未傷命哩 The Master Still Breathes
沙僧實不忍捨，將唐僧扳轉身體，以臉溫臉，哭一聲：「苦命的師父！」只見那長老口鼻中吐出熱氣，胸前溫暖，連叫：「八戒，你來，師父未傷命哩。」那獃子才近前扶起長老。甦醒呻吟一會，罵道：「好潑猢猻，打殺我也。」沙僧、八戒問道：「是那個猢猻？」長老不言，只是嘆息。沙僧实不忍舍，将唐僧扳转身体，以脸温脸，哭一声：「苦命的师父！」只见那长老口鼻中吐出热气，胸前温暖，连叫：「八戒，你来，师父未伤命哩。」那呆子才近前扶起长老。甦醒呻吟一会，骂道：「好泼猢狲，打杀我也。」沙僧、八戒问道：「是那个猢狲？」长老不言，只是叹息。
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk could not bring himself to give him up. He turned the Tang Monk's body over, laid his own face against his master's face, and cried out: “Master, master of bitter fate!”
The tenderest gesture in the chapter, and it is given to the quietest character. 以臉溫臉 -- face warming face -- uses the verb 溫 that will turn up two segments later for the warmth still left in the old man's chest. 將 is the little word that hauls the object forward for the verb, jiāng.
And then he saw warm breath coming from the elder's mouth and nose, and warmth in his breast, and called out again and again: “Bajie, come here! The master's life is not gone yet.”
It is the contact that finds the breath, not any examination. 口鼻中 takes 中 at zhōng. 未傷命 is carefully worded: not that he is well, only that the life has not been taken.
Only then did the Idiot come up and raise the elder.
才 marks the delay, and the delay is the note. Sha Monk has been holding the body; Bajie has been keeping his distance; 才近前 records it without comment.
He came round, groaned a while, and cursed: “That wretched baboon — he has beaten me to death.”
一會 lifts 一 to yí before the falling tone of 會, by the ordinary rule. 好潑猢猻 takes 好 as the intensifier hǎo, carrying an entirely negative charge here -- a fine specimen of a wretched baboon.
Sha Monk and Bajie asked: “Which baboon?”
The best line in the passage, and neither speaker can hear what he has said. 是那個猢猻 is the question 那, nǎ -- which one -- not the pointing nà. They are asking for a name, because as far as they know there is only one baboon in the world it could be. They have just asked the question the next two chapters exist to answer.
The elder said nothing, and only sighed.
Eight characters, a complete statement, standing on its own. It is the second time in two blocks that the text hands Tripitaka silence where a speech would be expected.
The revival is found through Sha Monk's body rather than by any diagnosis. He will not let go, turns the corpse over, lays his own face against his master's -- and it is that contact, not an examination, that finds the breath. The novel gives the gesture to its quietest character and spends four characters on it.
The question the two disciples then ask is the finest thing in the passage. 是那個猢猻 -- which baboon? -- is meant as a plain request for a name, since as far as they know there is only one baboon it could possibly be. It is also, word for word, the question the rest of the novel will spend two chapters answering. Neither speaker can hear what he has just said.
And Tripitaka does not answer. He sighs, and the text moves on. He has spent this chapter talking almost without a break -- scolding, complaining, refusing -- and the two moments where the novel silences him are the moment before the blow and the moment after it.