使定身法 No Need For Ropes
八戒道：「憑你抓倒，綑倒，使定身法定倒，也沒有這等快的。」行者笑道：「不用甚麼抓、拿、綑縛。八戒道：「凭你抓倒，捆倒，使定身法定倒，也没有这等快的。」行者笑道：「不用甚么抓、拿、捆缚。
逐句解 Line by line
Bajie said, "Even supposing you clawed them down, roped them down and used a hold-fast spell to pin them down, nothing could be as quick as that."
Three verbs, each followed by 倒 as dǎo, down — clawed down, roped down, pinned down. That is the down-and-pinned reading of the character, against the on-the-contrary dào it took earlier in this chapter. 定身法 is the hold-fast spell that freezes a body where it stands.
Pilgrim laughed. "There will be no clawing or seizing or roping about it.
抓、拿、綑縛 repeats Bajie's own list back at him and dismisses it. The small ideographic commas between the verbs are the edition's, and they make the phrase read as an itemised rejection.
Bajie argues the case on the only ground he knows, which is handling. Every method he can think of involves getting hold of a demon individually, and at forty-eight thousand that is a week's work whatever spell you use.
He is right, and he has still lost, because his brother is not proposing to handle them at all. The disagreement is not about speed. It is about whether these things have to be dealt with one at a time.
Pilgrim's reply takes the list apart item by item before offering an alternative, which is the surest sign in this book that a boast is about to be made good.