大聖取水 The Great Sage Goes for Water
好大聖，吩咐沙僧道：「你好仔細看著師父。若這家子無禮，侵哄師父，你拿出舊時手段來，裝𡤫諕他。等我取水去。」沙僧依命。只見那婆子端出一個大瓦缽來，遞與行者道：「拿這缽頭兒去，是必多取些來，與我們留著用急。」行者真個接了瓦缽，出草舍，縱雲而去。那婆子才望空禮拜道：「爺爺呀！這和尚會駕雲。」才進去叫出那幾個婦人來，對唐僧磕頭禮拜，都稱為羅漢菩薩。一壁廂燒湯辦飯，供奉唐僧不題。好大圣，吩咐沙僧道：「你好仔细看着师父。若这家子无礼，侵哄师父，你拿出旧时手段来，装𡤫諕他。等我取水去。」沙僧依命。只见那婆子端出一个大瓦钵来，递与行者道：「拿这钵头儿去，是必多取些来，与我们留着用急。」行者真个接了瓦钵，出草舍，纵云而去。那婆子才望空礼拜道：「爷爷呀！这和尚会驾云。」才进去叫出那几个妇人来，对唐僧磕头礼拜，都称为罗汉菩萨。一壁厢烧汤办饭，供奉唐僧不题。
逐句解 Line by line
Excellent Great Sage! He gave his orders to Sha Monk: "Look to our master very carefully. If this household is disrespectful, or bullies and deceives him, bring out your old tricks and put on a fierce face to frighten them. Wait while I go and fetch the water."
仔 is zǐ in 仔細, careful, not zǎi. 諕 is always xià, to frighten. And 裝𡤫 — put on a fierce face — turns on a character so rare that most fonts cannot show it; it is read qiā, on the authority of the 漢語大字典 reading field, with zdic agreeing, and the same reading serves it at chapters one and fifty-four.
Sha Monk assented.
Four characters. Sha Monk's compliance is so reliable that the novel rarely spends more on it than this.
Then the old woman brought out a great earthenware bowl and handed it to Pilgrim, saying, "Take this bowl with you, and be sure to bring back plenty — we will keep it by for emergencies."
缽頭兒 takes the little suffix er; 留著 has 著 as zhe, holding it by for later. Her request is the passage's quiet joke: having just explained that this water costs a fortune, she asks him to bring back extra for the household.
Pilgrim did indeed take the earthenware bowl, went out of the thatched cottage, and rose on a cloud and away.
草舍 again takes 舍 as shè, a dwelling. 真個 marks that he did precisely as described, with no monkey business.
Only then did the old woman bow toward the empty sky and say, "Gracious sir!
望空禮拜 is worship aimed at nothing — he has already gone. The gesture is the first sign that her estimate of her guests has been revised.
This monk can ride the clouds!"
會駕雲 is stated as a discovery. Nothing the pilgrims said about the Great Tang or the emperor's sworn brother moved her at all; six characters of levitation do it.
She went straight in and called out those several women, who bowed their heads to the ground before the Tang Monk and all addressed him as arhat and bodhisattva.
都稱為 takes 為 as wéi, the verb in a naming construction — addressed him as. The same women who stood tittering at him two passages ago are now on the ground in front of him, and the novel notes the reversal without a word of comment.
On one side they set about boiling water and preparing food, and waited upon the Tang Monk — of which no more.
供奉 takes 供 as gòng, to make an offering. 不題 — no more of this — is the storyteller's formula for laying one thread down before picking another up, and here it hands the narrative over to Wukong.
The passage is a hinge, and it turns on a single demonstration. For three passages the household has treated the pilgrims as a diversion: coming out to look at them, tittering, calling it sport. Wukong steps outside, rises on a cloud, and the old woman is at once bowing to the empty air and fetching the others to prostrate themselves. Her stated reason is exact and entirely unspiritual: 這和尚會駕雲.
The novel is making a point it makes often and rarely underlines. Credentials of state — the Great Tang, the emperor's sworn brother, both offered at the door — bought nothing whatever. One visible impossibility converts the whole household inside six characters. And the titles they then confer, 羅漢菩薩, are Buddhist rather than imperial, and they are conferred on Tripitaka, who has done nothing but sit there in pain.
Two details give the scene its texture. The old woman hands over a large bowl and asks for extra to be brought back for the household's future use, having just finished explaining that the water is priced beyond anybody there — she has grasped the opportunity a good deal faster than she grasped the theology. And Wukong's parting instruction to Sha Monk is to frighten the family if they turn nasty, which he issues just before the conversion that makes it unnecessary.