不分內外 Inside And Outside
行者兩隻手扯住兩個道:「你們忒不循理,出家人怎麼不分內外?站住,不要走,跟我去天井裡,看看是個甚麼妖精?」八戒道:「哥啊,他們都是經過帳的,風響便是妖來。他都去躲,我們又不與他有親,又不相識,又不是交契故人,看他做甚?」行者两只手扯住两个道:「你们忒不循理,出家人怎么不分内外?站住,不要走,跟我去天井里,看看是个甚么妖精?」八戒道:「哥啊,他们都是经过帐的,风响便是妖来。他都去躲,我们又不与他有亲,又不相识,又不是交契故人,看他做甚?」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim caught hold of the pair of them, one in each hand. "You two are quite out of order. How can men who have left the household life fail to tell inside from outside?
忒 is tè, "excessively." 不分內外 is a monastic objection with teeth: a monk has no business in the inner quarters of a lay household, where the women of the family are.
"Stand fast, do not run. Come with me into the courtyard and let us see what sort of demon this is."
天井 — "heaven well" — is the small open courtyard inside a Chinese house, open to the sky and enclosed on all four sides. 甚 is the question-word shén.
Eight Rules said, "Brother, they have all been through the accounts on this. When the wind sounds, the demon is coming.
經過帳, "been through the books," is vernacular for having the experience already — they have seen this happen and know the drill. 帳 keeps its fixed zhàng.
"They have all gone to hide. We are no kin of his, we do not know him, we are no old friends bound to him by any tie — what should we look at him for?"
甚 is the question-word shén again, standing on its own at the end as "what for" — automatic transcription gives the shèn that means "extremely" here. 相 is xiāng, "mutually."
Pilgrim's rebuke is on a point of discipline rather than of courage. He invoked 出家人, "one who has left the household," three passages back to refuse a thousand mu of land, and he uses it here to stop two disciples bolting through a door — the same appeal, turned to a much smaller purpose.
Eight Rules answers by appealing to local expertise. The villagers have been through this before; the wind is a recognised signal; the people who know are running. It is a sound argument and he delivers it while trying to get through the door.
His second sentence lists the relationships he does not have with the demon — not kin, not acquainted, not old friends — three denials in the same frame. Having established that he owes the creature nothing, he asks what there is to look at. The logic is impeccable and entirely self-serving.