想是搬了 The Buddha Hid the Scrolls
三藏道:「徒弟雖然說得有理,但不知西天路還在那裡哩。」八戒道:「師父,我佛如來捨不得那三藏經,知我們要取去,想是搬了;三藏道:「徒弟虽然说得有理,但不知西天路还在那里哩。」八戒道:「师父,我佛如来舍不得那三藏经,知我们要取去,想是搬了;
逐句解 Line by line
Tripitaka said, "What you say has reason in it, disciple, but I do not know where the road to the Western Heaven still lies."
Two 得-shaped points in one line. In 說得有理 the 得 is the unstressed de that hangs a judgement on a verb — said it, and said it reasonably. And 那裡 here is the question word, 那 as nǎ, "where" — this chapter uses 那裡 twelve times, eight of them as a question and four as a plain "over there."
Bajie said, "Master, our Buddha Tathagata cannot bear to part with those Three Baskets of scripture. Knowing that we mean to fetch them away, I expect he has moved them;
In 捨不得 the 得 is again the unstressed de: the verb 捨, to let go, plus a negated ability to complete it. It is the everyday phrase for being unable to give something up. And the joke turns on 三藏 meaning both the Three Baskets of the canon and the monk sitting on the horse — Bajie has just said his master's name means a pile of books.
Bajie's theory is that the Buddha is hoarding. It is blasphemous, it is lazy, and it is the funniest line in the first third of the chapter, because it recasts the entire pilgrimage as a delivery that keeps failing because the sender keeps moving house.
Underneath the joke is a real complaint that the book returns to often: the journey has no visible end. Tripitaka has just asked where the road still lies, which is not a question about direction. He knows the direction. He wants to know how much is left, and nobody can tell him, so Bajie fills the silence with a gag.