也不得乾淨 What Harm Could It Bring
我老孫也不得乾淨，饒我口能，怎麼折辯，也要問個不應。」三藏喝道：「莫胡說，終不然，我救他性命，有甚貽累不成？我老孙也不得干净，饶我口能，怎么折辩，也要问个不应。」三藏喝道：「莫胡说，终不然，我救他性命，有甚贻累不成？
逐句解 Line by line
and Old Monkey would not come out of it clean either. However good my mouth is, however I argued, they would still get me on doing what ought not to be done."
乾 is gān in 乾淨, clean and dry, not the qián of the first hexagram. And 不應 is a genuine article of the Ming code — doing what ought not to be done, the catch-all charge for conduct no other statute covered. Pilgrim has correctly identified that a talker always gets convicted under the vague clause.
Tripitaka shouted at him, "Talk no nonsense. Surely, if I save her life, what trouble could it possibly bring on us?
In 貽累 the 累 is lěi, to entangle somebody else in your trouble, not the lèi of being tired. Another bare 甚 as shén.
The catch-all clause is the best joke Pilgrim makes in the whole exchange, and it is funny because it is accurate. Every legal system has a provision for people the prosecutor dislikes, and he knows he is the sort of defendant it was written for.
His master's reply gives up on argument altogether and falls back on the shape of a rhetorical question. What trouble could it bring? He does not know. He has decided the answer is none, and he is asking in a tone that forbids anyone to supply another.