更不還禮 He Does Not Even Bow Back
八戒暗地裡怨惡道:「這猢猻活活的折殺也。怎麼這許多官員禮拜,更不還禮,也不站將起來?」八戒暗地里怨恶道:「这猢狲活活的折杀也。怎么这许多官员礼拜,更不还礼,也不站将起来?」
逐句解 Line by line
From his hiding place Eight Rules grumbled resentfully, "That ape is getting himself killed by inches.
折 is zhé in 折殺 — to have one's allotted fortune cut short by accepting honours one has not merited. A real anxiety, not an insult.
"How can he take the bows of all these officials and not return them, nor so much as get to his feet?"
還 reads huán here, to give back: 還禮 is to return a salute. It is the only place in the chapter that takes that reading — the other six occurrences are all the hái of 'still'. 將 is jiāng, marking direction in 站將起來, and not the jiàng of a general.
折殺 is the pious version of the complaint, and Eight Rules means it. Accepting honours beyond your station was held to consume the fortune allotted to a life, so what he is objecting to is not arrogance but recklessness — his brother is spending something that cannot be got back.
He is also, characteristically, watching from a side room. Having been carried across the city, framed and hauled by a mob, he has taken cover from a delegation that is on its knees.