原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
四馬攢蹄 Trussed Like A Beast
八戒大驚道：「罷了，罷了，撞見那販醃的妖怪也。」眾怪一齊下手，把獃子四馬攢蹄綑住，扛扛擡擡，送至池塘邊，往中間一推，盡皆轉去。八戒大惊道：「罢了，罢了，撞见那贩腌的妖怪也。」众怪一齐下手，把呆子四马攒蹄捆住，扛扛抬抬，送至池塘边，往中间一推，尽皆转去。
逐句解 Line by line
八戒大驚道：「罷了，罷了，撞見那販醃的妖怪也。」
八戒大惊道：「罢了，罢了，撞见那贩腌的妖怪也。」
Bajie was appalled: "That does it, that does it. I have run into the pickling trade."
罷了 doubled, both keeping bà. 販醃的 — a dealer in salted goods.
眾怪一齊下手，把獃子四馬攢蹄綑住，扛扛擡擡，送至池塘邊，往中間一推，盡皆轉去。
众怪一齐下手，把呆子四马攒蹄捆住，扛扛抬抬，送至池塘边，往中间一推，尽皆转去。
The monsters all set to at once, trussed the fool with his four limbs gathered like hooves, carried him swaying between them to the edge of the pond, and shoved him into the middle; then away they all went.
攢 reads cuán here, to gather together — 四馬攢蹄 is the trussing used on a live animal, all four feet bunched. It is not the zǎn of putting money by. 扛扛擡擡 doubles both verbs for the swaying of a carried load.
The trussing has a name because it was a standard technique: all four feet drawn together and tied, the way you carry a live pig to market. The novel does not have to say that Bajie is being handled as livestock. It uses the term and lets the reader supply the rest.
Two verbs are doubled for the carrying, which puts the swaying of the pole into the prose itself. Ming vernacular does this constantly and it is one of the things that resists translation: the sentence moves the way the load moves.
Bajie's line before it is the only defence he has left, which is to make a joke of it. He has just heard himself costed out as salt pork and he responds by naming the trade. It is gallows humour, and it is the last thing he says before he goes under the water.