救他一場 Leave Her at a Monastery
大家一處同這女菩薩走下山去,或到庵觀寺院,有人家之處,留他在那裡,也是我們救他一場。」行者道:「師父說得有理,快請前進。」大家一处同这女菩萨走下山去,或到庵观寺院,有人家之处,留他在那里,也是我们救他一场。」行者道:「师父说得有理,快请前进。」
逐句解 Line by line
We shall all go down the mountain together with this Lady Bodhisattva, and if we come to a hermitage or a Daoist house or a temple, anywhere with people in it, we shall leave her there — and that will have been our saving of her."
In 庵觀寺院 the 觀 is guàn, a Daoist establishment, not the guān of looking; the four characters run through the whole range of religious houses. And 一場 takes 場 as cháng, the measure word for a whole episode of something — not the chǎng of a place, which is how the same character is read in 山場 earlier in the chapter.
Pilgrim said, "What the master says has reason in it. Please go on ahead."
The 得 in 說得有理 is the unstressed de. It is the same four characters Tripitaka used about the demon's calling, and Pilgrim now uses them about his master.
A compromise is reached and it is a sensible one. Take her as far as the next settlement, hand her over, and the obligation is discharged. Nobody has to be right.
Pilgrim's agreement uses the exact phrase his master used to justify obeying the voice — what she says has reason in it. Whether that is deliberate on his part is left entirely open, which is the sort of thing this book does without ever pointing at it.
The plan also has the shape of every plan in this novel that goes wrong. It depends on there being a settlement ahead with people in it. What they are about to find is a temple with no one living in the front half of it at all.