搗作爛醬 Beaten to a Paste
八戒上前，一隻腳屣住那怪的胸背道：「孽畜！今番使不得倒馬毒了。」那怪動也不動，被獃子一頓釘鈀，搗作一團爛醬。那星官復聚金光，駕雲而去。行者與八戒、沙僧朝天拱謝道：「有累，有累。改日赴宮拜酬。」八戒上前，一只脚屣住那怪的胸背道：「孽畜！今番使不得倒马毒了。」那怪动也不动，被呆子一顿钉钯，捣作一团烂酱。那星官复聚金光，驾云而去。行者与八戒、沙僧朝天拱谢道：「有累，有累。改日赴宫拜酬。」
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie came forward, set one foot upon the creature's back and breast, and said, “Sinful beast! There will be no using the horse-felling poison this time.”
屣 is to tread on something, and is kept as the edition prints it. 胸背 takes 背 as bèi. 使不得 is the "cannot be used" construction with the toneless de; 倒馬毒 takes 倒 as dǎo, agreeing with both earlier namings of the weapon.
The creature did not so much as stir; and the idiot gave it one round with the rake and pounded it into a lump of rotten paste.
爛 is always làn. 動也不動 takes bú before the fourth tone of 動.
The Star Officer gathered up his golden light again and rode away upon a cloud.
復聚 is to gather back up what had been let out — the radiance he had put aside in order to take the shape of a cock.
Pilgrim, Bajie and Sha Monk raised their clasped hands towards heaven in thanks, saying, “We have put you to trouble, we have put you to trouble. On another day we shall come to your palace and repay the courtesy.”
有累 takes 累 as the invariant lěi, to trouble or burden; the lèi that means tired would be wrong, and the reading was ruled at the close of the previous chapter. 朝天 takes 朝 as cháo.
The dignity of the poem lasts exactly one line. Bajie puts a foot on the corpse, calls it a sinful beast, and points out that there will be no horse-felling poison this time — a taunt addressed to something already dead and unable to hear it. Then, because the creature does not stir, he gives it a round with the rake and pounds it into 一團爛醬, a lump of rotten paste. Four lines earlier the novel was calling her a star made manifest and speaking of return to the root.
The juxtaposition is not carelessness. This novel habitually sets its loftiest register directly against its coarsest, and the effect here is to leave the reader holding two accounts of the same body: the poem's, in which a creature that cultivated in vain is restored to what it truly was, and Bajie's, in which there is a dead insect on the ground that can safely be trodden on. Neither is withdrawn in favour of the other.
And then everybody remembers their manners. The Star Officer gathers up his light and rides off; the three brothers raise their clasped hands towards the sky, thank him twice over, and undertake to call at his palace another day and return the courtesy. It is the same punctilio he showed in apologising for the tea he had no time to serve. A creature that frightened the Buddha has just been beaten to paste, and the parties close the business by arranging a social visit.