原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
不識字 The Master Cannot Read
行者道：「師父原來不識字，虧你怎麼領唐王旨意離朝也？」三藏道：「我自幼為僧，千經萬典皆通，怎麼說我不識字？」行者道：「师父原来不识字，亏你怎么领唐王旨意离朝也？」三藏道：「我自幼为僧，千经万典皆通，怎么说我不识字？」
逐句解 Line by line
行者道：「師父原來不識字，虧你怎麼領唐王旨意離朝也？」
行者道：「师父原来不识字，亏你怎么领唐王旨意离朝也？」
Pilgrim said, "So the master cannot read after all! However did you contrive to take the Tang emperor's commission and set out from court?"
朝 is cháo here, the imperial court. Its other reading means to face toward something, which would leave this sentence with nothing to face.
三藏道：「我自幼為僧，千經萬典皆通，怎麼說我不識字？」
三藏道：「我自幼为僧，千经万典皆通，怎么说我不识字？」
Tripitaka said, "I have been a monk since childhood, and there is not a sutra among a thousand nor a canon among ten thousand that I do not know. How can you say I cannot read?"
為 is wéi, simply to be — 為僧 is to be a monk. The other reading, wèi, means for the sake of, and it is the one the machine reaches for first.
Pilgrim's jibe is impudent even by his standards. He is not correcting a point of fact; he is accusing his master of taking an imperial commission under false pretences. The sting sits in 虧, which means both 'thanks to' and 'however did you manage' — and here it means the second while pretending to the first.
Tripitaka's answer is exactly the wrong one, and its wrongness is the joke. He does not say he can read the banner. He says he has read a thousand sutras. Learning is being offered where eyesight was asked for, and the reader sees the mismatch a beat before Pilgrim closes on it.