打得還少 Beaten and Still Too Little
行者笑道：「打得還少。」八戒道：「謝你照顧。頭都打腫了，還說少哩。」行者道：「溫柔天下去得，剛強寸步難移。行者笑道：「打得还少。」八戒道：「谢你照顾。头都打肿了，还说少哩。」行者道：「温柔天下去得，刚强寸步难移。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim laughed. "You were beaten too little."
Here 得 is de, the light syllable that hooks a verb to a verdict on it, so the four characters mean roughly beaten-to-an-extent, and that extent is too small. The laugh in front of it is not kindness.
Bajie said, "Thank you very much for your concern."
Flat sarcasm, and it is one of the few times in the chapter Bajie gets a clean hit in. 照顧 is the polite word for looking after somebody, used here at exactly the wrong temperature.
"My head is swollen all over and you still say it was too little."
The complaint is split off into its own sentence so the sarcasm above can land first. He is genuinely aggrieved, and he is also still not asking why he was hit.
Pilgrim said, "Gentleness will carry you anywhere under heaven; hardness cannot move a cùn."
This is a proverb, balanced character for character, and Pilgrim produces it the way anyone produces a proverb when they are about to lecture. 得 is de again, the light linking syllable that makes going-anywhere possible rather than actual. The measure in the second half is the cùn, about 3.2 cm — so hardness cannot advance the width of a thumb.
Pilgrim's verdict is funny and also, by the story's lights, correct. The chapter is going to spend a long stretch on the proposition that softness gets further than force, and it will make Bajie prove it by going back down and trying again politely.
The proverb is the hinge. Everything before it is knockabout; everything after it is a lesson, delivered by a monkey who has spent seventy chapters solving problems by hitting them. The novel enjoys putting its most sensible advice in the mouth of its least patient character.
It is worth noticing that Pilgrim is right about tactics and indifferent about pain. He never does answer the complaint about the swollen head.