原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
說出老實話 Pilgrim Tells The Plain Truth
孫大聖見師父苦苦勸他，不許降妖，他說出老實話來道：「師父，實不瞞你說，那妖在此吃了人了。」唐僧大驚道：「吃了甚麼人？」孙大圣见师父苦苦劝他，不许降妖，他说出老实话来道：「师父，实不瞒你说，那妖在此吃了人了。」唐僧大惊道：「吃了甚么人？」
逐句解 Line by line
孫大聖見師父苦苦勸他，不許降妖，他說出老實話來道：「師父，實不瞞你說，那妖在此吃了人了。」
孙大圣见师父苦苦劝他，不许降妖，他说出老实话来道：「师父，实不瞒你说，那妖在此吃了人了。」
The Great Sage Sun, seeing his master press him so hard and forbid him to subdue the fiend, brought out the plain truth and said, "Master, to be honest with you and hide nothing: that fiend has eaten people here."
降 is xiáng again, to subdue. 大聖, Great Sage, is the title he took for himself in heaven, and the narrator uses it at the moment he stops arguing and starts telling the truth.
唐僧大驚道：「吃了甚麼人？」
唐僧大惊道：「吃了甚么人？」
The Tang Monk said in great alarm, "Eaten what people?"
甚 is shén. Four characters of question, and it is the right one.
Pilgrim has spent three passages arguing and losing, and then he does the thing he almost never does: he stops performing and states the fact.
The narrator marks the shift by changing his name. Through the wheedling and the boasting he has been Pilgrim; at the moment he tells the truth he is the Great Sage. The novel uses his titles as a register.
And the truth works instantly, where none of the argument did. His master's objection collapses in the next passage. Tripitaka cannot be out-argued, but he can be told something true.