孤掌難鳴 One Thread Makes No Cord
長老道：「不曾與他見個勝負，只這般含糊，我怎敢前進。」大聖笑道：「師父，你也忒不通變。常言道：『單絲不線，孤掌難鳴。』那魔三個，小妖千萬，教老孫一人怎生與他賭鬥？」长老道：「不曾与他见个胜负，只这般含糊，我怎敢前进。」大圣笑道：「师父，你也忒不通变。常言道：『单丝不线，孤掌难鸣。』那魔三个，小妖千万，教老孙一人怎生与他赌斗？」
逐句解 Line by line
The elder said, "You have not settled it with them one way or the other. With everything left this vague, how am I to dare go on?"
含糊 — muddy, indistinct, unresolved. It is exactly the right complaint. Wukong has had a personal triumph and produced no change in the situation.
The Great Sage laughed: "Master, you really are too inflexible."
忒 is a vernacular intensifier, too or excessively, and 不通變 is failing to adapt to circumstances. He is being rude to a man who has just spent the afternoon praying for him.
"As the saying goes: a single thread makes no cord, and one palm alone cannot clap."
Two proverbs, and the second is still in daily use — 孤掌難鳴 is what Chinese reaches for whenever somebody is being asked to manage alone. The image is exact and physical: you can wave one hand as hard as you like and it makes no sound.
"Those fiends are three, and the lesser demons number thousands upon thousands. How is old Sun single-handed to have it out with them?"
教 is jiào, to make somebody do — the causative. And the arithmetic is honest for once: he has seen the hall, and a hundred officers with thousands behind them is not a fight he wants.
Wukong is right, and the way he is right is out of character. He has spent the book taking on armies. Here he cites two proverbs about the impossibility of acting alone, and he does it two minutes after being told he did not fight — which means the proverbs are also an excuse.
Both sayings are about pairs, which is the point he is building toward. He does not want to be told he failed; he wants Bajie. The whole speech is a negotiation dressed as a philosophy of teamwork, and Xuanzang, to his credit, gives him exactly what he is angling for in the next breath.