築坑埋屍 The Idiot Digs a Grave
這長老甚不忍見，即著八戒：「快使釘鈀，築個坑子埋了，我與他念卷《倒頭經》。」八戒道：「師父左使了人也。行者打殺人，還該教他去燒埋，怎麼教老豬做土工？」行者被師父罵惱了，喝著八戒道：「潑懶夯貨！趁早兒去埋，遲了些兒，就是一棍。」獃子慌了，往山坡下築了有三尺深，下面都是石腳石根，掆住鈀齒。獃子丟了鈀，便把嘴拱。拱到軟處，一嘴有二尺五。兩嘴有五尺深，把兩個賊屍埋了，盤作一個墳堆。三藏叫：「悟空，取香燭來，待我禱祝，好念經。」行者努著嘴道：「好不知趣，這半山之中，前不巴村，後不著店，那討香燭？就有錢也無處去買。」三藏恨恨的道：「猴頭過去，等我撮土焚香禱告。」這是三藏離鞍悲野塚，聖僧善念祝荒墳。这长老甚不忍见，即着八戒：「快使钉钯，筑个坑子埋了，我与他念卷《倒头经》。」八戒道：「师父左使了人也。行者打杀人，还该教他去烧埋，怎么教老猪做土工？」行者被师父骂恼了，喝着八戒道：「泼懒夯货！趁早儿去埋，迟了些儿，就是一棍。」呆子慌了，往山坡下筑了有三尺深，下面都是石脚石根，掆住钯齿。呆子丢了钯，便把嘴拱。拱到软处，一嘴有二尺五。两嘴有五尺深，把两个贼尸埋了，盘作一个坟堆。三藏叫：「悟空，取香烛来，待我祷祝，好念经。」行者努着嘴道：「好不知趣，这半山之中，前不巴村，后不着店，那讨香烛？就有钱也无处去买。」三藏恨恨的道：「猴头过去，等我撮土焚香祷告。」这是三藏离鞍悲野冢，圣僧善念祝荒坟。
逐句解 Line by line
The elder could hardly bear the sight, and at once directed Bajie: “Quick, take your muckrake and dig a pit to bury them. I will recite a scroll of the Sutra for the Newly Dead over them.”
He asks the killer's brother to dig and the killer to fetch the incense. 即著 is the 著 of dispatching somebody to do a job, so zhuó — the same construction as 即著金剛 elsewhere in the novel. 甚不忍見 takes 甚 as the intensifier shèn. In 念卷 the 卷 is the measure word for a scroll of scripture, so juàn, not the juǎn of rolling something up. The 倒頭經 is the sutra recited over a body newly laid out, so 倒 is dǎo.
Bajie said, “Master, you have set the wrong man to it. Pilgrim killed them, and he is the one who ought to be sent to burn and bury. Why set old Hog to do the navvy’s work?”
左使 is to employ wrongly — setting the left hand to a right-hand job. 燒埋 is to cremate and inter; 土工 is a labourer who moves earth. Both instances of 教 are jiào, to make somebody do a thing. The complaint is the first sign that the killing has become a chore to be assigned rather than a thing to be mourned.
Pilgrim, stung by his master’s scolding, shouted at Bajie: “You lazy blockhead! Get along and bury them at once. Be slow about it and you shall have the staff.”
夯貨 is a standing insult for Bajie and takes hāng, as this project has read it since the early chapters; the dictionaries also record 夯 as bèn, a variant of 笨, stupid, and that alternative is noted rather than adopted. 趁早兒 and 些兒 are both suffixed, so both instances of 兒 are er. 喝 is hè, to shout. The threat is the staff — the same staff — and it works.
The idiot took fright and dug down the slope to a depth of some three chǐ, where below it was all stone-feet and stone-roots, and the teeth of the rake jammed fast.
掆 is gāng, to catch or jam against. Three 尺 — chǐ, about a third of a metre each — puts him roughly a metre down before the rake hits bedrock.
The idiot threw the rake aside and set to with his snout.
把嘴拱 — to root with the snout, as a pig does. Bajie's original form does the work his weapon cannot.
Rooting down to where it was soft, one thrust of the snout made two chǐ five.
軟處 is a location, so 處 is chù. The measurements are given with a builder's precision, which is part of the joke and part of the horror.
Two thrusts made five chǐ deep; and he buried the two robbers’ bodies there and heaped the earth into a mound.
盤作 is to work something up into a shape. The grave is dug by a pig with his face, and it is the only decent thing anybody does with the bodies.
Tripitaka called, “Wukong, fetch incense and candles, and wait while I say a prayer, so that I may recite the sutra.”
禱祝 and 念經 are the two halves of the rite: the spoken petition and the recited scripture. He asks the killer to fetch the incense.
Pilgrim thrust out his lips and said, “What a want of sense! Here in the middle of a mountain, with no village ahead and no inn behind — where should I get incense and candles?”
著 falls twice with opposite readings: the zhe of action under way in 努著嘴, lips thrust out, and the zháo of 不著店, failing to reach an inn. That second reading drops 著 from a falling tone to a rising one, which sends the 不 in front of it the other way, from bú to bù. 那討 is the rhetorical nǎ.
“Even if we had the money there is nowhere to buy them.”
Eight characters, a complete objection on its own. 無處 is a location, so chù. He is not wrong, and that is the problem.
Tripitaka said bitterly, “Get away with you, monkey-head. Wait while I take up a pinch of earth for incense and make my prayer.”
猴頭 is what the master calls him when he is angry — and it is one of the two words he has just been muttering. 恨恨的 writes 的 for the manner-marking 地. 撮土焚香 — take up a pinch of earth and burn it for incense — is the poor man's rite, performed when there is nothing else to hand.
This was Tripitaka leaving the saddle to grieve at a wild barrow; this was the holy monk, with a kind thought, praying over a desolate grave.
A seven-and-seven couplet dropped into the prose with no verse indent in the 世德堂本, so it is set here as prose. It is the narrator stepping forward to frame what follows, and it is unambiguously admiring.
Nobody in this passage wants to bury anybody. Tripitaka gives the order; Bajie objects that the killer should do the digging; Pilgrim settles the argument by threatening Bajie with the staff that did the killing; and the grave is finally dug by a pig with his face, because the rake will not go through the stone. The rite is performed, and every step of it is coerced.
The measurements are the strangest thing here. 三尺深 — 一嘴有二尺五 — 兩嘴有五尺深: the narrative counts the depth of a grave in snout-thrusts, with the exactness of a builder's estimate. It is funny, and the effect of the precision is to make the hole real in a way the two bodies have not been made real — which is presumably why the couplet at the end has to step in and tell the reader that this is grief.
Pilgrim's refusal over the incense is worth weighing. He is not wrong: there is no village and no shop, and the objection is practical. But 好不知趣, what a want of sense, is said to a man arranging a funeral for two people the speaker killed — and it is the second time in the chapter that Wukong has answered a moral demand with a logistical one.