原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
牽著空馬 Lead the Empty Horse
三藏道：「也罷，也罷。我也還走得幾步，等我下來，慢慢的同走，著八戒牽著空馬罷。」三藏道：「也罢，也罢。我也还走得几步，等我下来，慢慢的同走，着八戒牵着空马罢。」
逐句解 Line by line
三藏道：「也罷，也罷。
三藏道：「也罢，也罢。
Tripitaka said, "Very well, very well.
The 罷 doubled in 也罷 is the full bà, have done — resignation, not suggestion. He has now used the doubled phrase at two separate moments in this chapter, and both times to end an argument he is losing.
我也還走得幾步，等我下來，慢慢的同走，著八戒牽著空馬罷。」
我也还走得几步，等我下来，慢慢的同走，着八戒牵着空马罢。」
I can still walk a few steps myself. Let me get down and we shall go along slowly together, and have Bajie lead the empty horse."
The character 著 appears twice here in two different roles. The first is zhuó, the dispatching one — have Bajie do it; the second is the sustained zhe of leading and going on leading. In 走得幾步 the 得 is the unstressed de, and the closing 罷 is the light ba.
The solution is that nobody rides. Tripitaka gets off the horse so that the woman who cannot walk fast does not have to, which is a genuinely kind act and also a complete surrender of the party's pace.
The empty horse is the image that stays. A pilgrimage with an imperial rescript and a saddle, and the saddle is empty, and five people are walking slowly down a mountain at the speed of the slowest.