餘水賜家 The Leftover Water Given
老婆婆對唐僧道：「老師父，把這水賜了我罷。」行者道：「獃子，不吃水了？」八戒道：「我的肚腹也不疼了，胎氣想是已行散了，灑然無事，又吃水何為？」行者道：「既是他兩個都好了，將水送你家罷。」那婆婆謝了行者，將餘剩之水裝於瓦罐之中，埋在後邊地下。對眾老小道：「這罐水，夠我的棺材本也。」眾老小無不歡喜，整頓齋飯，調開桌凳。唐僧們吃了齋，消消停停，將息了一宿。老婆婆对唐僧道：「老师父，把这水赐了我罢。」行者道：「呆子，不吃水了？」八戒道：「我的肚腹也不疼了，胎气想是已行散了，洒然无事，又吃水何为？」行者道：「既是他两个都好了，将水送你家罢。」那婆婆谢了行者，将余剩之水装于瓦罐之中，埋在后边地下。对众老小道：「这罐水，够我的棺材本也。」众老小无不欢喜，整顿斋饭，调开桌凳。唐僧们吃了斋，消消停停，将息了一宿。
逐句解 Line by line
The old woman said to the Tang Monk, "Venerable master, make me a present of this water."
賜 is to bestow from above, the verb a subject uses of a gift from a superior. She asks for the water as a favour granted, not as something left over. 罷 is the soft ba of a request.
Pilgrim said, "Idiot — no more water for you?"
Wukong checks with the patient before the property is disposed of, which is rather more consideration than he has shown Bajie all chapter.
Eight Rules said, "My belly has stopped aching too; the fetal humour must already have dispersed, and I am perfectly at ease. What would I want with more water?"
肚腹 takes 肚 as dù; 行散 takes 散 as sàn, dispersed; 何為 takes 為 as wèi, to what end. 灑然 is free and clear, without a care.
Pilgrim said, "Since the two of them are both well, we'll make your household a present of the water."
將水送 uses 將, read jiāng, to shove the object in front of the verb. The gift is made casually and is worth more to the person receiving it than anything else in the chapter.
The old woman thanked Pilgrim, put what water was left into an earthenware jar, and buried it in the ground round the back.
瓦罐之中 takes 中 as zhōng. Watch what she does with it. She does not use it, she stores it — and she buries it, which is how one keeps a thing of value in a house that has no lock.
She said to the household, young and old, "This jar of water is my coffin money."
棺材本 is the capital a poor person lays by for their own funeral, the one reserve that is never touched for anything else. English has no single word for it; the nearest thing is a burial fund. In a country where every woman must eventually drink from the Child-and-Mother River, a buried jar of the antidote is exactly that.
The household, young and old, were delighted to a soul; they got a vegetarian meal ready and set out the tables and stools.
調開 takes 調 as diào, to move something into place. 齋飯 is specifically the meatless food proper to monks, which the household has thought to provide without being asked.
The Tang Monk and his disciples ate their meal, and rested quietly and at their ease for the night.
將息 uses 將, jiāng, again; 一宿 takes 宿 as xiǔ, a single night — not the sù, to lodge, that the same character carried in the couplet closing the meal at the chapter's start. Its third reading, xiù, for a lunar mansion, does not occur in this chapter at all.
The chapter closes on a small transaction that turns out to carry more weight than anything else in it. The old woman asks for what is left in the bucket; Wukong checks that neither patient still needs it and hands it over; she pours it into an earthenware jar and buries the jar behind the house.
Her explanation is the line the passage exists for: 這罐水，夠我的棺材本也 — this jar of water is my coffin money. 棺材本 is the idiom for the small sum a poor person lays by against their own funeral, the reserve that is never touched. She is not planning to sell it, and she is not planning to use it either. She is treating it as capital.
The remark lands differently once one recalls what she explained a few passages earlier. Every woman in this country drinks from the Child-and-Mother River at twenty and bears what follows; the only remedy lay thirty lǐ away behind a tariff none of them could pay. Wukong has just broken the hook and told the immortal to stop squeezing people, which reopens the spring — but the old woman is not relying on that. She has buried a jar. It is the most realistic gesture in the chapter, and the novel gives it fifteen characters and no comment.
The rest is domestic and brisk: gratitude, a meatless meal, tables and stools set out, and a night's rest. 將息了一宿 closes the day, and gives 宿 the second of the two readings it carries in this chapter — xiǔ, a single night, after the sù, to lodge, of the couplet that closed the meal on the mountain.