原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
軟款溫柔 Sha Monk Answers Softly
沙僧卻是個靈山大將，見得事多，就軟款溫柔，近前跪下道：「兄長，我知道了，想你要打殺我兩個，也不去救師父，徑自回家去哩。」沙僧却是个灵山大将，见得事多，就软款温柔，近前跪下道：「兄长，我知道了，想你要打杀我两个，也不去救师父，径自回家去哩。」
逐句解 Line by line
沙僧卻是個靈山大將，見得事多，就軟款溫柔，近前跪下道：「兄長，我知道了，想你要打殺我兩個，也不去救師父，徑自回家去哩。」
沙僧却是个灵山大将，见得事多，就软款温柔，近前跪下道：「兄长，我知道了，想你要打杀我两个，也不去救师父，径自回家去哩。」
But Sha Monk was a great general from Spirit Mountain, and had seen much of affairs; so he went gentle and mild, came forward and knelt down, and said, "Elder brother, I understand. I suppose you mean to beat the two of us to death, and then not go to rescue our master, but take yourself off home."
將 is jiàng here, a general — not the jiāng of the disposal marker it takes elsewhere in this chapter. In the phrase for had seen much, 得 is dé, the perception band, and 長 is zhǎng in the word for elder brother.
Sha Monk gets the best forty-nine characters he has had in twenty chapters. He does not argue, does not defend himself, and does not run. He kneels, speaks softly, and lays out what his brother is actually proposing.
The technique is exact. He states the plan as though agreeing with it — beat us both, then abandon the master and go home — and lets Pilgrim hear how it sounds.
His title here is worth having. He was a general of heaven before he was a penitent, and the narrator names that rank at the one moment in the chapter when his judgement is better than anyone else's.