壞倫亂法 Spare The Death Not The Beating
行者道：「菩薩，雖是這般故事，奈何他玷污了皇后，敗俗傷風，壞倫亂法，卻是該他死罪。今蒙菩薩親臨，饒得他死罪，卻饒不得他活罪。讓我打他二十棒，與你帶去罷。」行者道：「菩萨，虽是这般故事，奈何他玷污了皇后，败俗伤风，坏伦乱法，却是该他死罪。今蒙菩萨亲临，饶得他死罪，却饶不得他活罪。让我打他二十棒，与你带去罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "Bodhisattva, granted that this is the story — but what of his having defiled the queen,
奈何 is the word of an objection that cannot be got round: what is to be done about the fact that. He has accepted her account and is arguing from inside it.
"corrupting morals and injuring decency, wrecking the bonds and disordering the law? He deserves a capital sentence.
Four more two-character charges in two four-character phrases, on top of the four he laid a moment ago. 倫 is the bonds of kinship and rank; wrecking them is among the gravest offences in the imperial code.
"Now that the Bodhisattva has come in person, his capital sentence can be pardoned — but his living sentence cannot.
Three 得 stand in this passage and this line has two of them. Both read de, the light link that turns a verb into something achievable: 饒得 is can pardon, and 饒不得 is cannot. The character in front of 不 is 饒, a full verb, which is what settles it.
"Let me give him twenty strokes of the cudgel, and then you may take him away."
Twelve characters, and the proposal is a beating rather than an execution. 罷 is the light word of a suggestion — and then that will be that.
死罪 against 活罪 is a real distinction in imperial law and Wukong uses it exactly. A capital sentence is one thing; a living sentence — flogging, banishment, penal labour — is another, and a pardon for the first does not automatically carry the second. He is arguing sentencing policy with a Bodhisattva.
The charge sheet has grown. He laid four charges in the previous passage and adds four more here: corrupting morals, injuring decency, wrecking the bonds, disordering the law. 倫 is the web of proper relations between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife — and damaging it is not a metaphor in this legal register.
What he actually wants is twenty strokes. Having built an eight-count indictment and cited the distinction between capital and non-capital punishment, his proposal is that he be allowed to hit the animal with a stick before it is led away.