原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
便生努力 He Puts Out His Strength
那八戒聽言,便生努力。那八戒听言,便生努力。
逐句解 Line by line
那八戒聽言,便生努力。
那八戒听言,便生努力。
Eight Rules heard it and put out his strength.
Nine characters carry the whole reversal: the disciple who two passages ago proposed walking round the mountain now sets himself to the work. The novel gives him no change of heart to speak of.
Nine characters carry the whole reversal. Eight Rules had proposed going back and taking another road; the local god refused it on doctrinal grounds; the Great Sage sided against him and answered in verse. 那八戒聽言,便生努力 records only that he heard, and set to work.
The novel gives him no change of heart to speak of, and the omission is the characterisation. He is persuaded by being outnumbered and outargued, and he closes the argument by joining it. What he does next is answer a poem with a poem, which is not what the reader expects of him at all.