進退兩難 Scripture Lies Where Fire Is
沙僧道：「似這般火盛，無路通西，怎生是好？」八戒道：「只揀無火處走便罷。」三藏道：「那方無火？」八戒道：「東方、南方、北方俱無火。」又問：「那方有經？」八戒道：「西方有經。」三藏道：「我只欲往有經處去哩。」沙僧道：「有經處有火，無火處無經，誠是進退兩難。」沙僧道：「似这般火盛，无路通西，怎生是好？」八戒道：「只拣无火处走便罢。」三藏道：「那方无火？」八戒道：「东方、南方、北方俱无火。」又问：「那方有经？」八戒道：「西方有经。」三藏道：「我只欲往有经处去哩。」沙僧道：「有经处有火，无火处无经，诚是进退两难。」
逐句解 Line by line
Sha Monk said, 'With the fire as fierce as this and no road through to the west, what is to be done?'
似 is sì throughout this project; 這般 is "of this sort." 盛 is again shèng — both of the chapter's uses fall within a few lines of each other, in different mouths.
Eight Rules said, 'We need only pick a way round where there is no fire, and be done.'
揀 jiǎn is to pick or select. 便罷 takes 罷 as the verb bà, "and have done with it," not the light ba that ends a suggestion.
Tripitaka said, 'Which quarter has no fire?'
那方 asks which quarter, nǎ. Seven characters — a whole speaker's turn with its own attribution.
Eight Rules said, 'East, south and north — none of them has any fire.'
He answers the question exactly as put, which is the setup. The three directions are enumerated with a completeness that is about to be his undoing.
He asked again, 'And which quarter has the scriptures?'
The source lets Tripitaka's second question follow the first without repeating who is speaking. 那 is again the questioning nǎ.
Eight Rules said, 'The scriptures are in the west.'
Seven characters, and he has walked into it. The exchange is built as a catechism with only one possible ending, and Eight Rules supplies both halves of it himself.
Tripitaka said, 'I want only to go where the scriptures are.'
哩 closes the sentence weightlessly — the tenth and last in the chapter, and the eighth of the eight that are sentence-closers rather than pieces of the transcribed 斯哈哩. 只欲 is "want only."
Sha Monk said, 'Where there are scriptures there is fire, and where there is no fire there are no scriptures. Truly we can neither go on nor go back.'
有經處有火，無火處無經 is a balanced pair that crosses over on itself, four characters against four, and it states the chapter's whole problem in eight. 進退兩難, "hard both to advance and to retreat," is the settled idiom for an impasse and is still in daily use — the Chinese equivalent of being caught between a rock and a hard place.
The exchange is built as a catechism and Eight Rules supplies both halves of it himself. Which quarter has no fire? East, south and north. Which quarter has the scriptures? The west. His own answers close the trap, and he does not notice it shutting.
Tripitaka's line is the quiet centre of the passage: 我只欲往有經處去哩, I want only to go where the scriptures are. Eight characters, no argument, and it disposes of the proposal to walk round. He is the least capable member of the party and the only one who never once entertains the possibility of not arriving.
Sha Monk then states the whole chapter in a balanced pair that crosses over on itself — 有經處有火，無火處無經, where there are scriptures there is fire, where there is no fire there are no scriptures — and names the condition: 進退兩難, hard to advance and hard to retreat. It is the clearest formulation anybody gives, and it comes from the disciple who speaks least.
The narrator's verdict on all of this arrives in the next line: 胡談亂講, talking wildly and arguing anyhow. Three disciples and a master have reasoned their way to a correct statement of the impasse and no way out of it.