傳揚善果 Thanking The Demons For Kindness
三藏合掌朝天道：「善哉！善哉！若不是賢徒如此之能，我怎生得去？」徑直向前，對眾妖作禮道：「多承列位之愛，我弟子取經東回向長安，當傳揚善果也。」三藏合掌朝天道：「善哉！善哉！若不是贤徒如此之能，我怎生得去？」径直向前，对众妖作礼道：「多承列位之爱，我弟子取经东回向长安，当传扬善果也。」
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka joined his palms and said toward heaven: "Mercy on us!
合掌 — palms together, the gesture of thanks and reverence.
Mercy on us!
善哉 doubled again — this time in thanks rather than dismay, and aimed at the creatures who mean to eat him.
Had my worthy disciple not such powers as these, how should I ever get across?"
得 keeps dé in 怎生得 — how should I manage to. The sealed chapters read this frame as dé at almost every site.
He went straight forward, made his bow to the demons and said: "I am much obliged for the kindness of you gentlemen. When this disciple has fetched the scriptures and returned east to Chang'an, I shall spread abroad the good fruit of it."
長 reads cháng in 長安, the capital. The verb sense of the same character, zhǎng, is a different word. 善果 is the good fruit that ripens from good action.
This is painful to read and the novel means it to be. Tripitaka steps forward, bows to the creatures who have twice tried to eat him, and thanks them for their kindness. He then promises to speak well of them in the capital when the pilgrimage is done.
His thanks to heaven a moment earlier makes it worse. He credits his disciple's powers for the escort, which is nearly right — Wukong's beatings did produce it — and then he credits the demons' generosity, which is entirely wrong. The master's failing is not that he is stupid but that he takes courtesy at face value, every time, without ever learning.
The good fruit he offers to spread is a real doctrinal idea: an action ripens into a result, and the result outlives the act. He is promising the monsters merit. They are at that moment counting bearers for the chair that will carry him to a walled city four hundred li away.