金蟬長老 The Elder Golden Cicada
沙僧笑道：「師兄言之欠當。自來沒個孫行者取經之說。我佛如來造下三藏真經，原著觀音菩薩向東土尋取經人求經，要我們苦歷千山，詢求諸國，保護那取經人。菩薩曾言：取經人乃如來門生，號曰金蟬長老。只因他不聽佛祖談經，貶下靈山，轉生東土，教他果正西方，復修大道。遇路上該有這般魔障，解脫我等三人，與他做護法。兄若不得唐僧去，那個佛祖肯傳經與你？卻不是空勞一場神思也？」沙僧笑道：「师兄言之欠当。自来没个孙行者取经之说。我佛如来造下三藏真经，原着观音菩萨向东土寻取经人求经，要我们苦历千山，询求诸国，保护那取经人。菩萨曾言：取经人乃如来门生，号曰金蝉长老。只因他不听佛祖谈经，贬下灵山，转生东土，教他果正西方，复修大道。遇路上该有这般魔障，解脱我等三人，与他做护法。兄若不得唐僧去，那个佛祖肯传经与你？却不是空劳一场神思也？」
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk laughed: “Elder brother's words are not quite apt. From of old there has been no talk of a Sun Pilgrim fetching scriptures.
言之欠當 takes 當 at dàng, apt or fitting -- not the temporal dāng. Sha Monk's objection is not that the plan is wicked but that it does not fit the facts.
“Our Buddha Tathāgata made the three baskets of true scripture, and it was he who originally charged the Bodhisattva Guanyin to go to the Land of the East and seek out a scripture-pilgrim to come for them, and required us to toil over a thousand mountains and enquire through many states, and guard that scripture-pilgrim.
The chain of authority, stated from the top. 原著觀音菩薩 is 著 setting somebody to a task, zhuó -- the Tathāgata put the Bodhisattva on the job -- and an automatic reading gives zhù, the "to write" sense, which the guard list forces somebody to decide about. 三藏真經 takes 藏 at zàng, the three baskets of the canon: the same character and the same reading as the pilgrim's own name.
“The Bodhisattva said once: the scripture-pilgrim is a disciple of the Tathāgata's own gate, styled the Elder Golden Cicada.
號曰 takes 號 at hào, to be styled. 金蟬長老, the Elder Golden Cicada, is Tripitaka's identity before his birth in the Tang -- the novel elsewhere makes him a disciple of the Buddha's own -- and Sha Monk produces the name here as the decisive point of doctrine.
“It was only because he would not listen to the Buddha Patriarch expounding the scriptures that he was demoted from Spirit Mountain and reborn in the Land of the East, and was made to attain the right fruit in the west and take up the great Way again.
教他果正西方 is causative 教, jiào. The account compresses the whole of the pilgrim's prior life into twenty-seven characters: the inattention, the demotion, the rebirth, and the commission that follows from them.
“On the road he was bound to meet with demon-barriers like these, and so we three were released to be his guardians of the Law.
解脫我等三人 uses the same 解脫 the chapter used for Wukong's own release from under the mountain -- the three disciples were let out in order to serve. 護法 is the technical term for a guardian of the teaching, a dharmapāla.
“If elder brother cannot get the Tang Monk to go, which Buddha Patriarch will hand the scriptures over to you?
This clause is Sha Monk's entire argument. 那個佛祖 is the rhetorical 那, nǎ -- which Buddha? -- and expects the answer "none". 不得唐僧去 takes 得 at dé, attainment: if you cannot get the Tang Monk to come.
“Would that not be a whole labour of spirit spent for nothing?”
A small joke that only a careful reader catches. 空勞一場神思 -- a whole labour of spirit spent for nothing -- is almost exactly Bajie's phrase about his own ugly face at the farmhouse door, 枉勞神思. The same idiom serves a joke about looks there and a theological argument here.
Sha Monk answers a claim about ambition with an argument about authorisation, and it is the best piece of reasoning anyone offers in the chapter. The scriptures were made by the Tathāgata; the Bodhisattva was charged to find one specific pilgrim; that pilgrim is the Golden Cicada, the Buddha's own demoted disciple; the three of them were released expressly to guard him. Take the pilgrim out and there is nothing left to authorise anything.
The point is not that the journey is hard but that it is not transferable. Anyone may walk to India. The scriptures will only be handed over to the person the commission names -- which is exactly the gap between holding the rescript and being the party it describes.
It is worth registering who is making this argument. Sha Monk is the disciple the novel usually hands the baggage and the horse to, and here he recites the pilgrimage's entire doctrinal foundation from memory, accurately, under duress, surrounded by hostile monkeys. He is also, as it happens, arguing with somebody who has read the paperwork more recently than he has.