不敢擅動 I Dare Not Move Unbidden
只是上界無有旨意，不敢擅動干戈。假若法遣眾神，又恐玉帝見罪；十分卻了大聖，又是我逆了人情。我諒著那西路上縱有妖邪，也不為大害。我今著龜、蛇二將並五大神龍與你助力，管教擒妖精，救你師之難。」只是上界无有旨意，不敢擅动干戈。假若法遣众神，又恐玉帝见罪；十分却了大圣，又是我逆了人情。我谅着那西路上纵有妖邪，也不为大害。我今着龟、蛇二将并五大神龙与你助力，管教擒妖精，救你师之难。」
逐句解 Line by line
Only, there is no command from the upper realm, and I dare not move shield and spear unbidden.
干戈, shield and dagger-axe, is the standing figure for armed force — English does much the same thing with sword and shield. 擅動, to move without orders, is the offence he is afraid of committing.
Were I to dispatch the host of gods by my own authority, I fear the Jade Emperor would find me at fault; were I flatly to refuse the Great Sage, that again would be to go against what is owed between us.
The edition cuts this sentence at a semicolon and the two halves are set together here because they answer each other exactly: an if-clause, then 又 and its consequence, on both sides alike. 分 is fēn in 十分, meaning utterly.
I reckon that though there be demons on that western road, they will not amount to a great harm.
著 is zhe again, marking the reckoning as it happens. 為 is wéi, to amount to — and because that is a rising tone, 不 in front of it stays bù. The falling bú would only be right before a falling tone, which is what this character's other reading would have given.
I shall now assign Tortoise and Snake, my two generals, together with the five great divine dragons, to lend you strength; they will assuredly take the fiend and deliver your master out of his calamity."
Three readings turn on sense here. 著 is zhuó, to assign or detail someone — the god is posting subordinates, not marking an action in progress as the same character did one segment earlier. 將 in 二將 is jiàng, generals. 難 is nàn, a disaster — closing the speech on the same word Monkey opened his account with.
The god's refusal and his consent occupy the same four segments, and the hinge between them is a calculation of risk on both sides. Sending gods out without a warrant offends the Jade Emperor; refusing the Great Sage offends 人情, the claims people have on one another. He is weighing a career hazard against a social one.
What he settles on keeps him technically clean. He does not send 眾神, the host of gods he was afraid to move; he lends two named generals and five dragons — his own household staff rather than the celestial establishment. The distinction matters to him and will matter to the plot.
His parting assurance is confident and, as the chapter will show, wrong. They will certainly take the fiend, says a god who has just reasoned that the demons of the western road cannot amount to much. Both the promise and the reasoning behind it are about to be tested.