行不更名 A Gentleman Does Not Change His Name
行者見了，合掌作禮道：「貧僧便是孫悟空。」那先生笑道：「你真個是孫悟空，卻是假名託姓者？」行者道：「你看先生說話。常言道：『君子行不更名，坐不改姓。』我便是悟空，豈有假託之理？」先生道：「你可認得我麼？」行者道：「我因歸正釋門，秉誠僧教，這一向登山涉水，把我那幼時的朋友也都疏失，未及拜訪，少識尊顏。適間問道子母河西鄉人家，言及先生乃如意真仙，故此知之。」那先生道：「你走你的路，我修我的真，你來訪我怎的？」行者道：「因我師父誤飲了子母河水，腹疼成胎，特來仙府，拜求一碗落胎泉水，救解師難也。」行者见了，合掌作礼道：「贫僧便是孙悟空。」那先生笑道：「你真个是孙悟空，却是假名托姓者？」行者道：「你看先生说话。常言道：『君子行不更名，坐不改姓。』我便是悟空，岂有假托之理？」先生道：「你可认得我么？」行者道：「我因归正释门，秉诚僧教，这一向登山涉水，把我那幼时的朋友也都疏失，未及拜访，少识尊颜。适间问道子母河西乡人家，言及先生乃如意真仙，故此知之。」那先生道：「你走你的路，我修我的真，你来访我怎的？」行者道：「因我师父误饮了子母河水，腹疼成胎，特来仙府，拜求一碗落胎泉水，救解师难也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim, seeing him, joined his palms in salutation and said, "This poor monk is indeed Sun Wukong."
合掌作禮 is the Buddhist greeting, palms together — offered here to a Daoist who has just come out of doors carrying a weapon. Wukong is still being scrupulously polite.
The gentleman said with a laugh, "Are you really Sun Wukong, or someone passing under a false name and a borrowed surname?"
先生 is the courtesy title for a Daoist master. The question is not curiosity. It is a demand that the name be confirmed before he acts on it.
Pilgrim said, "Listen to the gentleman talk! The common saying has it: a gentleman does not change his name in walking, nor alter his surname in sitting.
君子 takes 子 as zǐ; 更 is gēng, to alter. The maxim — a gentleman does not change his name in walking nor alter his surname in sitting — is a commonplace of popular fiction, and it is invariably spoken by somebody who is about to be attacked.
I am Wukong; what reason would there be for a false pretence?"
豈有…之理 is the standard frame for dismissing something as absurd: what reason could there be? He is answering a question whose only purpose was to identify him as a target.
The gentleman said, "Do you know who I am?"
認得 takes 得 as the light de. The question inverts the exchange just concluded: having established who Wukong is, the immortal now requires his own identity to be recognised.
Pilgrim said, "Since I turned to the True Gate and took up the monk's teaching in sincerity, I have all this while been climbing mountains and fording waters, and have let slip the friends of my younger days; I have not managed to call on them, and know few honoured faces.
僧教 takes 教 as jiào; 少識 takes 少 as shǎo, few. The reply is a courteous evasion that also happens to be true. Wukong really does not recognise the man, and he says so in the politest form available.
Just now, asking the way of the country folk west of the Child-and-Mother River, I heard mention that the gentleman is the True Immortal As-You-Will, and so I know it."
適間 takes 間 as jiān — just now. He is explicit that his knowledge of the name is second-hand and a few hours old, which is the last thing his interlocutor wants to hear.
The gentleman said, "You go your road and I cultivate my truth. What do you come calling on me for?"
你走你的路，我修我的真 — you go your road, I cultivate my truth — sets two vocations side by side and denies that they touch at any point. It is the argument of a man who has withdrawn from the world and is charging it for admission.
Pilgrim said, "Because my master drank by mistake of the water of the Child-and-Mother River, his belly aches with a conception formed; I have come expressly to the immortal's residence to beg one bowl of the Fetus-Dissolving Spring water, and relieve my master's calamity."
師難 takes 難 as nàn, the noun calamity, as against the nán, difficult, of 難禁 earlier. 救解 takes 解 as jiě. This is the third time in this stretch that Wukong has stated his business, in nearly the same words each time.
The exchange is conducted entirely in the forms of courtesy and is a quarrel from end to end. Wukong puts his palms together for a man holding a hooked weapon; the immortal addresses him properly and asks whether he is using a false name. Neither drops the polite manner, and all the hostility is carried by what is being asked rather than by how it is put.
Two questions structure the passage and they mirror each other. The first — are you really Sun Wukong? — establishes the target. The second — do you know who I am? — demands acknowledgement of a grievance Wukong cannot yet identify. His answer is the most disarming thing he could have said and the most inflammatory: he has been walking and fording for years, has lost touch with his old acquaintance, and knows the immortal's name only because some villagers mentioned it that morning. To a man nursing an injury, being told he is not remembered is worse than being defied.
The proverb Wukong quotes is worth noticing for where it lands. 君子行不更名，坐不改姓 insists that a gentleman stands by his name whatever he is doing, and it is exactly the wrong thing to be proud of here, because the name is what produced the weapon. He is planting his flag on the very identity that has made him a target, and doing it with a maxim about integrity.
The immortal's own position — 你走你的路，我修我的真 — deserves scrutiny. It is the language of principled withdrawal: you have your road, I have my practice, leave me to it. Set against what the reader already knows about the tariff on the spring, the claim to detachment is hard to take at face value. A man who has cornered the only cure for a whole countryside's affliction and priced it in mutton and silk is not walking a separate road from anybody.