紙狀兒 Another Plaint On Paper
況御狀又豈是可輕易告的？你且與我說，怎的告他？」行者笑道：「我有主張：我把這牌位、香爐做個證見，另外再備紙狀兒。」八戒道：「狀兒上怎麼寫？况御状又岂是可轻易告的？你且与我说，怎的告他？」行者笑道：「我有主张：我把这牌位、香炉做个证见，另外再备纸状儿。」八戒道：「状儿上怎么写？
逐句解 Line by line
Besides, is an accusation before the throne a thing to be laid lightly?
豈是 is how could it be, a rhetorical question that already contains its own no. 輕易 is lightly, easily — still the ordinary modern word.
Tell me first: how do you mean to accuse him?"
Bajie asks for the pleading. He has moved in three lines from objecting to the plan to auditing it.
Pilgrim laughed. "I have it worked out. I shall make these tablets and this incense burner my evidence, and get up another plaint on paper besides."
證見 is what is seen and testified to — an older form of the modern word for evidence. 紙狀兒 is a plaint written out on paper, as against the physical exhibits: Pilgrim has grasped that a case needs both an object and a document.
Bajie said, "What will you write on the plaint?
Bajie is now fully engaged as junior counsel, which is a sentence nobody expected to write about him.
The plan gets better every time somebody objects to it. Bajie warns about false accusation, so Pilgrim adds reasoning; Bajie asks how he means to do it, so Pilgrim adds a written pleading.
It is a good picture of how this trio actually works. Pilgrim supplies the nerve, Bajie supplies the objections, and the objections are what turn the nerve into a plan.