咬牙發火 Bajie Grinds His Teeth
卻討水吃了幾口,才說:「徒弟,你們剛去,那悟空更來纏我。是我堅執不收,他遂將我打了一棒,青氈包袱都搶去了。」八戒聽說,咬響口中牙,發起心頭火道:「叵耐這潑猴子!怎敢這般無禮?」教:「沙僧,你伏侍師父,等我到他家討包袱去。」沙僧道:「你且休發怒。我們扶師父到那山凹人家化些熱茶湯,將先化的飯熱熱,調理師父,再去尋他。」却讨水吃了几口,才说:「徒弟,你们刚去,那悟空更来缠我。是我坚执不收,他遂将我打了一棒,青毡包袱都抢去了。」八戒听说,咬响口中牙,发起心头火道:「叵耐这泼猴子!怎敢这般无礼?」教:「沙僧,你伏侍师父,等我到他家讨包袱去。」沙僧道:「你且休发怒。我们扶师父到那山凹人家化些热茶汤,将先化的饭热热,调理师父,再去寻他。」
逐句解 Line by line
He got some water and drank a few mouthfuls, and only then said: “Disciples, no sooner had you gone than that Wukong came back to plague me again.
更來 takes 更 as "again, further", gèng. 那悟空 is the pointing 那, nà -- that Wukong -- and the elder names him without a flicker of doubt, which is the whole difficulty of the chapter in three characters.
“I stood firm and would not take him back, so he struck me a blow with his rod and carried off the blue felt bundles, every one.”
堅執不收 is the elder's own account of his conduct, and it is accurate: he did refuse, twice. What he reports is his firmness, not what it produced.
Bajie heard it out, ground the teeth in his mouth till they rang, and felt the fire rise in his heart: “Insufferable, that wretched monkey! How dare he be so outrageous?”
Two five-character clauses built to match, each hanging its emotion on a body part: 咬響口中牙 and 發起心頭火 -- teeth ground in the mouth, fire started in the heart -- and the translation keeps the pairing. 叵耐 is a set exclamation of exasperation: insufferable, not to be borne.
And he ordered: “Sha Monk, you attend on the master, and let me go to his house and demand the bundles back.”
教 stands alone as the verb introducing the speech, with no subject named, and takes jiào. Notice where Bajie proposes to go: 他家, his house, which can only mean the Water-Curtain Cave. He has already decided who did it.
Sha Monk said: “Do not lose your temper yet. Let us get the master to that house in the fold of the hills and beg some hot tea-broth, warm up the rice we begged earlier, put him to rights, and then go and look for him.”
調理 takes 調 at tiáo, to regulate or nurse back to health, not the diào of transferring somebody to another post that an automatic reading supplies. 化 appears twice, both fixed at huà. Sha Monk sets three practical steps against Bajie's one furious impulse.
Tripitaka's account is short, accurate and completely misleading. Everything in it happened: Wukong came back, he refused him, he was struck, the bundles were taken. The one thing he cannot report is the only thing that matters, and he reports the rest with the confidence of a man who watched it happen.
The two disciples divide exactly along their characters. Bajie's rage comes out in two matched five-character clauses -- teeth ground in the mouth, fire lit in the heart -- and produces a plan to go and demand the bundles back, which is the worst idea available. Sha Monk's answer is a sequence of small practical steps: shelter, hot broth, warm the rice, nurse the master, and only then look for anybody.
It is worth noting that Sha Monk is right for the second time in two passages, and that nobody defers to him. He was right about tying the horse and he is right about the tea. The next chapter's business will nonetheless be settled by Bajie's instinct to go and confront somebody.