十方擁護 The Ten Directions Uphold Him
唐三藏西天取經,無神不保,無天不佑,三界通知,十方擁護。快將芭蕉扇來搧息火焰,教他無災無障,早過山去;不然,上天責你罪愆,定遭誅也。」唐三藏西天取经,无神不保,无天不佑,三界通知,十方拥护。快将芭蕉扇来搧息火焰,教他无灾无障,早过山去;不然,上天责你罪愆,定遭诛也。」
逐句解 Line by line
"Tripitaka of Tang goes west to fetch the scriptures. There is no spirit that does not protect him and no heaven that does not favour him; the three realms know of it and the ten directions uphold him.
The four clauses are built on the same double negative twice over — 無神不保,無天不佑, no spirit that does not protect, no heaven that does not favour — and the tones divide between them: 不 stays bù before the dipping tone of 保 and rises to bú before the falling tone of 佑, in two matching clauses side by side. 三界 are the realms of desire, form and formlessness; 十方 is the eight compass points with the zenith and the nadir. 三藏 takes zàng.
"Bring the banana-leaf fan quickly and fan the flames out, so that he may pass without calamity or hindrance and be over the mountain early;
The strict split this edition keeps between 搧 shān, the verb, and 扇 shàn, the object, stands here inside a single clause, two characters apart. 將 is jiāng, "take"; 教 is jiào, "so that he may".
"otherwise heaven above will call your offence to account, and you will surely be put to death."
罪愆 pairs two words for fault, 愆 being qiān, a transgression. The threat is not negotiable, and no terms at all have been offered — which goes some way toward explaining the reply.
The local god's speech changes the register of the whole quarrel. Up to this point the fan has been contested as property, between parties with private grievances. Here it becomes a matter of cosmic administration, with the three realms informed and the ten directions in support.
無神不保,無天不佑 is a double negative twice over, and the construction is doing rhetorical work: it does not say that heaven favours the pilgrimage, but that nothing in heaven fails to. The claim is total, and it is delivered by a minor local deity to a demon king — which is only possible because the speaker is invoking an authority far above himself.
The demand that follows is practical and the threat that closes it is absolute: 定遭誅也, you will surely be put to death. The Bull King has been offered no terms whatsoever, which goes some way to explaining what he says next.