洞外，叫那妖魔比試。演他出來，卻教羅漢放砂，陷住他，使他動不得身，拔不得腳，憑你揪打便了。」行者笑道：「妙妙妙，趁早去來。」如来听说，将慧眼遥观，早已知识。对行者道：「那怪物我虽知之，但不可与你说。你这猴儿口敞，一传道是我说他，他就不与你斗，定要嚷上灵山，反遗祸于我也。我这里着法力助你擒他去罢。」行者再拜称谢道：「如来助我甚么法力？」如来即令十八尊罗汉开宝库，取十八粒金丹砂，与悟空助力。行者道：「金丹砂却如何？」如来道：「你去洞外，叫那妖魔比试。演他出来，却教罗汉放砂，陷住他，使他动不得身，拔不得脚，凭你揪打便了。」行者笑道：「妙妙妙，趁早去来。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Tathāgata heard him out, turned his eye of wisdom to gaze into the distance, and knew already who it was.
將慧眼遙觀: 將 is jiāng, 觀 is guān. 早已知識 is "already knew and recognised" — four characters, and the whole identification is done.
He said to Pilgrim: "That monster — I do know him, but I may not tell you.
He knows, and he will not say. 那怪物 points, so 那 is nà. 我雖知之，但不可與你說 is the sentence the second half of the chapter's title is about: the Tathāgata will drop a hint and will not give a name.
"You are a loose-mouthed ape. Once it got about that I had told you of him, he would not fight you at all, but would be sure to come brawling up to Spirit Mountain, and the trouble would recoil upon me.
And the reason is delightfully practical. 猴兒: 兒 is er, the familiar ending. 口敞 is "open-mouthed", unable to keep anything to himself. 一傳: 一 shifts to yì before a second tone. The Buddha is not withholding out of doctrine; he is protecting his own front door.
"I will lend you the power of dharma from here, and help you take him."
著法力: 著 is zhuó, to apply or employ. The sentence-final 罷 is ba, softening the offer, not the verb bà.
Pilgrim bowed again and gave thanks, saying: "What power of dharma will the Tathāgata lend me?"
稱謝: 稱 is chēng; 甚麼: 甚 is shén. He accepts the refusal without arguing — which for this character is remarkable — and asks only what he is getting instead.
The Tathāgata at once ordered the eighteen Venerable Arhats to open the treasury and take out eighteen grains of golden cinnabar sand, to lend Wukong their strength.
十八尊羅漢 are the eighteen arhats of the standard Chinese set. 金丹砂 is "golden cinnabar sand": 金丹 is the vocabulary of Daoist alchemy, the gold elixir, and here it has been turned into a Buddhist weapon.
Pilgrim said: "And what is this golden cinnabar sand?"
The question is the reader's own. The narrative will show the answer working, and then show it failing, four passages later.
The Tathāgata said: "Go outside his cave and call the fiend out to a trial.
那妖魔 points, so 那 is nà. 比試 is a match or trial of skill — the same challenge formula the chapter has used at this gate throughout.
"Draw him out, and then have the arhats loose the sand to mire him, so that he can neither stir his body nor pull free his feet, and you may thrash him as you please — and there's an end of it."
The instruction is precise, and every word of it is true. 卻教: 教 is jiào, "have them." Both 得 (動不得身, 拔不得腳) are de, marking what cannot be managed. 便了: 了 is liǎo, "and that settles it", not the le that marks a completed action.
Pilgrim laughed and said: "Fine, fine, fine — let us be off at once."
趁早去來 is "go while the going is good." This is the chapter's second triple exclamation of delight, and the second time the confidence turns out to be misplaced.
This is the passage the chapter's title names — 如來暗示主人公, the Tathāgata hints at who the owner is — and a refusal comes before the hint, which is worth taking seriously. He knows at a glance. He will not say. And the reason he gives is not doctrinal but practical and faintly comic: Wukong cannot keep his mouth shut, word would get about that the information came from Vulture Peak, and the demon would give up fighting and come and make a scene here instead. The Buddha of this novel is a cosmic power who also manages his own security, and declines to be named as a source.
What he offers instead is a weapon, and Pilgrim takes it without pressing the question — which is unlike him, and a measure of how badly the arc has gone. The eighteen grains of golden cinnabar sand are described precisely enough to sound decisive: draw him out, mire him, thrash him at leisure. Nothing in the Buddha's instruction is untrue. But a reader who has been counting knows that the ring has taken every object aimed at it for three chapters, and that sand is an object. The hint, when it finally arrives, will not come from this conversation at all.