原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
扯回來 Pull Me Back If I Lose
你與沙僧扯住後手，放我出去，與他交戰。估著贏了他，你便放鬆，我把他拿住；若是輸與他，你把我扯回來，莫教他拉了去。」你与沙僧扯住后手，放我出去，与他交战。估着赢了他，你便放松，我把他拿住；若是输与他，你把我扯回来，莫教他拉了去。」
逐句解 Line by line
你與沙僧扯住後手，放我出去，與他交戰。
你与沙僧扯住后手，放我出去，与他交战。
You and Sha Wujing hold the far end and let me out to fight him.
後手 — the back end, the end held in reserve.
估著贏了他，你便放鬆，我把他拿住；
估着赢了他，你便放松，我把他拿住；
If you reckon I am winning, slacken off and I will take him.
著 reads zhe — the reckoning held in progress while the fight goes on.
若是輸與他，你把我扯回來，莫教他拉了去。」
若是输与他，你把我扯回来，莫教他拉了去。」
And if I am losing to him, pull me back, and do not let him drag me off."
教 reads jiào, causative — do not let it come about.
Bajie has thought this through properly, and that is what makes it funny. He has specified the signal, the two states of the rope, the personnel and the failure mode. It is a workable plan, argued in the flat voice of a man agreeing a procedure, and every part of it depends on the good faith of a brother who slapped him across the face earlier in this same scene.
The last clause is the one that matters: do not let him drag me off. Bajie has correctly identified the actual danger of this chapter — not being killed but being carried away — and the novel is about to prove him right in the most literal way available.